200 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



care should be taken to avoid syringing the blooms, 

 but the house must by no means be allowed to 

 become dry ; the paths and walls should be damped 

 three times a day in sunny weather at 8 a.m., noon, 

 and 5.30 p.m. ; and there should be at least an hour 

 or two every day, at the time the buds show colour, 

 when air can be given. If there is also a cool house, 

 those plants, especially the H.P.s, which are nearly 

 opening their blooms, will show better and more 

 lasting flowers if they can be removed to it, or at 

 all events shaded from bright sun. A slight fall of 

 temperature and a little less light are always bene- 

 ficial for the actual blooming, but of course the 

 decrease of heat should not be great. 



There is considerable danger in over-watering forced 

 Boses in pots when the growth is young and the 

 flower buds are forming, for " damping off" is even 

 a worse misfortune than mildew. Tapping the pots 

 with a knob-stick or something similar, to judge by 

 the sound whether it be wet or dry, is a well-known 

 device, similar to that of the wheel-testers on rail- 

 ways. A clear sharp sound indicates dryness and 

 soundness, and a duller one damp or fracture. 



After blooming, summer-flowering Roses, if any 

 such have been forced, may be removed at once to a 

 cool pit or some other shelter and hardened off ; the 

 others may be shifted to a cool house, and will give 

 another useful crop of flowers in April and May. If 

 there be no other house, and warmth is still desired 

 to be kept up in the forcing house, some means must 

 be resorted to for gradually hardening the plants off 

 till they can be finally removed out of doors. Then, 

 instead of all trouble being over with the pot plants 

 for the year, comes as important a time as any, for 



