190 



JOUKNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ September 12, 1867. 



to look at such a bloom, yet the prower told me it had already 

 been out in bloom a fortnight ! This, then, is a useful quality. 

 I do not myself gather that it is hardy, for last winter took 

 stock plants of mine, and destroyed every bud also ; still this 

 may be improved, and all horticulturists will hope that such a 

 concentration of several winters in one may not occur again 

 for some years. Again in " our .Tourual " of the 29th the hint 

 of budding it on Gloire de Dijon may prove useful to every 

 Bose-grower. 



There can be no question that the different opinions formed 

 by growers of the same Rose, as to its merits, depend on circum- 

 stances, possibly beyond our control. Certain Eoses decline 

 to open in certain situations ; therefore, A discards it, B mean- 

 while lauds it to the skies. I have frequently noticed this in 

 our columns — Eoses mentioned as splendid, &c., yet which I 

 can do nothing with. Madame Julie Daran, for instance, no 

 sooner opens with me, than straightway the petals appear to 

 bum up ; this is alike on Manetti and Briar. America I 

 have seen grown by Mr. Keynes surpassingly beautiful. I have 

 never had a bloom open on the Briar till this year ; but one 

 this year was worth waiting for. I have budded it on the 

 Manetti, I trust it may do better there, for I am loth to dis- 

 card it. Imperatrice Eugenie, again, will never open with me 

 in the early summer. This, too, is on the Briar. I am going 

 to try this on Manetti, for although Mrs. Y. B. A. Z. when I do 

 bring her a bloom merely says, " Yes, pretty well for an improved 

 monthly ! " I myself like the Rose much. Turenne, again 

 (that I well recollect seeing in "our" pages, noticed as only 

 worthy of being in the largest collections), is one I must retain, 

 if I confined myself to two dozen. It is a most glorious Eose, 

 grown on the Manetti. Eug('ne Appert, "D., Dca/," justly calls 

 ragged, yet under certain conditions I have seen splendid blooms 

 to which the epithet could not have been appHed. Again, 

 " D., Deal,'' evidently praises Madame Clemence Joigueaux, 

 and it ceitsinly is a magnificent Eose. I have grown it myself 

 this year oj inches across, but I fancy it, if anything, coarser 

 than Victor Verdier, at least with me. 



On the merits of the Briar v. Manetti, I hardly like to speak 

 after Mr. Cant's note, yet I should have given my verdict fifty 

 times over in favour of the latter. The summer Eoses, Gloire 

 de Dijon, the Teas generally, make plenty of wood with me on 

 the Briar, but few others grow vigorously ; Eugene Appert, 

 Madame Boll, and Comtesse C. de Chabrillant, I must except, 

 but the difference in vigour with me is most marked. I have 

 so far discarded the Briar, that I do not expect to plant any 

 more. In my neighbourhood some of the nursery gardeners 

 use and value the old Due de Gazes as a stock, using it in the 

 same way as the Manetti. 



I have found the Manetti throw up more suckers than I ex- 

 pected. This maybe 'Friday's" fault, possibly he disbuds the 

 cuttings with a bad grace, for he " can't zee what measter do 

 want wi' so many Eoses, the gearden be vull on 'em." I have 

 never been able satisfactorily to bud on the Manetti under- 

 ground, as I believe all our Eose-growers do. This, I dare say, 

 is all my own stupidity, but the bud from some cause or 

 another rots. This is not of so much importance now that ex- 

 perience has shown that the Mnnetti does well for half standards. 

 My own plan is this — I give it for the benefit of those who in- 

 tend to try the Manetti stock, I warrant they will find it no easy 

 work at first to bud underground. One's fingers appear to be 

 all thumbs. In the first place, I like to make my stocks clear 

 of shoots for 6 or 8 inches above ground. "Friday" plants 

 them very shallow, just hiding the root. I bud just on the 

 surface of the ground ; if flush of buds I put in two, one just 

 above the other, on opposite sides of the stem. The following 

 autumn when the plant ia placed in its regular position, the 

 junction is buried some 2 inches. 



As regards the suckers, I should say with the Briar this is 

 the rule, with Manetti stocks it is the exception. At least, 

 this is my experience. Is it a reason why with me the vigour 

 of the plants budded on Manetti is so much greater ? If I take 

 up a Briar-budded Eose there is ajiparently an immense root, 

 on examination it is soon proved that the root is chiefly made 

 up of suckers that have been stopped as they appeared above 

 the surface, whilst the true root fibres are very insignificant, 

 and always fill me with astonishment as to their power to 

 support any good growth in the tree. On the contrary, a plant 

 of Manetti taken up is full of root fibres, requiring generally a 

 very free use of the knife befnie rejihiuting. If we are to have 

 such wiuters as the last three Mauetti must go to the top of 

 the poll very quickly, for the Rones are for all practical pur- 

 poses on their own roots. ludetd, it was shown by one writer 



in " our " pages, many many months ago, that a large pro- 

 portion of the Eoses budded underground on the Manetti ulti- 

 mately became " independent " members, and could throw off 

 any allegiance to their foster parent. 



There is, again, another advantage the Manetti has over the 

 Briar — that is, that the wood will run (at least here), much later 

 than the Briar. 



As regards my budded plants of Manetti, I am somewhat in 

 trouble, and I shall feel very grateful to Mr. Eadclyffe if he 

 would kindly give me his advice. By far the larger number of 

 the buds I have put in have already started. Some are weU 

 out of harm's way, as they have flowered, or will do so before 

 the wintry winds overtake them. Many, however, I fear will 

 not be so fortunate. Now, with the earlier buds I have cut away 

 the head of the Manetti to make it grow as vigorously as I 

 could, as also to let in air and light to harden as much as pos- 

 sible the young wood of the bud. But how had I better act 

 with those that have started — say since the 20th of August, 

 and what steps had I better take to save them from winter's 

 cold ? I have thought of light litter, retained by fir branches, 

 also hoeing up the earth round the stems so as to have the 

 junction well covered by soil. Would this plan answer ? 



Does Mr. Eadclyffe thiuk that a Manetti well budded with a 

 healthy-looking dormant bud is injured in its prospects of life 

 by removal in autumn or winter? — Y. B. A. Z. 



FRENCH AND ENGLISH GARDENING. 



I n.iVE read with some attention the letters of the Piris cor- 

 respondent and " A London Market Gardener" in the Times. 

 As usual there is some truth on both sides, but, as it seems to 

 me, neither of them has made the subject very plain ; for what 

 can the greater part of the Times readers know of " cordon " 

 training, about which the Paris contributor is so enthusiastic ? 

 He is evidently a young gardener who has seen but few of the 

 fruit gardens belonging to amateurs of horticulture in England, 

 and he is now on his first visit to the Continent ; consequently 

 he is warm in his admiration of the fantastic, but, in some in- 

 stances, pretty modes of training fruit trees practised by French 

 amateurs and by some of the French gardeners. It is to be 

 regretted that this exercise of fancy too often fails to produce 

 fruit (which, as I take it, should be the duty of a sober-minded 

 fruit tree), so that a tree is often pointed out to the visitor as 

 perfection in its training, yet quite bare of fruit. These fancy 

 trees are often " spiral cordons," " palmettes," " diagonal 

 cordons," &c. My memory fails me in endeavouring to recall 

 the names I have heard applied to the various modes of train- 

 ing trees in France during my experience of some thirty or 

 forty years ; for I must acknowledge that I am an old fruit- 

 cultivator, and have during my pilgrimage travelled much in 

 France, Belgium, aud Germany, and from my taste being that 

 way inclined, I have been a close observer of the gardens of 

 the Continent. I remember particularly well how much I 

 resembled the Paris correspondent, when a young traveller, in 

 my enthusiasm for all that I saw new (and which I then thought 

 rich and rare), in horticulture. The different fashions of train- 

 ing trees in France have always afforded me much amusement. 

 It is true they have not been quite so fleeting as the fashion 

 of a bonnet, but they have flourished for a time and have then 

 passed away. The cordon training, now so much written 

 about, is a very old EngUsh system, and may be found in per- 

 fection in the gardens of the Eoyal Horticultural Society at 

 Chiswick, where some fine Pear trees, grafted on Quince stocks 

 and trained to the walls, have been trained " en cordon '' by 

 the venerable and talented Eobert Thomson for some forty 

 years past ; and I may add that in every good fruit garden in 

 England Pear trees are trained after the same method. The 

 cordon method of training trees not attached to walls, but 

 growing in gardens and orchards, seems to have had its origin 

 in England, but, as I presume, has not been widely spread, 

 owing to the peculiar prejudices of cultivators of the soil, who 

 seem to take great delight in closing their senses to any new 

 thing. This feeling has always existed, and I am inclined to 

 think always will exist ; for only go to Damascus and try and 

 instruct the cultivator how to regulate his water-courses other- 

 wise than by his foot, he would turn upon you an evil eye. 



To return to cordon orchard trees. I am able to relate a 

 curious fact in support of my assertion that this mode of train- 

 ing is of English origin. In a farm-house in Sussex, not many 

 miles from Tnubridge AVcUs, lives an old tenant farmer, m 

 whose orchard are numerous cordon Apple trees, some fifty 



