POTTING AND FORCING.
"Seek Roses in December, ice in June."--BYRON.
Every variety of Rose, in the hands of a skillful man, will grow and
bloom well in pots, although the Bengal and its sub-classes, and the
more dwarf Hardy Roses, are the most easily managed. The great point
in potting is to imitate planting in the open ground as nearly as
possible. The soil used should possess all the nutritious elements
required in the open ground, and, if possible, in somewhat greater
abundance. More manure should be used, because the frequent watering
required by plants in pots must inevitably wash away a portion of
the fertilizing matter. There is nothing better than one portion of
stable manure, and three of turf, or leaf-mould, all well decomposed,
and mixed with a little pure peat earth. A portion of night-soil,
well incorporated with charcoal, is also very excellent. Charcoal is
the most powerful absorbent known; it retains the nutritious elements
in the night-soil, prevents their being washed away by watering, and
gives them out as the plant needs them. English gardeners should bear
in mind that roses require in this climate a stronger soil than in
England. Half-gallon pots are the best size at first, from which, by
repeated pottings, corresponding with the growth of the plant, they
can be shifted to one or two-gallon pots. The size of the pots should,
however, be regulated by the extent of the roots; it should be just
sufficiently large to allow the roots to go in without crowding. A few
broken pieces of pots or small lumps should be put in the bottom for
drainage. When the plant is to be taken from the open ground, select
one, the roots of which are not too large, and with a sharp spade cut
around it a ball of earth about the size of the pot, depriving it
at the same time of a portion of its top, as directed in remarks on
pruning. It should stand in this state about a fortnight, until the
roots have become callused, and the plant is somewhat accustomed to
the loss of its roots and branches. It can then be safely taken up at
any season, and transferred to the pot, which should then be filled in
with earth, firm and solid. If potted in the autumn, after the leaves
have fallen and the wood become mature, the above previous preparation
is not required, but the plant can be taken up without a ball of
earth, and after being pruned of its bruised or broken roots, placed
in the pot. It should then be protected from the frost and light until
it has entirely recovered from its change of habitation, when it can
be placed in any cool spot free from frost, until it is wanted for
forcing.
Roses may, without difficulty, by the above previous management, be
forced to bloom in the latter part of winter, but where their bloom is
desired at Christmas or New-Year, they should be gradually prepared
for the space of a year previous. To produce roses the latter part
of winter, our own management has been simple and effective, giving
us as many flowers as a green-house and vinery full of pots could
afford. After putting the plants in pots, as directed above, pruning
them down to eight or ten buds, and hardening them in a shady place,
they are removed to the vinery before the frost out of doors can have
injured them, and cut down to two buds. The house is then kept as cool
as possible, while the frost is carefully excluded by a light fire
at night, and on fine days the sashes are opened, and plenty of air
admitted. They are thus kept in a dormant state until the first of
the year, when the heat is gradually increased to about 70° by day,
sinking as low as 35° at night. Care is taken to give them sufficient
watering, and in their whole management to subject them as nearly
as possible to the conditions of open culture. When the green-fly
appears, it is immediately destroyed by fumigation with tobacco, and
the plants are subsequently syringed with clean water. With this
management, they soon begin to show signs of life, the bud commences
pushing forth its delicate, light green shoot, the leaves then appear,
the plant, soon growing with luxuriance, is clothed with rich foliage,
and about the middle of the third month, the house presents a mass of
thrifty growth and perfect bloom.
By the means above described, roses may be forced into bloom the
latter part of winter; and by observing some care to bring them into
the house at different periods, in regular succession, a bloom can
be enjoyed through all the spring months, until roses bloom in the
open ground. This process cannot, however, be continued two years in
succession without weakening the plant; and although, if placed in a
shady spot, and allowed to rest during the summer, it may sufficiently
recover to perform the same work another year, it is desirable, if
possible, to have fresh plants, whose strength has not been exhausted
by the unusual effort attending the production of flowers out of
season.
The preceding directions apply more particularly to late forcing; and
although the same means, with an earlier application of heat, will
produce flowers early in winter, yet the true art of early forcing
consists in _gradually_ bringing the Rose out of its season; and it
is only by this mode that thrifty plants and perfect flowers can be
produced before Christmas.
Two years, and sometimes three, should be employed in preparing a Rose
for early forcing. Having been prepared by digging around it with a
sharp spade some two weeks previously, the plant should be taken up
immediately after the first frost, placed in a cold frame a few days,
to harden, and then taken to the green-house or vinery. A moderate
heat should then be given it, with plenty of light and air to prevent
its being drawn. The flower-buds should be plucked off as soon as
they appear, and no bloom should be allowed. It will thus make fine
growths, and can be plunged in the open ground as soon as danger of
frost has passed in the spring. Here it can remain during the summer,
to ripen its wood, and will require no care except a little watering
in dry weather, and an occasional taking up and examination, that the
roots may not push through the hole of the pot, and become fixed in
the ground, in which case the plants would make too strong a growth,
and suffer on being removed from the new-made root. In October it can
be placed in a pot one size larger, pruned by thinning out all the
weak branches, and shortening the strong ones down to two eyes. It
should then go through the same process as before, carefully picking
off all the flower-buds, promoting its growth until completed, when
let it be put in a cold frame until all danger of frost is over, and
then plunge it in the ground to ripen its wood. As its vegetation
was started a month earlier the last year, it can now be taken up
in September, repotted and pruned as before, and then taken into
the green-house. The temperature should then be gradually raised to
about 55° until the plant has commenced growing, and then gradually
increased to 65° or 70°, giving as much air as can be obtained without
lowering the temperature.
All useless shoots should be kept down, and all the flower-buds taken
off that threaten to be abortive. In fumigating for the green-fly,
care should be taken not to do it too strongly, but repeated and
gentle doses at night are better. We have known many fine plants
ruined by fumigation in the hands of an inexperienced person. A good
bloom can be obtained the second year by this mode; but if the amateur
has the patience to wait until a third, he will be rewarded by a
thrifty and compact habit, rich foliage, and beautiful bloom for two
months before Christmas; and if there are a number of plants to be
brought into the green-house a week after each other, he can have them
in bloom until the late forced roses appear. At all periods subsequent
to their commencement, care should be taken to give them sufficient
moisture, and as much air as is consistent with the state of growth
and the external temperature. Without water, they will neither grow
nor bloom well. Under glass, every other day, and in some cases, twice
a week is sufficient.
The great principle to be borne in mind in forcing roses is, that
sudden excitement is fatal, and that a plant should never be taken
from the open ground into a heated house without being gradually
prepared for it. This principle is particularly applicable to
deciduous roses. The Remontant and Bourbon, the Bengal and its
sub-classes, which grow and bloom through the whole year, are not so
liable to be injured by exciting treatment.
Cuttings of these that are struck in the spring and planted out in the
open ground may have their tops slightly pruned, and their buds all
pinched off during the summer, to encourage the formation of wood and
of a close head.
About the last days of summer, or the first of autumn, they can
be taken up and placed in quart pots, with a soil composed of one
half loam, one quarter cow-dung, and one quarter peat. After being
slightly pruned, and left in the shade for a week, they can be placed
in frames, protected at night from frost, and exposed to the air in
mild weather for some two months, when they can be removed, a few at
a time, into the green-house, and subjected to a moderately increased
temperature. They will soon bloom well, and will succeed each other
throughout the winter and spring, until roses bloom in the open air.
Like the deciduous roses, they require to be protected against the
green-fly by syringing, and if that does not answer, by fumigation
with tobacco.
The Bengal, however, like the deciduous roses, will bloom better the
second winter than the first, by shifting them into larger pots,
pruning them, cutting off all the flower-buds, and giving them very
little water the latter part of summer. They can then be put into the
frames, and treated as before. The Bengal Rose is very easily forced
in this way; and if the temperature is at first kept during the day at
45°, and gradually increased to 60°, there can be little difficulty
in obtaining beautiful and healthy plants. This temperature can be
obtained in any green-house or vinery. The latter is becoming more
common, and when it is provided with heating apparatus, there can be
nothing better for roses. We have forced them very successfully in one
of our own vineries, one hundred and twenty feet long, twelve feet
wide, ten feet high in the rear, three and a half in front, and heated
by hot water. But as there may be many who desire a cheaper structure,
we will give the description of one used by Rivers, (the best
rose-grower known), with his mode of managing roses in a structure of
that character. "A pit, ten or twelve feet long, and eight 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 Arnott's stove at the farther end, opposite to the door,
with a pipe leading into a small brick chimney outside, (a chimney
is indispensable), will give a 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 for the formation of 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 70° during
December, January, and February; at night it may sink to 35° without
injury. The temporary rise in a sunny day is of no consequence, but
_no air must be admitted at such times, or the plants will exhaust
themselves, and immediately shed their leaves_. When the sun begins
to have power, and in sunny weather, toward the end of February, the
plants may be syringed every morning about 10 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, that their shoots may be
well ripened; the pots must be often removed, or, what is better,
place the pots on slates, to prevent their roots striking into the
ground. With the Remontant or 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 Remontant roses is, that after blooming in the green-house
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. Toward
the end of March, when the second crop of flowers is coming on, the
plants may be gradually inured to the air, by opening the sashes in
mild weather. This will make them hardy and robust. Syringing should
be practiced every morning and evening; but when the flower-buds 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. Air
must at first only be given about noon; care must be taken to remove
the plants from the forcing-house to the green-house or drawing-room
before their blossoms expand; they may then be kept in beauty many
days. We 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 occasionally stirred. Two pounds of guano
to ten gallons of water forms the very best species of liquid manure;
this should be stirred before it is used.
"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, practiced 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. Roses may be forced slowly, but with perhaps greater
certainty by the uninitiated, by giving air freely and constantly
in mild weather during the day, keeping the fire constantly burning
during the same period, as recommended when keeping them closely shut
up."
We have copied the whole of this article, although in a measure
a repetition of previous remarks, since it may be interesting to
some to know the opinion of so eminent a cultivator on this least
understood branch of rose culture. A few of his directions are
somewhat different from those we have given before, and may be far
better than our own plan, in the climate of England. Here, an Arnott's
stove would scarcely heat a pit to 70° with the thermometer at zero;
and if it should, we would think it rather dangerous to give so high
a temperature at once. The strength of guano is also so varied,
that we should feel very cautious in using it according to the above
receipt. While, however, we would not venture to question the general
utility of his directions, we may perhaps say, that we have found our
own plan effective in its results, and productive of thrifty plants
and beautiful flowers. We would advise cultivators to test them both,
and adopt that which succeeds best in their hands. A pit of the
above description can be constructed at a very low price, and should
be found on the premises of every gentleman of even very moderate
income, for the supply of his parlors during winter. If, in addition
to this, there were constructed on the east side of the house, and
facing south, a little room with a glass front and roof, opening into
the parlor, and heated either by a valve from the house furnace, or
by a water-back connected with the parlor grate, more enjoyment would
be afforded the lover of flowers than could be obtained by any other
outlay of two hundred dollars. This room could then be kept constantly
filled with roses from the pit, and through the most dreary winter,
amid rain, snow, and storm, would present a bright array of the living
reminders of spring and summer. It is a matter of much surprise, that,
among all the beautiful country residences in the vicinity of our
large cities, surrounded by all the appliances of luxury and comfort
that taste and wealth can afford, so few instances are found in which
the drawing-room or parlor opens into a green-house or conservatory.
These buildings are frequently placed at a distance from the house,
and although they may be filled with the most beautiful and rare
exotics, are, during the greater part of the winter, inaccessible to
the ladies of the family.
Let gentlemen of wealth, then, place their vineries anywhere, but
use them as forcing-houses when the vines are in a dormant state.
Let them also have a green-house or conservatory opening from the
drawing-room, into which all the plants can be brought from the
vinery whenever they show signs of bloom. This conservatory can be
heated by hot water, flowing through iron pipes from a boiler placed
over the furnace that warms the drawing-room--taking from this
very little heat, and yet abundantly warming the conservatory. An
improvement could still farther be made, by having the east end of
the conservatory arch over a carriage drive, and thus allow visitors
to enter the drawing-room through the conservatory. Exclusive of
the delight afforded visitors by this very pleasant addition to a
dwelling, it affords a delightful promenade for the ladies of the
family, where, while all is wintry without, and walking is unpleasant,
even when the ice-bound trees are glittering in the clear sunlight,
they may luxuriate amid roses and jasmines, breathing air fragrant
with the perfume of daphne and orange flowers, and surrounded with
everything that can remind them of the beauty and bland climate of the
sunny south.
We have occupied so much space with the peculiarities of culture for
the forcing-house, that we had almost forgotten that more humble, but
no less pleasure-giving mode of Window culture. As this culture is
practiced chiefly by those who cannot spare the time nor incur the
expense of previous preparation, the best mode is that given for late
forcing of roses, taken up the autumn previous, placing the plants
in pots seven inches in diameter, and using a soil composed of equal
parts of sand, loam, and manure, or peat, loam, and manure. They can
be watered with manure-water every fortnight, made from the drippings
of the barn-yard, or, what is more pleasant, a safely weak solution of
guano, about one pound to fifteen gallons.
The plants should be brought into the heat gradually; first into a
cold room where there is no frost, and then into the sitting-room,
where they can be placed in the window, and turned around every
week, in order to give each side of the plant its share of light.
They will soon begin to put forth their thrifty shoots, in some six
weeks will present a fine show of beautiful flowers, and, if properly
managed, will continue blooming through the winter. If attacked by
the green-fly, the plant can be inverted in a strong decoction of
tobacco, or it can be fumigated by being placed under an inverted
barrel, or other receptacle, with some burning tobacco. For window
culture, the Everblooming Roses are the best, and they should be
ordered of the nurseryman in suitable pots. This mode commends itself
to all; it is within the reach of the daily laborer; the seamstress
can have it in her window, and in the midst of her toilsome duties,
be reminded by its bright flowers of many a green spot in past days.
It is especially suited to the means and leisure of the operatives
in our factories, many of whom have left the country and all its
green fields and pleasant flowers for the crowded city, where they
can have no garden, but simply this little pot to remind them of past
pleasures, and throw a gleam of sunshine over their hours of relief
from labor. The plant can be placed in their chamber window, or in the
windows of the factory, where the high temperature, if it has been
brought from the chamber, will soon bring out its foliage in great
luxuriance, and its flowers in beauty, and be a pleasant object of
care in the moments snatched from the operations of the loom. To this
class we would especially commend the Rose; as thriving under simple
treatment, as possessing, more than any other flower, the elements of
beauty, and tending, like other flowers, to keep alive in a crowded
city that freshness and purity of feeling that distinguished their
country life, and which, unless there exists an unusual perversion of
the moral faculties, must always result from an intimate acquaintance
with natural objects.