20 



IRISH GARDENING 



l-KHRUARY 



lifted out ol the i^round in May and llio soil 

 shaken trom them before transplanting. 



To Increase Stock. — Good stout cuttings, 

 planted fumly in September or early October in 

 an open t'ranie, w ill furnish little plants in the 

 loUowiiii;- sprins^-. The majority of the hybrids 

 will winter alriij;ht in the open i^arden, and will 

 i^row freely in the sprinj^ if they are kept from 

 severe frost, and also kept dry. Thoug-h they 

 are thus able to endure cold they will also stand 

 a hig-h temperature and a moist atmosphere 

 when g^rowing-. Under these circumstances 

 they will grow with great rapidity. 



Can Rice be Grown in Ireland ? 



THERE is a species of rice that grows wild along 

 the muddy shores of eastern North America 

 popularly known as the Canadian wild rice, and 

 wliose botanical name is Zizania aquatica Linn. It has 

 been used as food for ages by the native Indians, and 

 is said indeed to form their chief means of support. It 

 grows in muddy bottoms where the depth of water does 

 not exceed two or three feet. The plant has been 

 grown in the open air for manj' seasons past at Kew, 

 and there it forms "a stately grass with stems stand- 

 ing nine to twelve feet above the water when grown in 

 good soil. The narrow, pointed leaves are two ic four 

 feet in length, two to two and a half inches wide about 

 the middle, and of a deep vivid green. In full blossom 

 this grass is strikingly handsome, every stem being 

 crowned with a large panicle of flowers one and a half 

 to two and a half feet long and about two thirds as 

 much wide." This brief description of the plant is 

 taken from an interesting article on the Canadian wild 

 rice by Mr. W. J. Bean of the Kew staff, in a recent 

 number of the Keiv Bulletin. The writer further remarks 

 that "apart from any economic value it may possess in 

 Great Britain this plant is certainly worthy of cultivation 

 for its beauty alone in shallow ponds and ornamental 

 tanks." As long ago as the beginning of the last 

 century Sir Joseph Banks grew and ripened seeds of 

 this species of rice in his garden in Surrey, and a Mr. 

 Lambert, in a paper read before the Linnean Society in 

 J803. said he was "persuaded that it might be sown 

 with some advantage where no other grain will grow in 

 many shallow pieces of water in Great Britain and 

 Ireland, especially in the latter country." 



The Kew authorities, judging from their experience 

 in the cultivation of this wild Canadian rice, thought 

 that it might be worth while attempting to acclimatise 

 it in the most likely places in Great Britain and Ireland. 

 Seeds were imported from Canada, and distributed in 

 considerable quantities to various places throughout the 

 three kingdoms. Samples were sent to Lord Barrymore, 

 Fota, Co. Cork ; Earl of Kenmare, Killarney House, Co. 

 Kerry ; and to the Marquis of Lansdowne, Derreen, Co. 

 Kerry. According to the authorities at Kew the wet 

 lowlands of Kerry in particular ought to be a suitable 

 locality for the cultivation of this rice. The only fear 



siH'ins 10 111' Ih.il llu'ii- ni.iy he a lack ol' suiisiiiiu' (.hiring 

 I he ripening jicriod. It is ;in experiment, however, well 

 worth trying. ;is if the climatic conditions are favourable 

 it might become a valuable crop in places that are at 

 pn-scnl unproductive in the matter of valuable food 

 pl.iius. C")ne peculiaril}' in the cultivation of this cereal 

 is that liu' M-eils nuist iu-\er hi- allowed to get cir\-. ;iiul 

 must llu'icfori' he slori'i.1 immersed in water. 



Roses. 



By ODo.NKi. Biunv.NH, M.D. 



ROSES, owing to the severe frost we had just before 

 Christmas, have had a terrible gruelling. My 

 poor Tea standards, which took such a lot of 

 work to get, are gone, and will never show me more 

 flowers. It was the night when my thermometer 

 registered 22 degrees of frost that did the havoc. 

 It is, indeed, strange that in the same week I should 

 have met in a patient the highest temperature and in the 

 garden the lowest temperature I have ever recorded in 

 Ireland. Still, if the roses died the patient recovered. 

 Other rosarians have sufl^ered as much as I have, for a 

 brother rosarian was lamenting to me how he had 

 suffered, and what was he to do at pruning time, but I 

 think our pruning has already been done for ufi. It is 

 only necessary to remove at the points of health the 

 blackened, gangrenous shoots which Mr. Frost has left 

 us. But we must not rest at this, for if on cutting ofFthese 

 blackened rods we find the top of our pruned remains 

 showing a browned centre, frosted pith, we must go 

 lower. Had we only had our standards thatched i:>\- 

 their heads protected with ferns, &c., all would have 

 been well ; but that week was a rushed week, and my 

 poor roses had to suff'er. After all we may have a 

 good spring which will make some amends, and if so 

 let us not be too unthankful. If, as I hear, we are to 

 have a rose show during the first few days of July 

 in Dublin, this late frost has shown us what rods to 

 retain in pruning, for dwarfs having ripened rods are 

 easily recognised, and in pruning use these ripened rods 

 the frost has left us. Personally I fear this early 

 date will not be fair to all. My reason for saying this 

 is that from careful observation I find that my roses 

 are not in their prime until about the 8th of July. I 

 have been wondering how our northern friends — Dr. 

 Hall and Mr. Calvert — are going to have their roses 

 ready, as when my first blooms are over Dr. Hall is 

 generally getting his harvest. How can Mr. Calvert, 

 away up in County Down, be ready with cut-back plants ? 

 I pity him having to defend his Cup for the third and, he- 

 hopes, the last time. The Dubliners are, or should be, 

 all right, and like the popular song thty intend to 

 ■' share the prizes among the lot " ; but " nous verrons," 

 as Mr. Knowldin would say. There are some hard 

 nuts among the Dublin contingent : men hard to beat, 

 good, honest, genial rosarians, and we in the country 

 must work hard to give them a race for those prizes. 

 Some time ago a letter appeared in Irish Gardening 

 from an exhibitor who wrote about the six bunches in 

 six vases, and if my memory serves me correctly his 

 complaint was that some stands contained no variety of 

 rose save the Polyantha type, whereas other stands had 



