186 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 10, 1887. 
roots an inch long bristle from the pseudo-bulbs, and they 
are then ready for potting. 
The compost we use is one half good fibrous loam with 
the finer particles sifted out, one-quarter leaf mould, and 
one-quarter cow dung, with a free addition of charcoal 
and potsherds broken small, and a little silver sand. The 
oow dung is baked on a flue to destroy all animal life, and 
then broken in pieces about the size of cob nuts. Both 
pots and materials used for drainage are washed perfectly 
clean, the pots are drained well with rough crocks and 
charcoal, finishing with smaller particles. The pots are 
half filled with drainage, and this is covered with moss 
for the soil and roots to rest on. Each pseudo-bulb of C. 
Yeitchi is secured to a short stake, C. vestita being shorter 
not requiring stakes. Great care is taken in potting not 
to break any of the young roots, and the soil is sufficiently 
moist not to require any water for some time. We use 
pots varying in size from 6 to 10 inch, putting nine or ten 
in the 10-iuch and four or five in the 6-inch, according to 
the size of the pseudo-bulbs. We place them in a tem¬ 
perature of 65° to 70° at night, with a rise of 10° or 15° 
by day, on a stage about 18 inches from the glass, taking 
care that the foliage does not get crowded as it developes. 
In very hot and bright weather a little limewash is applied 
to the glass, this being the only shading afforded. We 
close the house early in the afternoon with plenty of 
moisture, the temperature sometimes rising to 120° after¬ 
wards. When the pots are full of roots liquid manure is 
given at every alternate watering, using that obtained from 
the stables generally, and occasionally a little guano water. 
When the flower spikes are about a foot high we 
gradually reduce the supply of water, so that by the time 
the flowers expand the soil is nearly or quite dry. About 
the time the spikes are 6 inches long the leaves generally 
commence withering, and instead of trying to keep them 
fresh we cut off all the decaying portions when cleaning 
the house, and by the time the flowers open the leaves 
are all gone, or nearly so. When about half the flowers 
on a spike are open we shift the plants into a cool dry 
house, where they generally remain attractive until start¬ 
ing time comes round again. 
If we wish to increase our stock of Calanthes we save 
the old pseudo-bulbs, and after washing them well, lay 
those of C. Yeitchi intact flat in leaf mould. If we wish to 
increase them very quickly we do not hesitate to break off 
the tops from the new pseudo-bulbs and lay them down 
in the same manner, and growths from the latter will 
generally throw up a fair spike of bloom. C. vestita we 
prefer to split in half from top to bottom, and after being 
allowed to dry a little f>owdered charcoal and sulphur are 
mixed and rubbed on the cut side. When these have 
started growth and made a few roots we put them in 
pairs in the same kind of compost as we use for the 
others, and accord the same treatment. —Lancastrian. 
ROSE-GROWING FOR BEGINNERS. 
(Continued //„?>; page 1G9.) 
Figures 31, 32, and 33, show a standard Rose tree at one, two 
and three years old. They are all marked for pruning. 
In pruning standards we have to consider the formation of the 
head, as well as the production of bloom; so if the wood be ripe 
enough, we may make use of the second or summer growth to get 
a good head on our plant as soon as possible. In fig. 31 it will be 
seen that two buds have been left on each shoot. In fig. 32 it will be 
seen that only one of them in each case has been allowed to grow. 
The others were removed after pruning (see Disbudding). There 
s no reason why all the buds should not have been left, and indeed 
he plant being a standard, and the object being to get a good head 
n it quickly, it would have been better to have left the buds to 
develope into branches; but in that case the blooms which were 
borne on the buds that were left would not have been so fine. 
Fig. 33, I think, explains itself, and I do not think that anyone who 
has followed me thus far would have any difficulty in pruning it. 
In the case of this standard it would be necessary, in following 
seasons, to cut clean out a good deal of the wood from the centre 
of the head, to keep it open, and 
to prevent the branches from 
crossing and getting entangled 
with each other, and so prevent¬ 
ing light and air from getting 
in. 
The foregoing remarks are 
also an illustration of close 
pruning applied to standards, 
but it must be borne in mind 
that the formation of the head 
in standards prevents us getting 
such fine blooms as we do from 
dwarfs. It is impossible to keep 
cutting down the heads of stan¬ 
dards year after year—that is, if 
appearances require to be con¬ 
sidered. I shall refer to the 
other system of pruning—long 
pruning, so called—further on, 
but it will be better at present 
to finish what I have to say 
further on close pruning. 
I said in the introduction that 
if anybody went thoroughly into 
any subject he soon began to find out that he could make improve¬ 
ments in his practice by turning aside now and again from the 
beaten track, and there is no doubt that this remark applies to 
pruning quite as much as to anything else in Rose growing. What 
I have written on the subject of close pruning so far is, to the 
best of my knowledge, quite orthodox, and may be found, or, at 
any rate, the spirit of it, in most books on the subject; but I am 
now going to say something that is not altogether orthodox, and it 
is this—that with a simple rule or instruction to cut every shoot on 
all the Roses in the place back to two eyes, a beginner might go 
into a garden full of Roses, and prune the whole lot, and provided 
he carried out the rule here laid down, the result of his labour 
would, in many cases, very much astonish the proprietors. Ninety 
per cent, of the Roses so treated would bloom, and that superbly ; 
the other 10 per cent, would produce wood shoots of extraordinary 
vigour. If the beginner went through the same collection the 
following season, he would see at a glance, by the enormous rods 
made by these 10 per cents., that hard pruning in their case was a 
mistake. He would leave more buds to break, and so become at once 
a master in the art of pruning ; or, if not a master, at least a very 
promising pupil. The greater part of my own pruning is done on 
the system here advocated. With a few thousands of plants to go 
over, there is not time to put on a considering cap in each individual 
case, neither is it necessary, a glance is sufficient, but as a rule the 
shoots left are shortened to within about an inch of the ground 
line—sometimes a little below it. 
Let me here say that I learned this very severe method of 
pruning in that school in which it is said that “ Fools learn 
wisdom”—I mean the school of experience. During a very hard 
winter some years ago, Jack Frost with his icy breath killed nearly 
all my Roses down to the snow line—a good many of them, I 
regret to say, he demolished altogether. If I am not mistaken, 
