THE FLORAL AVOIILD AXD GARDEN aUIDE. 



193 



not yet, so far as 'we know, to be ob- 

 tained through "the trade, but will, no 

 doubt, be offered in the course of a year 

 or two. 



Caxlicaepa purpurea.— Tills beautiful 

 shrub has been frequently' referred to in our 

 reports of exhibitions and meetings of the 



Horticultural Society. It grows freely, and 

 is at all seasons a bold and handsome shrub. 

 The blossoms are succeeded by close clusters 

 of ricli violet-purple berries, which it re- 

 tains during the whole of tlie winter. Ordi- 

 nary gr;enhouse treatment will suit it 

 admirably. [Price 2s. 6d. to os.Ji 



THE CULTIVATION OF TEA CHINA EOSES. 



Having seen in print, and ofcen heard the 

 fact remarked that this description of rose 

 rarely succeeds if grown in the open 

 borders of- gardens near London, perhaps 

 a few remarks deduced from experience 

 might prove interesting, more especially 

 respecting this particular family ; for it is 

 admitted by every one that no collection of 

 roses, however small, can be complete with- 

 out them ; their general appearance being 

 so distinct, and adding to this their delicate 

 and tinted colours, the beauty of their 

 foliage, and peculiar scent, renders them 

 objects of special admiration to all who see 

 them. 



About three years ago, I, for the first 

 time, procured several of these roses, and 

 planted them in a south border in ordinary 

 Boil, tolerably well manured, but they grew 

 poorly and made only a few blooms, and 

 certainly did not repay the trouble they 

 had cost, and moreover tlie ground would 

 have been better occupied in growing ver- 

 benas or other bedding plants, and by 

 most people to whom I mentioned my dis- 

 appointment, I was told that the suburban 

 atmosphere was not sufficiently pure to 

 allow of the growth of these roses. But 

 determined not to abandon their cultivation 

 without a further trial, I removed them in 

 the autumn into a much richer soil; but in 

 spite of carefully protecting them from 

 severe frost, I lost about half during the 

 winter ; those, however, which survived, 

 grew and bloomed beautifully through the 

 summer and autumn, and which tended to 

 show that soil and treatment had more in- 

 fluence tlian the slightly impure atmosphere, 

 and encouraged by this partial success, I 

 determined, if possible, to render it more 

 general in the following season ; and being 

 convinced that damp was the cause of so 

 many dying in winter, I saw that it was 

 essential to provide drainage. 



As my garden is not naturally drained, 

 nor is it exactly practical to do so artifi- 

 cally, I therefore adopted the following 

 plan to effect that object upon that part 

 where I intended to plant tliese rose?, by 

 taking away the earth entirely to the depth 

 of about twelve or thirteen inches, and then 

 filling up two or three inches with stones or 



other rubbish, and placing a little moss or 

 strawaboveto prevent theearth mixing with 

 the drainage, and which I find answers 

 every purpose, except during the heavy 

 winter rains, when the water caimot pass 

 off quickly enough below the drainage 

 and to rectify this I dig early in the au- 

 tumn a deep trench at the end of the border, 

 into which the water runs, and which, 

 might otherwise lie stagnant amongst the 

 soil and stones, and but for this precaution 

 all the pains taken might be rendered nu- 

 gatory-. 



Having said so much about drainage, 

 if not too tedious, I will now proceed to 

 describe the soils and their proportions 

 which I used to carry out my experiment. 

 I divided the space of ground above de- 

 scribed into four parts, and filled up the 

 first with equal portions of eartli I had 

 taken out, and manure (remains of an old 

 hotbed) ; the second with two-thirds of com- 

 mon meadow turf and one-third manure; 

 the third with manure entirely, as i-ecom- 

 mended by i\rr. Rivers in his last year's 

 catalogue ; and the fourth, having ex- 

 hausted all the manure, I used instead 

 scalded sphagnum about one-third, turfy 

 peat, one-third, and one-third of ordinary 

 soil ; and in each case I have been 

 fully remunerated for the trouble taken by 

 the vigorous growth maintained, the abund- 

 ance and constant succession of bloom, and 

 the beauty of the individual flowers ; and 

 although in each of the soils tried the re- 

 sult was satisfactory, I will just mention 

 the differences observable between them. 

 In the first-named soil the growth was 

 vigorous, and blooms good and abitndant, 

 and the plants but slightly cut by frost in 

 winter. In the second the growth was mora 

 vigorous, and the blooms finer than the 

 first, and not more than a fow twigs killed 

 by frost. In the third, the growth was 

 exuberant, and the foliage magnificent, 

 but the blooins were not so abundant as in 

 the preceding cases, and sometimes sin- 

 gular abortions or sports were produced — 

 affording strong evidence of the validity of 

 the theory of morphologv. They, however, 

 had so strong a disposition to grow daring 

 the mild rainy seasons in autumn and 



