152 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



depend upon it the green sappy wood 

 would have ripened a little, and their lives 

 would have been spared. 



The frost also carried off all my dwarf 

 Chinas, making a clear sweep of the front 

 row in my two large semicircles ; hut it 

 spared nearly all other roses on their own 

 roots. What a comment is that on the 

 lessons that have been given in the Flokal 

 WoKLD, and how it suggests the work of 

 the season, namely, the propagation of 

 roses by cuttings, layers, and eyes. But 

 let us not forget the standards. I worked 

 a few last year on Common Cabbage and 

 Maiden's Blush for standards, and neither 

 bud nor stock took any harm. These are 

 not such gross feeders as the briar ; hence 

 I conclude that they escaped because not 

 so gorged with sap, and from their natural 

 disposition to go to rest earlier in tlie 

 autumn. Whatever be the reason, it is 

 quite certain that if these common roses 

 are grown to clear single stems — a thing 

 as easy as anything else in rose growing — 

 they may be used for standards, and 

 Maiden's Blush can be got up to six feet 

 and more by disbudding, and allowing 

 them to run up in clear single stem. But 

 the dog rose is too good to be condemned 

 for the mishaps of an extraordinary winter 

 following a sunless summer, and those who 

 have briars cannot do better than enter 

 buds at once, for the ground is at a high 

 temperature and the bark rises beautifully. 

 There is a new stock coming into use on 

 the Continent, on which I hope to be able 

 to report soon ; but it is far better to defer 

 that matter until I can speak with deci- 

 sion, and as it is not yet in the English 

 market no one can sutler by the delay. Li 

 the choice of stocks for standards, it is ob- 

 vious that a flowering rose {cateris paribus) 

 is preferable to a briar, especially for hands 

 not used to the work. If the bud misses 

 no one need know it, for the stock will give 

 plenty of its own bloom on its own head — 

 if it has one — in spite of the scar where the 

 bud was entered. In fact, a portion of its 

 own wood may be allowed to grow to make 

 " union standards," by entering only one 

 bud, and the bud will take by pinching 

 back the shoot it is entered on without 

 taking off" the naturally-formed head of the 

 stock. 



Now, as roses on their own roots gene- 

 rally give better flowers and more of them 

 than worked plants, it is obvious that if 

 we could have standards on their own 

 roots we should secure the two advantages 

 of good blooms elevated to the height of 

 the eye ; we should, in fact, have trees 

 without setting up a warfare between two 

 kinds of sap, and there always is such a 



warfare in worked plants of all kind.?, 

 though, when stock and graft are well 

 matched, it does not, as a rule, amount to 

 anything serious or noticeable. In the 

 case of fruit-trees, the warfare is in favour 

 of the grower, for it increases and hastens 

 fruitfulness ; and with roses generally the 

 union is soon completed, and stock and 

 graft work together pretty harmoniously. 

 But all the strong-growing hybrid per- 

 petnals may be formed into standards by 

 disbudding, and would endure such a trial 

 as roses have lately had to pass through 

 much better than heads formed on briars. 

 There are hundreds of persons now in pos- 

 session of dwarf roses raised from eyes last 

 summer according to the instructions I 

 then gave ; and if any of our rose-growing 

 amateurs purpose to raise standards on 

 their own roots, that is the best method of 

 all, because where the eye starts it swells 

 equally from the base, forms a plump strong 

 stem, and can be carried to anj' reasonable 

 height, and then have the centre pinched 

 out to cause the formation of a head. Of 

 course, as they run up they must be kept 

 quite straight by means of stakes ; every 

 side bud must be removed without injury 

 to the leaves in the same way as growing 

 standard chrysanthemums, and at the 

 pinching out of the top bud or leader three 

 side buds must be left to break and form 

 tlie head. In three years roses of this kind 

 would have fine heads and hard stems, and 

 no one can grow standard rose-briars fit 

 for the rosery in less time than that. 

 Jules Margottin and Geant des Batailies 

 would make beautiful standards on their 

 own roots, and, indeed, any that are classed 

 as "pillar roses" might be kept to single 

 stems for the same purpose. 



Next to eyes, plump cuttings of the 

 new wood not quite ripe would be best. 

 Any one can root rose-cuttings now, and 

 the articles that appeared in tlie Flokal 

 World last year will teach the process 

 better, I believe, than anything to be found 

 elsewhere. If for standards, the cuttings 

 should not be topped ; and as the tops are 

 rather sofc at this time of year, they must 

 be kept close and shaded, and have fre- 

 quent dewings, to prevent the top getting 

 exhausted, while the base of the cutting 

 forms a callus. If the cuttings are not 

 sufticiently ripe to be put in without top- 

 ping, then make them with two joints and 

 one leaf only in this way — Cut the shoot 

 close above a bud; this will leave on the 

 cutting a length of wood below the lowest 

 joint. This length of wood is not to be 

 cut off. Remove the lowest leaf, but not 

 the bud belonging to it. The next bud 

 above the lowest leave untouched, and the 



