262 



CASSELL'S POPOLAE GARDENING. 



A good deal may be done to extend Eose culture 

 under glass by the utilisation of blank spaces or the 

 substitution of Eoses for other plants in existing 

 houses. Commercially, housef uls of Eoses return far 

 more money if skilfully managed than the same houses 

 furnished with fruit, while no plant can match the 

 Eose in beauty and fragrance, and that peculiar 

 freshness and novelty that distinguish Eoses grown 

 under glass and out of season. 



Vine-wires, Peach-treUises, the back and side 

 walls of houses, and roof-rafters, are just the places 

 for Eoses to clothe or festoon with their matchless 

 beauty, and fill to overflowing with their fragrance. 

 Orchard-houses without trellised roofs may be fur- 

 nished with large bush Eoses, or standards, in the 

 place of fruit-trees that may or may not have pelded 

 much produce or profit. 



One of the first Eose-houses in this country, that 

 in the gardens of the London Horticultural Society 

 at CJhiswick, was originally an orchard-house. The 

 fruit-trees were simply removed, the borders re-made, 

 and the centre and side borders planted with Eoses 

 many years ago, which did remarkably well, and 

 formed a novel feature of interest at the time. The 

 next Eosary under glass best known to the writer is 

 in a. large, lofty-domed, span-roofed conservatory. 

 Camellias, Acacias, and other tall flowering shrubs 

 were cleared out ; two feet of good turfy loam, weU 

 em-iched with manure, substituted for the regulation 

 mixture of half peat, half loam ; and the Eoses planted 

 against the columns that supported the roof in the 

 centre, and the pillars between the tall lights sdl 

 round the house. Trellises, from eight to ten feet 

 in height, were also arranged over the growing- 

 space between the piUars, and arched over the cen- 

 tral paths, imparting to these and the chief paths 

 round the house the charm of Eose-arbours under 

 glass, where the delicate Tea and Noisette Eoses 

 could ramble at their sweet will, without danger of 

 being cut down by frost or blighted by the cruel 

 cutting March winds. Strong-growing Eoses, such 

 asMarechal Niel, Gloire de Dijon, Homere, Lamarque, 

 &c., were run up the loftiest columns, and very soon 

 clothed them and the roof with garlands of beauty; 

 while weaker Teas clothed the trellises, and the finer 

 Perpetuals filled the cooler borders, four feet wide, 

 against the vertical sashes. This Eose-house, alike in 

 its structure, arrangement, and results, was a great 

 success, though somewhat too lofty. 



Perhaps a span-roofed bouse about ten or twelve 

 feet high, fifteen wide, and thirty or fifty feet long, 

 with the glass all round coming down to within 

 twenty-four inches or three feet of the ground, with 

 abundant means of admitting air near the ground, 

 and allowing the heated air to escape at the highest 

 part, is the best that could be devised for the forcing 



or general culture of EoSbS under glass. Excel- 

 lent results have also been produced by planting 

 low-sunk houses and semi-pits from eight to ten feet 

 wide with Eoses. These can be heated and kept 

 warm at less cost of labour and coal than any other 

 shaped glass structure. 



To have Eoses in plenty all the year round it will 

 be needful to have inore than one Eosary under glass. 

 Two at least will be needed, or a good reserve kept 

 in pots to draw upon. But two houses, large or small, 

 as means or limits suggest, is the more convenient 

 method of keeping up a continuous supply. One 

 might be liberally heated, the other but slightly, or 

 not at all. 



Own-root Koses Best for Culture under 

 Glass. — There are many reasons for this. All 

 that need be referred to here is the securing 

 of plants of uniform character, hardiness, and 

 ratio of growth throughout, and the immense 

 cultural importance of being able to draw upon 

 the root for fresh shoots when wanted, to resuscitate 

 or renovate the semi or ■whoUy exhausted tops. 

 Suckers on own-root Eoses, instead of being evUs to 

 be shunned, are the most valued allies of the culti- 

 vator in keeping up the stamina of his Eoses, as 

 well as perennial antidotes to premature decay or 

 exhaustion. That Eose-roots love to ramble must be 

 obvious to all that have handled or seen them ; most 

 of our efforts to cure them of this tendency fail. The 

 long, f ang y roots of Eoses cannot be changed to fibrous 

 ones with the same promptitude and certainty as 

 those of fruit-trees. Cramp them into pots; the fangs 

 will run round and round in search of an exit in the 

 bottom, through which they will find freedom, and 

 remain fangs stiU. Better let Eose-root nature have 

 its way by planting them in the free soil when 

 and where practicable, instead of cramping them into 

 pots, boxes, &c. 



The boring character of Eose-roots also suggests 

 another point, viz., that the borders may be deeper 

 for Eoses than for fruit-trees. So long as the former 

 find abundance of food and drink, it seems to matter 

 little to the Eose harvest they produce whether the 

 roots are within three inches or three feet of the 

 surface. This chiefly refers to Eoses under glass ; 

 but even in the open it is possible that our severe 

 attempts to thwart the natural tendency of Eose-roots 

 to descend has been more fruitful of root-suckers 

 than of food and strength to the Eoses. Hence pos- 

 sibly a border four feet deep and two wide is better 

 for Eoses under glass than one four feet wide and 

 two feet deep. 



Unless the subsoil is very wet it will hardly be 

 needful to add much or any drainage for Eose 

 borders under glass. The Eose in a growing stat» 



