116 



PrvACTICE OF GARDENING. 



thrive best iu a rich loamy soil ; but, like potatoes^ the}- are 

 said to abstract the virtues of soils so rapidly, as to render 

 it necessary to remove them every thi^ee or four years, iu 

 order to have fine flowers. This statement is certaioly 

 ■worthy of some attention, and being productive of no bad 

 effects, it may possibly prove advantageous. Cabbage or 

 Provence roses {R. centifolia), French roses {H. gallica), and 

 moss roses (it. muscosa), require precisely the same kind 

 of treatment, and whether they are kept as standards or 

 dwarfs, must be annually pruned. They may be propa- 

 gated in various ways, though for dwarf sorts, layering is 

 the best method, and for standards, budding will be most 

 successful. As the dwarf sorts usually produce an abun- 

 dance of suckers, these may be made to form distinct 

 plants by removing them in the autumnal months ; but, 

 as has been before remarked, roses produced in this way 

 never fl.ower so early or so freely as those which have been 

 raised from layers : therefore layering is much the best 

 method. To the directions before given for layering roses, 

 it may be added that the layered shoots should always bo 

 pruned down to a bud, and left about six inches out of the 

 soil ; this pruning vrill cause them to form young shoots 

 from each of the buds left, and by the end of the first year 

 they will have attained to a sufi&cient size for removing. 

 Standai^d roses may be obta,ined, by budding any esteemed 

 sort on young stocks of the dog rose, or sweet briar, and 

 these latter should be procured and planted in the 

 required situation a year previous to the time of budding 

 them, as by this practice they will have become well 

 estabhshed in the soil, and the buds that are introduced 

 will not be liable to injury from shifting the plant. 



Priming is by far the most important feature in the 

 cultivation of the sorts of roses now under consideration ; 

 for where this operation is neglected, the floAvers will 

 speedily degenerate into mere insignificance, and the 

 stems will become bare and unsightly ; and, indeed, where 

 these sorts of roses are but improperly or insufficiently 

 pruned, a deterioration in the character of the flowers 

 will invariably ensue. Many individuals, who are unac- 

 quainted with gardening, imagine, that by closely pruning 

 their rose trees they would deprive them of the means of 



