118 



THE BOOK OF THE ROSE 



CHAP. VII 



I have not much faith in the stock for highly cultivated 

 Roses. The seeds should be rubbed out of the ripe heps, 

 and sown an inch deep in drills about a foot apart. All 

 will not germinate, and a great amount of difference 

 will be found in the plants by the end of the year. 

 Many will still be quite tiny things, and a person unac- 

 quainted with their power of growth would think the 

 finest far too weak for budding the following August. 

 But the second year's growth is astonishing: puny 

 plants, with roots hardly bigger than knitting needles, 

 and weak shoots in proportion, will sometimes in that 

 short time have become veritable bushes with strong 

 fleshy upright shoots, and a main root to bud on as 

 thick as a man's finger. Those that are evidently too 

 small for budding the following summer should be re- 

 served for another year, or transferred to pots for budding 

 or grafting there. 



The seedling briar has naturally a tap-root ; in fact, 

 as with all seedlings, there is only a tap-root at first. 

 When purchased, the length and straightness of the 

 roots are remarkable : and it seems probable that this 

 want of balance between the head and the roots accounts 

 for the remarkable growth of the second season. The 

 tap-roots should be boldly shortened, as it is our object 

 to encourage comparatively shallow roots as much as 

 possible. There will still be a tendency to root deep, 

 and, when Rose plants on the seedling briar are moved, 

 roots with a downward inclination should be suppressed 

 and any horizontal ones encouraged. In planting out 

 briar seedlings for budding, the " collar," or place where 

 root ends and stem begins, should be upon the surface 

 of the ground not beneath it, for the rose is budded in 

 this case upon the main root below the collar. 



