Till ('\N\|il\N HORI ICIJI.II'UIST. 



THI-: CULTURE OF ROSES. 



S Nvc all wish the finest roses, it must not be forgotten that if 

 you want roses they must be in the richest part of your rich 

 bed. Vou cannot give roses too much rich feeding, and you 

 cannot keep them too clean. They must be thoroughly 

 watered, and the plants syringed with whale oil soap dissolved 

 in lukewarm water once a week at first, and later once a 

 month, if there are no bugs. Instantly when you see a 

 single bug, those small green parasites, thoroughly syringe with whale oil soaj). 

 ^Vater once a week with a watering-pot full of lukewarm water, in which a table- 

 spoonful of nitrate of soda has been dissolved. This can be bought in crude 

 form at any druggist's at ten cents a pound. This enriches the plant and 

 improves the flowers. Let no rose remain on the plant when it is full blown. 

 It exhausts the plant very much. 



If your climate is mild you may have a wide choice of roses. If a New 

 England climate, do not waste your time on many roses except hybrid remon- 

 tants. They will winter usually with some protection and they give lavish 

 bloom, and the robust growth of the plant, with its solid leaves, is to my mind 

 handsomer than any other rose but a few teas. It is well to have some teas for 

 perpetual blooming and the beauty of the flowers, but they must be taken into 

 the house in winter. 



The Sombreuil is a very floriferous tea rose of a charming subtle creamy 

 tone. But no rose of any class seems to me so fine as a successful Souvenir de 

 Malmaison. It is a tea rose, but its leaf and stalk have a vigor of a remontant. 

 The great dark green leaves have no rival among all the rose plants, and the 

 flower is large, most exijuisite in form, and in color a pure silvery flesh tone, 

 with a blush of rose in the centre. The Bon Silene is very floriferous, and the 

 full open ro.se is as beautiful as the bud, though of all teas it is supposed to be 

 most valuable for its buds. 



The Duchess de Brabant is a charming tea rose, of a delicate shell pink. It 

 grows luxuriously, and if housed in winter can be grown to a fine size, and lends 

 itself easily to being made into a " standard rose " a form of rose the Prench 

 delight in, and which is the handsomest artificial form that a rose can be 

 trained into. It has great style. The method is to cut away all but the 

 strongest shoots of the tree after the tree is pretty well grown, and then all the 

 strength goes into that one stem, and it grows very large, and straight and tall, 

 no side branching allowed u])on it. The foliage at the top of the one stem grows 

 very thick, and it is traiiud iyto a shapely mass that bears many ruses. The 

 hartly remoiuanls can be excellently used for this form of rose. 



1 will giw the names of a few hard reinontanls which I have seen success- 

 lul : jhi- M.M^li.ill 1'. WildiT. \\lii<li i^ of a suroerb rcil : the Maniiiise Cast- 



