36 
FORCING ROSES. 
The blossoming season being over, the plants are to be retained in the rose-house, 
and such as have been taken to the dwelling are to be brought back to it for a time, 
but never are placed in any covered back shed ; for each should be encouraged to 
grow for about two months, or more, to make new wood ; and while growing, they 
must constantly be supplied with moisture, and watered with a liquid manure, pre- 
pared by infusing one ounce of Pigeons dung in a gallon of rain or soft pond-writer 
for tw 7 o or three days before it is used. 
Sheep or deer’s dung can be substituted, and it is likely that one ounce of 
genuine guano, in three gallons of water, might answer perfectly. This infusion of 
guano, judging by the best samples recently analysed, would comprise nearly 35 per 
cent, (including the water contained in the guano), of its whole weight, and contain 
all its soluble constituents, namely, sulphates of potass and ammonia, muriate of 
soda, phosphate of ammonia, oxalate of ammonia occasionally, and some urea, often 
to the extent of four or five per cent., besides a few hundredth parts of soluble organic 
matter, which confer a brown tint on the solution. Materials so potent indicate 
caution and watchfulness. Were recent animal matter available, an equal weight of 
fresh cow-dung might be added to the infusion, suffering the insoluble matters to 
subside, and decanting off the clearer fluid. 
After May, Mr. Salisbury was in the practice of inverting the pots — especially 
those of the earlier bloomers — between two planks, raised and set across upon tres- 
tles, high enough to prevent the branches from touching the earth. Twenty-five 
years’ experience, he said, had taught him the utility of this practice. 
Every plant, however, after completing its new growth, is exposed to the open air 
in some shady situation, and kept rather dry than moist, to throw it into a state of 
rest: thus the routine is completed. 
The importance of keeping every set of plants distinct is rigidly inculcated, so 
that the one introduced first into the frame in October, may in every succeeding year 
be again introduced on the same day, and thus with all the other sets. With a view 
to this orderly precision, it is proposed to trust to neither tallies nor marking-sticks, 
but to paint No. 1, 2, 3, &c., &e., upon the pots themselves. 
Finally. — About a fortnight before the plants are to be forced, each set must be 
shifted into pots exactly one inch wider in diameter, and not more, turning the plants 
out without breaking the balls or disturbing the fibres, adding and filling up with 
the composition named in an early paragraph of this article. 
Thus the routine can be maintained during ten years. 
In priming, never more than two buds are to be left on each branch, and as the 
plants increase in size and number of shoots, one bud only is often left on the weaker 
shoots, and this with a view equally to the beauty and strength of blossom, as to the 
health and verdure of the foliage. 
