Exhibiting Pot Roses, 187 



skill and great attention may bring them to a high pitch of beauty, but despite of 

 every after-care, they canker and fall into a state of retrogression. 



The principal shows near the Metropolis are in May, June, and July, and to be 

 enabled to show in each month the plants must be divided into three lots. Those 

 intended for the May exhibition must be grown in a green-house or frame with 

 command of heat. It is my practice to select a good portion of the Tea-scented and 

 other tender Roses for the first show, because they cannot remain out-of-doors during 

 Winter, and they improve under this particular culture. They should be pruned 

 early in January, and taken into the house or frame immediately, giving plenty of air, 

 but keeping the frost out. By the end of February a gentle heat may be started, and 

 increased as is found necessary to bring them into flower in proper time. 



The plants intended for exhibition early in June will also require a house or 

 frame, but those required for the end of the month may be plunged out-of-doors in 

 an airy yet sheltered situation, that the foliage may not be damaged by the wind. 

 So soon as the buds show colour remove the plants to a frame or greenhouse, giving 

 air abundantly night and day, and shading from the sun so soon as the first flowers 

 expand. 



The plants intended to bloom in July may also be grown out-of-doors ; they 

 should be Autumnals exclusively, and by pruning late or stopping the young shoots 

 in April later shoots are developed, and a perfect flowering is secured in July. 

 It has been the practice with some to cut off the flowers of the Autumnals shown 

 in May, removing the plants to a warm house or frame, by which treatment they 

 flower again in July ; this, however, we hesitate to recommend. 



The details of cultivation have been given in the Chapter on " Roses in Pots ; " 

 it is our province here merely to speak of the management for exhibition. As the 

 plants approach the flowering season some will be found forwarder than others, 

 owing to their position or the habit of the variety. It is necessary then to calculate 

 which are likely to be in perfection on the coming day, when means of accelerating 

 or retarding must be had recourse to with regard to the others. If the former, a 

 house or frame with heat is the best contrivance ; if the latter, place them in a cold 

 north house, admitting air gradually, or on the north side of a hedge or wall if 

 dealing with plants which have been grown out-of-doors. Care and forethought 

 are especially necessary here. These changes of temperature must be brought about 

 gradually ; and a calm and sunny hour ought to be chosen to remove the plants grown 

 under glass. As well might an inhabitant of India be sent to dwell in the frozen seas, 

 as a plant be suddenly transmuted from a high to a low temperature. When the 

 buds show colour, any that are in advance of the mass may be plucked out, when the 

 side buds will rise and produce good flowers. Have we, then, reached this stage of 

 growth ? A canvas awning must now be raised to shade the flowers. It should 

 not be so thick as to exclude the light ; its purpose is merely to break the sun's 



