202 TOWN ROSES. 



Tea- Scented and Hybrids. Gloire de Dijon, Grace 

 Darling, Pink Rover, Reine Marie Henriette, and 

 Waltham Climber. 



Thus far of sorts. We have still a few words to say 

 with regard to the selection of plants. Above all things 

 avoid plants that have been made tender by the employ- 

 ment of excessive heat. In May of this year we were in 

 a house of young Roses where the thermometer stood at 

 96 in the shade at half-past six o'clock in the evening. 

 The grower very truly said " that was the way to make 

 them grow." But is it the way to produce plants that 

 will flourish in the future under the ordinary conditions of 

 plant life? We think not. What sort of men and women 

 should we expect our children to become if in their 

 infancy they were coddled in this manner ? Again, we 

 have heard of plants from the north of Britain recom- 

 mended on the ground that " they are hardier than those 

 brought up in the south." This is a fallacy. The ripening 

 of the wood is, as all experienced persons know, the true 

 test of hardiness, and the shoots of Roses are not likely 

 to ripen better in the north than in the south. Once 

 more, plants that are overfed for the purpose of getting 

 large and fat flowers for exhibition, and plants that are 

 underfed through indolence or greed of gain, are equally 

 objectionable. Everywhere, and always, but in town 

 gardening especially, the purchaser should look for mode- 

 rate well-ripened wood when purchasing his Roses ; he 

 would do so if about to purchase Grape Vines or Peach 

 trees, and this state of the wood is as important in the one 

 case as in the others. 



