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JOtJENAL OF HOBTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



( February 1?, 1876. 



Meeting on the lOlh inst., to fill the vacancies caused by the 

 resignation of Admiral Hornby and Mr. A, Grote, F.L.S. 



NEW FRENCH ROSES. 



The time haa'paaeed, I think, when one used to scan with 

 intense interest the lists of forthcoming French Eoses. Is 

 it that the scanning has palled upon one, and that which 

 once caused excitement has ceased to have its effect ? or is it 

 that we have been so often deluded by the high-sounding 

 epithets — the " magnifique," "Buperbe," " variete extra," &e., 

 which have turned out so fallacious that wo cease any longer 

 to look for the one or two grains of gold in the vast quantity 

 of sand ? or is it that the English raisers, Messrs. Turner, 

 Paul, Cranston, &c., are giving us such good flowers that we 

 do not care to look so far afield ? Perhaps all these causes 

 have combined to work out what, as far as I am personally 

 concerned, is a fact. The test, too, that we used to apply — 

 namely, the character of the raisers, does not now seem to hold 

 good, as indifferent if not worthless flowers flood us on all 

 sides and from all growers. However, it may not be uninter- 

 esting just to see what they promise to us for 1876. I find 

 from M. Charles Verdier's list that there are thirteen Teas, 

 one Noisette, one Bourbon, and forty-four Hybrid Perpetuals, 

 besides some four or five others of other classes, such as Per- 

 petual, Noisette, Hybrid Provence, &c. 



In Teas the largest number come from the widow Dacher, 

 who gives us five, Fernet three, Levet three, Gnillot one, and 

 Oger one. The Noisette is from Levtque, and the Bourbon 

 from Schwartz, successor of old Guillot. 



In Hybrid Perpetuals Mons. Eugene Verdier heads the list 

 with (oh, fortunate man ! ) twelve new varieties ; Lacharme, to 

 whom we owe some of our very best Eoses, has four ; Leveque 

 two, Soupert et Notting two, Schwartz three, Oger two, Lia- 

 baud three, Moreau llobert three, H. Jamain one, Fontaine 

 two, Vigneron three, Lideohaux two, Margottin fils one, Gonod 

 one, Brassae one, Lapland jeune one, Eugene Genoux one. 

 The last three names are quite new to me, would that it might 

 be the omen of some new break in the interminable list of 

 crimson, rose, tender rose, &a., with which we are inundated. 

 Where amidst all these shall we find the novelties we desire — 

 the flowers that are to create a sensation and to remain rn 

 permanence in our lists ? Echo answers, Where ? There is 

 good old honest Lacharme, whom I regard as tho king of French 

 Eose-growers, will he not have something in his four new 

 Roses for us? .Joan Soupert sounds tempting — large flowers, 

 imbricated, velvety purple; so does Henri Bennett — fiery red 

 and lively carmine. But it is useless guessing, and we must 

 only look forward for our coming shows. Bat one cannot help 

 thinking that the palmy days for the French Eose-growers are 

 over when the English nurserymen bought everything, pro- 

 pagated largely, and year after year found that they bad wasted 

 their stocks, their money, and time. They now, I believe, act 

 more cautiously ; but even now they have to lamsnt their 

 precipitancy. Do I not know of one of our most eminent Eose- 

 growers who two years ago bought an English-raised Eose of 

 great promise, paying some £60 for it, and after propagating 

 it to a large extent, finding that it was not up to the markaud 

 would do him no credit if he sent it out, ruthlessly condemned 

 it all to be rooted up and burnt? It was, as he said, a bitter 

 pill to swallow, but better to make a gulp at it than to con- 

 tinually have the taste in one's mouth as customer after cus- 

 tomer denounced it. 



We have now fairly entered on the competition for new 

 Eoses with the French raisers, and I think we may regard the 

 issue with confidence. There is one Eose yet to be sent out 

 which we all saw last season, Mr. Turner's Oxonian, which 

 promises to be one of the most beautifully shaped and exqui- 

 site Eoses yet raised. — D., Deal. 



PEACH-BLOW POTATO. 



1 HA\'E grown the Peach-blow four years. I thought much 

 of it, as did all who ate it, until this year. It now has a large 

 black core, and it is one of tho worst atfected b\ tho disease. 

 Another objection is that the tubers are too large for a gentle- 

 man s table. It is a heavy cropper, but I think its good 

 qualities are outweighed by its bad habits, so shall discard it 

 this year. " J., Lincoln," speaks of Peach-blow as ripening 

 early. With me it was ready to lift just before Flourball. I 

 strongly suspect Flourball is of American origin, for I had it 

 from America (brought by a friend) the year after it was sent 



out by Messrs. Sutton & Sons under another name, and I have 

 had it badly affected with curl for two years. — Lincolnshire 

 Wold. 



VINCA ROSEA RAISED FROM SEED, 



Under the above name is generally known a popular old 

 stove plant which is usually raised from cuttings. The correct 

 name of the plant is, I believe, Catharanthus roeens, and the 

 readiest and best mode of increase is by seeds. Vinoas and 

 Catharanthuses both belong to the same natural order, Apo- 

 cynaceffl, but the former are hardy and the latter are tender 

 plants. 



The plant noticed was introduced from the East Indies 

 about 150 years ago, and straggling plants are frequently seen 

 in stoves and vineries. It is a stove plant, requiring heat, 

 light, and moisture in the summer months, and a winter tem- 

 perature of 50'. When well grown this is an attractive sum- 

 mer-flowering plant, and may be trained to any desired form. 

 Fine plants of it have frequently figured at exhibitions. By 

 frequently pinching the shoots a dense bush habit is insured. 

 Good plants may be raised from cuttings, but neither the 

 foliage nor flowers are so fine as on plants raised from seed. 



Seed sown now, and the seedlings grown in heat, will make 

 splendid flowering specimens during the summer. I have, 

 with the aid of sufficient top and bottom heat, had plants 

 more than 3 feet through the same season, dense and globular, 

 and masses of bloom. They were ehif ted-on as required, 

 blooming them in 8-inch pots. In their early stages a compost 

 of peat, loam, and leaf mould is suitable, but after attaining 

 a good size they should be potted in rich loam and manure. 

 They require an abundance of heat, light, and water, and then 

 few plants will grow more freely. They are effective conserva- 

 tory plants during the early autumn months. 



After flowering and resting they may be out down similarly 

 to Pelargoniums ; but the flowers on such plants are not so 

 fine or the foliage so exuberant as on plants raised from seed 

 annually. The white variety is also highly worthy of culture. 

 By a system of resting and pinching these plants may be had 

 in bloom at any season, summer or winter. — T. B. 



PEACH PRUNING. 



Peach pruning is now in hand, and I strongly recommend a 

 free use of the knife. I once heard a discussion of the treat- 

 ment of shoots studded with blossom buds and with only a 

 terminal wood bud. The decision was to leave them nn- 

 pruned, because the removal of the terminal wood bud would 

 cause the blossom buds to fail, which they undoubtedly would 

 do, but in any case the fruit would prove small and poor- 

 flavoured. Such wood should therefore always be cut entirely 

 away. Do not mind if the adoption of this rule leads to an 

 apparently undue amount of severity in pruning ; never rest 

 content with weakly trees and undersized fruit, or with quantity 

 at the expense of quality. 



Every season one meets with trees of weakly growth and 

 sickly condition overUden with fruit, small almost without an 

 exception, and one knows from dear-buught experience how 

 hopeless of improvement is the future of such trees unless 

 they happen to come under a common-sense mode of treat- 

 ment. By this term I mean a system of culture based upon 

 the evident requirements of the trees. We never can upset the 

 balance of Nature with impunity. 



Strong mature wood thinly disposed bears large fruit if it 

 be not overcrowded. It puts forth other shoots often more 

 vigorous than itself. It does not shed its blossom, owing to 

 its ample store of nourishment, the prompt and ready action 

 of its full flow of sap answering every requirement of blossom, 

 fruit, foliage, and wood growth ; and it is less liable to the 

 attacks of noxious blight or insects than the tree of weakly 

 growth — weakly either from premature or heavy cropping, 

 faulty pruning, insufficient nutriment, neglect, or mismanage- 

 ment of some kind or other. Evidently there is a want of 

 balance in such trees. We cannot induce small wood to bear 

 large fruit, nor ought wo to expect anything but future de- 

 terioration if it has been suffered to liring an al'uiuliiut crop to 

 maturity. 



Here arc a few leading points of commou-senae culture in 

 reclaiming a mismanaged tree. Cut-out every particle of 

 weakly growth ; cleanse the wood from every substance likely 

 to prove hurtful to it ; see that the roots are in a rich, whole- 

 some, well-drained soil ; cherish and protect the foliage as you 



