SEEDLING ROSES. 
369 
critically at tlie form of a plant, the leaves 
getting too far from each other during rapid 
growth exposes bare stems. "When the blooms 
appear that you mean to let grow, let the 
plant have abundance of water, because the 
bloom is heavy and absorbs a good deal of 
moisture. When the plant has done flowering 
it should be judiciously pruned, all the parts 
with crumpled or injured leaves should be 
removed if it can be done without destroying 
the plant, even if the plant be cut back to a 
skeleton, and the stems must be well washed 
with soap and water, and so left that the 
young wood will make a good handsome 
plant again ; but if there be any indication 
of bad health, or the plant is attacked with 
vermin so as to spoil it as a specimen, con- 
demn it at once and get new plants. But 
those who profess to grow this plant should 
have a regular succession. It is no use 
attempting to make one or two plants do ; 
there must be half-a-score got up every year, 
and they must be taken the greatest pains 
with, for there is not a more effective stove- 
plant in a show, nor one so susceptible of 
injury from check or from attacks of the 
mealy bug. Bear in mind that plain warm 
water syringing is effective, soapy water more 
so ; tobacco water ditto ; but wherever the 
bug has intrenched itself in the corners, it 
may want a long-hair brush to dislodge it. 
SEEDLING ROSES. 
We are always ready to learn what we do 
not know, and to teach what we do know ; and 
although all we have said of rearing roses 
from seed has been justified by our practice, 
we are ready to admit we have not practised 
everything. A friend of ours in the neigh- 
bourhood of Birmingham has succeeded in 
raising seedlings, and though of little, or 
perhaps no value, they have bloomed in less 
time than used to be thought necessary to get 
^"^-them above ground. We know very well 
that it was a general practice to bury the 
seed-pods for a year, and that much the same 
practice is extended to the berries of some 
other trees and shrubs. Our Birmingham 
friend has described his practice to us, and 
we felt half inclined to restate the facts to 
our readers, but we preferred to have a few 
words in writing, that he may tell his own 
tale in his own way. All that we have to 
say of him, as he will not let us use his name, 
is, that he is an enthusiast in the fancy, not 
confining his operations to roses, but culti- 
vating stove, greenhouse, and orchideous 
plants of all kinds, as well as florists' flowers. 
He gives us the following account of his 
doings in the rose way : — 
50. 
" For many years it was supposed that the 
seeds of roses required two years before their 
appearance above the surface of the earth ; 
the length of time prevented many from 
attempting to raise them ; whether this doc- 
trine was promulgated by the nurseryman 
for this specific purpose, or it arose from 
ignorance, is doubtful, and it is not my pur- 
pose or wish to extricate it from the mystery 
which so long has shrouded it. It is a now well- 
known fact, that seeds of the rose, even sown 
in drills in the open air, in the latter end of 
February, will not only appear above the 
earth, but that many of them will bloom as 
early as July. In my short experience I have 
always considered the best time to sow seed, 
is when taken from the plant perfectly ripened 
by nature, with all its energies and vitality 
strong within it. Acting on this idea, I this 
season gathered my rose seeds in November ; 
I made up a small bed of loose soil, six 
inches deep, on the tan of my propagating- 
house, and sowed them. In February they 
began to appear, and now on this day. May 
16, there are at least loO out of 200 heads, 
an inch high ; the greatest part of them, if 
carefully attended to, will bloom this year. 
I should not have broached this subject, but 
that I know how generally this flower is 
admired, and justly so, not only for its fra- 
grance, its form, or variety of colour, but from 
the fact that, as the difficulty of raising seed- 
lings vanishes, we may hope, by judicious 
hj'bridizing, to have this lovely flower in 
bloom the whole of the year, tiaving said 
thus much, perhaps the mode of collecting 
the seed, storing, &c. &c. will not be unac- 
ceptable to your general readers ; after having 
carefully hybridized the flower, from which 
I hope to save the seed, it is, of course, 
allowed to get thoroughly ripe, before it is 
gathered ; this, of course, depends, as to the 
time of ripening, upon the class to which it 
belongs ; when gathered, the outward fleshy 
part is taken away, and the seeds carefully 
stored in very dry silver sand, and placed 
upon the shelf of a greenhouse, or other 
place, where no damp or drip can affect them. 
At present, as I have before stated, I shall 
adhere to the autumn sowing, although this 
argument is liable to one objection, the diffi- 
culty of carrying seedlings safe through the 
dark, damp months of winter; still, in face of 
this difficulty, and till my further experiments 
prove my position wrong, I shall continue the 
autumn sowing of all seeds, of course, with 
proper protection." 
There can be no doubt as to the propriety of 
sowing seed at the period that nature would 
sow them, but it is quite certain, also, that 
except the plant be very hardy, the plants or 
the seeds will perish in a bad winter, unless 
BB 
