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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 21, 1866. 



Wellington (Charles Verdier), Diichesse de Caylus (Charles 

 Verdier), Duchesse de Medina Cceli (Marest), Madame Charles 

 Verdier (Lacharme), Marguerite de St. Aniand (Jainain), 

 Jean Rosenkiantz (Porteruer), Triomphe de la Terro des Roses 

 (Guillot pure), Xavier Olibo (Lacharme), Madame Moreau 

 (Gonod), Charles Wood (Portemer), and Souvenir de Bernardin 

 St. Pierre (Guillot fils), and I believe that the best varieties of 

 the year are now, after we have had the opportunity of testing 

 them, with one or two exceptions, to be found in this list, 

 which was drawn up partly from observation, and partly from 

 supposition ; for the following I believe to be the best of the 

 list : — Duchesse de Caylus, Dr. Andry, Marguerite de St. Amand, 

 and, pei haps, Due de Wellington; in the second rank, some 

 treading very closely on these, I would place Bushton Radclyffe, 

 Madame Moreau, Madame Arnelie Halphen, M. Boncenno, 

 and Xavier Olibo ; all the others are pretty good in some sort 

 of way, but not coming up to my ideas of acquisitions. There 

 are several of them which I dure say will be prized by exhibitors 

 for some time to come, but judging them by the standard of 

 excellence that I would set up as that to which I would have all 

 raisers aspire, I will now give my reasons for discarding them, 

 and also why I place those I have named. 



Ducli, .'xi' if,- Caylus is the premier H.P. of the year, lovely in 

 colour, a beautiful soft carmine rose, and, as Mr. Kent justly 

 says, perfect in form. 



Marguerite de St. Amand. — Any one who had the opportunity 

 of seeing Mr. Cant's stand of this at the National Rose Show, 

 can have no doubt as to the position in which I have placed it. 

 It is a light rose-coloured flower of large size, and good shape, 

 nothing coarse about it. 



Due de Wellington. — Brilliant in colour, splendid in petal, 

 hut I have noticed that it has not been much shown. Whether 

 this implies any delicacy of constitution I know not, as I have 

 never had it. 



It will thus be seen that Charles Verdier has two of the 

 Al varieties (and as he only sent out two, this says much), 

 Eugene Verdier one, and Jamain one. 



Of those which I have placed in the second rank, 



Dr. Andry is a fine flower of good shape and brilliant in 

 colour. A friend to whom I gave a plant says he thinks it 

 and Charles Lefcbvre the best two Roses he ever had. I do 

 not go quite so far as this, but think it a fine Rose. 



Rushton Radclyffe is a fine full Rose, of the Francois La- 

 charme and Madame Furtado type. It was said by some to be 

 delicate, but Mr. Radclyffe says no, and I have seen it very 

 vigorous ; but I fear it will not do everywhere, and so I put it 

 as second-rate. 



Madame Moreau. — Undoubtedly a fine showy Rose, as Mr. 

 Keynes's stand of it testified, but it is one of those fiat, saucer- 

 like flowers which we do not want. 



Madame Amelie Halphen. — A very delicately-coloured pretty 

 flower, hut I fancy not quite full enough. Too apt to show the 

 eye. 



Monsieur Boncenne. — A very dark and gcod-shaped Rose, in 

 colour something like Prince Camille de Rohan, but a better- 

 shaped flower. I should have put it in the first class if I 

 were quite sure that it was full enough, a fact I rather doubt. 



Xavier olibo. — Very near being one of the best. The petal is 

 large and thick, the colour glorious, hut it has an ugly cleft- 

 way of opening its bud, and the consequence is that few of 

 the flowers open well. 



Abbf Berleze is pretty, and would be admired by some. 

 Belle Normande is too washy in colour. Charles AVood is a 

 fine dark colour, but we have many like it ; the same may be 

 said of General d'Hautpoult. Jean Rosenkrantz is a good 

 colour, but not lemarkable. Madame Charles Verdier is not 

 good in shape. Madame Elise Viimorin is brilliant enough in 

 colour, but rough. Chailes Margottin is a very showy Rose, 

 but it wants form. Semiraniis and Triomphe des Francais 

 are good enough, but we ha7e others quite " as good as they." 



And so our list is pruned. Ah! what patience and disappoint- 

 ment our English Rose-growers musi experience, to propagate a 

 lot of worthless varieties, and then to have to throw them away ! 

 and unless more attention is paid to the antecedents of raisers, 

 and less to high-flown descriptions, it will always be fo. I 

 know what it is from seeing my friend and neighbour Mr. Banks 

 over his seedling Fuchsias ; he consigns to destruction literally 

 thousands eveiy year, of which many persons would consider a 

 large number quite good enough to send out. He, however, 

 has a high standard, and where another would overlook a 

 trifling defect of shape, or colour, or habit, or inconstancy, 

 he ruthlessly consigns them to destruction. Some of the French 



raisers act thus ; hut others send out their flowers, and leave 

 us to discover that while in many points the description held 

 good, there was one little point omitted which altered the 

 whole character. — D., Deal. 



ORCHARD-HOUSE CULTURE. 



Two or three weeks ago a letter appeared in your Journal 

 from a correspondent who described himself as the parson of 

 a parish, in which ho gave your readers the benefit of his ex- 

 perience as regards orchard-house culture. His letter was 

 interesting to me, partly I suppose on the principle that " birds 

 of a feather flock together " (for I, also, am a country parson), 

 and also because the system which he described so nearly re- 

 sembled that which I have myself pursued, that I felt I could 

 endorse nearly all his statements. Now, as my orchard-house 

 is pronounced a decided success in this part of the country, 

 perhaps a few words from me may be acceptable to some df 

 your readers, and I shall be glad indeed if any observations of 

 mine prove useful to those who have lately invested their 

 money in orchard-houses. First of all, let me just say that I 

 attribute my success to the implicit obedience which I have 

 paid to the directions furnished by those Arcades umbo, Mr. 

 Bivers and the Rev. T. Brehaut, and I most strongly urge 

 others to do the same, as I am quite sure that the reason why 

 some of my neighbours have met with comparative failure, is 

 because they have not paid sufficient attention to the valuable 

 information contained in such books as " The Orchard-House," 

 aud '• Cordon-Training of Fruit Trees," but have left their 

 trees to the tender mercies of their gardeners, the ignorance 

 of some of whom is often the measure of their prejudice and 

 presumption. 



It is now four years since I built a cheap orchard-house, 

 over ground which I had carefully prepared for the purpose. 

 Spade iu hand I set to work, eniployiug myself during my 

 leisure hours in excavating a trench 45 feet long, 14 feet broad, 

 and 4 feet deep, placing all the good soil outside, and harrowing 

 that which was bad or indifferent to fill up a hollow in my field. 

 It was splendid exercise — perhaps I should say hard work — 

 this digging, sine otio (as Mr. Brehaut has it), but not so hard as I 

 remember it was tugging at the end of an oar in the University 

 race between Westminster Bridge aud Putney — dear me ! I do 

 not like to think how many years ago. It was with no little 

 pleasure I assure you that I at length surveyed the result of 

 my labour — a tidy hole as some one called it ; but it would not 

 do to stand long gazing on vacancy, so I soon commenced the 

 work of paving the bottom with large pieces of clunch stones, 

 brickbats, and anything else that would serve as drainage, 

 overlaying these with a quantity of cinder ashes, which I 

 rammed down hard and smooth. I then threw in all the old 

 faggots I could find, plenty of leaves and gaiden refuse, and 

 next shovelled in the good soil, mixing it with bones and dung, 

 giving it also a copious urenching with the contents of a tank, 

 which is the receptacle of the liquor which is drained from my 

 scullery — capital stuff for Strawberries, I may mention, but 

 likely, I should think, to stink in the nostrils of inspectors of 

 nuisances. My friends the farmers were very good to me, carting 

 in, free of expense, I know not how many loads of splendid 

 virgin fibrous mould. 



Against the back wall of my house are trained Peach and 

 Nectarine trees on the triple cordon plan invented by the Rev. 

 T. Biehaut, which I beg highly to lecommend, as elegant, pro- 

 ductive, and having the advantage of making available every 

 inch of the wall. A foot and a half from the wall is a path 

 2J feet wide, having an ornamental edging. The remaining 

 space is filled with pyramidal trees in pots, Apricots, Peaches, 

 and Nectarines, all paragons of perfection, as in consequence 

 of regular syringing, the application of Gishurst compound 

 in the winter, and early fumigation in the spring, I have not 

 been in the least degree troubled w.th either aphides or red 

 spider. Beneath each rafter and round each pillar is trained 

 a Grape Vine, each having on the average eight large well- 

 thinned bunches of either Muscat or Black Hamburgh Grapes, 

 which alone would repay me for the original expense of my 

 house. Half the number of my potted trees (which were re- 

 tain! d uueer glass until June), are planted outside ; from them 

 I have already gathered ripe fruit of exquisite flavour and 

 colour. I have a pump inside my house, supplied by the rainfall 

 from the glass, and which, although I have drawn rather heavily 

 upon its resources, has not yet failed me. I have twenty zinc 

 pails arranged on one side of the path, in which the water is 



