September 18, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



219 



allowed to gain an ascendency before seeking to destroy it, for 

 it may then have done irreparable mischief. It should be 

 destroyed when first seen. The next enemy to the Rose-bud 

 is a small maggot,. which folds itself up in the leaves and eats 

 into the very centre of the flower-buds when little larger than 

 a pea. The plants should be daily examined, and when the 

 leaves are folded up, or two are sticking together, between 

 them will be found a small black-headed maggot. 



Mildew sometimes attacks the leaves and shoots. It may 

 be destroyed by frequent syringings and dusting with flowers 

 of sulphur. 



After the blooming is over the plants should not be suddenly 

 exposed or turned out-doors, but be gradually hardened off, 

 and have the protection of a frame or pit until danger from 

 frost is past. When hardened off the most promising may be 

 shifted from 8 into 11-inch pots ; and the weakest, or those 

 in ti-inch pots, may be transferred into K-inch pots. Give 

 them the benefit of a close frame for a few days, then gra- 

 dually harden off, and plunge the pots to the rim in coal 

 ashes in a sheltered situation, yet open to the sun, affording 

 them plenty of room. The material in which they are plunged 

 should be as well drained as the pots, for stagnant water lodging 

 about the plants will cause the leaves to become yellow and 

 fall, and immature shoots will be the result. The pots should 

 be frequently lifted to prevent the plants rooting through ; 

 and if worms rind their way in they are to be driven out 

 by watering with clear lime water. Remove all suckers as they 

 appear, and throughout the summer the soil should be liberally 

 supplied with water, keeping it in a healthy growing condition, 

 extremes of dryness and wetness being avoided. Any strong 

 gross shoots may be stopped at the eighth leaf, and this up to 

 the end of August, but in the majority of instances the removal 

 of the flower-buds as they show will be sufficient stopping; if, 

 however, plants for a late bloom are desired, then those earliest 

 forced should, in a fortnight or three weeks after potting, be 

 cut in to six eyes if strong, to three or four if moderately 

 strong, or to two if weak. Such plants, having the surface of 

 the pots covered with rotten manure, and being well but not 

 excessively supplied with water, and frequently syringed over- 

 head, will produce a fine crop of flowers in autumn. During 

 their period of bloom keep them in a cool, light, airy house, 

 and there continue them until the leaves begin to fall ; then 

 remove them to a frame or sheltered and dry situation until 

 February, when, if the drainage be put in order and the surface 

 soil replaced, they will be eligible for gentle forcing again. 

 These plants, it is presumed, were the earliest forced, con- 

 sequently potted whilst under glass, and pruned as above de- 

 scribed after a few days' exposure in the open air, which will 

 be in June. This is not a good practice, as it weakens the 

 plants, and interferes with the forcing stock. The only kinds 

 eligible are the Perpetuals. 



Those not forced until February, will not have shed their 

 flowers until May is far advanced. They should not be potted 

 until placed out of doors, and water having been withheld 

 from them for a fortnight to the extent of causing them to rest 

 without actually destroying them, but sufficiently to cause the 

 lower leaves to fall, they may be pruned in July. Liberally 

 treated with copious syringings, and water supplied alternately 

 with liquid manure, they will grow strongly and afford a fine 

 bloom late in autumn. If a very late bloom be desired, then 

 any buds that may form after pinching all out up to the 

 middle of August, should be allowed to remain. When frosts 

 occur the plants should have the protection of an airy green- 

 house, and they must be wintered in a frame after blooming. 



Without a large stock of plants it is absolutely destructive 

 to the forcing stock to take a second crop of flowers ; it is 

 better to grow a fresh stock for forcing when the original forced 

 stock is retained for a late bloom, and plants in the open 

 ground supply Roses sufficiently late in most localities. 



The plants not being cut back, but only their irregular 

 growths shortened, will merely require to have the drainage 

 examined, the surface soil removed, and the application of a 

 top-dressing of loam and rotten manure in equal parts, observ- 

 ing in looking to the drainage to remove worms. This top- 

 dressing is not to be given until most of the leaves have fallen, 

 and the shoots are mature. The best plants may then be 

 pruned, and placed in a cool structure to remain until wanted 

 for forcing. These being the earliest matured will best answer 

 for early forcing, which may commence about the middle of 

 December. The others as they shed their foliage should be 

 top-dressed, and placed in a cold frame, continuing to prune a 

 certain number every fortnight after the first batch, and to in- 



troduce them into heat after they have been pruned that length 

 of time. It is better to pruno the plants and keep them rather 

 dry for a fortnight or three weeks prior to forcing, than to place 

 them in the house unpruned and with the soil wet. A suffi- 

 cient stock should be kept to make up for defective plants, 

 which, however careful and painstaking the cultivator may be, 

 will certainly occur. 



If the plants are on the Briar, or the potting has been de- 

 layed, it should be performed early in September, doing it very 

 carefully, removing as much old soil as possible, and working 

 fresh in between the roots. It is, however, much better to pot 

 in the end of May, or early in June, only if the weather be hot 

 and dry, Roses on the Briar are liable to suffer, but this may 

 be obviated by shading for a few days. 



The third year it may not be necessary to repot (but if large 

 plants are desired the most promising may be shifted into a 

 larger size of pot), it being only necessary to give two or three 

 top-dressings of manure during the summer, and to top-dress 

 with soil in autumn before pruning. The drainage should 

 be looked to at the same time. If the plants are as large as you 

 wish, they may be turned out of their pots, have the greater 

 part of the soil shaken away, tho roots cut in, and be potted in 

 the same pots. This is a matter of necessity very often, as 

 the roots go to the bottom of the pots, leaving the top soil un- 

 occupied : hence to raise the plants and pot with fresh soil is a 

 matter of moment, and the plants generally do well afterwards. 

 The removal of the soil, and pruning the roots, should only be 

 moderate, confined as regards tho latter operation to the large 

 roots, the fibres having merely the tops removed. 



In this way Roses may be grown and forced in the same pots 

 for years, and the size of the plants may be increased by in- 

 creasing the size of the pots ; but some will fail, others become 

 so weak as not to be worth growing ; therefore, a supply must 

 be drawn from the reserve, which should not be to collect 

 when wanted. — G. Abbey. 



(To be continued.) 



AMONG THE SCOTTISH BRAES, LOCHS, AND 

 MOUNTAINS.— No 4. 



The Saponaria calabrica is much cultivated in the gardens 

 on the banks of the Frith of Clyde, and I never saw it so 

 brightly and densely blooming. It is employed both as an 

 edging, and as a bedding plant. La the centre of a small lawn, 

 one bed, oval in shape, and the soil rising in the form of a 

 rounded ridge throughout its length, is planted along the apes 

 of the ridge, and filling one-third of the width of the bed, with 

 Perilla nankinensis ; all round the Perilla, and, consequently, 

 filling the other two-thirds of the bed is Saponaria calabrica. 

 The Perilla is stopped so as not to exceed the Saponaria in 

 height. The bed is decidedly effective. 



Continuing my walk I arrived at the nursery of Mr. Robert 

 Purvis, close to Dunoon, and there was the Saponaria grown 

 as an edging. He said that it blooms freely and very endu- 

 ringly, the light, siliceous soil, resting on slate, and the moist 

 climate suit its temperament. I wish that that climate were 

 more suited to mine ; for about a fortnight I have scarcely been 

 out except under a mackintosh and umbrella. No wonder so 

 many naked feet, legs, and heads are seen ; they do not decay 

 as shoes, stockings, and bonnets do from never-ceasing excess 

 of wet. 



There are three other ornaments of our gardens which are 

 here strikingly vigorous— Pentstemons, Phloxes, and Roses. 

 Their flowers are large and brilliantly coloured, betokening 

 health, and the leaves of the Roses very rarely exhibit brown 

 blotches, or other symptoms of deficient strength. This re- 

 cording of good health among plants reminds me that there is 

 no disease this year among the Potatoes hereabouts. 



Mr. Purvis's nursery is very unpretending, aiming at little 

 more than the supply of bouquets to the excursionists from 

 Glasgow, and the supply of Gooseberries, Raspberries, Straw- 

 berries, and vegetables to the Dunoon residents, yet there is 

 one of his practices which more distinguished establishments 

 might adopt with great satisfaction to their visitors, and great 

 saving of questioning to their men. All the plants have tallies 

 affixed by them, on which their names are legibly written ; and 

 this naming is not confined to species, but is extended to all 

 the varieties. 



This nursery occupies no more than about seven acres, and 

 tho fact reminded me that the nursery commenced by Bums's 

 father was of similar extent. It is a positive satisfaction to 



