54 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



may settle down, it will bring us to a very suitable date for planting, 

 viz. about the end of the first week in November. Select good 

 plants from the open ground, plants with a good constitution and 

 plenty of vitality, preferring those with a few strong growths to 

 those which have an abundance of weaker shoots. The roots 

 must be as perfect as the top growths and the plants should be 

 carefully lifted so as to damage them as little as possible. 



Make the selection of varieties with due regard to their reputation 

 on the market, with perhaps the reservation we have already laid 

 down do not be led away into planting fancy pet varieties, nor 

 any but such as will stand the test as " market roses," for the cut 

 flower trade is the only one for which such roses can be grown. 

 You want to bank upon selling every rose produced, therefore short- 

 stalked varieties or those which have Marechal Niel's bad habit 

 of drooping the head must be ruled out, unless you have a special 

 demand for any particular kind for florist's work. They must 

 also be perpetual bloomers, not the once-a-year class, but the 

 " cut-and-come-again " sorts which are already busy about the 

 second or third crop while the first and second are not yet finished. 



PLANTING 



If the rose house runs from north to south, well and good ; if 

 not, the roses, so far as they may be in rows, must be planted in 

 that direction. If planted in fairly open order the direction of 

 the lines is not so material if only the sun and the full daylight can 

 play around each plant. There being so much diversity in the 

 growth and requirements of the various kinds, no uniform rule 

 as to distances apart can be laid down ; many will grow as bushes, 

 but others again will need training on wires so that their arrangement 

 must be left to individual requirements. The only things one need 

 insist on are the provision of adequate space for every plant and 

 their arrangement so that no plant may rob another of its place in 

 the sunlight. Overcrowding must be guarded against, and more 

 especially the blanketing of shy growers by those that are more 

 robust. 



The actual planting in the new soil will be a pleasure because 

 the compost is such as an intelligent grower loves to handle. Open 



