for cutting comes that some of those tied so long beforehand are too old or off colour to be of any use, but it depends a great deal on the weather.

VI. SHADING

Every tied flower should be shaded to protect it from sun and rain. For dwarfs, West's Rose Protector (Fig. 28) will be found very convenient; it is quickly adjusted to the required height, and when the season is over, the cones being detachable from the stakes, can be easily stored away in a small compass. Straw hats, called "Zulus," purchased by the dozen or gross at a very cheap rate, make good shades; cover them with white calico or similar material that will keep out the rain, run a wire round FIG. 28.-West's Rose the brim to preserve the shape, and fix them to what is termed by builders a double lath. Several of

Protector.

the best show varieties are impatient of wet; they lose colour, become spotted, and the outer petals decay; the flowers must be grown under shades long before the time for tying arrives-Mildred Grant, for instance. Where, as in the case of a plant of Bessie Brown, there are several buds close together, a sunshade covered with white material and tied to a stake will protect them. Indeed, for a row of Bessie Brown sunshades and umbrellas should always be ready at hand in case of rain. For standard Teas larger sunshades and umbrellas

covering the whole tree are useful. For Teas, butter paper, being impervious to wet, may be substituted for tying with wool. The paper is wrapped round the bloom in the shape of a horn projecting well beyond the flower, and tied round the foot-stalk: it may be put on the bud when in the early stage, and left for days. Care should be taken not to leave the paper horn upright; the shoot of a papered flower should be bent over and tied as described above. Papering keeps the petals clean and the blooms pointed, but it takes time, is troublesome to do, and hinders inspection of the flower: nevertheless, in unsettled weather, it is a good method of protection, especially for certain varieties.

Some Irish growers use inverted glass plum jars secured to stakes on which they are slid up and down on the same principle as the acme shade. They are useful for some varieties provided the air is humid and there is no abnormal variation in the temperature, but if condensation is caused the water forming inside the jar will decay the petals. In England the autumn is the best time for using them.

CHAPTER XV

EXHIBITING

I. Exhibiting. II. Exhibition Roses: (a) Boxes; (b) Cutting; (c) Water; (d) Staging; (e) Arrival at the Show; (f) Dressing. III. Decorative Roses: (a) Cutting; (b) Bunching; (c) Packing; (d) Staging.

ROSE exhibitions take a leading position in rose culture. They enable the general rose-loving public to see to what state of perfection the rose can be brought by cultural skill; a state unrealised elsewhere than in the gardens of a few. Rose shows place before us not only the socalled exhibition roses-specimen blooms staged in boxes -but also varieties suitable for decoration; how they may be used for the dinner table, drawing-room, bouquets, button-holes, and many other purposes. No matter how intense our love for the rose may be, so intense that it cannot be increased, nevertheless, a visit to a rose show will educate our mind to the better appreciation of a good rose-and some rose-lovers lack that appreciation

-and introduce to our notice those many new varieties of whose existence we should not otherwise have known.

And for the grower who exhibits, especially if he tends them personally, there is a fascination in growing roses for exhibition which cannot be described in words; it is a delightful hobby. And, moreover, it is a fallacy to imagine for one moment that where roses are grown

primarily for exhibition the general effect of a rose garden is sacrificed, because you will find, as a rule, that those who cultivate roses for exhibition have the best rose gardens. It is not in an exhibitor's garden that we find worn-out rose plants sustained solely by surface roots; bushes of Manetti, the stocks of some starvedto-death variety; inferior sorts, long since discarded elsewhere, or pillar roses struggling in vain to recoup themselves from the ravages of the knife. No; the exhibiting grower will have the best kinds for all purposes, and will keep them at their best. He does not leave their cultivation entirely in the hands of a gardener, but is usually himself the gardener, and puts his heart into the work. By frequent attendance at rose shows, by moving more or less in rose-growing society, and by the medium of rose literature he will keep pace with the times, and decorative as well as exhibition roses, summer-flowering species and good autumnals, will all find a place in his garden: a place, moreover, to themselves, not sharing the border with stifling herbaceous plants or rapacious shrubs, but beds and borders, a section of the kitchen garden, or a piece taken in from the home meadow dedicated solely to the rose.

A grower for exhibition, if he would attain to the first rank, must be observant and patient, take the utmost pains from start to finish, attend to details, and sternly resolve that in all things and at all times self shall be subservient to his roses. He must not expect to win a prize at his first show; he attends that in order to learn, to pick up hints, to note how others with more

experience stage their blooms, the boxes and tubes they use, and the way in which the flowers are prepared for the inspection of the judges. All this and more is greatly a matter of experience; it cannot be acquired from a book, but the few hints and suggestions contained in this chapter, inadequate as the writer feels them to be, are set down with a view of giving a beginner some slight assistance. To the practised hand they are unnecessary; he probably will be inclined to criticise.

II. EXHIBITION ROSES

Rose Boxes.-Boxes in which to stage exhibition roses should be made as light in weight as is compatible with durability to stand the wear and tear of railway travelling. The importance of light boxes will at once be apparent when the exhibitor sees his boxes on the weighing machine at the railway station, and payment for excess is demanded. The best material is light pine. The box should be clamped at the corners, top and bottom, with iron bands; the handles at the ends of the box should be large enough to admit the whole hand, and the handle-bars convex in the centre, not a thin straight bar, affording a better grip, and will not cut the hand. Hasps, like the handles, should be placed at the ends; one hasp for a six or twelve box, but two for boxes of eighteen or twenty-four. Two hooks and eyes, provided the hooks are quite flat, may be fixed to the front for extra security to the lid, but otherwise the long sides of the box back and front, together with the top of the lid, should be perfectly flat to insure the boxes. being packed close together and ride steady in the van.