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JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTDEE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



[ December 10, 1874. 



bnnehes mnst be shortened. This shortening forms the spnrs. 

 Cut very smooth and clean almost close to the main stem — 

 that is, leaving only the lowest prominent eye that has had 

 the assistance of a leaf. There can be no mistake there — the 

 lowest eye that has had a leaf at its base to be left, the rest 

 cut away. If the Vine is in a good state, that eye is sure to 

 pneh and show fruit. If this close shaving should frighten, 

 two clear eyes may be left ; this will give two sboota, and 

 both will or ought to show bunches. In this ease always rub 

 one off, and let it be, if possible, the one farthest from the 

 main stem. Some people will prune a Vine for twenty years, 

 and in that time not accumulate a spur of 3 inches, while 

 others will add to the spur at the least an inch a year. Close 

 pruning is the best for this reason, that the lateral flow of 

 sap is less impeded. Why 7 Look at an old standard Rose 

 and its knotty swellings by yearly cutting. ISfote the narrow, 

 restricted, twisted, curling sinuosities of the sap vessels. It 

 bears email blooms, and well it may. Cut its head off, and 

 Bee the immediate gross vigour of the after-growth. The im- 

 pediment to free-sap movement is removed ; the narrow tor- 

 tuous channels are substituted by free, open, sap-courses. So 

 it is with the Vine or any other plant. The plant — the Bose, 

 the Vine — may not be in a bad state of health ; the roots may 

 be sound, and the foliage not indicative of any disease ; the 

 soil may not be seriously at fault, but may be reasonably well 

 supplied as the food-store ; yet, if not breaking down by disease, 

 the plant may come far short of the perfectness of constitution 

 desired, and fail in the character of bloom or fruit. The fault 

 there lies in the transit of sap of food. As in the Indian 

 famine, Rice was plentiful while the natives starved, but, a 

 free channel of communication being provided, the plague was 

 stayed. I am not sure that I have seen this idea expressed 

 before, but many an example of a stubborn scraggy tree tells me 

 there is something in it. On that account close spur-priming is 

 preferred to a longer mode, which in half a dozen years re- 

 sults in a curled knuckled accretion of wood and tissue through 

 which the sap can only circulate by a sluggish crawl, inade- 

 quate to the real requirements of the fruit and foliage of the 

 Vine it is attempting to feed. But an example may be in 

 mind that Vines with long twisted spurs bear good and satis- 

 factory fruit. Very well. Go on with the mode that answers. 

 Nothing succeeds like success, and never change a plan that is 

 satisfactory by whomsoever the change may be proposed. 



Before closing these notes I should hke to remark in the 

 matter of a young Vine, that I do not think the common 

 practice a wise one of divesting a young cane of all its eyes 

 from the ground up to the rafter — that is, not sweeping them 

 off at a stroke the first year. The upright sashes of houses 

 may be from 4 to 6 feet. That portion of the Vine is not often 

 required to bear fruit ; still, for a year or two it is preferable 

 to pinch a few shoots, and have a little foliage there rather 

 than leaving the stem absolutely bare. The rod of a Vine so 

 trimmed never thickens in the same proportion as the upper 

 portion of the Vine. The sap channels are contracted, and 

 often a Vine will form a protuberance of incipient roots at the 

 base of the rafter where foliage commences to get the nourish- 

 ment it needs, and which the contracted vertical portion of 

 the stem cannot supply. A little foliage down to the very 

 ground will change all this. The stem thickens freely, and 

 affords a sufficient medium of conduct for the free unimpeded 

 sap-flow. A young Vine so managed will be as thick at the 

 base, even thicker, than at any other part of the rod ; but 

 divest it of eyes the first year 5 or 6 feet up from the bottom, 

 and nothing can prevent it becoming thickest at the top, like 

 a ladder reared wrong end upwards. In that case all the best 

 fruit will be at the top of the house ; in the other it wUl be 

 equally good to the very bottom. This is not theory but prac- 

 tice. I will refer to older Vines another day. — /. Wbiqht. 



A MODEL KOSE GARDEN. 

 " Now that the fields are dank and ways arc mire," it is not 

 unseasonable to write of Eoses of the past, for Eoses of the 

 present are now at their very scantiest. I remember meeting 

 at the Falls of Niagara with a somewhat singular entry in one 

 of the hotel strangers' books. A young gentleman informs 

 the public that 



Next to the bliss of seeiBg Sara 

 Ib that of seeing Niagara. 



Certainly next to seeing Eoses in the garden, every Eose-lover 

 will admit, is reading of them in " our Journal." On this prin- 

 ciple I do as I would be done by. But I have long been in- 



tending to write about a model Eose garden — a town Bose 

 garden I should premise. I am resolved that its beauties 

 shall not blush unseen any longer. Some people who have 

 small gardens ask. How is it possible for them to compete with 

 the owners of acres ? How can a town garden exhibit at the 

 shows against a country one ? There seems to be an idea that 

 quality has no chance against quantity. I venture to think 

 that this is a mistake, and that high-breeding and high-feeding, 

 where the plants are really good, will command great success, 

 even with quite a limited number. Now, it is " wholly in the 

 busy world," as Mr. Tennyson does not say, and not 

 " Beyond it, blooms the garden that I love." 



As the story books begin, " not a hundred miles from one of 

 our flourishing suburban towns," in fact, in the very middle ol 

 it, is the garden of my admiration. The ground it covers is 

 barely a quarter of an acre, and, of course, the poor Eoses 

 cannot have quite the whole of that. Yet on this little spot 

 grow year after year Eose bushes chiefly on the Manetti, 

 which, as the Scotch say, are "a sight for sair e'en;" in 

 England we should remark, which are a " caution," and cer- 

 tainly they are to intending competitors. At the district 

 show this little garden holds its own, and something more, 

 against all comers, and that in a large and wealthy neighbour- 

 hood. If the show-day at all suits it, this garden will carry 

 off the principal prizes. At present it holds one most keenly- 

 contested challenge cup. I do most sincerely trust the happy 

 owner wiU forgive thus being made into an example ; but ad- 

 miration compels, for, to adopt the half -appropriate motto of 

 York Chapter House — 



**TTt Rosa flOB flornm, 

 Sic hie hortns hortomm I" 



I know no such garden — and I know a good many — which, in 

 proportion to its size, grows such Eose trees and supplies such 

 Eoses. I myself can grow at least three for every one that 

 my friend does, and yet for robust plants, for size of flowers, 

 for substance, for excellence of colour, I hopelessly admit that 

 I dare not invite comparison. The position of this model 

 town Eose garden no doubt has something to do with this. It 

 has a southern exposure, protected on the north by a long row 

 of houses, while a low wall bounds it on the west. And such 

 Mdlle. Bonnaires, such Marie Baumanns, and all the most shy- 

 growing Eoses as I have seen come out of it, really showing 

 " rude health," if one could say so rude a thing of a lady. 



On lately taking a box of twelve to an exhibition in a neigh- 

 bouring county, my friend found himself only second, though 

 far the best in the room, because " in that Association they 

 were not accustomed to such very large Eoses !" Some who 

 read these lines may remember that exquisite Mdlle. Bonnaire, 

 a Eose now seldom seen in its excellence, which stood un- 

 rivalled at one show as the best Eose in the room ; and at 

 another time how this garden furnished two such perfect 

 boxes of Baroness Eothschild, that the despairing Judges at 

 last requested that one of them might be taken away — they 

 were far ahead of everything else, and so equal, and they 

 could not both take prizes. 



In budding, the owner of this remarkable garden is even 

 more successful than he is with " the box." His Manettis 

 never fail. I flatter myself I can bud Briar stocks, and not 

 lose more than a per-centage of some four or five ; but my 

 Manettis are always being smothered in too much sap, or fail- 

 ing to take for some reason or other. These he puts in never 

 fail ; the veriest dormant buds, which only he himself can 

 see, are sure to develope in a year into wide-spreading bushes. 

 He is also fortunate in severe winters, and loses very few. 

 And now for the secret of his success. It is very simple. The 

 famous Demosthenes was questioned as to what are the first 

 requisites for an orator. He is said to have answered, " Action ! 

 Action ! Action !" It is possible that in our colder-blooded 

 chme we might not quite think so ; but, at any rate, I have no 

 doubt as to what would be my friend's answer. He would 

 reply a la Demosthenes, " Manure ! Manure ! Manure !" Deep 

 trenching and well manuring — there is the whole mystery. 



Even at the risk of seeming interminable, I must go on to 

 mention one other thing that I have learned from him, espe- 

 cially as I am not aware that " our Journal " has as yet taken 

 cognisance of it, and that is qnill-budding — the art of quill- 

 buddmg. The old plan, and that given in all manuals of the 

 rosery, after taking off the bud-shield, is to pick out the wood 

 with the budding-knife, and a dismal business this is in the 

 hands of a beginner — it is not always easy for the best of hands. 

 Now, instead of this insert at the upper end a sharpened quill — 



