THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



265 



look at, bat which, when planted out, i 

 take half the season to recover them- 

 selves ; and if they do not perish 

 outright, rarely give any blooms 

 worth having until the next year. I 

 speculated on half a dozen new varie- 

 ties in the spring of last year, and two 

 only of them bloomed that season, 

 two others died. The remaining two 

 have just managed to exist ; but out 

 of all the six one only has made a 

 decent-sized plant. On the other 

 hand, if plants are obtained that have 

 been worked on well-rooted stocks of 

 the Manetti, in the open ground, their 

 vigour i3 perfectly astonishing. I 

 know that plants of this kind in new 

 varieties cannot be had the first year 

 of the introduction; and for that rea- 

 son I hesitate trying any novelties 

 until their second season ; but even 

 with older sorts, if bought in pots in 

 spring, they are often of the same 

 forced and debilitated character. My 

 plants, which are nearly all on Ma- 

 netti, and root-grafted, not budded, I 

 had from John Harrison, of Dar- 

 lington, and must say they were 

 superior to any I have seen in 

 size and robustness of growth ; be- 

 sides which, coming from that north- 

 ern climate, they appear to take more 

 readily to my cold clay soil and bleak 

 situation than any I have had from 

 elsewhere. There were over one hun- 

 dred plants, which were all put out 

 last autumn, and only two out of the 

 whole lot have failed. Many of them, 

 notwithstanding the dry season, have 

 rods six, eight, and ten feet long, and 

 two plants of G-loire de Dijon (on 

 Manetti also), under glass, have made 

 shoots over fifteen feet long. I had 

 also two small plants of John Hopper 

 (H. P.) of that year's budding (on 

 Manetti), the buds of which had 

 started and made a short stubby shoot 

 of about four to six inches long. 

 These two plants were carefully 

 planted out in my rose-house early 

 in February last, and never pruned. 

 They commenced to grow almost im- 

 mediately and with the utmost vigour, 

 aud in May bloomed splendidly, and 

 produced finer blooms than any I saw 

 of that variety at either the Crystal 

 Palace or Regent's Park exhibitions, 

 and have now shoots from five to 



six feet long ; whereas, had they been 

 plants grafted in the forcing-house, 

 although probably with much more 

 appearance of size, I doubt if I should 

 have had a single bloom worth cut- 



A great mistake, in my opinion, is 

 frequently made in buying roses that 

 have been grown in very rich and 

 suitable soils and in unusually favour- 

 able situations, as plants from such 

 localities I find invariably suffer more 

 on removal to less favoured districts 

 than those grown under less advan- 

 tageous circumstances ; it seems like 

 going ourselves to reside in a com- 

 paratively unhealthy place after living 

 in a very salubrious one. The change 

 is not beneficial ; and it was from 

 this impression that I thought of try- 

 ing plants from a northern district 

 and the result has far exceeded m; 

 expectations. As further proof alsc 

 of this, I may add that I had a nunv 

 ber of roses from France, most o! 

 which have done very badly — a greal 

 many failed entirely, and scarcely one 

 that has behaved satisfactorily. Th< 

 past summer has been with me mucl 

 too dry for the generality of roses 

 some few varieties that do not oper 

 readily in wet seasons, such as L' 

 Peine, Louis XIV., Auguste Mie 

 General Y/ashington, and others o 

 similar build, have bloomed mos 

 superbly : but, on the other banc 

 many kiuds have been deficient ii 

 fulness and thickness of petal, an< 

 likewise in depth of colour. Tin 

 long continuance of dry weather anc 

 the many cold nights in June, July 

 and August, have also, I think, causd 

 a great deal of the mildew which ha 

 been very prevalent here. I prefe 

 late pruning, and find with me the em 

 of March, or even as late as the secon 

 week in April, is preferable to an earlie 

 period. By early pruning, it is true 

 you may possibly, if a favourabl 

 spring, obtain blooms a week or te: 

 days sooner ; but in the event of an 

 of those treacherous spring frosts, th 

 plants suffer far more, and there is 

 great risk of the first bloom3 bein 

 spoiled completely. I observed case 

 of this kind this year in roses in th 

 neighbourhood that were pruned eai 

 lier than my own ; the extreme tij 



