312 



JODENAL OP HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ AptU 22, 18T5. 



for frames, its large size causing it to occupy, and in reality to 

 waste, mnoh valuable space ; all the large spreading outer 

 leaves being worthless for salads. 



The crop that is now being used is from seed sown August 

 the 1st, and transplanted along the foot of a Peach waU facing 

 the south on September the 12th. All the Tear Round Cab- 

 bage Lettuce and Walker's Sugarloaf Cos were sown and 

 transplanted to a similar position on the same dates. They 

 will form a capital succession to the Stanstead, and will be 

 followed in torn by Bath Cos and Kingsholme Cos, which had 

 been sown a fortnight later. — Edward Luckhobsi. 



EOSE TEEES AND FEOST. 



I HAVE read Mr. Peach's communication, and fear that on 

 this occasion we must stiU be content to diiier. I am gratified 

 to hear that, as a rule, our opinions agree. For my own part 

 I have to thank him for many interesting communications, and 

 have usually found that my own experience coincides with his 

 both in the matter of Rose and Strawberry culture. 



Mr. Peach admits that old wood may be enfeebled by the 

 growth of young wood from the base, but thinks that this will 

 not account for the frost killing old wood still strong and 

 vigorous. One does not, of course, dispute the fact that frosts 

 are occasionally severe enough to cut down all Roses to the 

 ground whether strong or weak. This is not the point at 

 issue. What we want to discover is, How it is that the old 

 wood is, as a rule, the first to succumb to frost, while the 

 strong green shoots thrown-up from the base hold out to the 

 last. What makes the difference ? Mr. Peach introduces the 

 Delphinium formosum as an instance of a plant, the young 

 growth of which will stand a very low temperature in spring, 

 but the matured growth of which is cut down by a slight frost 

 in autumn. It is hardly safe, however, to compare the Rose with 

 other plants, or we shall be lost in a maze of diifieulties over 

 the vagaries of frost and the surprising difference in its effect 

 on various forms of vegetation. Why, for instance, should 1° or 

 2° of frost sufiioe to destroy the Heliotrope, while the Calceo- 

 laria by its side endures without injury some 8° or 10° ? I am 

 not aware that there is any such vast difference in the struc- 

 tures of the two plants to account for this difference of consti- 

 tution. The frozen sap would have an equal chance of ex- 

 pansion in each, and yet one dies and the other survives. It 

 would be useless to multiply instances of this sort. Every 

 gardener knows that the appearance and structure of his 

 plant is but a very slight guide as to the climate it is fitted 

 for ; and does this not plainly prove that, although the action 

 of frost is to a certain extent mechanical, its effects differ, not 

 BO much from differences in the structure of plants as be- 

 cause the Creator has given to each plant a constitution which 

 fits it to occupy the position in which it is placed, and renders 

 it capable of enduring without injury the various extremes 

 of temperature to which it is usually exposed in its native 

 home ? 



Now, in the case of Roses, when one finds that certain plants 

 and certain portions of plants which ought to be as hardy as 

 the rest which survive, nevertheless succumb to frost, I believe 

 we must look further than for some mere difference in the 

 structure of the wood or the mechanical action of the frost. 

 Observation teUs me that the more vigorous the plants are the 

 better they are able to withstand a low temperature ; that 

 when a number of plants are destroyed by frost it is usually 

 the youngest which survive ; that when portions only of 

 plants are destroyed it is usually the young strong wood that 

 escapes ; that standards, owing to an artificial system of cul- 

 ture, are, as a rule, less hardy than dwarfs, and in case of 

 severe frost succumb first. Mr. Peach says that in 1860 he 

 lost ninety-eight standards out of one hundred plants which, 

 he adds, were pruned in the very manner I advocated in my 

 last ; but surely Mr. Peach does not suppose that I was re- 

 ferring to any but dwarf Roses when I pointed out the two 

 methods of cultivation whereby the wood might be kept in a 

 vigorous and frost-proof condition ? 



The loss of so many standards confirms me in my opinion 

 that they died from the effect of the low temperature acting on 

 a weakened constitution, which rendered them less hardy than 

 the same varieties on dwarf stocks. If it were owing to any 

 peculiarity in the structure of the wood, why were standards 

 only kUled ? Surely there must have been some young shoots 

 among them as well as old, and surely the structure of the 

 wood cannot differ so materially on standard and dwarf stocks. 

 Now, as I pointed out in my last, if one desires to keep either 



a plant or a shoot strong and healthy, the circulation of the 

 sap must be fully maintained during the season of active 

 growth throughout the whole of that plant or shoot. Any- 

 thing which tends to impede, obstruct, or divert this circula- 

 tion tends also to lower the constitutional vigour of that por- 

 tion which loses its necessary supply of sap. The tendency of 

 most Roses is to renew their wood periodically from the base, 

 and thus to maintain their life and vigour — the old wood 

 gradually dying away, and the young shoots taking its place. 

 The hedgerow Briar is no exception to this general rule, as 

 anyone may see tor themselves who chooses to take a stroU 

 down some country lane where Briars abound. In the autumn 

 he wUl see shoots from <j to 10 feet long standing up above the 

 hedgerows as thick as a man's thumb, most of which spring 

 from the base of the old wood. Does the frost, I wonder, ever 

 kill any of them as long as they are allowed to manage them- 

 selves in their own way? Bat they are torn violently from 

 their homes, decapitated, mutilated at their heels, planted 

 without roots in a dried-up condition, and when they do 

 manage to live are put to the torture in various ways during 

 their season of active growth. The stocks try to make roots, 

 and throw out a multitude of side shoots to forward their 

 endeavours. All but three or four near the top are removed ; 

 the consequence is rooting is checked, and feeling a trifie ill 

 they throw-up suckers, which are at once pulled-up. At budding 

 time two or three buds are inserted of a Rose probably which 

 has about a tenth part of the natural vigour of the Briar. The 

 next season, after enduring stUl further torture, the buds 

 start. At the same time the poor Briar makes another effort 

 to prolong its existence in the shape of more side shoots and a 

 few more suckers, all of which are ruthlessly removed, or they 

 would rob the bud. Well, the bud grows and forms its head, 

 and a grand head it is ; so unnaturally small compared with its 

 sturdy trunk that it is utterly unable to draw up a tenth part 

 of the sap which that trunk requires. It can supply its own 

 little wants, it is true ; but what can its half-dozen leaves do 

 for the Briar in return ? Why, it can scarcely breathe. The 

 weaker the variety budded on the stock the more suckers it 

 will now try and throw up, and the sooner, if those efforts are 

 defeated by the careful rosarian, will it languish and die. Mr. 

 Peach knows as well as I that some sorts of Roses which are 

 weak growers will only drag out a brief existence of one 

 or two seasons on the standard Briar do what one will, and 

 that a good sharp frost will kill scores of these weaklings. 

 People wonder how it is that so many of their plants die. They 

 think it is the frost, or the drought, or the green fly ; anything, 

 in short, but the real reason — that they are cultivated in 

 opposition to Nature. 



But, cannot a standard Briar be kept healthy? Yes, by 

 budding it with a very strong-growing variety. I have just 

 cut down an old standard Gloire de Dijon which must have 

 been nearly fifteen years old. It had shoots from 10 to 20 feet 

 long. The stock increased in thickness every year, and never 

 threw up suckers. Why ? Because the lai'ge head supphed 

 all its wants, and kept up the circulation of the sap to and 

 from the roots, for one is quite as necessary as the other. Bud 

 a Briar standard with Charles Lawson or La VUle de St. Denis 

 — grow it well to form a large head, and it will live almost as 

 long as you like, and defy all but the severest frost. Why did 

 the frost kUl Mr. Peach's Briars ? Answer — because there was 

 not one of them truly healthy. If anyone can prove that I am 

 wrong I am ready to stand corrected. — R. W. Beachey. 



OECHIDS AT MESSES. VEITCH'S NDESERT. 

 As an addition to the excellent report which appeared in the 

 Journal (page 158), a few remarks on some of the Orchids 

 which have subsequently flowered may be interesting to some 

 readers. Orchids are being more extensively cultivated than 

 formerly, and many persons take to this class of flowers as a 

 hobby who know but little of gardening generally ; they give 

 much personal attention to their pets, and in time become 

 intimately acquainted with their requirements. In some ia- 

 stanees gentlemen begin collections of Orchids and engage a 

 gardener who knows but little more of the business than they 

 do themselves, and gardener and master acquire a practical 

 knowledge of the plants together very often by paying well fca: 

 it. Leaving out the mistakes made in culture, there is one 

 grievous error very often made, and that is buying collections 

 of cheap plants. I think it was Thackeray who said in one of 

 his novels, " Some persons buy their wine cheap and good ; 

 I buy mine dear and good." It is the same with Orchids : you 



