THE ROSE GARDEN. 
447 
hardier kinds so circumstanced, as the re- 
mainder of this kind of accommodation may be 
more usefully employed in sheltering half- 
hardy plants of various kinds. As there is 
considerable inconvenience attending extensive 
removals of plants when the winter is much 
advanced, it is better to get these things all 
properly arranged for the winter, as soon after 
this time as circumstances will allow. 
Half-hardy plants. — Such of these as it 
may be intended to keep in the pit during 
winter, and all but the most tender may be so 
kept, should be well attended, especially 
during the earlier part of winter. They re- 
quire great attention, so that they do not get 
too much water, which would cause them to 
damp off, as the technical phrase is, that is, 
the entire plant or portions of it would rot 
away or decay, and become mouldy, and this 
when once commenced would spread rapidly 
throughout the whole of the plants. Another 
cause which produces this effect, is keeping the 
plants closely shut up in a damp confined 
atmosphere ; and to avoid this, no more water 
than is necessary should be used inside the 
frames, and as much air as possible should be 
allowed ; indeed, whenever the weather is at 
all mild and dry, the plants should be fully 
exposed, and at all other times, except during 
severe frost, more or less air should be ad- 
mitted. Whenever it was found to be neces- 
sary to have the pits nearly or quite closed, a 
few lumps of unslacked lime placed so as not 
to come in contact with the plants, would serve 
to abstract a portion of moisture from the 
atmosphere, and thus render it drier. If the 
plants get mouldy, a little slacked lime in 
powder may be scattered over them. 
A Ipine plants should be plunged in dry coal 
ashes, tan, old sawdust, or some such loose 
material, to keep the frost from the roots ; 
and a situation should be chosen for them 
where they may be protected from rain and 
severe frost by wooden shutters, thatched 
covers, or other convenient modes. 
Neapolitan Violets. — If these plants are 
not potted, and placed in the front of the 
green-house, a bed should be made up for a 
one-light box, in which the plants may be 
successfully preserved by a little care. The 
bed may be built up two feet high of faggot- 
wood stacked closely, on which a foot thick of 
short half decayed dryish litter may be spread, 
sloping considerably from the back to the 
front : the frame is then to be set on, and if 
the plants arc in pots, which is the best plan, 
it may be filled with dry plunging material, 
sufficient to raise the pots when plunged 
within a foot of the glass. If the plants are 
not in pots, the frame must be filled up with 
dryish sandy soil, and the plants planted just 
clear of one another. They require as much 
air as can be given them, and to be guarded 
from rain, or dampness of any kind, more than 
enough to keep the soil just evenly moist. 
Orchises. — Most of the British Orchids, if 
the roots are obtained with care, and potted, 
may be forced like Hyacinths, and would form 
a very pretty variety among forced flowers. 
THE ROSE GARDEN. 
In this month, if the weather be mild, there 
are many straggling beauties to be found in a 
large collection ; what with the Perpetuals 
which in mild weather will be found blooming 
occasionally till Christmas, and the China 
kinds, which continue blooming as long as 
they grow, there is sure to be plenty of 
flowers. Some of the summer roses will have 
begun to lose their leaves if the weather be 
cold, and towards the end of the month some 
steps should be taken towards procuring stocks. 
If you have to collect them 3'ourself, you 
should be looking out for them, but there are 
plenty of persons who make a business of it, 
and you should give your orders so that you 
may look to be furnished pretty soon. In 
some seasons there are plenty to be had by 
the end of this month ; in others they are not 
ripe enough. If you obtain any, trim off all 
side branches, prune the roots by cutting all 
the bruised ends smooth, and sawing off any 
straggling lumps of the woody portion so as 
to induce the formation of new and better 
roots. Then plant them in rows eighteen inches 
apart, and three feet from row to row ; let 
there be stakes driven four feet six inches 
apart on the same line as the stocks, and 
fasten rods of some kind from one to the 
other two feet from the ground, and also near 
the tops ; to these rods all the stocks should 
be fastened, both at the bottom row and the 
top, so that the wind cannot disturb the roots. 
Each row should have the stocks pretty nearly 
of a height, three feet stocks in one row and 
four feet stocks in another, and so on, both 
for appearance, and for the sake of applying 
the same amount of support to keep them 
from mischief by the wind ; whereas if tall 
ones and short ones were in the same row, 
there would be required different heights of 
stakes and rods. The seedling roses must be 
kept clear of weeds : the budded ones must 
be examined as other budded roses are, and it 
may not be too late to bud some of the China 
and Noisette kinds on China stocks, if there 
be any good enough to be worth propagating, 
or proving singular in the foliage to be worth 
hastening by that process. Any of the seed- 
lings that have been budded and bloomed must 
be either condemned and thrown away, or 
adopted and propagated. Not only must those 
which are on the stocks be saved, but the 
original plant from which the variety was 
