298 THE GARDENER. [July 



Royal Horticultural Society in their gardens at South Kensington, 

 July 10, 1861, and there it has since flourished in all its first strength 

 and beauty. I Avas very grateful to find such a genial soil and excel- 

 lent supervision for a plant which was growing rather too large for 

 me — that is, to transfer to abler hands a work which, with all its grati- 

 fications, interfered at times unduly with my other engagements. 

 Moreover, to tell you all the truth, in the happy spring-tide of 18G1 I 

 had a correspondence which occupied all my time, upon a subject which 

 occupied all my thought — a subject more precious, more lovely even 

 than Roses — I was going to be married in May. 



Have I created in thy breast, amateur, a desire to win honour at 

 Queen Rosa's tournaments? Have you an ambition to see upon your 

 sideboard cups of silver encircled by the Rose ? Listen, and I will 

 now tell you what Roses to show, and how to show them. 



S. Reynolds Hole. 



THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUITS. 



THE APPLE. 

 {Continued from page 255. ) 



After the first season's growth is over there will be one, two, or three 

 shoots upon every young Apple which has been grafted, according 

 to the strength of the stock and the energy of the graft. It will 

 now be the duty of the cultivator to decide upon the form 

 and manner of the training to be employed for each tree. If for 

 standards, the best and straightest shoot must be selected, and the 

 rest removed close back to where they started. The shoot which is 

 left must be encouraged upward, and if ripe to the top, must be left 

 at full length. This will not probably be the case, and if so, let it be 

 cut back to where the wood is firm and ripe ; and the succeeding year 

 the shoot which starts from this bud must be trained to a stake and 

 led up to the desired height, which will in all probability be attained 

 before the end of the season. At pruning-time cut back to the height 

 desired to form a head, after which it may be trained according to any 

 of the methods recommended for the Pear, just as the cultivator may 

 have an inclination. If dwarf standards are wanted, the best shoot 

 must again be selected and cut back to 1 or 1|^ foot, as the case may 

 be, and afterwards get the same training as I have formerly recom- 

 mended for the Pear. It may be necessary for the first year or two to 

 use stakes for spreading out the branches to form a shapely tree. This, 



