THE 



6ABBEn eOiDE. 



ROSES IN 1863. 



Attgust, 1863. 



BE Eose suffered but little from tHe unfa- 

 vourable weather which prevailed while the 

 first blooms of the season were rising, and, in 

 common with most other garden flowers, has 

 made as good a display in 1863 as in any 

 previous year in the memory of living culti- 

 vators. But Ave must always take note of 

 events in order to learn practical lessons, and 

 we may derive from the experiences of this 

 season, which has been remarkable for drought 

 and heat, precisely the same conclusion as 

 we arrived at in 1860, when we had incessant 

 cold rains and sunless skies, and many of 

 our favourite flowers scarcely bloomed at all. 



In 1860 roses were remarkable for fulness, thickness of petal, rich- 

 ness of colour, and great size without coarseness. The foliage was 

 then so green and ample, that the large-petalled and large-leaved kinds 

 appeared to be competing with the camellia, and the magnificent 

 bloom in the rosery greatly compensated for the lack of bloom everywhere 

 else. In making oiir notes on the progress of the rose that year, we 

 remarked that the abundance of moisture with which the heavens supplied 

 them should afford a hint to cultivators that liberal supplies of water were 

 essential to the production of a fine and continuous bloom. This season, 

 the summer opened early and dry ; all through April and May we had 

 much sun heat and little rain. During the whole of May, when the roses 

 needed the help of moisture, both for their growth and to keep the vermin 

 in check, there fell in London scarcely more than an inch of rain. The 

 consequence was that the blooms began to colour some days earlier 

 than usual, and where roses were left to fight it out with the elements they 

 had a most unpromising appearance. A clump of the best of the perpetuals 

 in our own garden had had not a drop of water either at the roots or over- 

 head all the spring, and at the commencement of June they had such a 

 melancholy look that we were compelled to have them smartly syringed 

 and heavily watered, or run the risk of losing them altogether. They had 

 scarcely a complete leaf from head to foot ; they were literally alive and 



TOL. VI. — NO. Tin. I 



