THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



24 



I top-dress in February, before pruning. After 

 pruning, I sprinkle a little soil over the dung, 

 and touch over the surface with a hoe — I 

 hate rakes. Then, when the first bloom is 

 over, I cut away the small bloom shoots to 

 good eyes, and top-dress again, aud I care not 

 how fat the stuff is, and always prefer pig- 

 dung if I can get it. On such a deep, moist, 

 substantial loam as mine watering is scarcely 

 needed with this sort of management, for 

 when the surface looks dry and dusty you 

 have only to stir it a little and it is as moist 

 under the dung as need be. A gentle hoeing 

 at such times, and then, the same evening, a 

 smart show r er from an engine, to drive the 

 fly into oblivion, and where is the rose that 

 will refuse to prosper. Coining back to 

 autumn roses, my best just now, after the 

 General, is Jules Margottin, all the plants of 

 which, both worked aud on their own roots, 

 are smothered with bright cherry-coloured 

 blossoms, but they are nothing like the first 

 blooms, which last June were wonderful. 

 Here, then, is a difference between these two 

 roses of uo small import. But there is 

 another difference, aud that is, that since the 

 first bloom Jules has scarcely bloomed at all 

 till now, no, nor did he ever do so from the 

 day he was sent into the world from his pa- 

 ternal soil in France. You get a bloom here 

 and there all the summer long, but no such 

 general outburst as to give occasion for re- 

 joicing. But now he looks delightful, and 

 his colour is so clear and bright that the 

 deeper glow r of the General does not eclipse 

 him, even when they stand side by side. 

 Now this difference is unfortunate, because if 

 Jules Margottin would flower like a China, 

 as the General does, it would make the best 

 possible centre for a bed with the General to 

 fill up to the margin. It just overtops the 

 General, has similarly fine foliage, and the 

 two would give two shades of colour distinct 

 and yet harmonious. The next best rose as 

 to bloom just now, is our old friend Ge\ant 

 des Batailles. The colour now is most 

 charming, and though it never blooms quite 

 so profusely and continuously as the General, 

 it is rarely without a good half dozen, if on 

 its own roots, but worked on the briar it 

 blooms more by efforts and finishes off earlier 

 in the season. If I go round I find among 

 the Chinas Mrs. Bosanquet looking dull and 

 inclined to let her flowers rot in the bud ; 

 Cramoisie aud Eabvier, as bright and as good 

 as ever, wonderful colour there, you might 

 almost light a cigar, on a sunny day, at a 

 well-expanded blossom ; then Chenedole has 

 become feeble ; Brennus is smothered and 

 looks as ambitious as au alderman ; Archduke 

 Charles has as many blooms as leaves, but 

 the colour is gone and the flowers look like 



washed out finery. Among the Noisettes, 

 Eellenberg holds on with its pretty little 

 crimson blossoms, the most cheerful and 

 lively of all the roses that bloom continu- 

 ously, and one that docs better worked on the 

 briar than any other way ; so with Ophirie, 

 she is smothered, aud my best pair of perfect 

 standards are as symmetrical as if turned out 

 of a mould, though the knife scarcely ever 

 touches them, and loaded with saffrony, cop- 

 pery blooms to the drooping tips of every 

 shoot. 



Even if these were all we had to work 

 with, at least half a dozen different beds might 

 be made to give bloom until the frost came, 

 and even after the frost, if the wind held in 

 the south-west for a few weeks. I have often 

 cut flowers from General Jacqueminot and 

 Geant des Batailles on New Year's day, aud 

 hope to cut thousands more and keep friends 

 enough to share them with me. But if con- 

 tinuous bloom is not a sine qua non, one good 

 third of the entire rose list is open to you for 

 your choice. All my best dwarf roses are 

 planted in two semicircles which inclose a cir- 

 cular bed of standards, the path between them. 

 It is, in fact, a circle within a circle, but the 

 path cuts the outer circle, goes round right 

 and left, and cuts the large circle again at the 

 opposite side, the centre bed having the walk 

 round it, and the semicircles on each side of 

 it, beyond the walk. 



Now here let me mention a matter on 

 which I dwelt with some force when lec- 

 turing on the rose to gardeners' societies. 

 Standards look miserable sticks all winter, 

 and standards and dwarfs alike arerather 

 ugly things when out of bloom. Therefore, 

 roses in masses arc not the best things to 

 plant near the drawing-room windows ; the 

 enjoyment they furnish during their season 

 of beauty is scarcely a sufficient compensa- 

 tion for their ungainly aspect during their 

 season of ugliness. Even when removed, so 

 that there must needs be a walk to see them, 

 they want a little help during the bright 

 days of winter and early spring; for if we 

 stroll about our gardens at such times, we 

 may as well view every part of them with 

 pleasure, and be absolved from having to 

 confess that the roses look very wretched. 

 Now, what can be better in a compartment 

 of roses than a good sprinkling of rhodo- 

 dendrons, to keep a cheerful greenness all 

 the winter, and a brave show of bloom in 

 spring, when the roses are just getting ready 

 to captivate all the eyes that shall behold 

 them. In my two semicircles the planting 

 is in this fashion : All round next the box 

 edging dwarf hybrid perpetuals and Chinas, 

 the showiest sorts repeated to give character, 

 but as many varieties worked iu between as 



