44 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



induce sturdier growth and larger blooms. As the roots move, 

 the buds will form, and by mid-June many of the batch will be fit 

 for sale. Sales should be pushed, the object being to clear out, to 

 realise ; then, whatever proportion of plants are left, should be 

 plunged straight out in the nursery beds. There they will go on 

 growing, and later on any likely plants may be lifted when in bloom, 

 say in September, and sold. Such, usually, is the history of the 

 pot roses which have been reared from grafts and from cuttings, 

 and as they are passed through the nurseryman's hands. 



LIFTED POT ROSES 



In selecting plants from the open ground for potting it is well 

 not to choose those which show the strongest and largest growths, 

 nor those which appeal because they are bushy. Those very strong- 

 growing plants suffer more through the drastic measures taken to 

 bring them into complete subjugation than do plants of a smaller 

 growth. After all, the root-run in a pot is strictly limited, and 

 as a large head of growth is generally connected with a large root 

 system, the confined limits of a pot of reasonable dimensions 

 will scarcely carry sufficient soil to sustain it, and most certainly 

 not to strengthen it. The very bushy plants have too much small 

 wood, and as every shoot makes its demand upon the roots, a strain 

 greater than the restricted root-system can bear is put upon it. 

 and the growth is weak. Medium sized but perfectly healthy 

 plants whose roots will be found to correspond very nearly to the 

 head-growth are decidedly the kind of plants to select, and within 

 reason the fewer the growths the easier it will be to form the kind 

 of plant you want after it is established in the pot. Probably if 

 we had to lift roses to go into comparatively large pots, say 9 inches, 

 we should give different advice, but we are hampered by market 

 conditions which simply rule out any pots above size 24 ; still, 

 we should always avoid any plants the growth of which appeared 

 to be gross. 



Very obviously the best time to set about rose potting is as 

 early in the autumn as possible, but the exact date must depend 

 entirely upon the season. In a normal year, from the third week 

 in October to the second week in November (inclusive) would be 



