April 17, 1866. ] 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



283 



M.VNETTI STOCKS FOR ROSES. 



^^.S 



FTEN lately I liave intended 

 to add 11 few remarks of inv 

 own on tlie iimcli-Tentilated 

 Bubjcot of Manetti stocks, 

 and the letter of a " Country 

 Cur-vte" in yoiu' impression 

 of tlie .'^rd inst. has indnced me to send you the follomiif;, 

 though I am afraid, as so much has been said by such able 

 rosariaus as Mr. Kent, Jlr. Radcl3-ft'e, and others, I shall 

 not be able to add much that is new. 



First, I will begin by replying to " CoDNTnY Cun.iTF.'s " 

 question as to the form of Rose-gro-n-ing best suited to 

 his soil. I apprehend that his soil may be said to be a 

 tenacious loam with a good deal of humus in it, and 

 very likely, from its retaining the moisture a good deal 

 in winter (as appears to be the ease from the manner 

 in which many of his JIanetti cuttings perish), there will 

 be a considerable amount of humic and geic acid in the 

 soil. The natiu'e of the subsoil, also, leads nie to suppose 

 that there is in the gravel a consideralile quantity of ii'on, 

 ■wliich is very injurious to the roots of all fniit trees, and 

 of Roses also. ^Manetti stocks being more fibrous-rooted. 

 and less inclined to produce tap roots than the Briar, their 

 roots mil not be so liable to penetrate into the subsoO. as 

 those of the Dog Rose. The length of shoot that " Country 

 Curate's " Roses have made in one year from the bud. 

 would lead me to think that the best form in wliich he 

 could gi'ow Roses on the Manetti stock would be as dwarf 

 pillar Roses, encouraging a strong, or two or three strong, 

 shoots from the bottom of the plant eacli j'ear, and cutting 

 a'5\'ay all old wood wlien it ■was more than two years old. 

 He %\ill not obtain so great a head or, perhaps, so many 

 blooms in this way. but he will have the satisfaction of tind- 

 ing liis blooms far finer than if he cncoiu'agcd the plants to 

 make bushy heads, and also that the strength of the shoots 

 from the gromid will each year materially increase. I have 

 found, too, by experience, that the yoimg vigorous shoots, 

 when well ripened, are far more hardy than the old wood. 

 I have suifered severely this year from a frost on the 1st of 

 JIarch ; all my Roses up to that time had been gi'owmg, 

 many of the yoimg shoots expanding leaves. On the even- 

 ing of the 2Hth of Febniary a sleety rain was followed 

 by '.i or :i inches of snow, and in tlie middle of tlic night 

 a severe frost came on, the thermometer, 4 feet ii'oiu the 

 ground, falling li° between eleven o'clock at night and 

 seven the next morning, when it stood at 15° Fahrenheit. 

 This was a most severe ordeal for the Roses. Coming after 

 such a warm winter, the consequence was every yoimg 

 shoot that had pushed was cut back, and in many instaujces 

 Uie old wood has sutlered too, but hardly any of the j'ounger 

 and more vigorous shoots. Another advantage of con- 

 tinually cutting away old wood and inducing shoots from 



No. 264.— Vol. X., New Series, 



tlie base is, that the gi'owth is so much stronger, that it is 

 thick enough to supply a sutficiency of sap to obtain more 

 perfect show Roses on one stem than by any other means, 

 and it does not require the same tying up and support as 

 weaker shoots do. I always allow the shoots to grow in 

 the autumn as long as tliey choose, having had some 

 General Jacqueminot on foiu'-year-old plants with from 

 10 to ll.J feet shoots from the base in one autumn : these 

 I shorten and tie up before winter, but I do nut finish tinal 

 pruning till March or tlie beginning of April, according to 

 season. Of course if quantity and not quality of bloom 

 is the object desired, then more of the old stems must 

 be kept m, and the plant trained in bush or pyramidal 

 fashion. 



Now a few words as to the propagation of !Manetti. 

 One of tlie chief points is to choose the right sort of wood 

 for cuttings ; for this purpose it is better to devote a spare 

 corner to some old plants, which may be allowed to grow un- 

 restricted to fm'uish strimg shoots. The longer, straighter, 

 and cleaner the shoots for cuttmgs the better. Cut them 

 into lengths of from '.) inches to a foot ; pick out all tlie 

 bottom eyes, and cut the shoot square across at a joint. 

 Plant them about 4 or 5 inches deep, and earth them up in 

 rows, lik'C Potatoes, to within 2 or .') inches from the top. 

 The cuttuigs are best put in from the second weelc in 

 August to the last week in September, and should be 

 •watered for the first three or four weeks if the weather 

 is very dry. The cuttuigs may be transplanted in the 

 foUowhig autmnn, and planted in the same way in rows 

 about :3 feet apart and 1 foot from plant to plant ; but 

 some of the most forward of the cuttings wHl be fit for 

 budding on the next spring where they were struck. I 

 need hardly add that the best way of budding is to insert 

 the bud ill the stem wliich formed the cutting, by levelling 

 down the ridge. I do not agree -with " Ciu-ntuy Cuuatk " 

 in ever tliinldng it a good plan to earth up the plants asjain 

 after they arc budded : it is better to put a little clean 

 straw on each side of the rows to protect them in the winter, 

 mulching the ground inth manure between. If " Country 

 Curate " wishes to have the buds push, so as to make 

 plants to transplant the same autumn, he may do so by 

 budding !n..July as soon as he can obtain good buds. As 

 the part of the INIanetti on wliich the bud is inserted is 

 always covered with soil till the time of budding, the stem 

 is kept moist, and is not hardened by the sun, so that the 

 bark will almost always separate easily for the insertion of 

 the bud. I have kno^Ti stocks bud very well in the first 

 week in July. 



Next, with respect to planting Roses on the ^lanetti 

 stock. Many persons used to fail by not burying the bud. 

 but now it is universally allowed that the collar of the 

 Ruse shoidd be covered with soil, and many persons 

 err in the opposite extreme, and plant the union of the 

 scion and stock from to 8 inches below the surface of 

 the ground. I have now gi'owu Roses on the Jlanetti 

 stock for twelve or thirteen years, and my rule has always 

 been to plant about -i inches below the surface ; by tliis 

 means I have never been troubled with ^Manetti suckers, 

 or rather shoots ; for the Manetti stock, in spite of what 



No. 916.— Vol. XXXV., Old Series. 



