"J. H.," Ardmore, Pa., writes: "I have had a Reina Maria Henrietta growing upon a rafter in my greenhouse for three years and it has not yet bloomed. I pruned it the first year, and the second year I did not prune it at all - at the present time it covers a space twenty feet long on one side of the greenhouse from the ridge half way down the side and it is sending up six shoots about an inch in circumference. I would be obliged to you, or would be glad to have some of your readers suggest some mode of treatment that would cause it to bloom".

[No one can do more than guess at the stubbornness of this rose, except on general principles. One would have to see in order to give special advice. In a general way, a rose only flowers freely when it has an abundance of direct sunlight. A house shaded by numerous thick heavy rafters, or one that has numerous dirty "laps" to the panes of glass, or one with a flattish roof that permits only the direct sun's rays at mid-day, these or other similar conditions would operate against a free flowering.

Or there may be a too free vigor of growth from some cause, and this would be against a floriferous condition. - Ed. G. M].