448 



JOURNAL OF HOETICITLTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ December 8, 1863. 



of Alexandria for eai-ly forcing, you will not find them well 

 adapted for that purpose unless with tjie best means of 

 bottom heat, and even then they are not to be depended 

 upon for early work. They may both be termed shy setters, 

 and they take a long time to ripen. The White Frontignan, 

 on which you propose to graft them, would answer this 

 purjjose better than either of the two ; but if you do not 

 mean to begin forcing before the end of January or early in 

 Pebn;ai-y, the Muscats succeed very well, but will not be 

 ready for table neai-ly so soon as Chasselas Musque, Royal 

 Muscadine, and Buckland Sweetwater, all of which will ripen 

 a month before the Muscats, and are good early white 

 Grapes. 



If the state of your old Vines is in all respects satisfactory, 

 the inarching of green wood to gi-een is by far the quickest 

 and best way, and is performed by taking a deep slice off 

 the sides of both the stock and the Vine you desire to intro- 

 duce, and tying the two together with a piece of soft mat. 

 The union takes place sooner and better thus than when a 

 scion of last year's growth is grafted on in the usual way. 

 — D. T. ' 



EXHIBITING EOSES. 



" D." BELfiNS by asking. What is a truss ? as if there wei'e 

 BO question upon the subject of exhibiting single blooms or I 

 trusses. I think he should hare first asked. Must Eoses be \ 

 shown in trusses ? He says he thinks they should — 1st, 

 because a Eose naturally of a medium size can never be 

 exhibited lai'ge (I suppose he means large through dis- 

 budding), unless by the loss of refinement ; and, 2ndly, that 

 a truss is the natiu'al production of the shoot, and that 

 therefore disbudding ought not to be allowed. These seem 

 to be his only objections to disbudding. 



As to liis first reason, I entirely difier li'om him in thinking 

 it a sufficient one. The practice would probably only obtain 

 with medium and under-sized Eoses, and I believe, if pro- 

 perly carried out, would tend only to increase the size of 

 such Eoses and bring them more on a level in that respect 

 with those natiu'ally of a larger size, and thus add uniformity ; 

 to a pan of flowers. ! 



That increase in size is, as a rule, obtained at the cost of 

 refinement I emphatically deny. I speak from experience, 

 having SUO to 1000 plants. Of coiu-se, I am assuming that 

 moderately high cultivation is employed, and that the roots 

 axe moderately thinned. I know quite well that excessively 

 high cultivation and immoderate thinning will produce 

 "coarse" Eoses (if any Eose can be coarse); but the abuse 

 of a thing is no argument against its moderate use. 



Then as to his second objection, I confess I do not see 

 any logic in it. What is the natural production of a shoot ; 

 in a Carnation, a Pink, or a Hollyhock ? What the natural ' 

 state of a bunch of Grapes, of many a Peach and other , 

 fruit tree? Why should the natural production of the 

 shoot of the Eose be more i-egarded than the natural shoots 

 of other flowers and of fruits? "D." seems to forget that 

 Eoses siiown as cut flowers are florists' flowers, should come | 

 as nearly as possible up to the florists' standard, and be 

 judged ijy such standard. Effectiveness produced by trusses \ 

 should not be aimed at, but perfection in each individual - 

 bloom. ] 



It that can be more nearly reached by means of disbudding, 

 why should not the rosarian disbud as weU as the grower of 

 the Carnation, the Pink, or the Hollyhock ? 



I take it that form, substance, colour, and size are the 

 points to be regarded in a cut Rose, and in the order named. 

 The first two, and perhaps the thud, depend much on the j 

 vaa-iety, irrespective of cultivation; but the last in the I 

 smaller kinds of Roses can only be attained by high cul- j 

 tivation and liberal disbudding. j 



" II. How many trusses (blooms ?) shoidd be shown ? " II 

 am happy to say I entii-ely agi-ee with " D." in his remarks 

 under tins head and on No. III. 



" IV. Ought the classes to be separated ? " I was, I think, 

 one of the first — if not the first — to advocate separation. I 

 do not know that I have any more to say upon the question, 

 except to observe that, in my opinion, if any variety of Rose 

 should be shown in a sepai-ate class, that variety is the 

 Moss. There is scarcely one of this variety — I do not know 

 one — which would pass muster as a florists' flower. Moss 



Eoses are truly beautiful as Moss Eoses, and should be 

 shown with their lovely buds on the trusses — in fact, should 

 be shown in trusses — but they are altogether out of place in 

 a pan of Eoses shown for form, substance, and colour — 

 i. e,, shown as florists' flowers. 



V. As to Fancy classes. I think that the money expended 

 on these woidd be better laid out if given for the best 

 English-raised seecUing. The prize might accumulate until 

 a Eose worthy of it was produced. Giving prizes to huge 

 bunches of Roses is, in my opinion, a great mistake. — P. 



FRUIT ON STEPHANOTIS FLOEIBUNDA. 



I HAVE now, on one of the plants here, a fruit measuring 

 51 inches in length and 8 inches in circumference. The 

 plant is gi-owing in a No. 3-sized pot, and has fruited two 

 years in succession. From 70° to SO' of moist heat is given 

 from April to the time of flowering, when the plant is re- 

 moved to the conservatory, where it remains until September. 

 It is then taken back to the stove, and is kept in a tempe- 

 rature of from 50° to .55° diu-ing winter, with a rise from 

 sunshine in spi-tng ; little water is given from October to 

 February, only just sufficient to keep the leaves from 

 flagging. 



No attention is paid to impregnating the blooms, although 

 I find several formed in August continuing in a small state 

 until April. These I thin to one, and the fruit rapidly swells 

 and is ripe about December. 



A mixture of equal paa-ts of peat, loam, and leaf mould, 

 with occasional waterings of clear liquid manure, suits this 

 Stephanotis well. — W. Lanfeae, Gardener to T. Parry, Esq., 

 Sleaford. 



CUTTING OFF LEATES FROM STRAWBERRIES. 



It was not my intention to enter upon this subject again ; 

 but youi- correspondent, Quintin Read, appears to think I am 

 annoyed at an expression used by htm in an ai'ticle contri- 

 buted to your Journal of October 20th, in which the word 

 " barbarous " was applied to the indisciiminate removal of 

 the leaves from the StrawbeiTy plants previously to the 

 winter setting in. But I assure him that I by no means 

 feel annoyed at anything that he has contributed to your 

 Journal. 



Yom- correspondent also states that I adopt a rough-and- 

 ready way of manii^ulation by the introduction of a novel 

 instrument for that purpose in lieu of a knife, in the shape 

 of a scythe ; yet he states that many gardeners, as soon 

 as the fruit was gathered, used to cut or mow off all the 

 leaves. And when the term " mow " is used, I take it for 

 granted that a scythe was used to perform the operation. 

 If so, in what shape or way can the scythe be pronounced a 

 novel instrument for that pui-pose ? I by no means consider 

 it a newly-introduced kitchen-garden implement, for I have 

 seen it used for many purposes there besides mowing-off 

 StrawbeiTy leaves. For instance : I have seen it used for 

 mowing off Asparagus stems when ripe, and also Potato 

 haulms ; I will not go so far as to say weeds, because I 

 never did see these mown down ; but I have frequently 

 heard of this being done ; and I do not think the scythe 

 would be at all out of character if used to mow off all the 

 spent or decayed stems from the perennial plants in autumn, 

 providing we had a large bulk, and stood free of everything 

 else in order that we might get a good swing. A practical 

 man, and such as the one that has mown off the Strawberry 

 leaves and Asparagus stems for the last ten years in this 

 place, I am quite sure would mow them off quite as well as 

 he could cut them off with an ordinary pocket-knife, and 

 with one-fourth the time and trouble. I have seen the scythe 

 used in more than one large place to mow the Box edgings 

 to the gravel walks in a kitchen garden. Although this 

 may appear strange to your correspondent, nevertheless it 

 is done, and in such a way that it does credit both to the 

 man and his dii-ector. 



In reference to produce of fruit fr-om the quarter of an 

 acre of Keens' Seedling, I was j)ei-fectly satisfied when I 

 stated that we picked two bushels at one time, and little 

 short of half-a-bushel daily for three weeks. 



I may add that I mowed the leaves off the Keens' Seed- 



