The Old Rose Gardens, COLCHESTER. 
THINNING AND SUCKERING. —While the plants are growing don’t allow too many shoots 
on a branch or to a plant. Select the best formed buds and remove some of the small side ones in 
order to obtain the best and most perfect flowers. Look out for suckers [i.e., wild wood which breaks 
out from the root under the ground), cut them close back to the stock. A small spud can be used 
to clear the soil and enable the knife to cut the sucker oil at the joint. They will occasionally pull 
clean ofl by hand if carefully tried, but this is not always easy or effectual, and if any part of the sucker 
remains it quickly grows again. 
TO DESTROY GREENFLY & CATERPILLARS.— There are many Insecticides advertised 
such as Nicotene Soap, Jeyes’ Horticultural Summer Wash, etc., which will destroy green fly, but 
they must be used in the cool of the evening. 
Caterpillars and maggots can only be destroyed by careful hand picking. These will easily be 
found by the curling up of the foliage or small perforation of the leaves. 
DISEASES. 
MILDEW. —The best cure for this is to spray the plants with Jeyes’ Horticultural Summer Wash 
immediately it makes its appearance ; and to repeat the spraying at an interval of about a week. This 
should be done in the cool of the evening, after sundown. 
BED FUNGUS OR RUST seldom comes until late in the flowering season, and appears impossible 
to stop. It does not, however, permanently injure the plants, and it is a singular fact that the Tea- 
scented and Noisette Roses never suffer from this disease ; the higli-coloured Hybrid Perpetuals seem 
the most liable to it. As a safeguard against attack next season all infected foliage should be gathered 
up and burned. 
ROSES IN POTS. 
FOR CULTIVATION IN COOL HOUSES AND FOR FORCING.— The best way to grow 
these is to procure plants at least one year established in their pots. Top dress with fresh soil and 
manure in the autumn and keep them plunged outdoors till winter is almost upon them, then take 
under glass, keeping the temperature of the house as cool as possible, only using heat to banish frost. 
Pruning need not be done for at least a fortnight, and during this period no water should be given , 
this will thoroughly harden the wood, and what foliage remains will drop off, which is natural, and 
will the better let in light to the centre of the plant. Prune hard back the general run of Teas and 
Hybrids to three or four eyes (rom the Jjase, cut out any weak or bad wood, leaving centre of the plants 
open. For Climbers with several shoots cut the weakest shoots hard back to induce growth from the 
base, and leave the long strong shoots about three parts their length ; prune in January for flowering 
in April (earlier or later as you may wish to have them in bloom). 
In bright weather syringe the heads daily with chilled water (avoiding the flowers when in colour), 
this will keep the foliage clean, promote growth, and maintain a moist atmosphere in the house. Smoke 
the house to destroy green fly ; this, however, must not be done on a bright day, or when the plants 
are damp, the evening is generally the best time. The morning after fumigating, if bright, give the 
plants a thorough good syringing to remove the dead fly and clean the plants. Maggots can only be 
destroyed by careful hand picking. 
Be careful in giving air on cold windy days, as a direct draught is likely to cause mildew, a 
most troublesome disease, the best preventive is flour of sulphur, made into a paste with water, and 
painted on the hot water pipes, and if these are hotter than usual, so much the better, as the sulphur 
fumes are also a good preventive for red spider. Dust the mildew affected parts of the plants with 
the flour of sulphur or syringe with a weak solution of Jeyes* Horticultural Wash. 
Top ventilation is best, and shade should be given during hot weather by light blinds or syringing 
the roof and sides with whiting and skim milk. 
Water the plants when required, using water of same temperature as the house, and occasionally 
give weak solutions of liquid manure, cow droppings and soot, also bone meal and guano are good 
fertilizers. This “ feeding " of the plants can be slightly increased as they begin to show flowers. 
After flowering, the plants should be plunged outdoors, but, for a time, must be frequently 
watered, to keep in healthy condition and to promote growth for next season's flowering, later on they 
can be gradually hardened off by decreasing the supply of water. 
Some prefer to purchase ground plants and pot them up. The treatment for these would be the 
same, but they should be potted in early autumn and kept outdoors till frost comes, then remove to 
cool frames, bringing into the house when no fire heat is required and flowering them about May or 
early in June. The next and following seasons they can be forced for winter flowering if required. 
