22 



JOUKNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 10, 187S. 



27tb. Schedules will be ready in a few days, and I shall be 

 happy to answer any incjuiries directed to me on the subject. 

 — D., Deal. 



A VISIT TO THE EOSES AT CHESHDNT. 



Havikg often been invited to pay a visit to Cheshunt, I have 

 at last been able to accomplish this, and found the last week 

 of June very favourable to my purpose. Shoreditch Station is 

 not a palace of crystal, nor is the Lea Valley the perfection of 

 the picturesque ; however, the happy owners of land, generally 

 rented at £5 an acre, are probably able to view this latter with 

 considerable eomplacency; as the Scotch sometimes say, " She 

 is better than bonnie." Cheshiint is advertised as thii'teen 

 miles north of London ; it is certainly a good half-hour off by 

 the Great Eastern Eailway. The Cheshunt Station is a mile 

 from the nurseries, but the lover of antiquity will do well to 

 stop at the Waltham Station just before it. The lovely 

 Eleanor's Cross, very near to the Waltham Station, both for 

 its exquisite beauty and good preseiTation, would of itself well 

 justify and repay a pilgrimage. Passing the ancient " Hostel- 

 rie of ye Fonre Sv>-aunes," dating from 1260, as its quaint old 

 signboard, stretched across the road, informs all men, and 

 leaving on the right Mr. W. Paul's well-known and famous 

 nurseries, Paul & Son's at Cheshunt is reached in about one 

 mile and a half. 



The first sight on entering is singularlj' interesting to a 

 resarian beginning to advance in j-ears ; there is the original 

 guinea plant of Marcehal Niel as first sent orft, and, as a com- 

 panion plant, the first Charles Lefebvre; grand old Briar 

 stocks they have, but are evidently beginning to feel their 

 years and hard service. After this, seventy acres under spade 

 are more or less open to the footsteps of the inquiring visitor. 

 It will only be possible to mention what, perhaps, is the most 

 stiikiug in the Piose districts. Having been sent by the 

 courteous proprietor to the principal nursery ground, appro- 

 priately called lioselands, I found myself at once in a bev/ilder- 

 ment of beauties. Such growth and such grandeur are not 

 often to be witnessed. The Manettis were hardly out, but the 

 plants appeared of extraordinary vigour; while, as for those 

 on Briars, they were enough to send the amateur home de- 

 spairing for ever ! It was, however, some consolation to reflect 

 that if Eoses did not do well in the rich loam of the Lea Valley, 

 on the banks of the New River, and with any quantity of 

 manure at their service, they would be little likely to prosper 

 on any other portion of our planet. But there they are, and 

 wUl soon be telling their own tale in " the boxes." A Rose is 

 not reaUy understood until it has been seen growing in some 

 quantity, all the best are found under these conditions at 

 Eoselands : the dignified and fastidious Marie Baumann ap- 

 pears there in the very rudest health, and really not much 

 smaller than that monster Paul Neron. It might be invidious 

 to mention names where all are so magnificent, but I may 

 remark that Etieune Levet, President Thiers, and Annie Lax- 

 ton (the last a considerably improved Jules Margottin) are 

 fully bearing out the good opinions of last season. 



Having returned, and partaken of Mrs. Paul's graceful 

 hospitalities, I was conducted by the proprietor himself through 

 the home garden, and especially over the seedling beds, a part 

 interesting above all else to the experimentalist. The num- 

 ber of seedling Roses is very considerable. It was impossible 

 not to look with deep interest on the collection of possible 

 glories and beauties before us. Here, too, we moralised, 

 how many embryo Marechal Niels and Devoniensises may have 

 perished, victims of too severe winters ! As Gray remarks of 

 another plaee^ 



" Some vDIage Hampden, that with dauntless breast 

 The Uttle tyrant of his fieliie withstood; 

 Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, 

 Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood." 



However, the actualities are sufficiently striking. Several 

 stm unnamed seedlings were shown to me of robust growth 

 and most brUliant colouring, and which will probably be here- 

 after heard of ; but the three that have been lately named and 

 selected are unquestionably the present pride of the garden. 

 Reynolds Hole and Wilson Saunders are both very good reds, 

 the latter a seedling from Charles Lefebvre, but of sufficiently 

 distinct foliage, and likely to be very valuable in its class ; the 

 former is evidently a great favourite with its owner ; I did not 

 see blooms which could supply an opinion. But the Rose of 

 the season will certainly be the Cheshunt Hybrid. It has 

 already received high commendation in your Journal, and is 

 every way calcidated to win golden opinions. It is very hardy. 



very vigorous, large, of a brilliant colour — in fact, almost a 

 Marochal Niel among the red Teas, and a Rose which, I sus- 

 pect, soon no Rose garden will be without. 



Passing on through the new Rhododendron garden, which 

 would excite high admiration, had the Eoses any to spare to 

 it, we then visited the Eoses plunged-out in therr pots, and a 

 wonderful blaze of colour and brightness they afforded ; the 

 pegged-dovra Eoses are also in vei-y fine order. The Eoses 

 under glass had been brilliant, and in one instance showed a 

 Rose hep of Madame Falcot, which had been fertilised from a 

 bloom of Camille de Eohan, a combination which, if it buc- 

 ceed, will be one of rare excellence. 



Returning home the happy owner of an instantly purchased 

 Cheshunt Hybrid, even at the formidable price at which alone, 

 for the present, it leaves Cheshunt, taking one more lingering 

 look at the sweet Queen Eleanor, and returning with rather 

 more rapidity to Shoreditch, I escaped the varied perils of that 

 pecuUar locality, some day to tell again of rosarian rambles. 

 —A. C. 



VEKONICA EUPESTEIS. 



A KEAiiLY good blue is a colour more frequently met with 

 among the flowers of hardy herbaceous plants than those of 

 tender exotics. Even bedders-out are not over-well supplied 

 with good clear blues ; it is true LobeUas come in very well, but 

 Verbenas do not approach the true tint, and exhibition plants 

 are veiy deficient in this colour. Hardy herbaceous plants, 

 however, present us with many examples. The Campanulas, 

 Veronicas, Delphiniums, Aeonitums, Violas, and others give us 

 many splendid blues, and a good clear blue, like a bright scarlet 

 or a clear yellow, is at all times acceptable. Such an one is the 

 subject of the present short notice. 



Veronica rupestris, a traUiug plant of low growth but com- 

 pact habit, is certainly one of the most showy of its family, 

 and as hardy as a Buttercup. It has not been so long amongst 

 us as many neglected hardy plants, having been introduced 

 during the last twenty years, and it is a most desirable ad- 

 dition. Its foliage is small and wUlow-shaped ; habit spread- 

 ing, and the branches all disposed to root as they he upon the 

 ground. Each shoot as it points upwards is divided into in- 

 numerable spikes of bloom, rising 6 inches or more high, while 

 tbeu' bases are within an inch or so of the ground. The 

 thickly-set spike of blossom is of a very bright blue with a 

 small spot of white in the centre, which becomes larger as the 

 bloom advances, being but little seen at first, so that the im- 

 pression is that we are looking upon a clear bright blue- 

 flowered plant ; but I do not think the presence of white an 

 objection, as it, perhaps, imparts brightness. The number of 

 flower-spikes is such as to completely cover the space the 

 plants occupy, and masses nearly a yai'd in width have a gay 

 appearance in May and June. 



Veronica rupestris is, perhaps, a little too late for spring 

 bedding, yet old plants of it are in full bloom before Viola 

 cornuta growing under similar circumstances, while it is much 

 more dwarf. I have been thinking of trying it in beds for late 

 spring decoration, as it can be so successfully transplanted, 

 and is so accommodating as to site, &B. Perhaps, however, 

 the best of all places for it is the rockery, to which its spread- 

 ing habit seems so well adapted, and in such a position it 

 cannot be otherwise than at home. Certainly no more becom- 

 ing plant could be employed either there or in the mixed 

 herbaceous border, to which a few plants near the front give 

 a brightness which it is difficult to equal, even in the flowery 

 month of Maj*. — J. Roeson. 



EOSE BAEONNE DE MATNAED. 



I AM pleased to see the Rev. W. F. Radclyfl'e speak so well of 

 this pure and useful variety. As a general garden decorative 

 Rose it quite heads the list, in my opinion, amongst whites. 

 It is an easy and free grower, is less susceptible of Rose ail- 

 ments than many of its neighbours, and is an exceedingly 

 free bloomer. It ought to be in every garden where Eoses, 

 and especially white ones, are cherished ; and who would not 

 cherish them, and who does not covet them, both to tone 

 down and bring out the richer colours by the force of innate 

 purity and vivid contrast ? 



My attention was first drawn to this variety by my employer, 

 who takes the opportunity of seeing all old and new Eoses 

 both at the principal exhibitions and in many gardens. He 

 has long pronounced it the best white Rose, and up to the 



