THE OLEANDER. 
Tins old and well-known flowering shrub, the favorite 
of many a household, is not frequently met in collec¬ 
tions of choice flowering plants, because of its size, 
which, when old, is such as to make it a nuisance in the 
house, instead of an object of real beauty, as it is when 
properly grown. The French gardeners, having grown 
it extensively as a pot plant for the Paris market, have 
adopted an ingenious method of flowering it in the 
greatest perfection in small pots. They succeed in 
growing and flowering the plants when not more than 
nine inches in height, in three-inch pots ; their method 
is as follows : The stock plants are allowed to grow in 
the open air during the summer months, and ripen the 
wood on which the flower-buds are formed. At the 
approach of cold weather they are brought into a cool 
house. In March,when the blossom buds are formed 
and beginning to swell, cuttings about six inches long 
are taken and inserted in bottles of water, which are 
plunged in cocoa-nut fibre (sphagnum would do equally 
well) in a propagating bench having a bottom heat of 
from 808 to SoS. These cuttings produce roots very 
rapidly, and when these are about one inch long the cut¬ 
tings are removed from the water and planted in the 
fibre. In about ten days or two weeks they can be lifted 
and the plants, with the mass of roots and fibre adher¬ 
ing to them, placed in three-inch pots and again plunged 
into the fibre. If treated in this way the plants do not 
receive the slightest check from the time they leave the 
parent until they bloom, and when the roots fill the 
pots the blooms are fully expanded, and the plants can 
then be removed from the hot-bed. In this manner 
they can be brought into flower, in from six to 
eight weeks from the time the cuttings are 
taken. 
After flowering, the plant should be well cut back 
and shifted into a pot one or two sizes larger, and given 
a warm situation with plenty of moisture. A free 
growth of well-ripened wood is essential for the next 
season’s flowers. The objectionable feature of an over¬ 
grown, unmanageable plant is thus easily avoided, and 
one of the most beautiful can again become one of our 
most popular plants. 
MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Rose and Stbawbekry Exhibition. 
Next to the gratification and pleasure there is in grow¬ 
ing beautiful Roses, is the pleasure dex-ived from seeing 
the beautiful Roses that otliei'S have grown; and as 
pleaswes are relative, our enjoyments are in proportion 
to the value and extent of Roses grown or seen. Those 
who had the opportunity of attending the Rose and 
Strawberry show of the Massachusetts Horticultural 
Society, held on the 26tli of Juue, at Horticultural Hall, 
in Boston, enjoyed the seeing of Roses and Strawber¬ 
ries to an almost unlimited degree. These exhibitions 
are always well attended, from the fact that they deserve 
to be. The more prominent Rose growers throughout 
the counti'y attend these Rose shows, because there they 
can see Roses, old and new, in their greatest perfection. 
It is there they can learn what to grow, and in a meas¬ 
ure how to grow it. It is not surprising that the exhibits 
are lai-ge, as the Society offers premiums sufficiently 
liberal to make it an object to the grower to make special 
effort to obtain the coveted pi'izes. It is but just, how¬ 
ever, to say that many of the entries were for exhibition 
only, showing plainly the interest the members feel in the 
welfare of the Society. The highest prize offered was 
the Challenge Cup, value two hundred dollars, for the 
best 24 varieties of Hybrid Perpetuals, three blooms 
each, to be held by the winner against all comers for 
three consecutive years. The specimens offered for this 
premium were exceptionally fine, and attracted much 
attention. Not only were the Roses all that could be 
desired, but their arrangement was absolutely perfect. 
The three specimens of each were not crowded into a 
small cup or bottle so that then - individuality was not 
determinable; on the contrary, the exhibits were arranged 
in boxes filled with moss to hold the bottles in place, 
and the moss covered with Lycopodium; each bloom had 
a space six inches square, so that it could be seen in its 
integrity, without a petal being 'wrinkled or bruised, the 
only way in which a Rose can be shown to determine 
its real beauty and merit. This premium was awarded 
to John B. Moore & Son, of Concoi'd, who carried off 
the same prize last year. There was sharp competition 
for the five prizes offered for “ general display ” of one 
hundred bottles of hardy Roses, and the exhibits were 
not excelled by anything in the hall, forming, as they 
did, a bank of flowers extending the whole length of 
one side of the hall. There were many other beautiful 
exhibits of Roses, in numerous classes, which we can¬ 
not, for want of space enumerate. We cannot, how¬ 
ever, pass the exhibit of Ellwanger & Barx-y, of Roches¬ 
ter, N. Y., without notice, as it not only included all the 
new and old varieties of foreign birth, but many prom¬ 
ising varieties of then - own production, which, when 
compai'ed with the foreign varieties, show us plainly 
that we are no longer dependent upon the Old World 
for our best Roses. Messrs. E. & B. are entitled to great 
credit for their labors in this direction; their house has 
for many years had a woi’ld-wide reputation for sending 
out reliable nursery stock, to which they are now adding 
a reputation equally flattering, for producing new 
varieties, the result of persistent and carefxxl hybridiza¬ 
tion. 
Although the Rose was the prominent feature of the 
exhibition, there -were many other entries equally inter- 
