198 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



Mr. William Paul so well explains in The Rose 

 Garden, that we change all the seasons for the plants 

 under our care. We make winter spring, spring 

 summer, and summer autumn, and we must make 

 autumn like winter, in that it shall be a season of 

 rest. In making artificial seasons we must see that 

 they come gradually as they do in Nature, and when 

 we commence to start the plants about the New 

 Year, we must remember that spring nights are cold, 

 and spring days are not very warm, so that a tem- 

 perature of from 45° to 50°, or 55° from sunheat, by 

 day, and 38° to 40° or a very little more by night, 

 will be quite high enough for a beginning. 



A commencement should be made with plants 

 purchased in pots and specially prepared for forcing, 

 for without the education of an autumnal rest they 

 will not break and grow strongly in midwinter. 

 Several firms make a speciality of this branch of 

 the business. The plants used generally to be grown 

 on their own root, but H.P.s on the manetti and 

 Teas on the briar is now the usual practice. If the 

 pots have holes at the bottom of the sides it will 

 facilitate giving liquid manure when necessary by 

 plunging, but the embedding them in the house 

 pretty deeply in cocoa fibre or some similar material 

 is not now generally recommended. 



The plants should be pruned rather closely to 

 well-ripened outlooking buds, and the first year, 

 while they are young, only a few shoots well apart 

 from each other should be allowed to grow. It is 

 most important that there should not be too much 

 heat at first, and that it should very gradually rise 

 with the increase of light. Even when the buds are 

 well formed and soon about to open, the artificial 



