water, of the consistence of paint. Then proceed to plant them; put none of them in the ground deeper than they were before, in fact, never plant a rose of any kind, except a Manetti, deeper than is needful to cover its topmost roots with about two inches of soil, and tread them in firm. To do the work properly, the ground should be tolerably dry. If the ground is in a wet pasty condition, lay them in by the heels, and cover the roots with loose earth until the soil is in a better condition for planting. Better for them to lay in by the heels a fortnight or three weeks than be planted while the soil is in such a condition as to tread into a cement. I have frequently been compelled to plant roses with the ground in such a state that I could not allow them to be trod firm, in which case the workmen have been required to keep their feet in the mid spaces between the rows, and putting each tree in its place, throw the earth on lightly, put rough stakes just to keep the trees from being blown out by wind, and so they have been left till after some days of dry weather it became possible to tread them in firmly, and point over the trodden ground with a fork, and finish all off neatly.

A CAUTION FOR BEGINNERS.

It is only by seeing how things are done in various places that it is possible to learn what sort of advice to give amateurs on various gardening

subjects, and on the subject of planting roses, I remember a notable case of failure which will illusremark just made on A gentleman fond of

trate the importance of the treading the roots in firm.

roses sent for me to have a look at a plantation which had cost him a large sum of money only to give him vexation, and make the best piece of ground in his garden a specimen of utter failure. He had purchased yellow loam of admirable quality at about a guinea a load, in order to give the roses such a soil as is recommended in the books; he had purchased manure in quantity at six shillings a load; and lastly, paid seven pounds per hundred for a fine lot of dwarf Hybrid Perpetuals. When I saw them in the month of June they looked so miserable I could scarcely avoid laughing outright; but I preserved my gravity and looked about for leaves and flowers. A few of both were to be seen, but the leaves were more black than green; the few flowers were small, ragged, thin, and positively obnoxious to look upon. The plants had a starved look, and the general tone of the whole piece was that of a mass of blackishgreen scrubby sticks, much like the vegetation one sees on the banks of the Tyne where coal-smoke influences the shrubs in a way which makes one regret it does not quite kill them. The owner had planted them with his own hands; he had pruned them admirably, taking his method from the garden journals; and he had prepared for them a soil in

which roses might have been grown to take first prizes at any flower show. But alas! he had planted them so loose that I could take hold of a bush with the hand and draw it out as one would a radish on a wet day. What was to be done? The remedy was simple enough. I began with one bed, trod it all over backwards and forwards, made the soil as firm as a pavement, and recommended that all the rest be served in the same way, and then the beds to have about two inches of half-rotten dung spread all over them. I saw no more of them that season, but the June following I called in to have a look at the roses, and they were one mass of healthy green foliage and thumping flowers. Thus, you see we may do right in all things but one, and the omission of that one, or the doing of that one wrong, may make a wreck of our enterprise.

PRUNING, DISBUDDING, AND SEASONAL MANAGEMENT.

Any one who takes note of the varying habits of roses, and the manner in which they produce their bloom, will soon acquire, as if by instinct, a clear insight into the art of pruning. Supposing, in the first place, that you have young plants from the nursery in the first year of planting, you must prune them very close to induce equal growth and the formation of neat bushy heads. Almost all kinds, the first season, require shortening to two or three buds, and the buds left should be those that are

well placed for the summer growth, having an outward direction, and as symmetrically placed in situation to each other as possible. All weak and unnecessary shoots should be removed, and the head left open, and with its remaining buds so placed that the summer growth will be regular and close, spreading from the centre. The reason why roses are not pruned in winter, as many trees and shrubs are, is, that pruning hastens the starting of the buds left, and if these break too early, they are apt to suffer from frosts, and the plants are for a long time weakened, and the blooms come late and poor; hence autumn and spring are the principal seasons for such work.

As the spring growth proceeds, the cultivator must occasionally look over the stock for the purpose of disbudding such as require it. Every bud or shoot not taking a proper direction should be rubbed off as soon as it appears, and if shoots cross each other, or make way into the centre of the plant, they should be cut close off, and the well-placed shoots will grow all the more vigorously, and the blooms be finer and more abundant.

In the spring-pruning of established roses, the first thing necessary is to thin out from the head all the small and unripened shoots, and such as have grown irregularly, leaving the strongest at equal distances from each other; the shoots of stronggrowing sorts may be thinned to four or five inches

apart, and the best shoots left from six to twelve inches long, according to the age of the plant, its habit of growth, and the strength of the shoots cut in. The weaker the shoot, the closer it must be cut, and the weaker the plant, the fewer shoots must be left to consume its sap; and every cut should be made back to a strong well-placed bud. The shoots that are entirely removed must be cut clean away at their base, and the wound will heal over during the February and March are the seasons for the spring pruning, and the more tender the variety, the later must the pruning take place. Tea-scented, China, Noisettes, and Bourbons must be deferred till April; but French, Moss, and Provence may be pruned early; Hybrid Perpetual and Hybrid Bourbon next; and the tender kinds last of all.

summer.

The summer pruning must be done cautiously, for severe pruning at a season when the sap flows freely and abundantly will give such a shock to the plants as to cause them to throw up suckers or joints from the stock below the head, in an effort to get rid of the superfluous sap thrown upon the root by a too sudden removal of growing branches. Suppose some of them produce long rods disproportionate to the character of the tree-a thing that will frequently happen to vigorous plants in good ground-it would be unwise to cut such branches close off, but you may nip out the points of such shoots, and let them remain till autumn, and the