482 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



But I shall perhaps be told it is preposterous to expect any Rose to 

 live for twenty years. Why preposterous ? Is it not a perfectly 

 hardy shrub, capable of any amount of extension, withstanding cold 

 or heat alike almost with impunity ? And if this is its character, why 

 should if not live twenty years as well as any other bush or shrub? I 

 am not unconscious of another point that may be told against my 

 position, and that is this — from year to year older kinds of Roses are 

 deliberately destroyed to make way for newer kinds. This may be true 

 in some instances, but I greatly doubt its general application. We are, 

 as a people, far too conservative in our likes and dislikes to part with 

 favourite old Roses if they thrive well ; but if this point has any force 

 at all, it will be found to be strongest in the fact that older kinds are con- 

 stantly being replaced by others, simply because the former have proved 

 to be failures. The conditions essential to artificial Rose-cultivation — 

 that is, to plants worked on artificial stocks — are clean bottoms and 

 hard pruning. These two conditions constitute the death-warrant of 

 tens of thousands of Roses. Let it be understood that I am applying 

 this assertion solely to standards and those worked as dwarfs upon 

 the Manetti stock. To pillar, wall, or other trained Roses, it does 

 not apply, as hard pruning is not essential to them, fortunately for 

 the continuity of their existence. Most climbing Roses are upon their 

 own roots, so that their chances of continual reinvigoration by means of 

 suckers or root-growth is assured. But the standard Rose worked upon 

 the Brier must have no root-growths, as all such are looked upon as rob- 

 bers to be at once annihilated ; whilst the exigencies of their position 

 compel the cultivator to keep the size of their heads within rigidly- 

 prescribed limits. Then take the Manetti stock, so highly eulogised 

 as an instrument of Rose-growth, but which, at least to those who 

 have purchased it, has proved to be the source of continual disap- 

 pointment. What amateur grower ever yet succeeded afterwards 

 in obtaining from the Manetti such superb growths as were upon it 

 when it was purchased from the nursery — so rich, so luxuriant, so 

 full of promise? and when it is planted in rich deep soil, well manured 

 and not deficient in moisture, and these long growths cut back in the 

 spring to something like fair proportions, is it possible to produce its 

 like again ? I say seldom, if ever, from the budded Rose, but plenty 

 from the root. Nature's first law with the Manetti is self-preservation; 

 and to promote this it thrusts up from the base of its stem or its roots 

 a lot of luxuriant growths that, by the untutored, are believed to be 

 made by the Rose itself, whilst the experienced cultivator cuts them 

 away, but only to realise that he must have that or nothing. 



How, then, would I have Roses grown? I reply, Upon their 

 own roots. Mr C. J. Perry of Castle Bromwich, a famous amateur 



