July 30, 1874. ) 



JOUENAL OF HORTIODLTORE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



101 



he is Btill an amateur. The restriction of the term to a person 

 who does all the gardening himself without the aid of paid 

 labour is a very arbitrary one, and cannot be justified. In 

 framing schedules where the class is confined to " amateurs," 

 and it is intended to encourage any particular class, there 

 ought to be such distinctions as^Amateurs employing a pro- 

 fessional gardener or gardeners, amateurs employing a gardener 

 occasionally, and amateurs having no garden assistant. — Eds. 



HEREFOKD ROSE SHOW. 



I u-ivE been requested by the Honorary Secretary to send you 

 au account of the West of Euglau 1 Hose Show hold at Hereford. 

 This Show took place in tlio Birmingham week, and conse- 

 quently suffered thereby ; but there was no help for it, as the 

 Kose-fixtures come so close together during our brief season that 

 some must clash. Besides, the Hereford people felt that it was 

 a most unconscionable proceeding on Mr. (,)uilter's part to ap- 

 propriate a whole week for his show, at a time when Hoses are 

 at their very best, and so they preferred to run the risk of a poor 

 show than to put it off a week later, when most men's Roses 

 would be over. I could not bear giving up the Birmingham 

 Show, but as I could not show at Hereford as well as Birmingham, 

 Ijpreferred the former : first, because I never enjoy any day so 



much as the day spent at the Hereford Rose Show ; secondly, 

 because I was asked to judge there; and lastly, because I had 

 accepted the invitation of my friend Mr. Craastoa, and would 

 not have missed paying that visit for any amouut of Birmingham 

 shows. 



And now as to the Show itself. To tell the truth I was very 

 disappointed with it, but I was not surprised. Kaowing as I did 

 what a bad season it had been for Roses, and also for tbe reason 

 I have stated above, I was not, I say, surprised to find it in com- 

 parison with other years a very poor show. Cranston, Mitchell, 

 Paul, and Davison, were the only nurserymen who put in an 

 appearance, and Cranston's were the only stands which came 

 up to one's idea of what a great nurseryman's Roses should be. 

 But who can wonder at this? The nights before the Show had 

 been close to a degree I never experienced before in tbe early 

 part of July. Certainly my own blooms never travelled so badly 

 as they did to Hereford, and I drove twenty-seven miles in 

 order to catch the night mail for Gloucester. Aud here I should 

 be very glad if some of your readers would give their opiniou as 

 to the desirability of driving a long distance in order to get a 

 night train. Does the road journey more than undo the good 

 gained in travelling by the night mail ? 



There was very little competition in the amateur classes 

 Indeed, Mr. Arkwrightand myself divided most of the first prizes. 

 My friend Mr. Baker has been completely knocked out of 



rig 



33.— The infant tuinvl's grate at sandp.ingham. 



competition this year, and I should have been the same if I, 

 like him, had all my eggs in one basket — i.r., all my trees planted 

 together. In some parts of my gardens the trees have been de- 

 cimated. I lost at least seven hundred Mauetti Roses. In- 

 deed, I hardly lost any standards. But what a year for Teas it 

 has been ! I cannot understand how people can say Teas are 

 tender. My experience tells me that they are a great deal 

 hardier than most Hybrid Perpetnals on the Manetti. I do not 

 think I lost a Tea, except six Man'chal Neils which were re- 

 moved too soon in the autumn. Souvenir d'Elise (to me the 

 finest Rose in cultivation) has been most glorious. I have it 

 now perfectly superb against a dwarf south wall, and my plants 

 that served me for the early shows are all in bud now, and will 

 be ready for the autumn ones. Tea Roses bloom much more 

 freely a second time than do any other Rosea. Always the last 

 Rose blooming in my garden is a darling Tea, and yet there are 

 onlv about twelve which are worth growing. Indeed, it is a 

 difiicultv to sliow twelve really good Teas. T wish more prizes 

 were offered for Tea Roses at the shows. The Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society at South Kensington is, I believe, the only Society 

 which has a class for amateurs' Teas. There ought to be a class 

 at every show, with prizes as good as are given for Hybrid 

 Perpetnals, and then we should have men cultivating them 

 7nore, aud judges would be more just when judging a stand of 

 forty-eight, and give, as I maintain they ought to do, points for 

 fine Teas. 



But (forgive this digression on the Teas) to return to the 

 Show. If the Roses as a rule were not up to the average, the 

 company was above it, and I rejoice to say the receipts were 

 larger than our friends had had for many years. And what 

 friends they are at Hereford ! What hospitality, what kindness, 

 what courtesy ! I could have spent a week there, and then not 

 have outstayed my welcome. I would not miss a Hereford 

 show for anything that this world can offer. I think the only 

 thing which would make me less enthusiastic about it would be 

 the terrible event of my stand of Baroness Rothschild being 



beaten in the class for twelve blooms of any Rose. For three 

 vears in succession at Hereford I have won this prize with the 

 Baroness, aud when she fails me I shall indeed be brought low. 

 By staying with Mr. Cranston I enjoyed the great privilege of 

 going over his nursery at my leisure, aud how I availed myself of 

 this I need not say. I saw one hundred thousand trees in full 

 bloom ! I could walk upwards of a mile through exquisite Roses ! 

 I saw Sir Garnet Wolseley, Mr. Cranston's grand seedling, in 

 bloom, and feel confident that here we have a novelty which will 

 make the French raisers hide their diminished heads. I had seen 

 it at the Show the day before, where its production created a 

 furore only second to its namesake's appearance in the Shel- 

 donian Theatre. I saw oue thousand plants of Madame La- 

 charme, and a greater take-in I never had the misfortune to buy. 

 I have worked that Rose, aud bought it, and petted it, and 

 tended it, and it has repaid me by giving me dirty ragged 

 blooms, inferior to Mdlle. Bonnaire or any other white abomi- 

 nation. How Lacharme could send it out with such a flourish 

 of trumpets, I cannot understand. All the great nurserymen 

 have thousands of plants, and I do not believe we shall find 

 the Rose in the catalogues in 1878. But I saw here and at Salis- 

 bury one really fine Rose of 1873, and that was Souvenir de 

 John Gould Ve'itch. That is a real prize, and, of course, with 

 my usual luck it was the only one, though I ordered it, that I 

 did not get last year. As to all the rest of the 187:i Roses, they 

 are not worth ifche paper on which I write. The hardships, 

 Messrs. Editors, of having to buy these " pigs m pokes," these 

 miserable little plants of new Roses every year, at 3s. dd. each, 

 or else lose the chance of having a prize (and then, as in my 

 case, not getting it), is a very great one. Four pounds did I pay 

 for these wretched littlo starvelings that had been run-up m 

 great heat, and are joined to a weak Manetti stock, and so loosely 

 united that you can almost blow them asunder._ And yet every 

 year there are scores of new Roses with descriptions appended 

 to their names in the catalogues which make your mouth water, 

 and your eyes long with an eager longing to see them. Caano t 



