60 LITTLE GARDENS 
use it must be mixed with an equal quantity of soil. Hop manure 
is excellent for Roses, especially on light soils. Wood ashes—the 
refuse of burnt vegetable refuse—suit Roses admirably, while blood 
manure is also good. Clay’s Fertilizer and Guano are well known 
and very useful artificial manures for sprinkling on the soil surface 
and watering in when the Roses are growing freely. 
Transplanting Roses.—How often should Roses be trans- 
planted? One is forced to give the unsatisfactory answer that “it 
depends.” To judge by the magnificent bushes that one sometimes 
sees of such Roses as La France and other old favourites, the answer 
would seem to be “Never.” Roses on their own roots are more 
likely to develop into big bushes than those budded on another 
stock. In little gardens Roses are often planted closer together than 
is good for them, so that at the end of three or four years it becomes 
necessary to take them up and rearrange them, giving more room 
to those that need it. Thick, gross roots growing straight down- 
wards can be cut back to induce the formation of fibrous ones, and 
the plants may be carefully replanted, with fresh soil added about 
the roots. The bed should be well dug, and manure put in some 
15 inches deep. The Rose itself will soon show whether or not it 
needs replanting. If it grows and flowers well, then obviously there 
is nothing to be gained by disturbing it. But it will generally be 
found to be true that when Roses are grown in a little bed or a 
narrow border they are improved in vigour and floriferousness by 
being transplanted every three or four years. To grow a specimen 
Rose bush one must give it really good soil to begin with, plenty of 
room in which to grow, and asunny spot. It is important also to 
choose a suitable variety, such as Caroline Testout, Mrs. John Laing, 
La France, Griiss an Teplitz. 
Raising a Stock of Roses,—It is a fairly easy matter to raise 
one’s own Roses, or at any rate some of them. Some sorts strike 
root readily from cuttings. If one has no greenhouse the best time 
to put in the cuttings is late September and October. A border 
at the foot of a west or north wall is a suitable place ; this is dug 
about 18 inches deep, and the soil is made firm by treading. Then a 
trench 6 inches deep, with a perpendicular “face,” is cut with a 
spade. The cuttings, which should be 9 inches long and cut across 
immediately beneath a joint, are prepared from shoots which bloomed 
during the summer of the same year. They are placed close against 
the face of the trench at 9 inches apart. Thus there is 6 inches 
of the cutting below the soil, the upper 3 inches being above. 
Soil is placed against the cuttings and made firm, and another 
trench 6 inches deep is made 15 or 18 inches from the first, a 
further lot of cuttings being put in in the same way. They may 
remain undisturbed until the following October, when they can be 
put out in the Rose beds and borders. Hard frost often has the 
effect of lifting the cuttings partly out of the soil; if this should 
occur they must be made firm by treading down the soil about them. 
