AN ABRIDGED LIST OF ROSES.

Adapted for amateurs possessing small Gardens, or for those beginning to form a collection; selected so as to give the leading Variations of Colour.

THE ROSE GARDEN CALENDAR.

JANUARY.-If the weather be mild, planting, or lifting and replanting, of rose trees may be continued as in last month.

FEBRUARY.-Towards the end of the month-unless the weather be cold with severe frost-the general pruning of all kinds of hardy roses may be commenced, particularly those on the Manetti stock, which are early in putting forth their buds.

MARCH. Early in this month, in the first and second. weeks, pruning may be continued; if the season be early, it should be finished by the 10th. A surfacedressing of decayed manure may now be spread over the surface of rose beds or round standards, in a circle two feet in diameter and from one to two inches deep; or, what is more neat and equally efficient, cocoa-nut fibre saturated with liquid manure may be employed. Towards the end of the month remove protectors from pyramids and tender roses.

APRIL. Early in this month Tea-scented, Noisette, and China Roses should be pruned. They require but little pruning; the small spray-like shoots may be thinned out, and those that are long shortened to half their length. Tender roses that have been under glass all winter may, in the second week, be planted out.

Towards the end, prune roses that are required to

bloom late in the season.

attended to.

Surface-dressing still to be

All

MAY.-This is a busy month for the roseist.

shoots below the bud, or buds, that push forth on stocks budded last summer, must be removed with a sharp knife; those above the bud, or buds (by which is meant the inserted buds), should be shortened to half their length. Insects must be destroyed (see pp. 213, 214), and if the trees are sharply syringed every morning, before 8 A.M., it will tend to keep them free from their attacks.

JUNE.-Close attention must still be paid to aphiskilling, and to shoots from the stock below the bud, so as to remove them before they suck too much sap. The young shoots from the buds on stocks budded last summer should each be supported by a stick fastened to the stock below the bud, and the shoot tied to it above. Continue syringing, and if your trees are all surface-dressed and the weather be dry, plenty of water should be given twice or three times a week; and manure water also, given once a week, will increase the vigour of growth. Watering without surface-dressing is injurious. About the middle of the month it is good practise to thin out the clusters of blossom buds-from five removing three, from seven five, and so on. If large flowers are required for exhibition, this is quite

necessary.

JULY. This is, par excellence, the budding month (see p. 171), as the buds are ripe and generally succeed. The June work must still be attended to. Faded and fading flowers should be removed daily, and as soon as a