ON BLOOMING THE CLOTH OF GOLD ROSE. 203 



the plant, the manner in which it is generally recommended to be 

 grown, and which is as frequently acted up to, we shall, to a great 

 extent, see the cause of failure, and approacii more closely to a system 

 by which the flowering of this splendid rose shall take place with some 

 degree of certainty. I think it was in the " Gardeners' Chronicle" (but 

 I quote from memory) a correspondent lately inquired the best way of 

 managing it, and was answered by directions to grow it in rather poor 

 soil, as it is a strong grower. Now this I consider very questionable 

 advice, yet I know it is what is generally given. It is classed in that 

 group of roses called Noisettes, a class which a recent writer called, 

 with much propriety, a "jumble of hybrids;" and certainly many 

 varieties in the group are as distinct as if they were placed in seoarate 

 classes, being crossed and raised from very dissimilar groups. Taking 

 the old Noisette, as the type of the class, a large section called Tea- 

 scented Noisettes will be found to differ from it and its congeners very 

 materially, from their affinity with the tea-scented, being raised from 

 the latter class ; to this section belongs the Cloth of Gold, Solfaterre, 

 Clara Wendel, Lamarque, Triomphe de la Duchene, and many other 

 fine roses. The second named, Solfaterre, is very little inferior to the 

 Cloth of Gold, and was raised from the same parents. All this latter 

 section require peculiar treatment, approaching, in some degree, to 

 what we give the strong growing tea-scented kinds ; whilst the former 

 section of Noisettes will grow and flower with freedom, rambling over 

 walls or trellis-work, and in any soil tolerably rich. 



Let us examine the mode of growth of tea-scented and also Ciiina 

 roses, and we shall see they differ very much from others. Nearly all 

 the strong growing summer and climbing roseSj including one section 

 of Noisettes, when they grow freely and produce strong luxuriant 

 shoots, bloom indifferently ; indeed these strong shoots we are speaking 

 of, seldom or never produce flowers ; not so with the tea-scented and 

 Chinas: the strong shoots bring forth invariably the finest blooms. 

 Who has not noticed this with the common China on the cottage wall ? 

 I have known gardeners, who have bedded out crimson and other China 

 roses, cut them down to the surface of the ground every spring, with 

 the best result, as the plants grew freely, and bloomed finely afterwards. 

 Again, all the tea-scented and Chinas, which are budded during the 

 summer and autumn. Mill, the following season after being headed- 

 back, produce strong shoots terminated with beautiful heads of bloom. 

 The finest blooms I have ever seen of Devoniensis, Adam, Bougere, 

 and other fine teas, have been grown in this way as well as the best 

 Cloth of Gold, Solfaterre, and other tea Noisettes. This all goes to 

 show that the latter, together with tea-scented, Ciiinas, &c., should be 

 grown strong, free, and vigorous, in order to produce fine bloom. In- 

 deed, under the starving system, many of these roses will scarcely 

 bloom at all, and when they do, so poor and wortiiless are the flowers, 

 as, in many instances, not to be recognised as to what variety they 

 belong to. Take, for instance, a tea-scented or Cluna rose in spring, 

 let it remain in the pot which it stood in during the previous winter, 

 " not shifting," but giving a little pure water as it requires it, when 

 summer and autumn come, what shall we have ? A plant ; true, but 



