HI 



SITUATION AND SOIL 



31 



probably in favoured situations be easier grown to their 

 best in the Eastern Counties. If a man has only his 

 own grounds wherein to choose a spot for his Roses, let 

 the highest spot be chosen, if it be not the actual bare 

 cone at the top of a hill. A little height will make 

 more difference than one would suppose ; and if on a 

 slope, let the Teas be planted at the top. 



2. Exposure to strong winds is very hurtful to Roses 

 in the flowering season, and at such a time an exhibitor 

 will be more distressed to be awoke at night by a gale 

 of wind than by a storm of rain. Anything that rubs 

 or chafes against a petal will injure and spoil it ; and to 

 tie every bud up so that nothing can possibly touch it 

 is, among a large number, almost an impossibility. But 

 wind may, and often does, do much more harm than 

 spoiling the blooms : the newly budded shoots of 

 " maidens " are sure to be blown right out of the stocks 

 as soon as they get strong and heavy, and the whole 

 plants thus absolutely destroyed, unless they be care- 

 fully and constantly tied up to stakes ; and moreover 

 these ties must be looked to and renewed even quite up 

 to the autumn, as a strong head is seldom safe from 

 being blown out till it has been pruned in the following 

 spring. 



Where there are many standards, every morning 

 after a gale will probably show several of the supporting 

 stakes snapped off close to the ground, and the Rose 

 plant being injured at the root by swinging in 

 the wind. Not only must a new stake be supplied, 

 but the old stump must be extracted without disturb- 

 ing the plant ; for old decaying wood has, especially in 

 some soils, a tendency to promote the growth of a 

 fungus which is injurious to the roots. The opera- 

 tion, which looks hopeless, can generally be satisfactorily 



