IV 



PLANTING 



61 



Olivier, it seems a pity to lose the advantage of estab- 

 lished plants. I have tried half-measures, with great 

 success so far as the frost was concerned ; this consisted 

 of digging the rows of plants up, or at least loosening 

 them, on one side only, then bending and pegging 

 them down flat on the ground and covering them 

 first with straw and then with earth. Though com- 

 pletely uninjured by severe frost, they did not do so well 

 afterwards as I hoped they would, but it was an excep- 

 tional season, and I should try it again but that I have 

 found a higher spot for my standard Teas, where, with 

 due protection of their heads, they have survived 

 severe frost without having to be moved. 



Marechal Niel is very liable to injury from frost, 

 especially in the long strong shoots of the year, which 

 if unhurt will produce the best blooms. As a standard 

 in the open, where it can be efficiently protected (the 

 plant from frost in winter and the blooms from rain in 

 summer), it does not indeed afford such a wealth of 

 early flowers as under glass or against a wall, but it 

 becomes a true perpetual bloomer, and from such 

 plants alone can Eoses be cut for exhibition. In 

 low-lying and cold situations standards should be 

 planted at a very sharp angle, so that the heads 

 are not more than eighteen inches or two feet at 

 most from the ground, and wires arranged for the 

 training of the shoots in summer horizontally and quite 

 low. These should be unfastened at the end of Novem- 

 ber, or even earlier, and stem and shoots all pegged down 

 as closely to the ground as possible without straining or 

 cracking anything ; the whole may then be well covered 

 with straw or bracken, and finally with a sufficient 

 covering of earth, well flattened with the spade : they 



