132 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
-1UNE 
I know very well how difficult it is for the un¬ 
initiated to carry a long description in the “ mind’s 
eye,” therefore let me recapitulate. A strong shoot 
from a last year’s bud is cut back about Midsummer 
to live eyes; these will break into five shoots, and 
no side shoots are allowed on them. In October 
the five shoots are to be cut down to two eyes 
each; and in the following February the plant is 
]totted and nursed for one whole year, and only 
one shoot allowed to grow from each of the five 
shoots. At the second pruning in October these are 
left nine inches long, and four or five buds on each ; 
from these buds the flowering brandies come out 
every year afterwards. The nearer you come to this 
standard the more perfect your plant will appear; 
and you may calculate on three times the quantity 
of bloom that ordinary pruning gives. There is no 
secret in flowering any rose well, provided it has 
been weU nursed the previous year, and then pro¬ 
perly pruned. Any one who understands pruning 
the grape vine on the spur system will find no diffi¬ 
culty in comprehending this plan of pruning roses. 
Both flower on the current season’s growth, and 
both may be pruned exactly alike; and, although 
each of them be carelessly treated, they are so gene¬ 
rous as seldom to fail to produce a crop. Any 
time in February or beginning of March will be 
time enough the first year to introduce pot-roses 
into the greenhouse or pit. The latter is the best 
place for them, especially if a couple of lights or a 
single compartment could be spared for them, when 
they could be treated on a systematic plan—but 
with the ordinary treatment of the greenhouse or 
mixed pit they will do very well. As they are quite 
hardy plants, and begin to grow freely with us out 
of doors in April, we have only to imitate our April 
temperature in February to induce them to break 
their buds in the natural way. There is no month in 
the year the temperature and weather of which are 
easier imitated in a cold pit than April. If the weather 
is cold, air is admitted sparingly into the pit; when 
the sun breaks out, the “ April showers” are easily 
supplied with the syringe or rose watering-pot; and 
the pit being closed for the night say in February, 
without artificial heat, will be mild enough for an 
April night, and still sufficiently cool. After they 
are in full leaf they will soon tell their own wants; 
but, as the spring roses are now over, and should be 
turned out of doors in a shady place to rest for a 
while, l need go no more into their culture to-day, 
but 1 shall give another paper on their culture, and 
the different modes of treating the different sections, 
for what I have said above refers to roses in general. 
Hybridization. —There is yet a wide field for the 
cross-breeder in the rose family, which, like many 
other families of plants, is much diversified in cha¬ 
racter and aspect, yet the types of the different sec¬ 
tions are easily recognised by the experienced eye ,* 
for, although they have been already crossed to satiety, 
and also wrought upon by natural causes and by 
artificial means, their sectional character is still 
obvious enough, as much so as the different races of 
the human family. The pure Caucasian is not more 
easily distinguished from the Malay and Mongolian 
races, than are the so called English and French 
roses from those called the Scotch and China breeds, 
and so on with other sections of them. The grand 
secret, however, is still to be found out among the 
yellow roses, but handsome rewards do not seem 
to be sufficient stimulus to produce them, for the 
London Horticultural Society have repeatedly offered 
good prizes for small collections of pure yellow 
I roses, but, instead of responding to this call, our 
competitors rather flooded us with those buff roses 
raised in France among the tea-scented ones, and at 
last we were compelled to withhold these prizes alto¬ 
gether. I say “ us,” and “ we,” because 1 am a 
fellow of the Society; and I took great interest in 
the issue of the yellow rose prizes, but we were com¬ 
pelled to cancel them. Still I am in hopes of seeing 
new yellow roses in abundance, and, as we are now 
entered on the rose season, it is a good time to begin 
experiments. Try all the yellows within your reach ; 
divest them of their own pollen before it is ripe, and 
apply the pollen of another yellow as soon as the 
stigmas become viscous on the top ; where the petals 
interfere you may cut them off—they are of no use in 
the formation of seeds. 1 never crossed any of the 
rose family, and, therefore, can only give chance 
hints respecting the process, hut it is a settled ques¬ 
tion that the flower leaves or petals do not assist 
either the fecundation of the embryo seeds or help 
to bring them to perfection after they are fertilized ; 
and as, in the rose particularly, they are much in 
the way of the cross-breeder, they may be dispensed 
with. In a day or two 1 shall try a few experiments, 
and detail the exact process next week. 
D. Beaton. 
THE KITCHEN-GAKDEN. 
Asparagus. —Those who still continue the old- 
fashioned cast-up-bed-and-deep-alley system, should, 
if possible, fill up, or partly fill up, such alleys with 
refuse or earth of some kind; for there is no doubt 
that by this objectionable system the roots of the 
asparagus get seriously injured during the summer 
months, both by drought and exhaustion. Much of 
the beneficial influence of watering is lost when the 
beds are so elevated; and we do hope to see the old 
system of earthed-up asparagus and deep-alleys en¬ 
tirely exploded. The first practical intention of such 
a plan, no doubt, was to cover up the plants to a 
considerable depth for the purpose of bleaching the 
young shoots ; but in modern times it has become 
more fashionable to enjoy the natural flavour of this 
excellent vegetable, by dispensing with the earthing- 
up system and cutting the shoots in a green state. 
The shoots, too, produce more abundantly, and the 
plants remain a much longer period without becom¬ 
ing exhausted, when not loaded with earth to so 
great an extent. 
Our custom has long been to sow the seed in 
drills two feet apart, or to plant one year old seed¬ 
lings at the same distance from row to row, and the 
plants in the row from one foot to one foot six inches 
apart, taking up every alternate row the second year 
for forcing, and thus leaving the rows in the planta¬ 
tion, by the time of the cutting season, four feet 
apart. Every autumn, as soon as the asparagus 
stalks are ripe and are cut down, we apply a quantity 
of some kind of manure, which is allowed to remain 
on the surface until spring; and about the first week 
in March this is carefully forked in, liquid manure 
is applied at the same time, and also at intervals 
throughout the asparagus season. 
Cardoons should now he thinned and surface 
stirred, and, if required, some of the best plants may 
he moved into trenches which have been trenched 
deep and well manured. Liquid manure may he 
advantageously applied as soon as the plants have 
well established themselves. 
Celery. —In planting out this useful vegetable 
care must be taken not to plant too deeply. The 
