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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jane 23, 1877. 



Thos. Wright, " History of Lndlow and its Neighbonrhood," 

 says, " lu the reigu of King Stephen (a.d. 1135-1154) Hugh de 

 Mortimer gave Shobdon to his Chief Steward, Oliver de Mer- 

 lylord, and that the latter immediately proceeded to build a 

 church. We are assured that a little chapel of wood was the 

 only ecclesiastical building which had previously stood there." 



The pleasure gardens are laid out in the Italian style, after 

 plans by the late Mr. Nesfield. They are upwards of seven 

 acres in extent, and lay all round the house. The north front 

 is the principal entrance, and the west front the private 

 entrance from the stables, and both of these gardens are laid 

 out as lawns and shrubberies. On the east and south fronts 

 are the flower gardens. The former is in the shape of a Maltese 

 cross with fountain in the centre, and the south consists of 

 two gardens on separate terraces, which are overlooked by the 

 terrace on a level with the west-east front and orangery, and 

 command a view of a lake to which they gradually slope. On 

 the north, east, and south-east are the tennis courts and croquet 

 ground, and on the south-west the rosery. Sixty thousand 

 plants are annually used to fill these beds. The kitchen 

 garden is five acres in extent and well walled-in. 



The glass consists of five good houses and .300 feet by 7 of 

 cold pits, the latter being used in winter for salads and in 

 spring for hardening off bedding plants. In the houses there 

 are some tine Orange trees, some excellent old Muscat Vines, a 

 good collection of stove plants, &a. The gardens at Shobdon 

 are under the able management of Mr. S. Yinney. 



patient's brow relaxed as he gloated over it, another chuckled, 

 a lady patient smirked, another sighed. I take it to my bed 

 with me. Every Rose-grower should read it. 



Aphis is best removed by soft soap and quassia chips, a 

 quarter of a pound of each to eight gallons of water, boiling 

 the chips for fifteen minutes. — C. C., Convalescent Home, Kent. 



PRUNING ROSES. 



Do we prune Roses too hard? I follow Mr. Hole's in- 

 structions upon pruning as set forth at pages 290 and 294 in 

 his capital " Book about Roses." 



My neighbour never prunes. His bushes are large, 4 feet 

 high, 4 feet across, but full of Roses in bloom and in bud. He 

 has twelve trees and is always pointing to their beauty. He 

 could cut " fifty grand blooms, and has hundreds coming on." 



I have 183 trees, healthy, pruned a. la Hole and Paul's 

 works, and I could only cut twelve blooms this morning. 

 Neighbour says, "You're so fond of the knife. Why don't 

 you put that knife away ? Think of the blooms you are cut- 

 ting off." This was said to me over the fence in October and 

 March. I manure highly, the orthodox " whack " as recom- 

 mended by the reverend Canon. Neighbonr never manures. 



1 give liquid manure. Neighbour never does. 



Soil here, loam with chalk subsoil. We have at least 2i feet 

 of " good Rose soil resting on chalk." " One of the oldest 

 Rose gardens in Hertfordshire, that of Dane End near Mun- 

 den, in which Roses have for many years been most success- 

 fully cultivated, has a subsoil of chalk," writes Paul. So soil 

 is not the cause of want of bloom. My trees (in their third 

 year), are on their own roots, on Manetti, and the Briar, but 

 all dwarf, Hybrid Perpetuals of the first class, as decided by 

 the Rose elections in your Journal. 



At page 202 Mr. Hole selected in his list of forty-eight 

 Roses as the most suitable for exhibition the following Roses : 

 — Alfred Colomb, 2 ; Baroness Rothschild, 5 ; Charles Lefebvre, 



2 ; Dr. Andry, 20 ; Devonieneis, IG ; Emilie Hausburg, 25 ; 

 La France, 5 ; Maruchal Niel, 1 ; Marguerite de St. Amand, 25 ; 

 Marie Baumann, 4 ; Pierre Notting, 21 ; Souvenir d'un Ami, 

 31; Celine Forestier, 82; Countess of Oxford, 11; Due de 

 Rohan, 71; Duchesse de Caylus, 52; Etienne Levet, 10; John 

 Hopper, 18 ; Mdlle. EugCnie Verdier, 14 ; Madame Victor 

 Verdier, 9 ; Marquise de Castellane, 8 ; Souvenir d'Elise, 38 ; 

 Xavior Olibo, 17; Abel Grand, 47; Camille Bernardin, 27; 

 Comtesse C. de Chabrillant, 77 ; Exposition de Brie, 61 ; Fer- 

 dinand de Lesseps, 31 ; Madame C. Joigneaux, 64 ; Francois 

 Michelon, 13; Victor Verdier, 36; Annie Wood, 50; Horace 

 Vernet, 19; Maruohal Vaillant, 84; Maurice Bernardin, 41; 

 General Jacqueminot, 03; Jules Margottin, 69; Madame Victor 

 Verdier, 9; Monsieur Noman, 53; Paul Neron, 55; Senateur 

 Vaisee, 15 ; and Souvenir de la Malmaison, 43. The numbers 

 after each represent the positions of the several Roses in your 

 last Rose election list. Out of forty-eight selected by Mr. Hole 

 the following only were unnoticed when the poll lists were 

 gathered in : — Centifolia Rosea, Elie Morel, Leopold Hausburg, 

 Madame Caillat, Devienne Lamy, Felix Genero, Louise Pey- 

 ronny, Madame Boutin, Madame Rivers, and Kubens ; and as 

 I have grown all selected by Mr. Hole, I may be allowed to add 

 my humble tribute of unqualified praise of the Canon's selec- 

 tion and of the value of his " Book about Roees," decidedly 

 the most delif^htful work and the best to follow. My oldest 



CLEMATISES IN MB. SMITH'S NURSERY, 

 WORCESTER. 



One may well exclaim, What becomes of all the Clomatisea ? 

 Perhaps few hardy ornamental plants have within the past 

 twenty years grown so much in public estimation as these 

 have. Although the Clematis is rapidly and successfully pro- 

 pagated, yet in its earlier stages it requires a good deal of care 

 and practical knowledge, else however good the means at com- 

 mand may be, the plants are liable to damp-oiif, and especially 

 if under very close confinement and in damp heat. 



Last season close on 35,000 Clematises were grown in Mr. 

 Smith's nursery ; very few of these are now on hand, and thus 

 encouraged they have gone into propagation of the Clematis 

 this season even beyond the last year's number, great as it 

 was. C. Jackmaui still holds its ground, and perhaps one- 

 half of this year's number of plants are bearing the above 

 name. Like the Hamburgh amongst the Vines (for amidst all 

 the new — " wonderful" — competitors the Black Hamburgh for 

 real usefulness has no rival) ; so Clematis Jackmani, when 

 we consider the colour of the flower and the substance of the 

 petals, along with continued profusion of bloom, makes it a 

 great favourite. For indoor culture it may be some others are 

 more attractive, some are so that are not so well suited for 

 outdoor culture. Those having very large petals are very liable 

 to be spoiled by the wind when grown outdoors. Again, some 

 are of so dark a colour they do not tell well outdoors, even at 

 a moderate distance, and yet when grown under glass they are 

 better appreciated. 



The number of their petals varies much in the different 

 varieties : some have not more than four, some five, some 

 seven, and even eight petals to a flower. A description of the 

 Clematis however correct cannot be so satisfactory as paying a 

 visit to see them when in flower, especially where they are 

 grown in such quantities and varieties as they are in Mr. 

 Smith's nursery. — Geokge Dawson. 



WEIGELAS. 



These lovely natives of China, now classed as Diervilla, are 

 the most charming of modern shrubs. It is only about thirty 

 years since Mr. Fortune brought them, in joyous company 

 with the Foreythias, to gladden us " outside barbaiiane." 

 They have since, principally, I suppose, through crosses of the 

 rosea and amabilis, bred a wonderful family, of varied growths 

 and tints of leaf and bloom. Yet one rarely sees any but the 

 old rosea outside the grounds of the rich, the nursery, or the 

 public park. This comes a good deal from their tame and 

 stingy treatment in our catalogues and dearth of effort in our 

 salesmen. A little more of just and generous rhetoric would 

 hasten every flower lover in the land to invite their smile. 

 They are almost all so hardy, all so quickly root from slips 

 and cuttings, and have such rich variety of flower and leaf tint 

 and of style, that the routine which invites and posts tiny 

 rootings of the Rose to our door-steps would soon people every 

 tasteful homestead with these tasteful Weigelas. 



Their need of some brighter-tinted word-painting takes form 

 when a leading catalogue sets down the Weigela nana varie- 

 gats, the Dwarf Striped Weigela, curtly as " a variety with 

 variegated leaves and pink flowers," and the larger old varie- 

 gated with still tamer and more stingy note. These tintlesB 

 words but faintly present the maidenly grace and purity which 

 robe this Weigela nana at the season of its bloom. Then its 

 leaflets daintily varied in white and bronze and green, from 

 among which lift gently blushing florets of an airy evanescent 

 pink, give it semblance to such a divinely chaste bouquet as 

 might have fallen from out the garden of the sky. On leaf, 

 in gentle tint of green, and in its dainty rosy bloom, it rivals 

 those limpid lingering lines that faintly tinge the far-off float- 

 ing clouds of morn or eve. It is cruel to slight such a plant 

 with word-tinting either terss or tamo. 



Again, the Weigela Desboisi, one of our foremost catalogues 

 merely notes as a " deep rose-coloured variety." Another of 

 high standing only tells us of its " immense numbers of very 

 dark rose-coloured flowers." Such dim portraiture brings out 



