April 6, 1876. ] 



JOUKNAIi OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



203 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



APRIL 6—12, 1876. 



Linnoan Society at 8 p.m. Boyal Society at 8.30 r.M. 



Royal Institution at 8 p.m. 



Royal Botanic Society at 3.45. 



Paim Sunday. 



Royal Geographical Sjciety at 8.30 p.m. 



Royal Medical and Chirari?i(»l Society at 8.30 P.M. 



Boyal Aquaritun Show, WestminBter, opens. 



Moon 

 Kisea. 



10 89 



11 52 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 San. 



Days. 

 12 

 13 

 • 

 15 

 16 

 17 

 18 



55 

 89 



Day 



of 



Year. 



97 

 98 

 99 

 100 

 101 

 102 

 103 



85.9'. 



Prom obserrationa taken near London daring forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 55.4^; and its night temperatare 



ROSE PRUNING. 



[We sent a corresponaent's letter of itKioiriea to Mr. Camm. 



The following is bis reply.] 



NYTHING more concise or cool tlian the 

 queries asked by " P. F., Bridgnorth,'" it 

 lias not been my previous fortune to meet 

 ■with. They remind me forcibly of those 

 terrible papers set one in the Divinity School 

 at Oxford, but fortunately they are very 

 much easier to answer ; but even if more 

 difficult the .Journal would be ready to give 

 an opiuioQ without grudging, without fear, 

 and without favour. Ask, and if not satisfied 

 ask again ; the more questions the merrier, the greater 

 the delight that rosariaas will feel. For this is one of the 

 most forcible of all proofs how popular is the Rose — the 

 empress I suppose we must say now of flowers. Rosa 

 regina et iynperatrix florum. 



(1). " When is the proper time for pruning Hybrid 

 Perpetual s^s. ?" By the way, with regard to this abbre- 

 viation for standards, a man to whom I wrote asking, 

 "Do you want any s^"- ?" wrote back, enclosing that 

 portion of my letter, asking, " What sort of garden pro- 

 duce is this std. ? I suppose some kind of seeds, but we 

 have looked aU through several lists of seeds, but all in 

 vain." If " P. F." has not yet pruned bis standard 

 Roses I should advise him to begin at once. All Hybrid 

 Perpetuals ought to have been pruned by this time if the 

 trees were planted last autumn or are old tx'ees. If they 

 were purchased late this spring he may defer the pruning 

 a short time, but not for long. The first or second week 

 in March is about the best time for pruning in general 

 cases ; and as " P. P." is so very concise in his questions 

 that I cannot tell whether his rosery is in an exposed 

 position, on the top of a Iiill, or close to a stream, in front 

 of a kitohen-garden wall, or behind his house with a 

 delightful north aspect, I can only speak generally. But 

 in any case his Roses (all but Teas and Noisettes) ought 

 to be pruned before All Fools' Day. 



(2). "How many eyes should be left?" "Do you, 

 sir," asked a riding-master once to me, " do you want a 

 military or ' a 'unting ' seat ? If a military, let your stir- 

 rups down ; if ' a 'unting,' shorten-up close." Do you, 

 " P. P.," want to exhibit your blooms, or do you merely 

 want them to adorn your garden ? Do you want to 

 come and take the shine out of Mr. Baker and Mr. Jowett 

 at the Hereford Show, or do you merely want to have a 

 lot of blooms for madame to pick at her will ? If to 

 exhibit your blooms, then the " 'unting seat " is what you 

 want, and you must cut your Roses hard — shorten your 

 stirrups. As to the number of eyes I do not think you can 

 do better or fairer than leave them the same number you 

 yourself possess — if you have two. If you merely want 

 to grow garden Roses, quantity rather than quality — if 

 you, like my critic Mr. Taylor, wish to have hundreds 

 of blooms outside and inside your house, then spare the 

 Rose, leave as many eyes on your shoots as there may 

 be in youi' combined famUy and household. 

 No. 7S1.— Vol. XXX., New Szkies. 



With regard to Mr. Taylor's remark about being ex- 

 pected to furnish such a quantity for the house, I remem- 

 ber one day at the Botanic Rose Show meeting a first- 

 class gardener who was exhibiting in that absurd class, 

 "A Collection of Red and Pink Roses in Baskets not 

 more than 3 feet in diameter." He had brought up 

 literally thousands of blooms that day. On my express- 

 ing astonishment at the number he said, " Oh ! sir, this 

 is nothing. I send such a basket as this thrice a-week 

 to our people in London." " Whatever do they do with 

 them?" I asked. "I believe," said a bystander, "I 

 believe that they eat them." 



(.3). " Whether the new shoots or old should be 

 pruned?" No difficulty here. Both should be operated 

 upon, and the weak wood, by which I fancy " P. P." 

 means by the new shoots, should be entirely removed — 

 cut away ; let in the daylight, give old Sol a chance, and 

 as you cut look out for a good sound eye which faces his 

 majesty, not one that is scowling at the " shales of dark- 

 ness," to which the interior of a massive old standard's 

 head may be likened. Try to make the heads a httle 

 symmetrical ; do not have the outside shoots above the 

 centre ones. 



(4). " Should a Marechal Niel in hothouse be pruned, 

 and how much ?" Very little, if any, pruning is required 

 for the glorious Maruchal ; any dead wood must be re- 

 moved and unripened shoots must be cut away, and that 

 is about all. 



(5). "Also climbers out of doors, such as Gloire de 

 Dijon ?" Well, it depends a good deal on the sorts ; the 

 old Gloire, as a rule, will stand a little pruning; he 

 generally has a lot of shoots which require shortening, 

 but even this should be done with care. Teas of any 

 kind require very little pruning. If " P. P." has a 

 Cloth of Gold growing against his house or a Banksia let 

 me implore him not to touch it. 



(6 and last). " Last year my Marechal Niel dropped all 

 the buds. What caused this?" Ah, there's a puzzler! 

 I might reply in one word — Neglect, but I wo'n't, though 

 it would be pretty safe to answer so ; and as I never saw 

 the plant in question, know nothing of what soU it is 

 grown in or of its aspect, it would be the safest answer. 

 Perhaps, too, I shall expose myself to the scorn of " P. P." 

 if I hint that although the wind blows very cold in March, 

 yet the sun is pretty high in the heavens, and beats with 

 a good deal offeree upon the unscreened glass of the green- 

 house. Perhaps, also, the gardener who has to see after 

 the greenhouse may be sent off to bring in the vegetables 

 for the early diuner just as he ought to be pulling down 

 the blinds, or may be, when he should be watering the 

 dear Niel. In the early morning he is attending to his 

 fires, and is really that driven that he cannot attend 

 as he should to the clunbers. Or it may happen that 

 now and then he leaves the firing-up to a subordinate, 

 who heaps on the fuel at a tremendous rate in the day- 

 time and forgets to see to the fires at night. Any of 

 these possibilities may have caused the buds to have 

 dropped off, and you "might as well expect me to say 

 which of them did the mischief as to say whether " P. P." 



No. 1136.— Vol. LV., Old Sekibs. 



