76 



TiiE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN aUIDil. 



spring. This makes them valuable for 

 covering banks, trees, or walls. I know 

 of no rose idea pretfier than that of a 

 wilderness of evergreen roses, the varieties 

 planted promiscuously, and suffered to cover 

 the surface of the ground with tlieir en- 

 tangled shoots. To effect this, the ground 

 should be dug, manured, and tliorouglily 

 cleaned from jaei-enuial weeds, such as couch 

 grass, etc., and the plants planted from 

 three to five feet asunder. If tlie soil be 

 rich, the latter distance will do ; they must 

 be hoed amongst, and kept clean from weeds 

 after planting, till the branches meet ; they 

 will then soon form a beautiful mass of 

 foliage and flowers covering the soil too 

 densely for weeds of minor growth to 

 flourish. Those weeds that are more robust 

 should be pulled out occasionally ; and tliis 

 is all the culture they will require : for 

 temples, columns, wire fences, which they 

 soon cover witli beauty, and verandahs, 

 their use is now becoming well known. 

 One of the most complete temples of roses is 



that at the seat of -Warner, Esq., Hoddes- 



don, Hertfordshire ; and the prettiest speci- 

 mens of festooning these roses from one 

 column to anotlier, by means of small iron 

 chains (strong iron wire will do), may be 

 seen at Broxbourn Bury, near Hoddesdon, 



the seat of Bosanquet, Esq. They 



also form elegant and graceful standards ; 

 like the Ayrshire roses, their shoots are 

 pendulous, and soon hide the stem, in a 

 i'ew years forming a pretty dome of foli- 

 age and flowers ; for covering the naked 

 stems of forest or ornamental trees they 

 are also very us3ful, as their roots will not 

 injure the tree which supports them ; and 

 if strong copper wire is brought loosely 

 round the trunk of the tree to support 

 tlieir branches, they will give scarcely any 

 trouble in sirch situations. To make them 

 grow vigorously, give them a supply of 

 manure on the surface annually, in the 

 autumn, to be carried to their roots by the 

 rains of winter. Like the Ayrshires, standard 

 sempervirens roses literally require no prun- 

 ing. I have them as standards, as pillars, 

 and as masses of underwood ; the dead spray 

 is cut out, and no other pruning done ; for 

 the wild beauty of standards is entirely de- 

 stroyed by it ; occasionally a very long shoot 

 will have to be shortened, and that is all. 



" About six or eight years ago I received, 

 among others, some very stout short stocks 

 of the dog rose; they were not more than 

 two feet in height, but stouter than a large 

 broom-handle, the bark thick and gray with 

 age : they were planted and grew most 

 luxuriantly. I was for some little time at 

 a loss what varieties to bud them with ; for, 

 be it remembered; all stout and old rose 



stocks required to be worked with very 

 strong-growing sorts of roses, to take ofl" 

 the abundance of sap, and keep them in 

 a healthy state. At last, in a mere freak 

 of fancy, I had them budded with some 

 varieties ofthe evergreen Rosa (Rosa semper- 

 virens). They grow most luxuriantly, and, 

 after a year or two, not being trees adapted 

 for sale, they were planted in a sloping 

 bank of strong white clay, and left to grow 

 and bloom as Nature dictated — not a shoot 

 was ever touched with the pruning-knife. 



" One of these trees, now a well known 

 variety, the F^licite Perp^tue, is on a stem 

 a trifle more than two feet in lieight, and 

 it has been these two or three summers past 

 a picture of beauty. When in full bloom 

 the ends of its shoots rest on the ground, 

 and it then forms a perfect dome of roses ; 

 nothing in rose-culture can really be more 

 beautiful. It will be seen at once with 

 what facility such stout, short, old rose stocks 

 can be found in any hedge ; they may be 

 planted in the kitchen garden, budded with 

 the above-mentioned sort, and, to give 

 variety in colour, with some of the follow- 

 ing kinds, all varieties of Rosa semper- 

 virens, Myrianthes, Jaiinatre, Adelaide 

 d'Oi-leans, and Spectabilis. Every bud 

 will succeed, as no roses grow more freely: 

 and after remaining one season from bud- 

 ing in their 'nursery,' some Bice places 

 must be found for them on the lawn, where, 

 uupruned, unchecked, they Avill, with all 

 the freshness of unassisted nature, annually 

 delight the eye of the lover of flowers — 

 those beautiful gifts of an ever beneficent 

 Creator ; and may I not add, that the con- 

 templative mind will see in these lovely 

 pendant roses the great charms of humility 

 and gratitude — they seek to 'abase' them- 

 selves, and their beauty is 'exalted;' they 

 receive from the earth all their benefits, 

 and endeavour to cover and adorn her with 

 their luxuriance." 



DECOEATED CLIMBlNa ROSES. 



" A strange term, for can a rose tree be 

 decorated ? Yes, and I must at once tell 

 how it has been done with these evergreen 

 roses — the most vigorous and the most 

 tractable of rose stocks — and how it may 

 be easily practised. 



'' A few years since, a friend, living at 

 Weycliff'e, near Guildford, found the heavily 

 built brick bridge leading over the railway 

 to his house (this is, however,in his grounds, 

 so as to be private), conspicuously ugly, 

 and he wished it to be hidden by ever' 

 green climbing plants. As the carriage- 

 road ran over tlie bridge, the gravel, of 

 which it was made, did not seem to ofi'er 

 very Iiappy quarters for any plant but ivy, 



