December 24, 1904. 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
1039 
Roses. 
(Continued from page 1018.) 
Roses for Winter Forcing.—The plants which are intended 
for forcing should be turned out of doors by June; and if any 
potting is necessary, it should be done then, so that the plants 
have a chance of rooting into the new soil and benefiting 
thereby. During the summer they should be carefully attended 
to for water, etc. If blooms are required for Christmas the 
plants must go indoors in September, and should be pruned 
as they go in. As a general rule three months after a Rose 
is started it is in full blossom. It is by no means easy to 
force these very early Roses, and to be successful means that 
one has to be constantly with the plants. After Christmas, Roses 
force much easier. In the earlier stages a very moderate 
heat is required, and liquid manure should not be used until 
they are well started into growth. Water should be given 
them with great care ; plenty of ventilation on mild sunny 
days and occasional spraying should be given in the morn¬ 
ing when the temperature is on the rise. 
The air must be kept moist or red spider will soon arrive. 
A dry path or a dry place beneath the hot-water pipes soon 
tells a tale. Mildew is often extremely troublesome in this 
forcing business, and must be watched, for the best and 
surest check for this pest is by vaporising flowers of 
sulphur. This used to be an exceedingly dangerous practice, 
but I£was recently informed by a man who had used it that 
Campbell’s Patent Sulphur Vaporiser has taken all the 
element of danger from the process, and this is certainly a 
boon. There is now no need for painting the hot-water pipes 
with sulphur, a practice that meant losing a good deal of 
heat. For greenfly XL All is the best and surest insecti¬ 
cide I know of. With tobacco paper or rag one often has to 
fumigate several successive days, and this tends to make the 
plants become unhealthy, and there is also the time to be 
considered. 
The Roses generally recommended as good early forcers 
are: The Bride, Catherine Mermet, Caroline Testout and 
Niphetos; and for later forcing, that is after Christmas, 
Perles des Jardin, Sunset, and among others Papa Gontier. 
This last is a glorious Rose; the colour is rosy crimson, and 
a bunch of them in February and March is really a thing 
once seen not easily forgotten. Marechal Niel is not grown 
in many of the market nurseries; the plants take up a lot of 
room, and the blossoms are not plentiful enough to make it a 
paying sort to grow. At the same time there exists no 
yellow Rose that equals it for form and brilliancy of colour. 
Another drawback to this Rose is the cankering habit it has. 
Liberty and General Jacqueminot are, too, dark Roses very 
much used in forcing. 
The Americans appear to use their plants for forcing about 
two years and then throw them away. In English market 
nurseries a plant is said to be at its best from three to seven 
years old. At Messrs. Paul’s, many of their show pot plants 
are from fourteen to sixteen years old, and they look as 
though they would last another ten years. Where it is 
possible, I should advise planting the Roses out in a special 
house which can be well ventilated during the summer. 
Where this can be done the crop of bloom is generally much 
larger, and with these plants no staking is required. With 
good treatment the plants become strong enough to hold 
themselves up, and they grow all the better for being 
allowed to ramble where they will. I recently saw several 
houses of Bridesmaid that had been planted out about 
twelve months, and they were thriving, and are expected to 
be giving their fine pink blooms by the hundred at Christ¬ 
mas. Perles also flourish if planted out and allowed to 
grow all over' the place. With Teas and Hybrid Teas 
the second growth often gives as fine and even finer blooms 
than the first. The plants generally need a good deal of 
feeding for this second crop. After flowering is a critical 
time with Roses that have been forced, and the quality 
of next year’s crop depends very much on the treatmen 
they receive at this time. The plants, if in pots, should 
be placed in a cool house, and kept moderately dry until 
the weather is warm, and then during the summer months 
they can be grown in the open air. If the Roses are 
planted out, as much ventilation as possible should be 
given according to the conditions of the weather. In nur¬ 
series, once the flowering period is over, all fire heat 
is shut off with the exception of a sufficient heat being 
given to keep frost out if the weather is severe. 
The soil for all pot Roses should consist of three- 
quarters good rich, fibrous loam (when it can be obtained), 
one-fifth leaf mould, and one-fifth good cow or pig manure, 
and to this may be added some half-inch bone dust. In 
the case of planting out in a house, the beds should be 
carefully prepared, good drainage being ensured. Clinkers 
and brick rubble may be employed as a foundation, and the 
soil should be about 18 inches deep. The soil should be the 
same as one uses in the Rose garden. The distance between 
the plants should be about 18 inches with the stronger- 
growing varieties, and 12 inches with those like Papa Gontier, 
which is not so robust as the Sunset class. I have never 
seen Hybrid Perpetuals planted out, and I do not think it 
would answer. They only make one crop during the winter, 
and also they are better out of doors during summer. 
The Rose Garden.—Leaving the houses and coming out 
into the open air, we at once have a great deal more scope, 
and this is the place where the Rose reigns supreme. Here 
all its beauty is natural. In a medium-sized garden a place 
set apart is not possible, but in a garden where there is room 
they will repay the trouble of making arosery. In selecting 
the site for this, a south-east or south-western aspect is best; 
here they get the morning sun. Care should be taken that 
the spot selected is not exposed to high winds or currents. 
Overhanging forest trees are fatal; the branches rob the 
plants of sunshine and the roots of all the goodness in the 
soil, and the result is a continual dying off of the Rose trees. 
Speaking of the Rose garden, Dean Hole says : “ It must be 
a fold wherein the sun shines on the sheep and the wind is 
tempered to the shorn lamb, a haven in which the soft 
breezes blow, but over which the tempest roars, and against 
whose piers the billow hurls itself in vain.” To the south 
the rosery may be open, to the north shut off. 
Roses are fond of a heavy soil, and if it is possible to find a 
spot where there is a rich greasy loam, half the battle is won. 
On the other hand, if the soil is light, rich loam and even clay 
can be worked in. Leaf mould and “farmyard” manure 
can also with advantage be used. 
(To be continued.) 
Cassiobury Park, Watford. 
Among our famous English shires probably there are few 
that are richer in historic interest than Hertfordshire. A par¬ 
donable digression may therefore be interestingly exercised in 
briefly alluding to only a few of the many of these before de¬ 
scribing Cassiobury’s fine domain. Moor Park, Rickmans- 
worth, Lord Ebury’s well-known residence, is only a nice walk 
from Watford. The park is some 500 acres in extent, being 
much admired for the beauty and variety of its views and 
walks of fine trees. The mansion—a magnificent building of 
Portland stone—was erected in 1673 at a cost of £150,000. 
In the minds of the horticultural community this fine place is, 
of course, always associated with the popular Moor Park 
Apricot—a fruit that was doubtless raised here. Another 
agreeable walk will take the visitor to the city of St. Albans 
(or Verulam), one of the most ancient places in the county, 
deriving its name from the River Ver, or Yerulam, which flowed 
beneath its walls at one time; famous, too, for St. Alban's 
Abbey, one of the finest buildings of the kind in the kingdom. 
A world-famous place, too, from the horticultural point of view, 
is Messrs. F. Sander and Sons’ glorious Orchid establishment 
