190 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. June 
fault here; and those who are beginning, for the 
first time this season, to nurse rose plants from the 
beginning, will stand a better chance of success than 
some of the oldest of us, if they will only attend to 
The Cottage Gardener, who is very particular 
about his roses. Who would not he a cottage gar¬ 
dener? or live in a snug cottage covered all over 
with roses? or, rather, who would not exchange a 
palace for such a scene in the rose season, at any 
rate? But I am “loupin o’er a lin.”* No plant or 
tree that is intended for training, whatever that 
training may be, should be allowed to have its own 
way the first season—like the rose above, taken as a 
had example. No, if you wish to rear a plant in the 
best possible health, and in the shortest time, 
whether it be a rose bush or an apple tree, or any 
other tree or bush, the proper time to begin the 
training is when either the bud or the graft, which¬ 
ever may have been used for propagating, has made 
a few inches of growth, and that is just about this 
time with us; therefore, let us go back to one sample 
of a badly managed rose. It is full six inches high, 
and two little sprigs are struggling to rise by the 
side of it, all from the bud put in last season. Now 
is the time to plunge into the mysteries of cultiva¬ 
tion: this beautiful strong shoot, having embryo 
flower buds at the top already, must be thus early 
stopped in his headlong career, and nipped on the 
very threshold of life, like many a young aspirant. 
By nipping oft’ the top of this leading shoot with the 
fore-finger and thumb, and only leaving four joints, 
or buds, on the stump, we arrest the flow of the sap 
in that direction. But now, in the height of the 
growing season, the sap will not be stopped thus, 
but merely directed into minor channels; and the 
little stragglers that were panting for existence the 
other day are now the main channels for the arrested 
sap, and in three weeks they will become respect¬ 
able side branches. Before that time, however, the 
four eyes left on the stump will push, out into 
branches also, and so divide the sap in equal por¬ 
tions between them all—at least, let us hope so; but 
the thing is not quite so easily effected as it is to 
write or read about it. Now, instead of one strong 
leader, we have four, or may be six, shoots all spring¬ 
ing up from the bottom, not very strong yet, it is 
true, but the season is still long enough before them 
to give sufficient strength for our purpose. Thus, by 
one magic nip with the finger and thumb w T e have 
gained a whole season, avoided the ugly cut we 
deprecated, and have laid a sure foundation for a 
proper distribution of the branches, so as that we 
may train them afterwards in any way we think best. 
For the rest of this season, all the attendance the 
plants require is to allow no side branches nor 
flowers to exhaust any of the sap, and to give them 
a good supply of rich liquid manure occasionally till 
the end of August. By the latter part of October 
they will be in good condition for potting. 
Potting. — Nurserymen and gardeners pot their 
roses as early as circumstances will allow after the 
fall of the leaf, or, say, before the middle of Novem¬ 
ber ; but if amateurs rear their own plants as above, 
I think the safest time for them to pot their roses 
from the open ground is any time in February: they 
will then not only escape the hardships of a long 
winter but another advantage may be gained, and one 
that is often overlooked— a plant, no matter of what 
kind, should never he pruned and potted at the same 
time. This rule is as binding as a principle. Now, 
the end of October is the best time in the year to 
* Jumping over a waterfall. 
prune roses, and also all other bushes and trees 
which shed their leaves in winter; and the reason 
for doing it so early is this—the sap is not yet at rest, 
and when a portion of a branch is cut off, the buds 
that are left will receive all of it that would otherwise 
circulate through that portion that was cut off 1 . This 
will cause the buds to swell and get more plump be¬ 
fore the winter sets in; and on the first dawn of spring 
these buds are ready to make a far stronger growth 
than if they were not so much charged with sap late 
in the autumn; but if the roses were primed and 
potted in October, the great advantage of this accu¬ 
mulation of sap in the buds is lost. The practice, 
therefore, although sanctioned by long usage, is bad 
in principle; hence it is that I recommend February 
as the best time for the amateur to pot his own roses. 
If, however, he is to have them from a nursery, he 
must get them home as early as he can, as all the old 
fanciers who want more roses are sure to be culling 
out the best shaped plants before ordinary people 
think of what they ought to be about, and the first 
come is therefore sure to be the best served. It must 
be through this that all writers on roses, and particu¬ 
larly nurserymen, have put so much stress on October 
potting; but I say, as an old hand, that February is 
the best time—other circumstances being the same; 
at any rate it is the safest time for amateurs who real* 
their own roses. 
I have heard or read somewhere that it is a good 
plan to pot roses in October and not prune them till 
February, on the plea that with all their branches on 
they would form roots in the interval. This is just 
that kind of plausible physiology which teaches us 
to make two halves of a cherry and to split straws, 
or which, when “ taken at the flood, leads to” nobody 
knows where. The roots of roses will bear to be well 
pruned at potting; but, what is “ well pruned?” you 
say. Just to cut off the strongest roots to six inch 
lengths, and if there are little fibrous ones let them 
alone ; if you can coil them round the pot they will 
assist the plant till new roots are formed from the cut 
ones. The size of the pots must depend on the quan¬ 
tity of roots: the fewer the roots the smaller the pot 
to hold them, and the contrary. After this potting 
the roses are to be nursed for another whole year. 
They must fill the pots with roots before they are fit 
to bear flowers. 
Plunging. —The usual way is to plunge the pots in 
sawdust, sand, or coal-ashes, and, in many instances, 
in the open ground; either of these modes that is most 
convenient will do equally well, the pots to be just 
covered with the plunging material; and to keep off' 
the summer drought from their roots, some mulching, 
to the thickness of an inch or two, is indispensable. 
The best mulching is rotten dung, as every shower 
will cany down some nourishment to their roots, and 
every time they are watered the richness of the ma¬ 
nure is similarly beneficial. It is also a good plan to 
put pieces of slates under the bottom of the pots, to 
prevent the roots passing through, and so getting da¬ 
maged when the pots are removed. 
If every thing has prospered, they ought to make 
good plants before the end of the season, and be fit to 
bloom abundantly next spring. 
China Azaleas. —I must put off their after-manage¬ 
ment for another week, in order to say a few words as 
to the treatment of China azaleas, for which I am 
pressed. The more I am pushed to write about this, 
that, or the other kind of plant, the more I like it, if 
only showing that we are creating a general interest 
on the subject we write about, and few plants deserve 
more encouragement than these gorgeous azaleas. 
