372 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
grown it attains a height of four feet, with leaves ten to twelve 
inches in length, of a beautiful green colour, the whole crowned with 
numerous globular capitules of violet or rosy purple-coloured 
flowers. In its season it is at once unique and valuable, and may be 
grown to grand dimensions if handsome specimens are required. 
TEA-SCENTED ROSES. 
{0 grow Tea roses is, indeed, an object worthy the ambition of the most 
abandoned horticulturist; and the task recommends itself to the enthu- 
siast, because it is surrounded with difficulties. The mere booby wha 
thinks to accomplish wonders without first going througha patient course: 
of preparative practice, will only proclaim his sorry case to all beholders 
when he puts forth his clumsy hands among these lovely but coy and capricious 
flowers. They seem to have been designed by Nature to furnish the highest test 
of skill and devotion in rose culture, and as a standing proof to all would-be 
rosarians that the cultivation of roses does not consist in merely buying the 
ee and sticking them in the ground, and then pruning them with a knife and 
ork. 
The first of the Tea roses known in England was the Blush, introduced in 1810. 
In 1824, Mr. Parkes introduced the Yellow Tea-scented (which is still entered in 
the catalogues), a very beautiful semi-double and slightly scented rose. These two: 
became the parents of the numerous varieties now in cultivation, and hence the 
distinctness of character perceptible throughout the whole group, much as they 
differ in degrees of robustness and other qualities. The characteristics of the group 
are an ample, glossy, deep-green foliage, and generally a free, robust growth, 
though there are many weak growers among them ; flower-buds conical ; flowers 
varying in colour from white and yellow to rose and pink, but never crimson or 
purple, and emitting a delicious odour, which is usually compared to that of tea 
newly opened in the chest. They are all comparatively tender, and when grown 
without proper care they are pretty certain to be reduced in number by severe 
winters, cold springs, and mildew and drought in summer. A certain few of the 
number seem capable of withstanding any combination of adverse circumstances, 
but of the rest it must be said they shonld be well grown or not grown at all. 
The first requisite to success is a nourishing, well-drained, warm soil, and shelter 
from east winds. A south wall is a capital place on which to train the most 
vigorous growers of the family, but these should never be expected to go higher 
than ten feet, though a growth of twenty feet may be obtained where the circum- 
stances are very favourable. If they must be grown in exposed situations, some 
plan of protection should be adopted, or the trees should be lifted in autumn, and 
planted in dry earth in a shed or under a south wall till spring, and then be 
returned to their former position. If this is done with care, standard Teas may be 
kept for many years, and will be well worth the little trouble occasioned ; but 
when an extra severe winter occurs, all Tea roses not uuder glass are sure to suffer, 
and the cultivator must take his risk of losses. All the free-growing varieties do 
remarkably well on briers, an¢ make charming standards; and all of them—free, 
shy, and otherwise—do well on their own roots, and make beautiful beds. When 
so grown, the most delicate are easily protected by covering the beds with moss or 
litter all winter, for though the frost may kill these tender shoots, the protected 
roots will escape, and throw up a new growth during the summer, which will 
bloom abundantly in autumn. But if on Manetti stocks, a severe winter usually 
kills them outright ; for this stock begins to grow very early in the season, and if 
the shoots are killed back as low as the junction of rose and stock, there is nothing 
left but Manetti roots, and the roses are lost entirely. Just as there are risks 
attendant on the culture of Teas in the open ground, there are no risks at all in 
growing them under glass. The difference in their behaviour is marvellous, and 
we have but to plant them out in a conservatory border and keep them freely 
