5.0(3 
TITS AND FRAMES.— THE ROSE GARDEN. 
After treatment. — If a pit or frame is set 
apart for Eoses, those plants may be shifted at 
once, reducing the balls and old roots, and 
repotting them in smaller pots, when they may 
be placed in the situation prepared for them, 
and kept close until they have made fresh 
roots, when air should be gradually and freely 
admitted to them, and they should be prepared 
for going out of doors when the season is 
sufficiently advanced. Lilacs, and most other 
woody plants which have been forced, may be 
treated in the same way, and may thus be kept 
at a convenient size for several years. All 
other forced plants should be protected in 
similar frames or pits, or be thrown away 
at once. 
PITS AND FRAMES. 
Tender annuals. — More tender annuals 
must be sown to follow those sown last month ; 
the young plants must be well attended in 
potting in rich light soil, keeping them grow- 
ing away in the frame, where the heat may 
range between 60 and 70 degrees. Tepid 
water must always be used to these delicate 
plants. 
Half-hardy annuals. — A supply of these 
for planting out in the flower-garden must be 
sown in pans, pots, or boxes, placed in a 
frame, where there is a slight warmth, and 
the seedlings afterwards hardened off; or, 
what is less trouble, when a good many are 
wanted, is to make a bed, about a foot thick, 
of spent dung, covered with light soil, and 
protected by mats and hoops : the seeds are 
to be sown in rows, thinly, and the plants may 
remain here till planted out. 
Dahlias. — The general stock maybe planted 
in pots, or otherwise, and gently forwarded, 
ready to plant out in May. 
Half-hardy plants. ■ — - Continue to follow 
the instructions given at p. 61, in preparing a 
full supply for planting out by-and-bye. 
Alpine plants may be divided and repotted, 
using a light loamy soil for the principal 
number ; five-inch pots for the larger ones, 
and three-inch for the smaller ones, will be 
large enough ; it is often practised to put 
them all into the smaller size, for the sake 
of having them uniform. 
WINDOW GARDENING. 
Geraniums, Fuchsias, and similar plants, 
require all the light they gan get, and to be 
moderately watered ; if they stand in need of 
larger pots, they had better be repotted now 
before they get much advanced. Give them 
all the fresh air possible, but not by setting 
the window open close upon them, and sub- 
jecting them to a draught of cold air : it is 
better to put them out entirely, closing the 
window, when the weather is fine and mild 
enough to admit of it. For other particulars 
refer to p. 62. 
Ferns. — In shady situations the hardy 
Ferns may be grown with good success in the 
window r , but if the atmosphere is frequently 
much charged with smoke they seldom do 
well, except they are covered by a glass. 
When covered with a clear transparent glass, 
even the delicate species succeed well, and are 
most interesting. 
THE ROSE GARDEN. 
Pruning. — Those who take delight in a 
succession of blooms as long as they can be 
produced, should, the first week in the month, 
prune one-half the summer Eoses. By sum- 
mer Eoses, perhaps we should be considered to 
be using an improper term ; but what we mean 
is, the rough-barked Eoses that usually bloom 
in June, for one month pretty nearly sees the 
whole of the Cabbage or Moss Eoses out of 
flower ; and a great many of the same nature 
last hardly a month. By cutting them the 
first of the month, (and some people begin 
even in February,) the buds below the prun- 
ing begin to swell directly and push early. 
Let this pruning be done with judgment ; 
first cut off the thin spindly branches close 
to where they spring from, for they are sure 
to be of no use for bloom or growth, and only 
weaken the root ; then shorten the strong shoots 
according to the form you wish them to assume; 
the further back they are cut generally the 
stronger come the shoots : but if the present 
race of rose-growers commit one fault greater 
than another, it is that of cutting in too close 
when they prune, for they ought to have a 
proper regard to the form they wish the tree 
to take, and especially standards, which are 
too often cropped as if they were to form 
models of mops, instead of trees on a small 
scale. The proportions of these Eose-trees 
should be like those of an oak, an elm, or 
any other handsome tree ; the head should 
be large in proportion to the height of the 
stem ; the head should, when fully grown, be 
quite as large across as the stem is high from 
the ground to the bottom branches; therefore, 
in pruning, cut sparingly while the Eose is 
getting to its size, and, when once it has 
attained this, the branches that grow, from 
season to season, may be shortened to even a 
single eye, if desirable ; but it may be taken 
as a general rule, that the less eyes left to 
grow, the more vigorous the growth. In 
directing the pruning of a certain number at 
the very beginning of this month, we wish it 
to be understood, that if the wood be strong 
you may leave on three or four eyes when you 
want branches, and you must be guided by 
your wants. Those that you now prune will 
be rather later than if they were not pruned 
