Febrinry 17, 1878. 1 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



131 



would the bloBBom. Eemember that healthy foliage points to 

 vigorous wood growth, and that aphides and red spider cannot 

 stand clean water, meet therefore their attacks with the sponge 

 and syringe. Do this promptly, watching for invaders, and if 

 possible dislodge the skirmishers, and the attacks of every one 

 of your enemies will fail. Lastly thin-out the fruit, determine 

 to "produce the best that can be had in size and quality ; and 

 although you may not attain to the highest Buccess, yet the 

 very fact of striving to do so will certainly lead to results of 

 more than ordinary excellence. — Edward Ldckbdest. 



BOSES FROM CUTTINGS— PRUNING— 

 REPOTTING. 



Ik answer to the questions of " St. Edmund," I entirely dis- 

 approve of this mode of propagating Roses, and if he thinks he 

 will have good blooms on them this year he will bo much 

 disappointed. It takes years to form a good Kose tree from a 

 cutting. 



With regard to pruning, I strongly advise (and I fancy my 

 friend Mr. Peach will concur with me) him not to prune them 

 at all. Let them follow their own " sweet will" and grow un- 

 checked. The first object is to root them, and that will take a 

 long time. 



With regard to " St. Ediidnd's " second query as to re- 

 potting, I should recommend him about the beginning of 

 Slarch to repot them in larger pots, and if he can manage it 

 to make a hotbed and plunge the pots in it. In the summer 

 he can take them out and plant them in the open, and next 

 year he can cut thtm hard, and perhaps in 1878 they may 

 produce good blooms, but I doubt it. I never knew a good 

 Eose shown from a cutting yet, but of course I may be 

 mistaken. 



Mr. William Paul is the only nurseryman with whom I am 

 acquainted who grows what are called " own-root Eoses." 



With regard to this mode of culture I will conclude with 

 a story, told I think by Mr. Wiuwood Eeade, about a certain 

 farmer who never went to bed sober, his particular liquor 

 being brandy and water. This worthy man once paid a visit 

 to a relative in " Zomerset," where the only available liquor 

 was "zider." The farmer feeling that his health— nay, per- 

 haps his life — depended upon his making no exception this 

 night to the rule which he had kept for so many years, set to 

 work to bring about the desired result with " zider," but after 

 he had finished his twentieth tumbler he found he was no 

 nearer the haven than he was when he commenced, and so he 

 sighed as he filled up his next tumbler and said, " This is very 

 weary, weary work," and so I am afraid " St. Edmund " will 

 find propagating Eoses from cuttings. — John B. JL Camm. 



AZALEAS FOR AUTUMN AND "WINTER 

 FLOWERING. 



There are few flowering plants more effective at any season 

 than Azaleas ; but they are perhaps more striking and most 

 appreciated from October till the end of the year, when flower- 

 ing plants are at their scarcest. To bloom them at this season 

 requires some little peculiarity of treatment and a selection of 

 sorts that are best adapted for being forced thus early. It is 

 necessary that they be introduced into a brisk heat and moist 

 atmosphere early in February to make their growth and set 

 their buds early ; for unless this be taken as a first, and a 

 season of rest allowed as a second step, the process of forcing 

 them into bloom will not lie eatisfactory. It is also a favour- 

 able condition that the plants be under rather than over- 

 potted, for if the pot is not well filled with roots the tendency 

 of the growth is to be iong, and continued later in the season 

 than is desirable; while, on the other hand, a pot well filled 

 with roots produces a short stubby growth, which stops grow- 

 ing sooner, and, as a consequence, sets its buds earlier. 



The following are the best that I have tried for getting into 

 bloom so early as October : President Van den Hecke, white, 

 striped and spattered with red. Not by any means a first-rate 

 flower, but the earliest we have tried. 



Charici' Leircins. — This is a comparatively new and rare 

 variety. Bright carmine-red; semi-double, very easily brought 

 into bloom early. 



Iveryana. — White, striped with crimson. One of the earliest 

 and most free-blooming of all the early varieties. Forced thus 

 early, all the blooms come almost entirely white and without 

 the usual orimsou marking. 



Beauty of Clapham. — Rich rose-pink. 



Francois Vevois. — Clear crimson, semi-double. This is not 

 so early as the foregoing, but can be had in full flower in 

 November ; when in contrast with the light varieties it is very 

 effective. 



Borsig. — This is a white variety that we know to be a good 

 early one ; but not yet having a stock in proper condition for 

 autumn blooming, we cannot speak of it from experience. 



These, bloomed at a season when really effective flowering 

 table plants are scarce, are most effective and useful. For 

 room-decoration they are invaluable, for when put into a 

 drawing-room where something more than half the blooms 

 are expended, every one opens freely, and they stand such 

 work longer than most flowering plants.— D. Thomson.— (T'l'' 

 Qardener.) 



AURICULAS. 



Like your correspondent at page lOG, I am aware of Mr. 

 George Glenny's notes upon Page's Champion, and had read 

 them and tested them in practice before I ever wrote about 

 Auriculas. Those strictures will apply to Champion when he 

 is " out of character." I have seen all those faults in him, 

 but I was thinking of him at his best. The Auricula is yet an 

 uncertain sportive flower, and a perfect one that is constantly 

 perfect has yet to be raised. 



Champion is not an easy sort to obtain in its best form, and 

 with regard to Taylor's Glory I have never seen or bloomed it 

 without its wavy paste. But the other great flowers have also 

 their weak points or uncertainties; and while Champion and 

 Glory stand as they do in the best few of their respective 

 classes, the time has hardly come yet to say to an inquirer, 

 " You need not trouble yourself about Champion and Cilory." 



And, again, I am hardly ready to think with " G. S." that 

 in the scarcity of the Auricula " fancy throws over them a 

 halo which conceals defects " once visible enough when the 

 flower was common. Scarcity is not a desirable point, audit 

 is no property in a good florist's flower. It is nothing in 

 favour of a weak flower to say, "Well, but it is scarce." The 

 scarcer a bad flower is the better. Faults, so far from being 

 now lost sight of in a love-mist of fancy, are all the more 

 keenly seen and felt. In the Tulip and Carnation very great 

 improvements have been obtained. The Auricula is yet a 

 little behind; while far in the rear, friendless and forlorn, last 

 straggler of them all, lags the yellow Picotee. 



It would not be difficult to name some inferior green and white- 

 edged Auriculas that would be found as scarce as Champion 

 and Glory ; but among those who know tne flower, their simple 

 Bcarcity creates no pressure of demand for them and covers no 

 fault. They quietly drop out of sight. So also will it be in 

 time and turn with Champion and Glory when we have ob- 

 tained flowers more constant that beat them at their best. — 

 F. D. HoENBR, Kirhhy MaUeard, Ripon. 



As "our Journal" is a pleasant exercising ground for our 

 hobbies, will you permit me to mount mine, and take a short 

 canter? In answer to your correspondent " G. S." I desire to 

 express a hope that " Alfred " is too enthusiastic a lover of 

 Auriculas to be able to take his advice and " live very com- 

 fortably without having either Page's Champion or Taylor's 

 Glory." It is, no doubt, kind of " G. S." to comfort " Alfred " 

 when sighing after the unattainable. But wh^n he proceeds 

 to depreciate those two exquisite varieties, loyalty to my floral 

 queen forbids my silence and prompts the suggestion, How 

 very sour are those Grapes that are hanging out of reach ! 



I do not pin my faith on any saying of Mr. Glenny thirty 

 years ago, in contradistinction to Mr. Horner and many living 

 authorities who, I know, think most highly of these varieties. 

 I consider Glenny's account of Champion thoroughly incorrect. 

 So far from its "texture being uncertain, the pasto thin, and 

 the pips generally wanting flatness," I have always found it 

 quite the reverse. It is a flower of great substance and lasting 

 powers ; the paste is far from being thin ; and the flatness of 

 the pips is one of its chief beauties. I grant that if the flower 

 truss at any stage of its development is touched by frost, then 

 indeed " the paste cracks, the petals divide, and the pip is 

 much crumpled;" but this is the fault of the florist, not of 

 the flower. As regards the ground colour in Taylor's Glory 

 making through the edge, over-stimulating food is often the 

 cause ; and I know no Auricula which may not be spoiled in 

 like manner. 



In my opinion " Alfebe " would do well to adopt Mr. Horner's 



