144 How TO Grow Cut Flowers. 



" Shallow benches are preferred, not because they wil 

 produce more flowers, but for the reason the moisture 

 is under such perfect control they can be produced 

 much earlier than in solid beds. No matter what plan 

 s adopted, there is great uncertainty about getting 

 hybrid roses to bloom early. I have often had a par- 

 tial failure when the treatment has been as nearly as 

 possible the same as that given in other houses in 

 which the best success was obtained. But when you do 

 obtain them in perfect form it will repay you, whether 

 grown for profit, or for your own pleasure or amusement. 

 A few well finished hybrids on stems two feet long, with 

 fine foliage and good substance of petal, will give as 

 much satisfaction generally, as an armful of teas. 



"The houses used for this purpose are of the ordinary 

 pattern, three-fourths span, the benches constructed in 

 the usual way, provided with good drainage and filled 

 with soil five inches deep. For two years past I have 

 used no manure in the soil provided for this work, bu( 

 have tnixed with it flour of bone at the rate of twr 

 hundred pounds to a house one hundred feet long 

 Were the soil poor I would also add one load of manure 

 to eight of soil. 



" For early planting, two methods are adopted for ob 

 taining the plants needed. They are either soft cut 

 tings taken from the crop flowering the last of Decem 

 ber, or, as is more generally the case, plants made fron 

 cuttings from the last crop of the previous summer's 



