r we get our roses from British or from foreign growers, the
orders should be sent out as early as possible in September and October,
to secure the best plants and to ensure their arrival in good time.

A mild day, if possible without sun, is best for planting roses. And if
the bundles arrive in a frost it is better not to attempt to open them,
but to put them just as they are into some outbuilding in which the
frost cannot get at them, where they may safely stay for several days.

=Unpacking.=--When they arrive, the bundles must be opened most
carefully, and the packing removed gently. I have seen valuable roses
badly broken by a careless person, who has pulled them roughly out of
the package instead of quietly disentangling the shoots. If the journey
has been a long one, the plants should be well syringed at once, and the
roots plunged in a bucket of water for half-an-hour before planting.
Great care must also be taken in every case not to leave the roots of
the plants exposed to the air; for if the roots get dried up, a great
and sometimes fatal check is given to the rose. Those which cannot be
planted immediately should be laid along a trench and lightly heeled in
with soil, until they are wanted. And even those which are to be planted
immediately, should have a mat thrown over the roots as they lie beside
the bed waiting their turn, especially if the day is sunny or the wind
cold. Many of the great growers advise dipping the roots in liquid mud
mixed with a little cow manure before planting.

Each plant must now be carefully examined, and any broken shoot, or
bruised and broken root, cut off with a clean cut. For this I prefer a
secateur to a knife, if the secateur is a very sharp one.[1] A torn,
bruised, or broken root, if left on the plant will decay right up and do
incalculable mischief. Sometimes, in the case of one's own roses grown
from cuttings out of doors, the roots are so rampant that it is well to
shorten them before replanting; but this is not often necessary with new
stock from the growers.

The holes must now be dug ready for the reception of each plant. In
well-worked ground, such as the new bed described above, a hole eighteen
inches across and eight inches to one foot in depth, is sufficient: but
in this we must be guided by the root habit of each plant. Some have
roots of a spreading nature; others are deep rooting. And the
idiosyncrasy of each individual rose must be studied, if we wish it to