May 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
117 
they should then be placed where the sun will not reach 
them—behind a wall or a low hedge, and plunged in a 
bed of coal-ashes. If they are fully exposed to a sum¬ 
mer's sun, there is danger of their breaking prematurely 
into growth before the season of forcing returns again. 
Care should be taken that they are not deluged with 
water, especially the China and tea-scented varieties. 
By thus keeping them at rest early, they will, when set 
to work again (after being duly pruned), start into 
growth, and bloom again much more freely than newly- 
potted plants, because they have had a longer season of 
rest, and have a large accumulation of sap to cause a 
vigorous growth. It is quite easy to obtain, in the 
autumn, a second crop of flowers, especially on the Per¬ 
petual*, and Hybriil-Perpetuals ; but this is by no means 
desirable if the same plants are for early bloom. Those 
cultivators who grow them merely for ornamental pur¬ 
poses may bring some of these from their resting-place, 
and allow them to bloom through November or Decem¬ 
ber in the greenhouse ; but the cultivator for exhibition 
will be cautious of such a proceeding, as it would be 
taxing his plants too much to have two crops of flowers 
in one year. 
Such roses as are grown in pots for exhibition as late 
as September, should, during the early part of summer, 
be placed in such a situation as is most likely to keep 
them back, or retard them from blooming early. The 
large class of autumnal - blooming roses are, as a 
matter of course, the best adapted for such seasons 
of exhibition; yet numbers of China and Tea-scented, 
with their hybrids, may be managed so as to bloom in 
great perfection during the latter part of the summer 
and commencement of the autumn. This management 
consists in pruning oft' the early shoots of blossoms, and 
thus reserving the strength of the plants to produce 
their finest blooms at the season they are required for 
showing. 
Plants that have been exhibited in June or July 
should be, as soon as their bloom is over, plunged in a 
bed of ashes, fully exposed, excepting for a week or two 
at first, when they should be shaded from the burning 
summer’s sun. By the time these have ripened their 
wood, the cold nights of autumn will have arrived, 
which will sufficiently prevent premature or untimely 
growth. 
Watering .—During these summer months the plants 
must be duly supplied with water; the quantity and 
time of applying it depends of course upon the weather. 
In the house or pit the vicissitudes of our climate 
cannot prevail to any great extent; here they must be 
liberally watered, not on the drip-by-drip system, but by 
a thorough wetting of the entire quantity of the soil in 
each pot, due consideration being had to the state it is 
in at the time. The China and Tea-scented varieties 
must be watered cautiously even in the house or pit; 
it has been already remarked that these varieties are 
more, impatient of wet at the root than the rest, and 
it is quite true. In the open air the plants are, or 
should be, plunged in coal-ashes, and consequently 
do not require so often watering as when the pots 
are exposed to the drying influences of the sun and 
wind; still less water would be required if a mulching 
of short manure or stable litter was spread over the 
surface of the mould in the plunged pots. This is ad¬ 
vantageous in more ways than one; it not only prevents 
evaporation from the soil, but enriches it when the 
needful water is applied, or the gentle showers from the 
clouds fall upon them. This mulching is highly bene¬ 
ficial ; the most successful growers of roses in pots make 
use of it. 
During the early part of summer the plants will be 
greatly benefited by a meal now and then of liquid 
manure. Roses thrive well with guano-water, but it 
must be a very weak solution ; a quarter-of-a-pound of 
genuine guano will, when thoroughly dissolved, make 
three gallons quite rich enough for roses in pots. This 
point must always be remembered in watering any 
plants with liquid manure: if the plants were growing 
in the open soil the liquid manure would be more 
diffused, but in pots it is confined, and the tender roots 
being generally either coiled round the bottom, or close 
to the sides, they are exposed to the strong and stimu¬ 
lating properties of the liquid manure much more than 
when in the open ground; for these very satisfactory 
reasons the liquid manure for plants in pots should be 
much more diluted, or weakened, than if the same 
plants were in the common bed or border. We have 
no doubt much mischief has been done by the applica¬ 
tion of liquid manure without due consideration of these 
important facts. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
THINNING CULTIVATED PLANTS. 
There is a strong resemblance between the laws 
which govern society and those which relate to horti¬ 
cultural affairs; both inflict a penalty on the culprit who 
violates them, as well as on those who omit to perform 
their allotted share in carrying out the proper rules and 
regulations. In the vegetable kingdom, the penalty of 
omission is certainly not less than that of commission : 
unassisted nature will and can do much, but when left 
to follow her own course she will invariably be found to 
shower her favours in greater profusion on those objects 
which require expulsion from the garden, whilst tire 
legitimate occupant will be ousted by the more sturdy 
growth of the less important one; in other words, 
neglect a garden, and the weeds common to the district 
will overrun the other crops; carry that neglect still 
further, and a miscellaneous crop of trees will overcome 
the weeds, which, in their turn, will become a prey to each 
other as they struggle on for the mastery, until the spot 
which once marked the industry of man is converted 
into a forest, differing only from the primitive one by 
the increased vigour of its products, which we suppose 
to be enhanced by the previous cultivation. Now, 
though we do not expect to see this gloomy picture 
realized to the extent here illustrated, yet we daily see it 
exemplified in another way. The small seeds of many 
vegetables, when committed to the earth, are there left 
to struggle for themselves against enemies more robust, 
or, if some kind hand expels the foreign foe, the 
straitened circumstances at home often call long and 
loudly for a more extended sphere, and it too often 
happens that before emigration to any useful extent 
takes place, disease and death have done their work, 
and it is only to the vigour of constitution in the patient 
that we can look for a successful rally, and even when 
that takes place it is at a sacrifice of time and trouble 
that could be ill spared. 
Now, our readers will easily see that we refer to the j 
weeding and thinning of vegetable crops in proper time. 
The latter operation is certainly not less important than 
the former, but we know that it is often productive of | 
more harm by its non-performance. To make this . 
subject more plain, let us suppose a crop of Early 
Turnips to be just showing two or three rough leaves | 
each, and standing, as sown, in thick tufts, with occa¬ 
sionally here and there a separate plant; now we will 
suppose them to stand a day or two longer, and, on 
examination, we find that the plants forming the tufts 1 
have elongated the footstalks of their leaves (called, in 
botanical phrase, petioles) while no proportionate deve¬ 
lopment of leaf has taken place, the only exception 
(and that only partial) being the outside plants, the outer 
leaves of which, enjoying the benefits of fresh air, have 
attained a more sturdy habit; still, that is only on one 
side, the interior leaves are suffering from the same cause 
