22 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 8, 1875. 



We want also to kcow wbat kind of pruning best suits 

 different eoils and climates. I am under the impreeeion that 

 close pinching and hard pruning do not answer on strong 

 heavy soils. There are very likely other points of importance 

 which I have omitted in this hurried sketch. I have purposely 

 omitted mentioning the geological formation, as that would 

 add an insuperable difficulty to some persons, and it can 

 enfily be filled in by whoever undertakes to tabulate the in- 

 formation received; and I venture to say that if we can obtain 

 a hundred returns from widely-distant parts of the country 

 that I could find some one able and willing to weed them of 

 all eccentricities of taste, and turn them to good account. — 

 William Taylok. 



KOSES. 

 I HAVE been away for some little time on the Continent, and 

 have been interested in reading-up on my return the numbers 

 of the Journal of ]IorticuUxiri\ which I had missed during 

 my absence. It is my intention, as soon as I can find time, 

 to send a few remarks on the comparative merits of English 

 and foreign gardening (as far, that is to say, as public parks 

 and gardens are concerned), and shall expect my friend 

 " J)., Deal," will say, " What ! John Bull again !" My object, 

 however, in writing now h to make some few remarks on 

 recent Rose communications from Mr. Camm and others. I 

 can, to begin with, quite confirm one of our Editors' remarks, 

 that there are no Roses fo sweet with the real Rope fragrance 

 as the old Moss and the Provence (common Cabbage), and I 

 was very pleased to see a fine quarter of (he old Moss at 

 Battersea Park at the entrance near the York Road station, 

 caUerl, I think, the rosery entrance. Mr. Roger tells me he 

 thinki they are some of the true old Mo.=8 left from the old 

 nursery grounds which existed there before the park was 

 made. Oa the first day I was there, a warm day after rain in 

 the morning, the whole air was quite fragrant with them. I 

 do not wish to take away from the merits of the Tea Roses, 



with their peculiarly delicate and aromatic scent, but it is so 

 very different from that tf the Provence, Damask, Moss, and 

 the generality of Hybrid Perpetuals as to be quite distinct in 

 its way. The old Sujphurea odorata, called by some Crystal- 

 line, with its long egg-shaped bud, and which I believe was 

 the first Tea introduced into this country, and which I fear is 

 now rarely to be met with, is still almost the sweetest in its 

 class. Amongst others in the Hybrid Perpetuals one has not 

 I think been named jet, and that is Senateur Yaisse, and I 

 would also add Fratc,ois Lacharme, which is one of the 

 Ewettest of all the Hybrid Perpetuals, but, unfortunately, only 

 a weak grower. After all, though fragrance adds much to the 

 value of a Rose, yet when we come to decorate a room with 

 Rcsfs we should be sorry to cut out such Rores as Mme. 

 La Baronne de Rothschild, &c., because they were deficient of 

 scent, and we think far more of beauty of colour, form, fresh- 

 ness, to say nothing of size (which 1 still think a most im- 

 poitant element so long as it does not lead to coarseness), than 

 we do of the mere scent. 



I am glad Mr. Camm has raised the question about cut-back 

 Roses versus maidens. I am not an exhibitor, as I live too far 

 north and too much away from Rose exhibitions to be able 

 to send Roses for competition. I cannot, therefore, speak 

 from my own experience, as I have never yet thought it worth 

 while to try to compete with all the difficulties I should have to 

 surmount. So long as the leading nurserymen bud so many 

 Roses as they do every year on Dog Roses and Manetti, and 

 pay but slight heed to their cut-back Roses, so long we shall 

 be told that the only Roses fit for competition are those from 

 maiden stocks. The fact is, transplanted Roses on Briar 

 stocks have so much to contend with, that Roses on trans- 

 planted standards and half-standards are rarely, if ever, good 

 enough for competition; but I am quite sure on ordinary good 

 garden soil Roses that are well established on Manetti stocks 

 properly pruned, well manured, and cultivated, will produce 

 quite as good blooms and in far greater abundance than 

 maidens. Roses, too, on their own roots, under proper culti- 

 vation, will also give quite as fine blooms as those on the Dog 

 Roses. There are, however, heavy soils which are suitable to 

 the Briar which will neither suit the Manetti nor Roses on 

 their own roots, and when a lucky season comes then a quarter 

 of newly-budded Briars on a clay soil will often carry all before 

 them. The mistake, however, that is too commonly made is, 

 that because a heavy clay soil suits a Briar, that consequently 

 it is a congenial soil for the Rose ; whereas it generally happens 

 that the Dog Rose is the only stock that does any good on it, 

 and that only when there is a sufficient amount of loam in 

 the soil, or wheu plenty of vegetable matter is added by 

 means of farmyard manure. 



As I have before this ventured to state no one system did 

 so much to prevent amateurs from growing good Roses as the 

 plan which at one time so extensively prevailed, and which I 

 am sorry to say has not yet been sufficiently discarded, of 

 growing nearly all Roses iu a garden as standards. At one 

 time the only Roses to be seen in gentlemen's gardens were 

 standard Roses planted, perhaps, on the grass on each side 

 the principal paths, or with little circles cut out of the lawn 

 in which annuals and other plants were grown. The whole 

 system of pruLiug which standards had to undergo in order to 

 make symmetrical heads is so contrary to the natural growth 

 of the Rose as almost of itself to militate against the produc- 

 tion of really good Roses. Then, again, most garden soils are 

 not suitable to the Briar, and out of a hundred standards sent 

 out by nurserymen not more than half, or perhaps I might be 

 nearer the maik if I said a quarter, have really had sny at- 

 tention paid to that most necessary article the roots. They 

 are generally cut out of hedgerows by men iu winter time 

 when they may run short of other work, and so long as they 

 have a good straight stem they care very little how much root 

 they have. The consequence is a great proportion of the 

 stocks when planted never recover the rough treatment, some 

 die altogether, some eke out a lingering existence, but all that 

 are able to push any shoots are budded, and in the course of 

 another season are again transplanted when ordered by gar- 

 deners or gentlemen from the nurserymen, and have their 

 powers of endurance again tested. 



I am glad to say that the Manetti, the seedling Briar, and 

 Roses on their roots are gradually getting the better of these 

 old standards ; but so long as the standard is adopted as the 

 general system, so long out-back Roses will be at a discount, 

 and gentlemen will be under the impression that they cannot 

 grow Roses or that their soil is not suitable for them. When 



