404 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( November 27, 1866. 



deviating a little from my subject. My object in doing so is to 

 make my description of the Garston Vineyard as interesting 

 and instructive as possible to the numerous readers of The 

 Journal of Horticulture. 



I should like to see the western division of Mr. Meredith's 

 noble house filled with good Pines. Although they would be 

 from 12 to 15 feet from the glass I feel confident they would 

 grow very luxuriantly ; and as they could be constantly sup- 

 plied with heat, light, air, and moisture in well-regulated 

 amounts there would not be the least fear of their being drawn 

 up weakly. What a magnificent house this would be for grow- 

 ing fine specimens of Camellias, Azaleas, and stove plants. 

 Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the house when 

 I state that it would conveniently hold all the glass houses to 

 be found in a moderate-sized nursery. The whole of the roof 

 is glazed with squares of glass of about 18 inches by 12. The 

 house is well proportioned, and looks well from any point of 

 view. — J. Wills. 



(To be continued.) 



ROSES. 



A few days since, on gathering a fine bouquet of Jules Mar- 

 gottin Roses, most beautiful and fragrant as a Cabbage Rose in 

 June, and shortly afterwards some blooms of Charles Lefebvre, 

 I could not help asking myself the question, Can Roses be 

 more beautiful than these ? I then turned to my lists of new 

 Roses, now so nauseating to look over, because there is but 

 little hope of selecting one to equal the above two glorious 

 kinds. In one of these lists just received from Paris I find 

 twenty-eight new Roses with different shades of rose colour ; 

 and the idea struck me, Is it because the English are sa- 

 tiated with crimson Roses that the French growers offer a 

 majority of that colour? this being, I almost think, the first 

 season I have known it to be the case. The majority, it is 

 true, is not large, for there are twenty-three varieties of diffe- 

 rent shades of crimson — fifty-one new Hybrid Perpetual Roses ! 

 One of our most distinguished amateurs, in mentioning the 

 other day this influx of new Roses, said, " While English 

 buyers are fiats and the French growers sharps, we shall always 

 have plenty of new Roses." I almost fear there is some truth 

 in this, for the annual creation of new names for seedling 

 Roses with really no good distinctive characters is sharp, clever 

 practice. The question is, Is it fair and honest? I think 

 not. 



The French growers owe much to their language, so fertile 

 is it in descriptive phrases. The clever grower mentioned by 

 your correspondent "D., Deal," in page 345, wields these 

 phrases with wonderful facility. He is about to send out ten 

 new Roses raised by himself ; let us read the termination of a 

 magnificent description given to each. No. 1 is a "vari4ti 

 extra;" 2, " tris belie variiti ;" 3, " superbevariSlSs" i,"tris 

 bonne varict* : ;" 5, " variitG revtarquable ;" 6, "iris bonne va- 

 ried;" 7, " variete hors ligne ;" 8, "variiti tris remarquable ;" 

 9, " variete extra de tout premier ordre, et d'nn etl'et incompa- 

 rable." Modest, this ! 10, " tris belle imriete." 



No. 1 has six lines of description awarded to it, well loaded 

 with praise. In English it has green shoots, brown thorns, 

 green leaves — all most rare qualities — and flowers large, of a 

 bright velvety crimson shaded with purple : this colour may be 

 seen in a dozen of our well-established favourites. No. 2 has 

 also green shoots, brown thorns, green leaves, and very large 

 flowers ; its colour carmine shaded with blush. There is 

 nothing rare in this, but then its name is new. Who Jules 

 Calot is we know not here. The above I give as a sample of 

 the descriptions appended to these new Roses, ten in number, 

 the cost of which is £9. With regard to Napoleon III., its 

 description is almost ridiculous. It is probably a good Rose, 

 but I would rather hear half a dozen words from that quiet 

 good judge of Roses, Mr. Hedge, of Colchester, as to its quali- 

 ties, than the threescore and ten used by M. Eugene Yerdier 

 in his description. He seems to thoroughly understand the 

 axiom, " The true success in advertising is self-glorification." 

 In the catalogue of M. Charles Verdier, the younger brother of 

 M. Eugene, a modest English-like man, whose word may be 

 taken without the smallest grain of salt, this quasi-famous 

 Rose is well described in five short lines. With regard to the 

 boasted quality of this and many new crimson Roses of being 

 composed of two colours — scarlet and violet or purple, this is 

 very common with many kinds during the summer, depending 

 upon changes in the weather. I have even seen Le Rhone 

 shaded with purple, a beautiful set off to its brilliant scarlet ; 



and Charles Lefebvre last season was often so beautifully 

 shaded with violet and dark crimson as scarcely to be recog- 

 nised. 



I sometimes wonder how many Hybrid Perpetual Roses we 

 have had offered to us by the French growers since the advent 

 of the first — nearly a thousand. The first of this race must 

 be now nearly forgotten. I can never forget its name — "Le 

 Df-sespoir des Amateurs." Why the despair? I take it that 

 all amateurs on seeing this variety must despair of raising 

 such a Rose. So at least thought the popular Rose-grower of 

 that day. After much trouble and at a heavy cost I procured 

 a plant of this great rarity, the first of its race. As far as I 

 can recollect, it seemed to be a hybrid of the old Burnet-leaved 

 Rose (Rosa sanguisorbif olia) , and the first season it showed 

 its tendency to produce flowers in autumn ; but to the utter 

 despair of all amateurs neither they nor the flower-buds pro- 

 duced in summer would open, and so its culture was soon dis- 

 continued, our despair widely different from that intended by 

 its name. 



With respect to the new Roses now so abundantly produced 

 by the Paris growers, how is it that an enterprising grower who 

 had last summer ten new Roses to be sent out this autumn, 

 did not, on some Friday evening iast June, gather flowers of, 

 say, five of them, pack them in a box, and start by the night 

 mail ? He might have made his appearance with them in 

 good order on Saturday at the weekly show ai South Kensing- 

 ton. If the Roses thus brought direct from the fountain head 

 had been really distinct and good ho would have been amply 

 rewarded by the full confidence of English Rose amateurs ; 

 and if only two or three arrived in good condition they would 

 have had a better effect than all the tris bonnes, tris belles, and 

 incomparables of his catalogue. It is most difficult to see a 

 new Rose in a good state in France. It is either too dry or 

 too wet, too late or too early. You inquire, and most probably 

 you have the well-known shrug and exclamation, "Ah! Mon- 

 sieur, vous est trop tard." I hope, therefore, now good Roses 

 are so abundant, and new distinct ones so rare, that my 

 suggestion will be acted upon, and that before we are required 

 to pay twenty-fiTe francs for a Rose with a new name we shall 

 be able to see if it is worth the money. — A Lover of a Good 

 Rose. 



CULTURE OF VARIEGATED ZONALE 

 PELARGONIUMS 



My experience obliges me to differ from Mr. Pearson as to 

 mixing the soil so long before using it. I think such mixing 

 and frequent turnings shake the soil out of, and destroy the 

 fibre of turfy loam too much. I prefer taking it from a stack, 

 cut 3 inches thick from an old pasture two years previously, 

 chopping it up, but not very fine, except for small plants, and 

 mixing with it a little partially decayed leaf soil, and a little 

 dry flaky cowdung broken into small pieces. I do not care to 

 have much manure in the soil, as I prefer feeding the plants 

 with pretty strong liquid manure. 



I have at present a great many plants of Sunset, Mrs. Pollock, 

 Lucy Grieve, Sophia Dumaresque, Mrs. Benyon, Lavinia, 

 Italia Unita, and others. They are all in the most robust health, 

 on a shelf near the glass. They are certainly not kept warm, 

 for the top lights are run down below them in the morning 

 soon after daylight when fine, and remain there until near 

 dark at night, and, when not frosty, front air is left on all 

 night. 



I prefer rooting all my cuttings of these kinds in the summer 

 in the open air with the ordinary scarlets. If too late in the 

 season for that, I would leave them on the old plants until the 

 spring. 



I think the strong clayey loam of which " H. M. K." speaks 

 must have been pretty rich. I had in a bed last year 150 plants 

 of Mrs. Pollock, which grew luxuriantly, with most beautiful 

 colouring in the foliage, but the bed was made very much richer 

 than for Tom Thumbs, and I think justly so, because richness 

 for the ordinary scarlets would produce a great amount of over- 

 luxuriant foliage where bloom is wanted ; but with Pelargo- 

 niums of the Mrs. Pollock class, large and high-coloured 

 foliage is the effect wanted.— W. Hockney, IVussand. 



Crataegus pyracantha.— I consider this one of the most 

 ornamental of shrubs for covering the wall of a cottage. Grow- 

 ing at the end of my cottage there is one which was a few weeks 



