40 
THE FLORIST. 
is again stopped at the joint above the embryo fruit; and when these 
are set and commence to swell, the best is reserved, and the other two 
removed ; the one left only being allowed to ripen. The other Vines are 
shortened back one or two joints, according to the size and condition of 
their foliage, as a certain number of full-sized healthy leaves must be 
retained as indispensable to the due swelling and flavour of the fruit; 
all further growths are pinched out as they appear, unless a second 
crop is desirable from the same plants; when, about the period that the 
growing fruit is half swelled, one or more lateral shoots may be allowed 
to grow from the disfruited Vines, and the first to show fruit retained 
to produce a second crop, which the plants will carry, if due care has 
been taken with the leaves. I water very freely—indeed, nearly every 
day; and the surface of the leaves in the bed is frequently stirred and 
sprinkled, to maintain a moist growing atmosphere in the frame or 
pot. I manage this in frames, by leaving a hole under the frame, to 
enable me to introduce a fork; and in pits, an opening is left in the 
front wall for the same purpose. The plants produce numerous roots, 
running throughout the body of leaves below the pots; when the pots 
become full of roots, slates or tiles are placed over them to prevent 
evaporation; the plants form large foliage, and I find the fruit swell on 
the whole to a larger size, than the same kinds when grown in an 
open bed ; each fruit is suspended in a piece of old netting to the 
trellis. I have occasionally left two fruits on each plant, and when the 
fruit is a small variety, as the Victory of Bath and Scarlet Gem, this 
may be done, when a little more room must be given. For a late crop 
I prefer Trentham Hybrid and Beechwood ; lor early work, the two 
former. Golden Perfection, and Egyptian Green-flesh. 
S. T. 
DECOBATED CLIMBING ROSES.* 
A STRANGE term, for can a Rose-tree be decorated? Yes, and I 
must at once tell how it has been done with these evergreen Roses—the 
most vigorous and the most tractable of Rose-stocks—and how it may 
be easily practised. 
A few years since, a friend, living at Weycliffe, near Guildford, found 
the heavily-built brick bridge leading over the railway to his house 
(this is, however, in his grounds, so as to be private), conspicuously 
ugly, and he wished it to be hidden by evergreen climbing plants. As 
the carriage-road ran over the bridge, the gravel, of which it was made, 
did not seem to offer very happy quarters for any plant but Ivy, 
which was objected to, as being too heavy. I then proposed planting 
it with varieties of Rosa sempervirens, or, as we ought always to call 
them. Evergreen Roses. They were with some difficulty planted, the 
gravel being loosened by the pick, and some manure mixed with it. 
In my annual visits to my friend living in this charming district—for 
no part of England is more so—I watched with some interest my 
* Extracted from a new edition (the seventh), just published, of Rivers’ Rose 
Amateur’s Guide, a most valuable instructor on all matters relating to Rose 
growing, and one which we can heartily recommend. 
