A lady writing from Lynn, Mass., kindly says: "I am greatly interested in the Monthly, although I have only been a subscriber one year, and intend to take it as long as it is published. I have been an interested observer and grower of plants ever since I was eight years old, and received as a present, a sweet 'rose geranium' in full bloom, the handsomest plant that ever was in my childish eyes.

I well remember the first scarlet verbena and white petunia that were brought to our little town, and when I was promised the first 'slips,' I felt quite rich. What an advance in verbenas and petunias since then! I think I have never - well, hardly ever - been without plants since then, with the exception of one winter in Minnesota, where I lived, or froze, and the thermometer went down to 40° below zero. The next winter our good doctor (who was as fond of plants as I, and brought his slips from Cooperstown, N. Y.) gave me a plant of variegated pink and white verbena, which I put into a tomato can for want of a pot (the latter was unheard of in that town) and it bloomed nicely. I have often laughed to myself, when I have thought how careful I was to wrap my plant in newspapers at night, and put it near the stove to keep it from freezing. How much comfort I took with just that bit of green and perhaps a solitary truss of bloom. Since then I have kept all the way from twenty-five to one hundred pots every winter, and this year have built a greenhouse, sixteen by fifty feet, and have it well stocked, and now am not quite satisfied. Like 'Oliver' I 'want more' I have been greatly interested in articles in the Monthly, written by practical greenhouse men on different subjects.

I wish some one would tell us in a plain manner how to force Gen. Jaqueminot and Souvenir de Malmaison roses. They are my special hobby just now. I could write all day of plants, but forbear, knowing editors are human."

At the March meeting of the New York Horticultural Society, the subject of winter-blooming roses was freely discussed. The conversation turned chiefly on the shading of roses. Opinions were divided as to the necessity; Mr. Taplin believing that where the rose house was ventilated regularly, as it ought to be, shading was not at all necessary.

Greenhouse Rose Culture

Mrs. J. D. S, Upper Sandusky, Ohio, asks the following questions:

"Will you or some contributor be good enough to give through your valuable Monthly some directions how to trim and what season of the year it is best for winter bloom, for Mareschal Niel and La Marque Poses under glass? Mine are buried in a pit, on the south side of my greenhouse, and brought through an opening made by taking out a side sash between the two. They now cover a good part of the roof of the south side of my 16 by 30 feet greenhouse, and have never yet been trimmed. They are four years old, and have not bloomed much since taken from the pots, two years ago. I see some of your correspondents think these roses bloom better budded on Manetti stocks. If so, I have lost much valuable time with mine, and will have to begin again."

[These strong-growing Noisettes do not bear much trimming. They do not flower freely till the rank growth is exhausted. Pruning makes rank growth. It is best to thin out only some of the superabundant growth. This is done by those who grow for market, about August or September.

[It was a correspondent from England who recommended Mannetti. In our country it suckers so badly, that it has been discarded. One would hardly know where to buy a Mannetti in America. - Ed. G. M.]