SOIL, SITUATION, AND PLANTING. 



91 



also be removed and replaced by soil of the character be- 

 fore described. Where the soil is poor, they should be 

 taken up every other year, and replanted, after renewing 

 the soil as above, or digging it with plenty of manure. 



Van Mons states that in Belgium the plants are uni- 

 formly taken up at the end of eight years and placed in 

 fresh soil, or they are thrown away and young plants sub- 

 stituted in their place. This substitution of young plants 

 is perhaps the most certain mode of ensuring a continual 

 supply of strong, healthy wood and well-formed flowers. 



The Rose may be transplanted at any season, provided 

 the shoots are pruned closely and deprived of all their 

 leaves, and the soil in which they are planted kept well 

 watered. The ^flowering also may be retarded in this 

 way, and those roses that bloom only once in the season, 

 if they are transplanted jast before they are coming into 

 flower, and properly pruned, will bloom in autumn. The 

 autumn and spring, or the dormant season, however, is 

 the proper period for all transplanting. 



Whether planted in autumn or spring, if purchased of 

 a nurseryman, they should be ordered in the autumn. In 

 the spring, as soon as the frost is out of the ground, the 

 first few warm days, operating upon their excitable nature, 

 will start them into growth. If then the nurseryman has 

 a large number of orders on hand, some of them will in- 

 evitably be delayed until the plants have grown too much. 

 If ordered in the autumn, the purchaser should not expect 

 to receive them before the 10th or 15th of November. 

 No nurseryman who values his reputation will allow roses 

 to leave his grounds before the vegetation is checked by 

 several heavy frosts, and the wood and roots allowed time 

 thereafter to thoroughly ripen. Dealers who desire roses 

 early, in order to deliver with other plants, sometimes 

 rebel at this ; but purchasers should understand that roses 

 will not flourish unless the wood and roots are thoroughly 

 ripe. This applies more particularly to the Remontant, 



