Fobntary 10, la70. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



103 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day Day 



ol I o( 

 Month Week.' 



FEBRUARY 10—16, 187G. 



10 

 11 

 12 

 13 

 U 

 15 

 16 



Ta 



F 



S 



Son 

 M 

 To 

 W 



Royal Hoitioultural Sooioty— Adjoum-d Annual Meet. 

 Koyal Institution at 8 P.M. 

 Koyal Botanic Society at 3.45 p.m. 

 Septciagesim^. 



lioyal Geographical Society at 8.80 p.m. 

 Zoological Society at 8,80 p.m. 



Boyal Horticultural Society— Fruit and Floral Com- 

 [ njitteeat 11 a.^j. 



Sen 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 RieeB. 



Moon 



Seta. 



Moon's 

 AEe. 



b. ra 



6 12 



7 86 



8 56 



10 14 



11 81 

 morn. 



43 



h. m. 



8 1 



8 15 



8 27 



8 88 



8 49 



9 1 

 9 17 



Days. 

 15 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 

 20 

 21 



Clock 

 after 

 Sun. 



14 30 



U 80 



14 SO 



14 29 



14 27 



14 25 



14 22 



Day 



ol 



Year. 



41 

 42 

 43 

 44 

 45 

 46 

 47 



80.0'. 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 45.9'; and its night temperature 



EOSE CULTURE AND EXHIBITING. 



" Queen of the flowers which made Eden gay." 



HEN I began Eose-growiug I thought the 

 grand desideratum was the greatest pos- 

 sible number of varieties of Roses. I can 

 remember well how I bought every Rose 

 to be found in such catalogues as William 

 Paul's, and how I thought that Mr. Keynes' 

 selection was far too small to give one a 

 chance of success at the shows. I soon, 

 indeed the very first season, found out 

 my mistake, I had spent scores of pounds 

 on summer Roses including all the cripples that some 

 are so fond of. I remember going through my grand 

 hst with Mr. Keynes, and how he laughed as name after 

 name of varieties utterly worthless were read out. What 

 was the consequence '? Why, my garden, all vu'gin soil 

 that I h.ad hauled there at tremendous expense, was full 

 of Baron Provost, Empereur de Maroc, Achille Gonod, 

 Madame Chirard, Austrian Briars, Juno, Chenodole, 

 Blanchfleur, &c., and when I came to cut for the shows, 

 of all the good sorts I had only about two or three speci- 

 mens. I had, consequently, to throw or give away hun- 

 dreds the next autumn. 



By long experience I found out which are the very 

 best, and now I confine myself to about fifty, or at the 

 most sixty, sorts, of which I grow a fair number — I mean 

 by a fair number from ten to twenty. This number would 

 give an amateur a collection of about a thousand, which 

 is as many as most men can do with. Now, when the 

 time for staging arrives there is no difficulty in cutting a 

 stand of good sorts. 



As to what those sorts are no one need be a moment 

 in doubt, for they have but to send to your office for 

 the number of " our Journal " which contains the Rose 

 election return and they will there find a hst of as many 

 Roses as they want to buy placed in order of merit. I am, 

 of course, writing these notes principally as an exhibitor 

 and for exhibitors, though I hope the advice may be 

 serviceable to all Rose-growers. 



Nest, as to the place in your garden (the position) 

 where you ought to grow your best specimens. I feel 

 confident that the more open the position is the better 

 the Roses will do. Of course the Roses must face the 

 south or south-east, but what I mean is, the idea of pro- 

 tecting Roses by walls or other screens is a false one ; at 

 least, I have proved it here to be so. 



I have just made a grand new bed to contain about a 

 thousand Roses. I have been lifting Roses from all other 

 parts -of this absurdly large place to plant them in the 

 new bed. Well, every Rose that has been grown against 

 a wall is almost worthless. One side of the wood is green 

 and the other side is hard, barkbound, unripened wood, 

 fit for nothing but our very mediajval fireplaces. 



The wood of the Teas does not ripen here, at least when 

 they are planted against walls. 



I expect this statement to be violently contradicted, 

 and I only hope it will cause discussion, because every 



No. 776.— Vol. XXX., New Series. 



article that has to do with Roses is so welcome to the 

 readers of our Journal. ]\Iy friend Mr. Baker can endorse 

 what I have said as to my own Teas, and I believe Mr. 

 Headley, Mr. Jowett, and other large Tea Rose-growers 

 will support mo too. 



Of course climate makes all the difference ; I am 

 speaking of the west of England, where we have not ever 

 very hard or long frosts. I know that my brother in 

 Yorkshire cannot bloom a Tea unless it is cither against a 

 wall, or in his Tea-Rose house. I mean a genial chmate 

 to be taken for granted in all I write on Roses ; for I 

 should write in a perfectly different style if I dated this 

 letter from Yorkshire instead of from the lovely Monkton 

 Wyld. 



My idea of a gem of a position for a rosery is such as I 

 am now forming. A portion of an old meadow has (by my 

 friend l^fr. Baker's advice) been railed-off just below the 

 kitchen garden. There is a very low wall at the back, above 

 which are espalier Apple trees, and about '20 yards farther 

 away to the north is the Peach wall which shuts in the 

 garden. To the east of the rosery there is a plantation 

 of Fir trees, and to the west another of high Hollies, 

 Laurels, &o. To the south there is not a tree or a single 

 obstacle to stop the free current of air. Planted in simple 

 straight rows are about forty-eight sorts, and from ten to 

 twenty of a sort according to the excellency of the variety. 

 So that when staging for a show the boxes can be placed 

 under the Fir trees, and the Roses cut and staged in a 

 very short time. This is Mr. Baker's plan, and he is the 

 most successful amateur grower in the world. 



It is important to have your Roses together when the 

 exhibition season has arrived. I can remember so well 

 how I used to have to run with two blooms in each hand 

 and one between my teeth at least 300 yards before I 

 could stage them. For we cannot well adopt the nursery- 

 man's practice of sending two boys with a box which the 

 foreman fills and then sends back to the staging shed ; we 

 should require no end of men or " lady helps" to do this. 



Any advice as to staging must be of use, as when the 

 day arrives how fast time flies, and what hard work it is 

 to have your blooms cut and staged before the sun becomes 

 hot ! As to staging, then, I would say this — Have your 

 boxes ready the night before and placed in a row. Say you 

 are showing in all the classes at a great show, place your 

 forty-eight first, then thirty-sis nest, then tnenty-four, 

 and so on. Then commence to cut the variety you mean 

 to begin your boxes with. I always start mine with that 

 grandest of Roses Charles Lefebvre ; Mr. Baker is very 

 fond of Madame Charles Wood. Cut as many good suit- 

 able blooms as you can find and take them to your boxes, 

 and place one at the beginniug of each stand, then go 

 back and bring the next, and so on. The blooms then 

 never leave your or your man's hands till they are placed 

 in the tubes. If you cannot rely on your knowledge o 

 the different sorts you must have some one to find the 

 labels and place them in front of the Roses as you bring 

 them in. When all is done close every box, and have 

 tliem taken down into your wine-cellar. Then open the 

 lids wide, lock the cellar, and leave them in solitude 



No. 1128— Vol. LV., Old Series 



