uosES. 55 



groAvtT, who li:i(l :i liiu' hoiijsc. found soiiic (litliciilly in sellinii' 

 tbeni. From tlu' middle of Jjuiuan" onward there is no difficulty 

 in selling really line specimens of this variet}', but they must have 

 stems two or three feet long and the flowers must be four or five 

 inches in diameter. ]Mrs. .lohu Laiug is one of the most popular 

 roses iu New York ; it is fragrant and sure blooming, but cannot 

 be forced for Christmas without having a considerable portion of 

 the crop come deformed and short stemmed. 



Patrick Norton said that the Ulrich Briiuuer rose finds a good 

 market iu Boston. 



President Spooner said that the Ulrich Briiuuer is fine in the. 

 garden. 



William C. Strong inquired how benches answered for forcing 

 hardy roses. His experience had been with them planted in solid 

 beds, two, three, or four j^ears, and he doubted whether it would 

 pay to plant ever}' year. 



Mr. May said that the trouble comes here : if ladies get a fair 

 rose today they want one earlier next year, and these roses cannot 

 be forced earty in a solid bed, though for March blooming it will 

 do, and they will last for years. He had seen a greenhouse eigh- 

 teen feet wide and two hundred and ten feet long, filled with 

 General Jacqueminots planted eight or nine years, where 237 buds 

 were counted in a space tn-o feet square, and 37,300 buds were 

 cut from that house as one crop. 



William J. Stewart inquired what" Mr. May's experience had 

 been in the introduction of new roses. 



Mr. May said that twenty-five years ago he was growing roses in 

 England, and they used then to get their new varieties mostl}' 

 from France. One autumn lie went over to France and visited M. 

 Pernet, one of the great rose growers, who showed him several 

 new varieties to be sent to England, and some others, inferior to 

 them, which were thought good enough for the American market. 

 Two years ago he paid a French grower five hundred and thirty 

 dollars for new roses, at five dollars per plant, and they all went 

 on to the rubbish heap in six months. Once in a while we strike 

 such a gem as Catherine Mermet, the finest of all Tea roses, but 

 ninety-nine per cent of what we import are useless for our 

 purpose in this countr}-. 



President Spooner inquired of Mr. May as to the value of 

 Magna Charta as a rose for forcing in New York, and what are 

 better. 



