32 Roses for Amateurs. 



Standards. These may be most usefully employed in beds 

 and borders, where they would constitute an effective feature. 



After-Treatment. 



When the bed has been completed some rotted manure may 

 be placed round each plant ; this will be sufficient to keep the 

 roots moist, and at the same time enriches the soil. As the days 

 shorten, and frost follows, some kind of protection is desir- 

 able. Long litter from the stable or pigsty does not blow 

 about so much as plain straw does ; and, moreover, there is a 

 certain amount of short dung which afterwards may be 

 gently forked in. As an additional security against frost, it 

 is well to earth up the plants, a portion of the soil of the 

 beds being drawn up to the neck or collar of the plant. 

 This had better be done before the topdressing is put on ; for 

 if, in doing it, any of the roots have been exposed, the top- 

 dressing will cover them. Should the garden be open, it will 

 be well to place some thatched hurdles at the side of the 

 prevailing wind, so as to give the plants shelter. 



Buying the Stock. 



It is scarcely necessary to add that it pays when buying 

 Roses to go to a firm with an established reputation for stock. 

 There are some which may be called Rose specialists, and 

 there are other firms which, though they do not fall within the 

 same category, have, nevertheless, strongly identified them- 

 selves with the flower. We cannot, of course, enumerate 

 even a tithe in either section, but merely a few of those of 

 whom we have personal knowledge. In the former there are 

 the Cants, of Colchester, Geo. Prince, of Oxford, Paul 

 and Sons, of Waltham Cross, Dickson and Sons, of New- 

 townards, Prior and Sons, Ipswich, and James Walters, of 

 Exeter ; and to the latter belong such well-known firms as 

 Kelway, of Langport, Barr and Sons, Long Ditton, Bath, 

 of Wisbech, Sydenham, of Birmingham, Veitch and Sons, 



