THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 
176 
of them had as many as six or eight flowers on a 
stem. They were the admiration of every one that 
saw them. If any of our readers have clumps of 
those flowers in such a state as the above-described 
were previously to replanting, we advise them to 
adopt the same method. Mind one point, however, 
viz., to have the roots as short a tune out of the 
ground as possible. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
The Rose. —Now is the very best time to bud 
roses. At page 224, vol. i., we gave instructions 
(with wood-cut illustrations) how to perform this 
very pleasing operation. Have your knives well 
sharpened, your bass mat, or cotton, or worsted twine, 
or slips of Indian rubber, whichever may be most 
convenient, all in readiness. The last is considered 
the best for tying in buds. Then read over atten¬ 
tively the above referred to instructions, and follow 
them as nearly as possible. 
Rose Shoots to be layered should, as they advance 
in growth, be bent down to the ground, and kept 
there by hooked pegs. This year’s shoots are the 
best to be layered. This is the first part of layering 
roses. After the shoots are all pegged down, leave 
them so for a time, it being too early as yet to tongue 
them, and cover with soil. Great numbers of roses 
will now be in flower, delighting the senses with 
their beauty and fragrance. Look to your standards, 
and see that the ties are not too tight. Crush the 
rose caterpillar daily, and wash the aphides with 
strong tobacco water to destroy them. T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Roses in Pots. —’The next division of our subject 
is climbing roses in pots. The fact of the yellow 
Banksian rose being exhibited last May, as noticed 
in our supplement, opens up a wide field for our in¬ 
genuity, and now there can belittle doubt but all our 
summer climbing roses may be so treated as to form 
large bushes for pot culture, either on their own roots 
or worked close to the ground on free growing stocks, 
such as the common dog rose, or, indeed, on any 
strong variety of their own order or section. Some 
years since I made many experiments to see which 
were the best kinds of roses to work others on for 
forcing, and out of a great number I found the Purple 
Boursault the most willing to make fresh roots when 
introduced into moderate bottom heat, and all the 
roses that I tried seemed to do very well on this stock. 
I then thought that I could get rid of a tiresome 
habit which this rose has of throwing up a profusion 
of suckers from the collar, by first picking out the 
bottom buds on the cuttings, only leaving two or 
three at the top, and making the cuttings into six 
inch lengths, four inches of which were buried in the 
soil; and when they were well rooted, say at the end 
of the first season, they were transplanted into nur¬ 
sery rows, but much more shallow this time, so that 
I had three inches of clear stem to bud on below the 
two or three shoots which formed the head. Now, I 
was well satisfied that no suckers could ever proceed 
from the disbudded portion of the stock, as it is now 
proved beyond a doubt that, if we properly disbud a 
shoot which is not more than one year old, it is in¬ 
capable of forming other buds on that part; but, if 
the buds are not extracted till the shoot is two years 
old, no art can prevent them afterwards from pushing 
out what we call latent or incipient buds. This is 
an extremely curious point in vegetable physiology, 
which no one, as far as my reading goes, has ex¬ 
plained scientifically; but the fact is so, and some 
of these days 1 may state how it has been finally 
proved, and also how it bears on some singular ex¬ 
periments which I mean soon to propose. 
But to our rose stock experiment. For the first 
three years my roses worked thus on the Boursault 
promised remarkably well, and then I recommended 
the general use of this stock for forcing roses, seeing 
that it was the freest one I met with for making fresh 
roots, and thus to keep in advance of the head while 
under forcing—gardeners putting much stress on this 
part of their business. Indeed it is the chief reason 
why bottom heat is so essential for many plants, and 
also why watering with lukewarm water is so bene¬ 
ficial, by raising the temperature of the soil about 
the roots. 
Mr. Rivers, the great rose grower, published an 
objection to my plan of using this stock in preference 
to the dog-rose; I believe chiefly owing to its pro¬ 
pensity for suckers. He was right, and the best apo¬ 
logy 1 can offer for not acknowledging him to be so 
at the time, is to state candidly that I have since 
been fairly beaten by my pet stock, for as soon as 
the roots arrive at a certain age they spawn like a 
raspberry bush, and no amount of perseverance will 
keep them down in pots ; and when they are in the 
open ground, you may as well lock the stable after 
the horses are stolen as to think of keeping these 
troublesome suckers within bounds. Many writers 
have recommended the use of the Boursault for stocks, 
some of them probably on my own authority, but as 
we are never too old to acknowledge unavoidable 
errors at least, and as I have now made the amende 
honorable, I coidd wish that others would extend its 
circulation. 
Among other things I learned during this rose- 
stock experiment was that every stock I used could 
be forced to flower early as well as any other rose, 
and this Boursault among the rest; and, what is 
not the case with many roses, they chiefly maintain 
their true colours under forcing. Another one, called 
Laure Davoust, of the section called multiflora , 
does so likewise. I never saw a more beautiful 
forced rose than this; the colour is between a lilac 
and French white ; the individual flowers not much 
bigger than “ bachelor’s buttons,” and like so many 
double ranunculuses in miniature; but they are pro¬ 
duced in bunches of from 20 to 40 each, and as the 
older flowers take a different tint from the others, 
and both sets vary in colour from that of those in 
bud, one of these bunches makes a complete bouquet 
of itself; and the individual flowers, when well as¬ 
sorted as to the shades, are inconceivably pretty 
ornaments for the hair, either as three or four little 
bunches or formed into wreaths. 
The only other rose that I know of which comes near 
to Laure Davoust, in small flowers of different shades 
of colour in large trusses, is the old Grevillii, or “ Seven 
Sisters” rose, and one that might be used in the same 
way. Next to them is the ranunculus rose, called 
Mtjrianthes renoncule, a strong growing climber, with 
small blush-white flowers edged with pink; and Fe- 
licite perpetuelle, also with small flowers of a light 
creamy tint, and a strong habit of growth. The two 
last and Laure Davoust I have repeatedly flowered 
early in the spring in very small pots, having had 
them slightly forced to use for stocks: and whenever 
they showed a disposition to ramble away as climbers 
do, I had to pinch them back to keep them from 
