THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
21 
October 10.] 
materials to prove. Composite flowers are the most 
difficult of all to get sure proofs from by cross impreg¬ 
nation ; I am not aware that we have a single experi¬ 
ment with any of them on record that is worth a button. 
For a second crop of China-asters, the seeds are sown 
under hand-glasses, with or without a slight hotbed, 
about the middle of April, the seedlings once trans- 
j planted to a nursing bed, and thence to the flower 
i quarters, and the third sowing, which will suit the 
! humblest cottager, is made on a sunny aspect during 
i the second week in May; this sowing ought to be made 
i much thinner than the other two, as the seedlings may 
stand on the bed till they are strong enough to 
be removed to where they are to flower. In either 
way, there is one point in their management that must 
never be lost sight of, and that is, from the appearance 
of the seedlings above ground to the fading of the 
bloom, they should never for one day suffer for want of 
food, and from cold or hot weather, or from the different 
removals, or, as gardeners say, never receive a sudden 
check, which is fatal to a first-rate bloom. 
To wind up with a bit of flower-garden botany, I may 
as well say, that although we call them asters in a 
common way, they are not asters at all: the true asters 
are the Michaelmas daisies; and in our Dictionary the 
China-asters will be found under the word Callistemma 
HORTENSE. D. BeATON. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Young Roses—Roses in Pots. —Much has lately been 
said about the management of these royal flowers out 
of doors, but still the subject does not appear at all ex¬ 
hausted, or our friends have not yet learned the habit of 
so generalising as to perceive the “what ” in general 
statements that would be applied to their own particular 
case. A letter lately reached us, with the post mark of 
Greenwich, pleasing, from the high laudations it con¬ 
tained of The Cottage Gardener, &c., but containing 
the sad drawback that it was sent to us in direct con¬ 
travention of the orders of the helmsman of our little 
craft, and entailing, as disobedience generally does, dis¬ 
appointment to all parties concerned, as, not to speak of 
anything else, the letter only arrived here after tra¬ 
velling backwards and forwards to every post-office that 
bore any resemblance, however distant, to the one near 
to which I am located, while if sent direct to the editor, 
it would have received immediate attention. Most of 
what the letter contained has already been adverted to 
by our friend Mr. Beaton, and there is only one inquiry 
to which at present we will for a moment refer, because 
it will just meet the cases of numbers more who have 
purchased Tea, Bourbon, Perpetual, and China roses, in 
a very young state, planted them out in suitable soil, 
and yet, somehow, find they are even now so small, that 
they cannot make up their mind whether to take them 
up and give them the protection of a cold pit or green¬ 
house during the winter, or try some contrivance of 
sheltering them where they are growing. Now, in the 
case of all tender roses, such as Teas and others, which 
arc budded, and especially on stocks above the surface 
of the soil, no better plan exists, than to take them up 
carefully and plant them in a shed, or against a north 
wall, before the frost comes with much intensity, de¬ 
fending them there from wet, and fastening spruce 
branches, fern, or a little litter among the branches. 
These should be planted out in April, and pruned rather 
close, as soon as growth has commenced, as the best 
flowers are generally produced from strong sturdy shoots. 
To keep up a good succession of bloom during summer 
i and autumn, weak shoots, and those done blooming, 
I should frequently bo removed. This plan will answer 
better than taking up the plants, potting them, and 
giving them the assistance of a greenhouse, as some of 
our friends suggest. One of the advantages of planting 
them, when kept behind a north wall so late will be, 
that they will bloom when the first flush of the rose 
season is over, and will continue blooming later in the 
season than they otherwise would do. For those upon 
their own roots, instead of being at the trouble of potting 
them a similar system may be pursued, or they may be 
turned into rich soil in a cold pit, such as those referred 
to last week, and if not covered with glass, protected 
with some material that would keep them dry; as frost, 
however severe, is not so prejudicial to them as frost and 
wet succeeding each other alternately. In the case of 
all roses, however, upon their own roots, except the 
tenderest Teas, and even in the case of such of them as 
Devoniensis, Safrano, Eliza Sauvage, Oobault, &c., I 
have generally found that raising a cone of old tan, saw¬ 
dust, or even half rotten dung, round the plants, which, 
when crusted by exposure, throws off the wet. Placing 
a layer of green moss over the beds, which excluded the 
frost, and sticking the bed over with evergreen or spruce 
branches, to moderate the keenness of the frosty winds, 
was sufficient to preserve them sound, and though the 
upper part of the plant was killed, they broke strong 
and bloomed luxuriantly from shoots sent up from the 
bottom. 
The treatment of roses in pots, such as China, Per¬ 
petual, Bourbon , &c., about which a correspondent 
inquires, must be according to the time he requires 
them to bloom in his greenhouse. Tastes differ; and 
we ought to be sure of our premises before we pronounce 
another man’s taste to be bad, but we would prefer 
dwarfs trained in a conical pyramidal form to our cor 
respondent’s standards. We shall at present confine 
ourselves to the questions proposed, leaving some other 
matters about roses for the greenhouse for another pe¬ 
riod, merely premising that to have plants of roses in 
good bloom in the winter months (and for this purpose 
the China and Bourbon group are about the best) the 
house must resemble a cool stove rather than a mere 
hybernatory for plants: in other words, the tempera¬ 
ture should be from 50° to 55° instead of from 85° to 
45°, and even then advantage should be taken of sun¬ 
shine to raise the temperature at least five degrees more, 
or the flowers will not expand freely. True, you may 
gather roses out of doors in the commencement of 
winter when the thermometer is lower than the lowest 
point indicated, but then you have the assistance of 
energy stored up in the plant, and which you cannot 
reckon on after, say from the month of December to 
February. 
Now, the first question with respect to these roses 
in pots is, “ Ought I to repot them ? If so, when ? 
and should I shake any of the mould from them ?” The 
best time to repot such roses is after they have finished 
blooming ; and if you have a succession of roses, there 
will thus be a succession of potting periods. There is 
a peculiarity in the mode of growth of roses in pots that 
renders this necessary. Whether upon their own roots 
or budded, the best roots have always a tendency to get 
to the bottom of the pots; and when plunged, unless 
great care is taken, they will get out “by hook or crook” 
at the bottom of the pot, and tlieu when you raise them i 
up you lose all the finest roots instead of moving them 
within the pots where they would do good service. In 
potting, therefore, it is not only advisable to get rid of j 
as much as possible of the old soil, but the stronger ' 
roots should be shortened that they may produce more : 
middle-sized ones, and these in potting should be | 
spread out, and receive an upward direction, and this j 
should be encouraged also by surface mulching. The 
kinds referred to by our correspondent are many of 
them constant bloomers, and with moderate care they 
