removed to the forcing-house: in January they will give abundance of flowers, and amply reward the cultivator. DIRECTIONS FOR FORCING ROSES. VERY few years ago forced roses were one of the luxuries of gardening, and the matter was looked upon as a difficult operation, in which accomplished gardeners only were successful; but with modern varieties the difficulty has vanished, and every one may have roses at least in February, with the most simple means. A pit 10 or 12 feet long and 8 feet wide, just high enough to stand upright in, with a door at one end, and a sunken path in the centre, a raised bed on each side of the path, and an 18-inch brick Arnott's stove at the further end, opposite to the door, with a pipe leading into a small brick chimney outside (a chimney is indispensable), will give great abundance of forced roses from February to the end of May. To ensure this, a supply must be kept ready; so that, say twenty, may be placed in the forcing pit about the middle of December, a like number in the middle of January, and the same about the middle of February : they must not be pruned till taken into the house, when each shoot should be cut back to two or three buds or eyes, the latter for the strong shoots. The fire should be lighted at seven in the morning, and suffered to burn out about the same hour in the evening, unless in frosty weather, when it must be kept burning till late at night, so as to exclude the frost: and for this purpose double mats should be placed on the lights. The thermometer should not, by fire heat, be higher in the day than 60° during December and January: at night it may sink to 35° without injury. The temporary rise in a sunny day is of no consequence. When the sun begins to have power, and in sunny weather towards the end of February, air should be given daily, and the plants be syringed every morning about ten o'clock with tepid water, and smoked with tobacco at night on the least appearance of the aphis or green fly. To ensure a fine and full crop of flowers, the plants should be established one year in pots, and plunged in tan or sawdust in an open exposed place, so that their shoots are well ripened: the pots must be often removed; or, what is better, they should be placed on slates to prevent their roots striking into the ground; but with the Hybrid and Damask Perpetuals, even if only potted in November previous, a very good crop of flowers may often be obtained, and a second crop better than the first; for the great advantage of forcing Perpetual Roses is that after blooming in the greenhouse or drawing-room, their young shoots may be cut down to within two or three buds of their base, and the plants placed again in the forcing-house, and a second crop of flowers obtained. The same mode may be followed also with the Bourbon, China, and Tea-scented Roses; with the latter, indeed, a third crop may be often obtained. Towards the end of March, when the second crop of flowers is coming on, the plants should have abundance of air daily; this will make them hardy and robust. Syringing should be practised every morning and evening; but when the flowerbuds are ready to open, this must be confined to the stems of the plants and the pots, otherwise the flowers will be injured by the moisture. Care must be taken to remove the plants from the forcing-house to the greenhouse or drawingroom before their blossoms expand; they may then be kept in beauty many days. I have not found the check which the plants receive by this sudden change of temperature at all detrimental. During their second growth the plants should be watered once a week with manure water,* and the surface of the pot ocasionally stirred. Worked -i. e. budded-roses are the most eligible for forcing these seldom or never fail to give an abundant crop of flowers; stems from 6 inches to 1 and 2 feet are equally eligible: the latter form * One pound of guano to twenty gallons of water forms the very best species of liquid manure for pot culture; for the borders, double that quantity will be better. elegant plants, and I think generally grow with greater luxuriance than dwarfs. China and Teascented Roses on their own roots are more delicate, and require more care; still one crop of flowers may always be depended upon, even from them instead of forcing them for a second crop, it will be better to place them in the greenhouse, they will then bloom again finely in May. I find, from experience, that all the Autumnal Roses may be forced every year without any disadvantage to ensure their well-doing, they must be removed from the forcing-house early in June, the surface of the pots dressed with rotten manure, and plunged in the same, or leaves, or any light substance. Towards the end of August they should be carefully shifted-removing a portion of the earth from their roots and loosening the ball of earth and roots by pressing it with the fingers-into a compost of light loam and rotten dung, two-thirds of the former to one-third of the latter (this is, on the whole, the very best compost for potted roses), watered, and again plunged till required for forcing: this shifting would be better performed in June; but, as the weather is then often hot and dry, roses worked on the Dog Rose are apt to suffer. Pots of the sizes called near London 24's and 16's are the best sizes for * * The respective sizes of these pots are,-24's, 7 inches deep, and 8 inches over, measuring across the top of the pot; 16's, 8 inches deep, 9 inches in diameter. strong plants of roses for forcing: when potted, the large and unyielding roots should be cut off close, so that the plants may stand in the centre of the pots, the fibrous and small roots merely tipped. The treatment recommended for roses in a pit with Arnott's stove may be pursued with roses in a house with smoke-flues or hot-water pipes. Arnott's stove is recommended as an economical and eligible mode of heating, practised here to some extent with success for several years: on these stoves an iron pan, fitted to the top, should always be kept full of water. To sum up, give forced roses plenty of heat and plenty of air during the day, and a low temperature, say from 35 to 45, at night. CULTIVATION OF ROSES IN POTS For this purpose a selection should be made of some of the finer varieties of China and Teascented Roses on their own roots; it may also include such Bourbons as the Queen, Acidalie, Aurore du Guide, Souvenir de la Malmaison, and Noisettes, Miss Glegg, and Solfaterre. These are all of dwarfish and compact habit, and free bloomers. Presuming these roses to be procured, in the spring or summer, in the usual small pots they are generally grown in by the cultivators |