14 THE ROSE GARDEN. 



from Constantinople. It is notorious for refusing to expand its blossoms, and has 

 been the subject of much discussion. It was apparently unfavourably known two 

 hundred years ago. John Parkinson, who wrote on Gardening early in the 

 seventeenth century, says of it : " The flower is so thick and double, that very 

 often it breaketh out on one side or another, but few of them abiding whole and fair 

 in our country." As he does not give us any means of remedying the defect, we 

 may presume that that was a puzzle to him which still remains so to us. At least, 

 if we can advance a reasonable supposition as to the cause, we have not yet been 

 able to provide a remedy. The methods of treatment and aspects which diffe- 

 rent writers have recommended, to induce this capricious plant to flower, are very 

 various ; but all seems of little use. Different aspects have been chosen, and 

 different modes of culture followed ; but what has succeeded in the hands of one 

 individual, has, in like situations and circumstances, failed in the hands of 

 another. 



In the first volume of the Gardener's Chronicle (1841), the Editor invites his 

 correspondents to a discussion on this plant; and, at p. 811, winds up the subject 

 with a leading article. It is there remarked : — 



" In what aspect it most flourishes may perhaps be gathered from this, that 

 in ten cases success is connected with an east aspect, in eight with a north, in 

 seven with a west, in six with full exposure all round, and in only one case is the 

 south spoken of: this, however, is by W. Leveson Gower, Esq., whose Roses at 

 Titsey, near Godstone, are well known for their beauty ; and this gentleman 

 finds them do better there than on a north or west wall. 



" Nothing can be more conflicting than the evidence about soil. The majority 

 of cases of success occur in light land, graA r elly, sandy, loamy, and even marly. 



" But, on the other hand, we have some instances of success in the stiffest land. 

 Mr. Bowers, of Laleham, grew it in Northamptonshire, in cold clay, 20 inches 

 deep ; an anonymous correspondent asserts that he has had it in the greatest 

 perfection in the blue clay of Essex, and that he has never known it to fail when 

 it was put into clay in a north aspect ; and another writer testifies to success in 

 strong, wet, undrained clay, in the same county." 



The Double Yellow Rose certainly is very beautiful when perfect ; and could 

 any system of cultivation be divulged, which, followed, would ensure a successful 

 issue, I should consider pages well occupied in doing so. But although my 

 anticipations are not thus sanguine, the subject yet deserves a little consideration. 



Some have said, Grow it on its own roots; others, Bud it on the Dog-Rose; 

 and others, again, Bud it on the Chinese. At East Lodge, on Enfield Chase, the 

 seat of the late Hon. Mrs. Elphinstone, there was a plant on its own roots, 

 growing at a distance of about ten yards from a wall with a north-eastern aspect. 

 It here produced its beautiful yellow blossoms abundantly, covering the bush on 

 all sides, during the flowering season, for several successive years. This situation 

 is high and exposed : the soil is naturally a heavy loam, but was somewhat 

 lightened and enriched by the frequent addition of stable manure. 



