234 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
surfaces, The stem of the brier is not renewable while it carries a 
head that does not belong to it; but the own-root rose is all of a 
piece, and if smoke cannot harm it much, neither can frost, for its 
power of renewal at the root will pull it through all such dif- 
ficulties. 
Mr. Hibberd said he began to advocate the own-root system in 
1858, when standards were in much higher favour than now, and 
own-root roses were scarcely known to amateurs as_ possibilities. 
For years the cause of own roots had to be argued in the face of 
a stubborn scepticism, and the trade, almost to a man, declared 
such things impossible. Now the case was changed, but there was 
still much to be done to convince the thousands whom they wished 
to see enjoying roses without any temptation to describe them as 
the greatest plague in life. To make own-root roses required more 
skill and patience than to enter buds on the Italian or English 
brier; but it is a very simple process of propagating, after all ; for, 
in the autumn roses may be multiplied by cuttings in the fashion of 
currant-trees ; in spring the new growth of forced roses may be 
struck in heat in precisely the same manner as bedding plants; in 
July cuttings may be struck by the aid of frames and hand-lights ; 
and at the same season the best of all modes may be practised— 
that is, the striking of roses from eyes in the fashion of grape-vines. 
Nor must it be supposed that by growing own-root roses we are shut 
up to little ineffective plants a foot or so high. If allowed to grow, 
and encouraged to grow, these roses soon become great thrifty 
flowery bushes, producing myriads of noble flowers ; and it is only 
when flowers are required for exhibition that severe pruning is 
required. And they differ from brier roses in this respect, that 
every sucker they make is a gain rather than a loss, a joy instead of 
a vexation. We might travel far and wide to see examples of such 
roses as he had in his mind; but they were to be seen. He could 
not forget how, in the course of his twenty years’ advocacy of own- 
roots, the proposal had been relegated to the region of impossi- 
bilities, and the trade growers had declared the Manetti absolutely 
necessary in the public interest, and yet he had seen within the past 
few years, in one of the greatest nurseries, where the rose had 
always obtained special attention, 50,000 own-root roses all in a 
piece, all in flower, presenting such a luxurious wealth of colour as 
probably, in the case of roses, had never been seen before. Probably 
the charming spectacle might now be seen at Messrs. Lane and 
Son’s nurseries at Berkhempstead, for it was there, three years ago, 
that he witnessed the first satisfactory evidence that the trade 
growers were becoming alive to the value of own-root roses. 
If it be asked, what is to become of the exhibitor ? he would 
answer that he at least may be encouraged to raise roses on the 
brier for the sake of maiden flowers for the show table; but it 
would be found that foster roots were not absolutely necessary for 
the production of exhibition roses. However, as he could not now 
diseuss every point, he would say no more on the subject of growing 
roses for show, but he would return to the standards to advocate 
them in another way; for the rose makes a noble tree, and we 
