CULTURE OF ROSES UNDER GLASS. 



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described ; they must wait till next year. Each plant is carefully knocked 

 out of its pot to see if the drainage is all right, and then some of the top 

 soil is taken off and top-dressed with good rotted turf and manured with 

 artificial bone manure, pruned, and afterwards every pot well scrubbed, 

 and then taken into the house and put into their winter quarters for 

 flowering. I prune very hard, cut them down as low as I can, or they soon 

 get leggy and unsightly. After the first bate i I continue to prune every 

 fortnight for succession till February, when all the newly-potted Roses 

 are done. 



Culture after Pruning.— W 'hen the Roses are brought into the house 

 in November the house is kept close, pipes just warm if it is cold weather, 

 and the plants lightly syringed at times to help make them start, but no 

 fire heat to force them in any way ; let them start as naturally as possible. 

 If you try to force them now you spoil them. After the shoots begin 

 to show leaf I think my treatment is different from most people's. I 

 leave off syringing entirely. My early Roses, from the time of the opening 

 leaf till they are cut, never have any water on the foliage. I used to 

 syringe my Roses every day when the weather was favourable, but now I 

 never do so after the early stage ; and this I think is the reason why 

 my foliage is always clean, with no marks on it, and those who have 

 seen my Roses as exhibited will testify to the truth of this. Of course 

 the plants must be kept clean and free from green fly, which can be 

 easily done by fumigating, but it is best to fumigate early enough. When 

 you see the first green fly, that is the time to fumigate ; do not wait until 

 they get bad, or they will leave their mark behind. When the plants are 

 in full growth and showing bud they want well feeding up with " brandy- 

 and- water." — I mean liquid manure, which can be made of sheep drop- 

 pings and soot, or any of the well-known artificial manures can be given 

 alternately. Most people stake their Roses, which I think looks very 

 unsightly and takes time. I never stake, but try to grow them strong 

 enough to stand alone, and they certainly look better. Out of the many 

 thousand pots of Roses I have grown this year I have not used a single 

 stick for any one of them. 



They must now be well disbudded and looked over for maggots (there is 

 no way of killing this pest that I know of save by finger and thumb), and 

 then in about ten days or a fortnight you may look forward to having 

 some grand blooms. 



After flowering many people make a great mistake by putting their 

 Roses out-doors too soon, or under the shelf, or anywhere out of the way 

 to make room for other things. Now I think this is the time to take the 

 greatest care of them and try to get them to make all the growth they can 

 for next season. After they have made good growth, take them out and 

 put them in a cold frame or sheltered spot to harden off, and afterwards 

 put them in their summer quarters and keep them well supplied with water 

 when necessary, especially in hot dry weather. 



There are three chief enemies or drawbacks to growing Roses under 

 glass : mildew, green fly, and red spider. Mildew is the worst : it can be 

 battled with and prevented better in the early forcing season than it can 

 later on, because you can smear the hot-water pipes with sulphur and 

 make the fumes steam into the house, which keeps the mildew under and 



