close to the work remove one of them, and that the weakest or the one most twisted out of a natural position. Shorten all the strong shoots to within an average of six buds of their base, and the weak shoots to an average of two buds of their base. They must have liberal culture all the summer, abundance of water till the middle of July, after that but little. They ought to be in an airy position and enjoy full sunshine, and it is very important to arrange them after pruning so as to allow plenty of room for a circulation of air amongst them, and so that any plant can be got at readily without having to reach across another, and perhaps break a valuable bud or shoot in the operation. Take notice how they grow. Those that throw out their branches horizontally, and obliquely, and with tolerable regularity, may be left to grow in their own way. Others will grow too upright and rigid ever to make nice heads without help. Carefully draw down the outside shoots of these with strands of twisted bass, and tie them down either to their own stems or to a piece of bass, passed below the rim of the pot. If drawn down while young and soft, they will harden into the required position. It does not seem needful to enlarge upon the necessity of keeping the plants free of fly and mildew. If these get the upper hand, your chances of a prize next season are lessened.

Having grown them well throughout the sum

mer, it is important to remove wood well ripened. This will perhaps require no special care. If the autumn is warm and sunny, there will be no fear of the wood ripening; but if it is a wet and cold autumn some precautions must be taken, such as placing all those that look greenest and growing under glass, and supplying them with abundant ventilation and very little water. Or if there is no room for them under glass range them under a wall or fence facing south, and let the pots be exposed to all weathers till there is danger of frost, and then return them to the bed for the winter.

season.

All further operations are to be conducted with a view to prepare the plants for exhibition the next In October or early in November, shift those with the finest heads and most robust growth into larger pots, removing at the same time some of the soil from their roots and using to fill in half turfy loam and half rotten dung. Those that do not require larger pots should be turned out, and have some of the soil removed, and be repotted into the same pots. Every pot rose should be repotted once a year, whether grown for exhibition or any other purpose. At this and every subsequent potting, let the soil be fully two inches below the level of the rim of the pot-in the case of large pots, three inches. This will allow of an inch or more of fresh sheep or deer's dung to be spread as a top dressing as soon as the plants begin to

grow in spring, which will materially assist in producing a fine bloom. It is best to make quite a separate affair of the pruning, so as to secure the repotting of the whole stock early, as the formation of fresh roots cannot take place too soon after the season's growth is completed. As for the pruning, that must take place according to the dates at which the plants are required to be in bloom; and here I must tell the amateur, that with all his care he must not depend on having any one batch or any one plant in perfection by a given date, and that is one reason why he should grow a considerably greater number of plants than he would ever purpose to exhibit at one time. But we lessen this difficulty: first, by having plenty of plants; next, by pruning them in batches at different times. If the collection is large, pruning should be performed once a month, from November to the end of April; and lastly, by forcing some, allowing others to bloom at their natural season, and retarding others. Warm greenhouse treatment from Christmas will bring the first pruned batch into bloom early, and thence the supply may be kept up till it is seen whether the season will be an early or late one. If there appears to be a little difficulty to the extent of a week or so in securing a certain number of plants in perfection for a given date, the use of a gentle hot-bed out of doors will hasten, and placing the plants in a cool north aspect, shaded at mid-day by trees, will re

tard them a week. All these measures of hastening and retarding should be determined on at least five weeks before the date of the show.

The management of roses on their own roots will not greatly differ from that of plants worked on stems. It is desirable in the first instance to remove the three or four lowest buds from the young plants so as to form clean stout stems. To have these stems strong they should grow the first season of potting to their full height, which, if well fed, may vary from two to six feet. The next season they are to be cut down to three buds, and from those three the cultivator proceeds to form a close bush, the base of which is within an inch or two of the rim of the pot. These bushes on their own roots are really better adapted for pot culture than the plants worked on briers; but it is impossible to get them to exhibition size in the same time. The pruning and training out of these bushes will require but a slight variation of the directions given above, the niceties of the culture are to be acquired only by practice; and it is better at this point to leave the rosarian to his own resources than attempt to explain every possible detail. But it may be well to say that there can be little progress made in the pot culture of roses whether for exhibition or home use without the aid of glass; Teas and Noisettes, which make the most beautiful of pot roses, require protection in winter and spring; and there are times

when even Perpetual and Provence roses in pots must be housed to screen them from the inclemency of the blast. Potted plants occasion more trouble than those in the open ground; but that trouble we suppose furnishes the rosarian with just the kind of recreation he needs, and he will not be slow to discover that success depends much more on constant attention than on extraordinary skill. Let it be the rule to deal with every difficulty promptly, then neither fly, nor mildew, nor drought, nor frost will be able to do much harm-sheer industry will prove a talisman. I leave the reader to make his own moral reflections, as there are too many matters yet to attend to, to allow me to be sentimental.

A FEW CHOICE ROSES FOR EXHIBITION IN POTS.

SUMMER ROSES.

Provence.-Common Cabbage, Comte Plater, Comtesse de Segur.

Moss.-Common Moss, Celina, Decandolle, Gloire des Mousseuses, Frederich Soulié, John Cranston, Luxembourg, White Bath.

Hybrid China.-Leopold de Bauffremont, Brennus, Triomphe d'Angers, Chenedole.

Hybrid Bourbon. Charles Lawson, Coupe d'Hébé, Juno, Paul Perras, Paul Ricaut.

AUTUMNAL ROSES.

Hybrid Perpetual.-Alex. Bachmeteff, Arche