344 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOOLTUBE AND COTTAGE QABUENEB. 



[ May 10, 18TT. 



I will now briefly describe the mode of growing Seakale 

 which is practised in the Loudon market gardens, and which 

 I have fonnd very aucceesfal. In taking np the roots early in 

 November for forcing, all which are intended for this purpose 

 are laid in coooa-nut fibre or ashes, and are introduced into 

 heat as required. When the roots are taken up pieces of them 

 are selected about 4 inches in length and of medium thickness, 

 taking care to have them as near one size as possible, as that 

 is important to ensure an even crop. When the sets are all 

 out they are covered over in a warm corner with ashes or cocoa- 

 nut refuse, and are left there until the following spring. About 

 the end of March they will have begun growing ; they are then 

 planted in well-manured ground in rows 18 inches apart and 

 about 1 foot from set to set in the rows, just covering the 

 crown. By leaving the sets until they have sprouted it is easy 

 to tell the proper end to leave on the surface, otherwise it 

 would be impossible to plant without making mistakes : hence 

 irregular crops. In taking up the roots in autumn every third 

 row is removed, leaving the remainder in the ground for late 

 use. There will be found just enough soil in these openings 

 to properly " land " (as it is termed in the market gardens) 

 the other rows or beds. This earthing is done at twice, one 

 batch being covered about the middle of February, and the 

 other as soon as the crowns are seen to begin growing, cover- 

 ing the crowns with about 9 inches of soil. The result of this 

 I have fonnd to be — Kale stouter and sweeter than that ob- 

 tained by artificial forcing, and the supply throughout the 

 month of April is very valuable. 



When this batch is done with the roots are taken up as 

 before, and sets are made in the same manner. These sets 

 are usually ready for planting from the 5th to the 10th of 

 May, and they generally grow more freely and make as good 

 crowns as those selected in the autumn. I consider this plan 

 of growing Seakale to be far better than that of leaving old 

 stools in the ground year after year. It is important when the 

 crowns are first starting into growth to water them during 

 very dry weather, which sometimes occurs in May, as it is 

 then that the crop is most liable to injury from drought. — 

 J. P. M., Fulham Fields. 



THE BOSE IN ENGLAND. 



TouE Journal des Roses awakens in the gloom of the year 

 the odours that time had crushed, and restores the sunshine 

 that fills the world with floral beauty. Although Nature may 

 be still stern and deaf to our entreaties, the book that speaks 

 of Eoses has a creative charm, for at its bright suggestion 

 fancy fills the heart with flowers, amidst which the Rose sits 

 enthroned as queen, glowing with a life that is truly immortal. 

 The ages have consecrated the Kose to beauty and love, and in 

 this day of toil and care it is the symbol of rest and heart-ease 

 to thousands who can find no recreation so sweet, so whole- 

 some, so homely, as the cultivation of the garden and enjoy- 

 ment of its fragrant flowers. When our English amateurs 

 become acquainted with your charming work it will be one of 

 their most cherished companions, for it will be an addition to 

 the associations that connect the garden with the fireside, and 

 link the love of the Koee with the most blessed of the domestic 

 affections. 



We need not make a special claim upon the Kose as ours, 

 for if we truly honour it we must be unselfish and rejoice that 

 many revere it besides ourselves. But we may be proud that 

 it is England's flower, that it twines with the Thistle and the 

 Shamrock in the trinity of powers that sustain the crown as 

 the representative of our unity, liberty, and national life. It 

 has represented strife and tumult and wrong in the dark days 

 when the people were the sport of factions and the victims of 

 ambition, but even then it suggested and even aided the better 

 day that would dawn ; and we talk now of the white and red 

 Boses with a sense of thankfulness that our domestic life has 

 grown so large that there is no longer room left in these isles 

 for the development of the passions that have made our 

 history not less sad than heroic. 



Thus we are in duty bound to the Eose, and when your 

 brethren (who, as rosarians, are also our brethren) send us 

 inteUigence of the new varieties they have secured, we throb 

 with new ecstacies, and our peace seems to be indiesolubly 

 associated with the flowers of the future, which, in the course 

 of the season, are destined to become the flowers of the past. 

 The demand for new Roses in this country exceeds that of any 

 other flower, as the demand for Roses of all kinds, new and 

 old, is everywhere the largest item of the business of a trading 



florist. In the " Garden Oracle " for 1877 there are desoribaii 

 thirty-eight new varieties of Roses, all the produce of French 

 industry and reflective of French taste. They will all be 

 wanted by our amateurs. They delight to buy them, although 

 they know that a certain proportion will disappoint them ; for 

 new Roses are like new flowers of all kinds in this respect — 

 that however carefully the traders select for us we must finally 

 select for ourselves, and the public exhibition is the sifting and 

 sorting machine through which finally they must pass or suffer 

 to be set aside. Those who do not themselves exhibit or even 

 visit exhibitions are guided by the formal decisions of those 

 who arbitrate in these contests, and there is no better tribunal 

 of public taste. We do occasionally hear amateurs complain 

 that you send us too many new Eoses. I think I have some- 

 times been found in the complaining throng, but when 1 

 reflected that very many of the flowers I had myself raised 

 and distributed, confident of immortal fame thereby, were 

 already forgotten I changed my tone and adopted a new argu- 

 ment. Into that matter, however, I will not now enter ; it is 

 too large, but the fact remains that whether we seek new Eoses^ 

 or new Pelargoniums, or new Peas, or new Potatoes, we must 

 incur a certain amount of risk, for our standard of perfection 

 may diiier from that of the raiser of a new thing. But taking 

 a broad view of the case the raiser is generally a good judge,, 

 and the vendor must be accredited with the desire to improve 

 his trade by the diffusion of good things. 



The successive issues of the " Garden Oracle " enable ns to 

 cast up accounts of the new Roses introduced to cultivation in 

 the course of thirteen years. This work has attained its nine- 

 teenth year, but for reasons that need not now trouble us we 

 cannot derive from it statistics of Roses for the whole of that 

 period. Let us consider the facts that are available. Of new 

 Roses introduced to our garden from France, there were in 

 1804,22; in 1865, 68; 1866,51; 1867,63; 1868,70; 1869,57;. 

 1870, 75 ; 1872, 66 ; 1873, 43 ; 1874, 14 ; 1875, 55 ; 1876, 14 ; 

 1877, 38. Of new Roses introduced to our gardens by English 

 raisers there were in 1864, 2 ; 1865, 4 ; 1866, 4 ; 1870, 3 j 

 1872, 8 ; 1873, 2 ; 1874, 6 ; 1876, 13 ; 1877, 2. Thus, in the 

 same run of years your total amounts to 636, and ours to 44. 

 A careful scrutiny will slightly reduce your total and augment 

 ours, but the case as now stated is, I know, nearly correct. 

 The whole total is 680, which, divided by thirteen, gives us 52 

 as the average per annum — just one new Rose per week the 

 whole year round ; to be admired first on Sunday, and re- 

 membered with joy the whole week through. Thus the Rose 

 conforms to the first observance of Christianity; it is a Chris- 

 tian's proper flower, a refreshment for his blessed day of rest. 



The number of varieties of Roses entered in the catalogue 

 of any leading English house may be reckoned as about sis 

 hundred. In the latest catalogue of my friend Mr. William 

 Paul the total of the varieties described is 013, of which there 

 are 318 Hybrid Perpetuals and 114 Teas; these two classes 

 showing a total of 432, there remaining only 181 to make up 

 the remaining nineteen classes. The student of the Rose as a 

 garden flower will, in a comparison of the catalogues of fifty 

 years ago with those of the present day, observe the ever- 

 growing power of the Hybrid Perpetuals as a class. In the 

 older catalogues we find the summer Roses conspicuous ; they 

 were valued in the days gone by. Now a few pages suffice for 

 their enumeration, and many that once were famous are no 

 longer to be found. I scarcely know where to find such a 

 hedge of the delicate and delightful Centifolia as I once rejoiced 

 in. I have become a stranger to the giant bushes of Rosa 

 gallica I once possessed ; and not often do I meet with Bank- 

 sian or Macartney Roses, for in truth our amateurs, with all 

 their enthusiasm, have acquired a contracted taste, and the 

 catalogues reflect it in the preponderance everywhere of Hybrid 

 Perpetuals, Bourbons, and Teas. The exhibitions must, in 

 part, answer for this ; but the case has its bright side, for it is 

 the splendour of the newer Perpetuals and Teas that ensures 

 their popularity, and those who covet honours in the presence 

 of the public will of necessity place upon the exhibition table 

 the finest flowers their gardens will produce, and hence Per- 

 petuals and Teas claim and obtain the first care of our English 

 rosarians. Should I live to see Roses judged in gardens I will 

 invite the jury to admire La Ville de Bruxelles, Juno, Paul 

 Ricaut, and Blairii No. 2 — glorious reminders of a day when 

 hope was young, and the pride of the heart was subservient 

 to the simplest of inspirations. Yes ; the exhibitions have 

 changed the tone of taste in Roses, and the Perpetual class is 

 like the serpent of Moses that swallowed all the rest. 



The amount offered in prizes at onr exhibitions of Roses 



