380 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[September 19. 
of wood as soon as a crop of roses is ready to cut for 
the button-hole or bouquets and glasses—no matter 
what time, that is from the end of May to the middle or 
end of August—by not cutting off any of the leaves in 
May and .Tune; and by reducing the vigour of the 
plants a little, with having a crop of flowers, we kill 
three instead of two birds with the same stone.—We 
have so many flowers; the leaves digest the proper food 
for the next crop at the proper time, the height of 
their growing season ; and the plant is made to take a 
longer time before it makes a second growth; for the 
merest observer can perceive, that after a rose-bush has 
flowered it rests awhile, before it makes another attempt 
at growing ; whereas when a plant is cut early in the 
summer it will not rest, as we have just seen, but makes 
a second growth in a hurry, flowers in a hurry, and will 
be ready by the middle of July to make a third instead of 
a second growth. It is true, that where roses do well, 
and where there are plenty of them, if one does Dot 
flower well after a few seasons of bad management, 
another will which escaped the ordeal, or which had 
a stronger constitution, and the cause of failure in the 
first plant is overlooked; but when one's ground is very 
small, and the best is to be made of a limited number 
of plants, attention to small matters like this is really 
of some consequence. 
I do not mean to say that the bad effects of a wrong 
system is to be seen the first or even in the next season, 
but depend upon it, sooner or later, it must and will 
tell; and that is the reason why we are so particular in 
asking our correspondents for the past history of such 
plants as they write to us about for cause and cure. By 
the time a rose-bush has finished its growth, and put off 
a crop of flowers, the bottom of the young growth gets 
hard or ripe; as then we say, or find, that the bark will 
not “run, if we want to bud on it; and at this stage, 
no matter what time of the season, the bottom leaves 
get hard and dry also: their office is in a great measure 
fulfilled, and black specks and blotches tell the fact; and 
here the young grower takes alarm : he thinks it must 
be something inimical to the health of the plant has 
caused the leaves to look so, but the healthiest oak-leaf 
in the forest shows exactly the same symptoms at the 
proper time, and we think nothing of it; the frost is at 
hand, and down they come. Well, in August and Sep¬ 
tember we do get frost at times, but not hard enough to 
cast down the ripened leaves on the lower parts of our 
rose-bushes ; then it is that we ourselves should be so 
trosty-natured as to do the work instead—that is, pull off 
all the ripened leaves with the hand. We thus get rid 
of the contagion from the black and yellow blotches, 
and also let in the sun and air to play among the 
branches, by which they are ripened still more; and the 
fresh leaves above have also a better chance of doing 
their part more effectually. This, then, is the first 
process of September dressingthe old useless dry 
blotched leaves are stripped off, and we see where all 
the shoots have sprung from; also which of them are 
stiong, and which ai'e not. Such as are below a medium 
she are now cut right out: this gives still more light 
and air to tho strong ones, and the sap that would go 
luto the little ones must from hence find its way into 
the large ones ; and if it does not make them still 
larger, it will add to their strength to flower better. 
Now we must look up among the branches, and find 
out those places where the first June blossoms were 
made, and hero two or three weak or little shoots will be 
found also; and one or more strong ones which issued 
from a stronger bud lower down has taken the lead, and 
eft the weak ones completely in the shade, and of course 
they can be of no use ; therefore, the best plan is to cut 
them off also—cutting close to the bottom of the best 
leaders. This, in its turn, throws more sap, more air, 
and more light into and against all the strong leading 
shoots ; and surely under all these advantages they 
must flower better in the autumn, and ripen better for 
next year; and so they will. But we have not done 
with them yet: look now from above down among the 
branches, and if you cannot see the earth below, right 
through the bush, the branches are too thick, and you 
must thin them ; and here a little knowledge of the sort 
of rose would be necessary to guide one. There are 
some of these autumn roses so strong—such as Maclaine 
Laffay and Mrs. Elliot —that if you were to cut out the 
smallest of their shoots, at this final stroke the very 
strong ones might not blossom ; therefore, two or three 
of the very strongest shoots of such must be cut out, 
and the rest will blossom all the better; whereas the 
more dwarf varieties require the weaker taken off, and 
the strongest left to bloom. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Training Plants in Pots. —Several correspondents 
having wished for hints upon this subject, we shall 
shortly advert to some of the leading ideas to be kept in 
mind; leaving for the present figured illustrations in 
wood cuts, as requested by some, because it would occupy 
more time and space than we can at present spare, and 
also, because in the long run such representations 
would be of little value, unless in the case of those who 
admire the art displayed in the prettiness of the trainer 
more than the plant, which ought entirely to conceal it. 
Even in these simple matters such varieties of taste will 
be found, that if people are not satisfied with any wire 
trainers that the wire-workers possess, these will in a few 
moments embody your ideas into shape. 
The first thing here to be remembered is, that whatever 
be its form or material, whether an iron trellis or a wooden 
stake, this ought ever to be looked upon as a seeon 
dary object. A second idea is, that fitness for its purpose 
should at once be apparent. A climber or a twiner 
may be taught to ramble over a flat surface, and to most 
people, when the trellis is covered with dependant fes 
toons, it would appear an object of great interest; but 
the idea of fitness will not be so apparent as if the plant 
had been trained upon a roundish, barrel-shaped trellis, 
whether consisting of wire, wood-stakes, or, better still, 
something resembling a tree; in each case ultimately 
concealing the medium of support by its foliage and 
bloom. This fitness when seen, will not only please, 
but reconcile us to that which otherwise would appear 
unfit and incongruous. Thus, there is the Euphorbia 
jacquinifiora, to which some time ago attention was 
directed; bearing its fine masses of crimson flowers at 
the points of its shoots; the finer and stronger these 
shoots are, the more splendid will be the flowers; the 
strength of the plant is naturally directed into a few in¬ 
stead of many shoots, and hence the next to impossibility 
of making the plant bushy or pretty to look at when 
growing. The tying of the slender shoots loosely to a 
single stake in the centre of the pot woidd seem the most 
fit for such plants, unless, indeed, you could suspend the 
qrot, and allow the shoots to hang over its sides; the 
branches when in bloom being just below the level of 
the eye. Of all things the surrounding such a plant 
with around barrel-shaped, very open wire trellis would 
seem the most unfit, and yet with such a contrivance I 
have seen a splendid exhibition of the flowers of the 
above plant. The cultivator studied its nature; instead, 
therefore, of growing a single plant in a pot, he con¬ 
gregated a number of plants into one large pot. He cut 
back these plants to different heights, the lowest to 
supply the bottom of the trellis with strong shoots, and 
the middle and highest plants for these parts of his trellis 
