THE KOSE AND ITS CULTURE. 



263 



is specially greedy of water, and the roots of Eoscs 

 under glass vnll seldom or ever he at rest. It is 

 also easy to withhold water when desirahle on 

 cultural or other gTOunds, such as retarding and 

 ripening growth, iSrc. 



Soil for Hoses under Glass. — The hest, 

 most permanent, and most fruitful for healthy wood, 

 and a continuous supply of bloom through a series 

 of years, is turfy loam, with a tendency to clay 

 rather than sand. This, chopped into small pieces, 

 and intermixed with a few bushels of charcoal or 

 smashed bones, is the best of all soil for Eose 

 borders under glass. Its porosity and sweetness 

 encourage fibrous and free rooting if anything will. 

 Many add a third or so of farmyard or other manure 

 to it. This encourages gross roots and wood, and 

 breaks down the texture of the loam with great 

 rapidity. Free-growing Eoses, such as Marechal 

 Niel, will make shoots of from six to ten feet a year 

 in the loam pure and simple. 



Time and Manner of Planting. — This 

 matters little under glass, more especially as most 

 of the Eoses are likely to be turned out of pots. 

 The transference should be thorough as well as care- 

 ful. Merely to turn a Eose, or other plant, out of a 

 pot, and place it in the border, is but very partially 

 to plant it out. The roots learning the revolutionary 

 motion in the pots, unless carefully disentangled 

 or released, continue to practise it long after their 

 removal. 



Modes of Training. — These may be as varied 

 under glass as in the open air, and all the systems 

 practised outside may be practised with more success 

 in-doors, as here the Eoses are safe against climatic 

 iccidents, which sadly cut into and destroy our much- 

 valued forms and shapes of Eoses in the open air. 

 Climbers and strong- growing Eoses should mostly 

 have larger liberty under glass. Such Eoses as the 

 Marechal N'iel make shoots of ten or twenty feet in 

 length, and these break into flowering trusses at 

 every eye the following summer. It is a wanton 

 waste of -^ital force, as well as of Eoses, to cut such 

 shoots back to any serious extent. Bending down 

 the shoots, or twisting them round, as is often done 

 with Grape-vines, is the best means of forcing the 

 fine shoots to break out into Eose-trusses from base 

 to summit. 



As to bush (standard and pyramidal) Eoses, con- 

 siderable looseness of form and freedom of growth is 

 most pleasing and profitable under glass. 



Pruning. — This may be more fi-equent under 

 glass than in the open. It may also be performed 



when it seems best for the plants, as under glass 

 it is not necessary to control pruning operations 

 by calculating a game of chance with the weather. 

 Under such favourable conditions the best time to 

 prune is immediately after any and every crop of 

 Eoses. Cut promptly, and come again for another 

 crop of Eoses, and when these fade, cut again, and so 

 on ; the frequent prunings being in fact the key that 

 opens the rich storehouse of harvests of sweet Eoses 

 in perpetuity. 



Modes of Pruning.— These are, or ought to 

 be, as varied as the Eoses grown. Nothing could 

 well be more unphilosojohical or suicidal than the 

 laying down of any hard and fast line, as to long 

 or short pruning. Only practice, experience, and 

 following the lead of each plant can determine 

 this point. Hence, the more flexible the mode of 

 j)runing the better, so long as it is based on the A'ital 

 jn-inciple of pruning for bloom, and making siure 

 that you get it. As a general rule, cut in the 

 blooming shoots to three or even six eyes of their 

 base the moment the bloom fades. With Marechal 

 Niel and other Eoses of like character, remove the 

 flowering shoots and lay in fresh annually. "VMiere 

 this is impracticable, good results may be achieved by 

 spurring in the flowering shoots closely, as in the 

 Vine. 



Pruning for strength or regeneration is widely 

 different to pruning for bloom chiefly or only, and 

 may for a time limit the supply of bloom. Such 

 pruning consists in the bodily removal of all weakly 

 and exhausted shoots, with a view of forcing forth 

 yoimger and more vigorous ones as close to the root- 

 stock, or base, of the Eose-bush as possible. 



If the' principle here laid down is accepted, no set 

 time can be laid do's\-n for pruning: in fact, the 

 pruning "will become almost as continuous as the 

 blooming. Not only will different Eoses be pruned 

 at different times, but even diff'erent branches of the 

 same Eose, each Eose and shoot being in fact primed 

 when the local Eose harvest is gathered. General 

 overhauling with the knife may be given, but the very 

 key-stone to success in gathering Eoses every day in 

 the year consists in pruning also every day in the 

 year ; for incessant growth, and a constant supply of 

 bloom, are the complementary results of perpetual 

 pruning. 



Temperature. — The amount, manner, and time 

 of pruning, as well as of blooming, are largely 

 controlled by temperatiu'e. The latter shoidd be 

 sufficient to convert all the Eoses under glass 

 into perpetual growers and bloomers. Constitu- 

 tion, habit, &c., thwart this consummation, so de- 

 voutly to be wished in many cases. The Marechal 



