82 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
P Awgast 1, 1-'S9. 
borders outside, but they are richer and more delicate when grown 
under glass. Even the old common double Daffodil forces well, 
and in appearance is more striking under glass than outside. Tn the 
neighbourhood of towns, when the flowers of such choice varieties 
as Horsefieldi are needed for cutting, the bulbs should be planted 
so that they can be covered with a frame. This protection is only 
needed during the last two or three weeks of development. Very 
frequently the outer portion of the perianth is destroyed after rain 
by being spotted with soot. This will take place long before the 
flowers open. However clean the inside portion of the flower may 
be, its appearance is marred if the outer portion is but slightly 
damaged. When these kinds are grown in pots the potting of the 
bulbs should not be delayed until October. To attain the best 
results they should be given abundance of time to make roots, and 
come forward gently in all stages of growth. The sooner they are 
potted after they are lifted and dried the better. They can, it is 
true, be lifted ifrom the open border in October, and potted for 
flowering in spring, but the flowers are smaller, and the bulbs 
suffer materially by such rough and ready methods of culture. If 
the well-being of the bulbs for future use is considered, and large 
well-developed flowers are appreciated, potting should be done 
early, placing four or five bulbs in 5 and C-inch pots. The pots 
should be buried beneath at least 4 inches of ashes, in some position 
where the sun does not strike with force. The soil in the pots will 
then remain sufficiently moist to stimulate growth and root activity 
without recourse to watering before it is necessary to remove the 
bulbs from the plunging material. 
To do these bulbs well for flowering in pots they should be 
grown well until they approach a large flowering size. After they 
have flowered, the bulbs with the soil attached should be laid into 
the ground outside until they ripen, then being planted in beds for 
yielding stock. —Northerner. 
NOTES FROM A HERTS GARDEN. 
ROSES ON THEIR OWN ROOTS. 
Our soil is strong, a tenacious loam over clay. It ought to be a 
Briar soil, and is if the free growth and floriferous character of 
wildlings be taken as conclusive ; yet Roses do not thrive well on 
the Briar, especially standards, which sicken and die, except some of 
the free-growing kinds of Hybrid Perpetuals, and that most 
popular of Teas Gloire de Dijon, which is equally if not more 
vigorous and free blooming on its own roots than on the Briar. 
We have some trees of this Rose on the Briar with stems about 
feet high and 10 inches in circumference, covering a large 
extent of trellis, and annually loaded at one time with hundreds of 
fine blooms. For general purposes I prefer Roses on their own 
roots. They grow more freely than on any kind of stock when 
once they become established, and they bloom very freely. The 
peculiarity of Roses on their own roots is that of their pushing 
strong shoots from the base of the older growths, and even from 
the root stem, so that there is no difficulty in keeping up a succes¬ 
sion of young vigorous growths and a corresponding profusion of 
fine blooms, for it is easy to cut away weakly and attenuated 
growths and tram others in their place. Not the least of the 
advantages of Roses on their own roots is that of their withstand¬ 
ing the vicissitudes of our climate and the rigours oc winter better 
than similar varieties on alien stocks, for, no matter what may 
happen, it is certain that there is a reciprocity of action between 
the roots and the head, and no matter how adverse the winter the 
growths are not injured below the snow line or the surface of the 
mulch, consequently Roses on their own roots survive cold that is 
fatal to the same kinds worked on Briar, Manetti, or other stocks. 
The cuutings are inserted in sandy soil in frames, which are 
ordinary or two-light ones, according to the number of cuttings to 
lie inserted. A\ e prefer to stand the frames on a hard bottom, 
such as a 6-mch thickness of rough ashes, with a surface of finer 
ones, the rough, such as clinkers, being put at the bottom, and the 
siftings at the top. The site is somewhat sheltered from winds, 
otherwise open, and the frames are placed so that they face the 
north. A compost of good fibrous loam, with a fourth of leaf soil 
or old manure, and a sixth of sharp sand, the whole well incorpo¬ 
rated, 13 put in to a depth of about 6 inches at the back and 
4 inches in front, surfacing with a full half-inch of sand. The 
compost is put iu rather firmly and in a moderately moist con¬ 
dition, a good watering being given before inserting the cuttings, 
and time allowed for its soaking through. 
From the Roses going out of bloom until the early part of 
September is our time of inserting the cuttings. AVe, however,, 
prefer the early part of August as suiting all classes of Roses ; the' 
danger is having the wood under rather than over-ripe. It is an> 
axiom that when the blooms are cast the wood is sufficiently 
ripened for insertion as cuttings. Such, however, is not our ex¬ 
perience, as the season has something to do with the solidification 
of the wood, and we have never found soft growths to root satis¬ 
factorily, or if they should root make healthy durable plants ; in 1 
fact, we like the wood hard, but not leafless as it is in autumn. AVe- 
take the medium strong short-jointed growths of the current year,, 
having all ready for inserting them beforehand, as they suffer by 
being allowed to lie about. The cuttings are from 6 to 8 inches in 
length, a little less for the weakly growers, and a little more for 
the stronger varieties, as the cuttings cannot always be had of a par¬ 
ticular length. They are taken off close to where they originate, 
which means securing firm wood with .dormant basal buds, or if 
this will interfere with the plant by depriving it of the necessary 
buds for future growth, the cutting is detached so as to leave a 
couple or so of the basal buds intact on the plant. The base of 
the cutting is pared or cut smooth transversely immediately below 
a joint or bud, and the leaves for two-thirds the length of the 
cutting upward removed, leaving those at the top intact. The 
shoot will probably have made a second growth from the upper 
part of the shoot. If those are on the part that must be retained 
to give the necessary length for the cutting, cut them back care¬ 
fully to one joint, preserving the leaf. AVe thus have nothing but 
firm wood, every bud of which has stored matter in the wood 
calculated to support it until rootlets are formed. 
The cuttings are assorted into sizes ; the longest are put at the- 
back of the frames, and the shortest in front. The cuttings are 
inserted two-thirds their length in the soil with a dibber, in rows 
G inches apart, and 3 inches asunder in the rows. AVe sometimes 
run dry crystal sand into holes before closing the soil well about 
the cuttings, pressing it down with the fingers. There is a decided 
advantage in using the sand, for when the soil comes in contact 
with the stem there is occasional spotting, and sometimes complete 
collapse, through, we presume, the organic substances in the soil 
undergoing change or evolving matter inimical to the as yet suscep¬ 
tible bark. However that may be, it is important that the soil be 
made firm about the cuttings. A good watering is given after 
inserting the cuttings ; not a soaking to make the soil sodden, but a 
careful watering through a rather fine-rose watering-pot. The 
lights are put on at once, and kept on from that day forward for 
the next six weeks. The lights are brushed over outside somewhat 
lightly with whitening mixed with skim or buttermilk, or “ summer 
cloud the object is to get a subdued light without dense gloom. 
The rains reduce the shading after a time, or, if not in three weeks 
to a month, we wash some of it off, and clean it off altogether by 
six weeks from the time of insertion. The lights are lifted every 
morning to see how matters are going inside, and to allow the pent- 
up moisture or confined air to escape. The cuttings are cleared of 
damped, damaged, ripened, or fallen leaves, and if there be any 
appearance of dryness a light sprinkling over the foliage, given 
through a fine-rose watering-pot, and the lights are immediately 
replaced. Extremes either way— i.e., needless sprinklings or with¬ 
holding moisture altogether, are to be avoided. 
In a month a callus will be formed, but to make sure allow six 
weeks ; air should then be admitted so as to gradually inure the 
cuttings to the external air and a drier regime, as there is now to 
be a solidification of the growth, to effect which evaporation must 
take place. The plants must have exposure to light and air, and 
upon this depends their hardiness. Cuttings that are inserted 
in September—and we advise it to be done by or before the middle 
of the month—are treated similarly, but the necessity for shade is 
not so pronounced, or for sprinkling, and we make a difference in 
the after treatment, for whereas the early August cuttings are or 
may be potted up in October or not later than early November, the 
early September cuttings are allowed to remain twelve months 
before they are disturbed, and I am persuaded that thus allowing 
the cuttings to form good roots before being lifted is the proper 
way to get Roses well established on their own roots. I have 
tried potting them in early autumn and deferring it until the 
early autumn of the year following the insertion of the cuttings, 
and the latter were much stronger and did better afterwards than 
those potted and coddled through the winter. If potted they are 
either kept in a house from which frost is excluded or plunged in 
ashes over the rims if frost has access, with the protection of mats 
over the lights in severe weather. They can be turned out in 
spring or grown in pots, assigning them a position on a north 
border up to September, when they may be placed in a sunny one 
