148 CULTURE OF THE ROSE. 



fertilizing matter, and with proper care, could be made amply 

 sufficient for the production of his flowers and vegetables. The 

 decomposed turf alone would grow roses admirably, although a 

 little manure would be a useful addition. 



SITUATION. 



The best situation for the Rose is an eastern or northern 

 exposure, rather than a southern ; the intensity of the heat of 

 our midsummer often affects injuriously the expansion of the 

 flowers, their color and fragrance. A useful degree of shade can 

 be obtained by planting amidst groups of dwarf roses, pillars, 

 trellises, obelisks, &c., on which climbing roses can be trained, and 

 whose shadow, changing with the sun, would protect the opening 

 bloom and answer the same end as a cool situation. While, how- 

 ever, the Rose requires a cool, airy situation, it should by no 

 means be placed entirely in the shade ; a portion of the sun's rays 

 is always necessary to ensure a good bloom. It is from this cause 

 that the bloom of roses is much more certain and perfect in France 

 and this country than in England. In the latter country, the 

 sun is scarcely ever sufficiently powerful to develop all the re- 

 sources of a plant. The summer of 1846 was unprecedentedly hot 

 throughout England, and all the horticultural journals united in 

 pronouncing the bloom of roses that season unsurpassed by the 

 bloom of any previous year. For climbing roses the situation 

 should not be too exposed, or where they would be liable to en- 

 counter heavy winds, which might break off the young shoot and 

 in other ways injure the plant. Our American cities possess in the 

 culture of roses a great advantage over the large towns of Eng- 

 land, in the use of anthracite instead of bituminous coal ; for, 

 according to Loudon, the Rose will not thrive in towns where the 

 prevailing fuel is of this character, and the bloom will not com- 

 pare with those produced some ten miles distant. "The first 

 effect of the smoke is to prevent the flower buds from opening 

 freely, next to diminish their number ; the leaves then gradually 

 become smaller, and the length of the shoots less, after which the 

 plant weakens by degrees, and in a few years, if a standard, it 



