THE ROSE- AND ITS CULTURE. 



31& 



Eoses is like a sky without a sun, or the midnight 

 heavens with all the stars gone out. As Leigh Hunt 

 sweetly sings : 



*' "We are bluslimg Boses, 

 Beudizig with our fulness 

 Midst our close- capi>ed sister buds, 

 Warming the green coolness. 



" "Whatsoe'er of beauty 

 Teams and yet reposes. 

 Blush, and bosom, and sweet breath. 

 Took a shape in Roses." 



The Time to Plant.— This is without con- 

 troversy the six weeks included between the middle 

 of Octoher and the end of November. Within that 

 period of grey mists and yellow fogs, when aU 

 nature as well as so many men seem about to fall 

 into a state of semi-sleep, the roots of plants seem 

 unseasonably active and ready to start into new 

 ground with headlong alacrity and despatch. Hence 

 the common saying, "Move a Rose in November, it 

 must grow ; transplant it afterwards, it may," is 

 verified by the widest experience of practical results. 



There are also several reasons more or less obvious 

 for this more safe and satisfactory result of early 

 planting : the earth is warmer than it is at a later 

 period, and the descending sap has not yet ceased to 

 descend. Either of these is most favourable to the 

 emission of roots, while the two combined are the 

 most powerful factors in their rapid production. 



As the season decUnes the heat of the earth 

 becomes of more cultural importance. During 

 summer hardy plants like Roses are more likely to 

 suffer from an excess than any deficiency of terres- 

 trial heat. But in the late autumn or winter it is 

 widely different, and it not unfrequently happens 

 ISiat Roses are killed through their roots, by extreme 

 cold that their tops have withstood with impunity. 

 Freshly-disturbed roots are more apt to be injured 

 by frost than such as have not been moved. They 

 are mostly nearer to the surface, and are more or 

 less weakened for the time being by being detached 

 from the soil. In cold soil the isolated wounded 

 root lies almost dormant for a, considerable time. 

 But warmth is not only a heater but a quickener, 

 and with a sufficiency of heat in the soil, the root- 

 rest is of the shortest duration. Once fairly started, 

 the Rose or other plant may be said to be safe, pro- 

 vided the new growths can be protected from 

 destruction. The two most destructive agents being 

 cold and motion, the plants must he rendered im- 

 movable, and the roots covered thickly enough either 

 with soil or litter, or both, to prevent their being 

 frozen. 



Influence of the Descending Sap on 

 the Formation of Eoots. — This is more potent 



than that of the latent heat of the ground, for it is 

 one among the many chief functions of such sap to- 

 strengthen old and form new roots. Whether the sap 

 falls through a lack of vital or solar energy, by the 

 operation of the law of compensation or of gravitation, 

 matters not to our present contention ; that it does 

 descend in the late autumn or early winter is all. 

 that concerns us here. The period of its fall lasts 

 from the moment the leaves and stems have reached 

 full maturity, and for practical purposes it may he 

 assumed that it continues to descend until the last 

 leaf falls through over-ripeness or a notice to quit 

 from the expanding growing bud in its axil, and 

 possibly for some time afterwards. 



Without going into the philosophical or scientific 

 differences and functions of the ascending and 

 descending sap, it may be broadly affirmed that the 

 former is but little thicker than water, and the latter 

 is little less than the Rose-plant in a state of fluid. 

 The descending sap is the great builder, up or down,, 

 and solidifier of vegetable tissue. Its healing and 

 stimulating properties are marvellous. Hardly does 

 it reach or touch a wounded root than it heals it, and 

 before it is fairly healed the descending sap forces it 

 into new growth. Hence the descending sap is the 

 tide in the affairs of the newly-planted Rose-tree, 

 which taken at the flood leads on to fortune, fame, and 

 a higher life of beauty and fragrance than before. All 

 this has been so often verified by experience that it may 

 be accepted and acted upon as a specific for the safe 

 planting of Roses. In all respects November is better 

 than any later month or day for the planting of" 

 Eoses ; and probably for many species of Rose, Octo- 

 ber is better than November. The days are longer, 

 the earth warmer, the air, as a rule, more moist, 

 and the plants themselves are endowed with greater 

 recuperative forces. 



Special Times for Special Varieties. — The 



above remarks apply "with most force to Provence, Da- 

 mask, Moss, Climbing, Briar, and Hybrid Pei-petual 

 Roses. Tea Eoses, and Roses in pots, may be planted 

 at almost any time and season. But in forming fresh 

 beds or borders of Tea, Noisette, Bourbon, China, or 

 other such tender Roses, the best season for planting- 

 is the end of May, or in cold localities even the first 

 week in June. The Roses have thus all the fostering 

 warmth and moisture of a long summer before them, 

 and long before the end of the growing season -win 

 have grown strong, and if fair plants when put out, 

 blossomed freely. So rapid is the growth of such 

 Eoses, and so freely do they bloom, that some have- 

 recommended planting them out annually in May, 

 and lifting them at the end of October. They may 

 be successfully gro-wn in this way, though still 

 better by being properly protected out of doors. 



