IlSS 



JOURNAIi OF HORTICULTUBB AND OOTXAGE GARDENEE. 



[ Febrojiry 28, 1867. 



good supply, and not dribblets, which, it the soil is dry, do 

 not reach the bottom of the pot, or, if it is wet, only serve to 

 saturate it the more. At first moderate supplies of water will 

 suffice, but when the foliage has become deyeloped it will be 

 required in abundance. Syringing should be practised morn- 

 ing and eveuin;,', except in cold and dull weather, when once 

 a-day, and in the morning, will sufllce, and it should be con- 

 tinued until the flower-buds show colour. 



After blooming, which will be in June, the plants should be 

 removed from the greenhouse, and must be carried to the pot- 

 ting-bencb, and repotted forthwith. It the cultivator does not 

 wish tor large plants he will merely cut back the roots a little, 

 so that the pot will hold a little fresh soil, the old pot being 

 clean-washed and again used. Varieties of compact growth 

 will, of course, be selected for this purpose — small plants that 

 do not take up much room, and the best are the small-growing 

 Tea and China Koses. The others may have pots 9 inches in 

 diameter, which are large enough, and not too large for holding 

 sufficient soil for a good and yet not ungainly specimen. The 

 pots should be well drained by placing a good-sized crock over 

 the hole, and about half a dozen of less size above it ; then one- 

 third fill the pot (including the space occupied by the crocks at 

 bottom), with pieces of charcoal the size of a Hazel nut, the 

 small dust being sifted out, which may be mixed with the soil, 

 and turf cut thin and chopped into pieces from half an inch to 

 an inch square. A drainage of this kind seldom clogs, and 

 supplies food to the roots. 



The soil I would advise for this and all the subsequent shifts 

 of Eosea in pots for the greenhouse, is turf from a pasture 

 closely cropped by sheep, the soil of which is neither too heavy 

 nor too light, but a good hazel loam ; whilst for the Tea-scented 

 and China-varieties I would give the preference to the turf from 

 a moor or common overlying a sandstone, which when burnt 

 furnishes that which is known as silver sand. I do not mean 

 a peat or bog turf, but one that is neither peat nor loam, and 

 yet both, full of fine particles of white sand. Tho turf should 

 not be cut of greater thickness than Ij inch, and if it cannot 

 be exposed grass side downwards to a temperature of 210° in 

 an oven or on a hot iron plate for an hour, so as to de- 

 stroy all insects, and kill the perennial-rooted weeds, I would 

 ase it fresh, chopping it in pieces half an inch square, and 

 making it pretty firm. The old soil in potting should be re- 

 moved, or at all events the ball gently pressed and loosened. 

 If turf cannot be had, the compost may consist of equal parts 

 of loam and well rotted manure and leaf mould, mixing with 

 the whole a fourth part of pieces of charcoal from about the 

 size of a pea up to that of a hazel nut, which will tend to keep 

 the soil open. After potting give a good watering, and return 

 the plants to the quarters assigned to them the previous year, 

 treating them in tho same manner, with the addition of a slight 

 ishade for a few days until they have recovered from the potting. 

 In the end of September, or early in October, the pots should 

 bfe lifted, for doing so will keep them drier than if they were 

 plunged, and will tend to promote the ripening of the wood, by 

 checking a late growth. i3y the middle of October the surface 

 Boil and that around the sides of the pots should be removed 

 quite down to the roots, but without injuring or destroying them. 

 It should be replaced by the compost recommended for potting, 

 but a year, or not less than six months old, after having been 

 mixed with an equal quantity of one-year-old cowdung. It ought 

 to be laid on level with the rim of the pot, and be made firm. A 

 good watering should then be given, after which the plants may 

 be placed in a cold pit, or cool, dry, well-ventilated house. No 

 more water will be required. In November, or early in De- 

 cember, they may be pruned, which appUes more particularly 

 to the Perpetual and Bourbon sections ; the Tea-scented and 

 China varieties need not be pruned until introduced int® the 

 greenhouse. 



To have a late bloom of the Tea-scented, China, Bourbon, 

 and Perpetual Roses, small plants should be potted in six-inch 

 pots in the end of May, or early in June, in the compost 

 already mentioned, and instead of plunging them in the open 

 ground prepare for them a hotbed of dung, 3 or 4 feet in 

 height. This bed being made a week or ten days previous to 

 potting will, by the end of that time, have parted with its rank- 

 ness and burning heat ; spread 2 or 3 inches of sifted tan over 

 the surface, set the pots upon this, and fill up the intervals 

 ■with tan or sawdust, so as to cover the rims of the pots and 

 the soil which they contain to the depth of about an inch. A 

 bed of tan, 4 or 4i feet high, is preferable to one of dung, as 

 it retains its heat much longer, and there is no necessity for a 

 second hotbed being made. The plants should be well watered 



during dry weather, and by the end of July they will have 

 grown amazingly, and the pots will be completely filled with 

 roots. Another bed should be in readiness to receive the plants 

 when the heat of the first, if made of dung, has declined ; 

 but whether a dung or a tan bed be employed, the plants are 

 to have nine-inch pots if they have grown well and the varieties 

 are of vigorous habit. Whichever they are, and whether re- 

 potted or not, plunge them at once in the new hotbed, or ia 

 the old one if it is a tan bed, and in a week shorten the strong 

 shoots to eight leaves or joints, and the moderately strong to 

 six, all flower-buds being pinched off. Water must be given 

 daily in dry weather. I have omitted to mention that the 

 situation should be open, under no circumstances shaded, for 

 their vigour will in a great measure be due to full exposure 

 combined with the bottom heat. 



Towards the middle of September, or not later than the end 

 ef that month, the jjots should be lifted, exposing them for a 

 week half-way, or to one-third of their depth if the bed is still 

 warm, and then withdrawing them fully from the hotbed. In 

 another week remove them to the greenhouse, where the plants 

 will bloom finely in autumn up to Christmas. Water being then 

 withheld, the plants, pruned in February, will produce a fine 

 show of bloom in May in a cool greenhouse. This is the best 

 method that I have tried of growing Koses in pots for a late 

 bloom. The plan is not by any means new ; on the contrary, 

 it is a rather old one, seldom, if ever practised, but it deserves 

 to be more generally known. Mr. lUvers first propounded it 

 in the fourth edition of " TheEose Amatem-'s Guide," published 

 twenty years ago. 



The culture of Eoses in pots in subsequent years does not 

 vary, for after blooming they may be repotted in pots of the 

 same or of a larger size, and receive a top-dressing of rich com- 

 post in autumn. Liquid manure may be given at every alternate 

 watering, from the time of the buds showing until the flowers 

 expand. — G. Abbey. 



EA^EGREENS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. 



In the large public park belonging to this city (Bath), the 

 endeavour is made to collect all shrubs that are hardy and fitted 

 for the soil, and I have penned some short notices of those I 

 know. The soil is naturally a very heavy blue lias clay, with 

 drifts of oolitic gravel, without a trace of anything resembling 

 peat, so that all plants rejoicing in heath mould or sandy soils 

 cannot be expected to fiourish. consequently the list of orna- 

 mental shrubs is more restricted than in many other districts. 



Aucubas. — At Mr. Standish's first sale I bought a small 

 plant of picta, which was planted out of doors at once, and 

 has become a very pretty bush. It has grown freely, and has 

 been quite untouched by the recent frost. Limbata, sent out by 

 Messrs. Veitch, will he even more beautiful, the ma]ginsof the 

 leaves being tinted, not the centre ; picta will be handsomer 

 when fully grown, as the central blotch in the young plants does 

 not grow at the same rate as the harder outside green. This 

 centre is often eaten by the snails, whereby young plants are 

 disfigured. A. himalaioa is as hardy as possible, and grows 

 more rapidly than the true green Aucuba japonica, or even 

 than the old mottled or the new male. 



Of Osmanthus, also bought of Mr. Standish, both the green 

 and variegated kinds are as hardy as need be, and promise to 

 form very pleasing bushes. I have no idea to what family they. 

 belong, or to what size they may be expected to grow ; looking 

 like Holly, they are of much neater growth. 



Euonymus. — The yeUow-blotched grows as freely as tha ori- 

 ginal E. japonicus, but quickly loses its yellow colour ; whether 

 this wiU return as the plants grow older is very doubtful, as the 

 old white variegated kind has no marked character, being less 

 effective than the green, and not sufiiciently distinct when seen 

 at a distance. All the plants have been pinched by the frost, 

 their tops drooping for some distance. The only way to have 

 the golden Euonymus cflective is to be very careful to propa- 

 gate only the yellow twigs. Euonymus radicans is quite hardy, 

 not being in the least touched by frost. It will probably 

 make a pleasing plant to fill comers, or to grow down walls, 

 as its branches have fibrils resembling those of the Ivy. The 

 branches that have lost their variegation will grow more rapidly 

 than the parent plant. Last year I had from Messrs. Veitch a 

 beautiful variety, Euonymus marginatus, which has grown 

 very pretty, has retained its yellowish white variegation most 

 correctly, and has proved out of doors as httle affected as the 

 ordinary sorts. It promises to be a very ornamental shrub. 



