198 
FORCING ROSES, 
insisted on in this respect; and, as allowance has to be made for 
their imperfect condition, it is not advisable to introduce them 
to heat before the end of November, so as to afford them as much 
time as possible to make new roots and obtain a good hold of 
the new soil. 
Where provision has been made by potting the plants a twelve- 
month before, the first lot may be taken to the forcing-house 
early in October, and such plants usually bloom about Christmas, 
the continuance of bloom being kept up by successional intro¬ 
ductions, at intervals of about a month. A hundred pots, di¬ 
vided equally in this way, will furnish a nice display through the 
whole of the spring months. 
As regards their management in the forcing-house, there are 
a few particulars worth mentioning. If worms are suspected to 
be in the pots, each should receive a good soaking with lime- 
water. This will speedily turn them out; and then for a week 
the plants will require no more moisture than they obtain from 
the atmosphere of the house. The temperature at the beginning 
of the season need not be higher than 60° in the day, rising 
gradually to 80° as the flower-buds swell, but allowed to fall at 
least ten degrees below the day-range every night. Unless the 
erection is devoted to roses alone, of course the temperature 
cannot be exactly thus regulated to suit the perfected and in¬ 
coming successions, and as, in private establishments, there are 
more things than roses to force in the same house, we must 
endeavour to accommodate all at the same time, by placing the 
latest admissions at the coolest part, and by degrees, as they 
advance, move them towards the source of heat. Thus, if there 
is a difference of ten degrees in the temperature at the opposite 
ends of the house, the roses should stand through the first week 
at the coolest end; in the second at the middle; and in the 
third week, being then in active growth, they may be moved to 
the warmest part, and so make room for new arrivals. The 
expansion of the first leaves should be the signal for the appli¬ 
cation of stimulants; a top dressing of fresh sheep’s dung may 
be placed in the pots, or liquid manure of rather strong character 
may be given twice, and, as more leaves are developed, thrice 
a week, in addition to the ordinary waterings ; and the syringe 
must be freely used up to the bursting of the flowers. This is 
