244 ftOSE STOCICS. 



has a very pretty effect. It is a profuse bloomer, and bears large^ 

 heads of flowers. It is ia the public nurseries. 



Pentstemon Haetwegii. — Tlie flowers are three inches long, of 

 a crimson-purple colour, very showy. It is a neat plant, well worth 

 cultivating. 



Pentstemon Shefherdii. — The flowers are much larger than 

 P. coccinea, and of a much brighter scarlet. Very handsome. 



Pentstemon Clousii. The flowers are large, and the five parted 

 limb (end of the blossom) spreads to an inch and a-half across, and the 

 pure white inside of the tube is fully exhibited, which produces a very 

 iieautiful contrast with the bright scarlet outside. It blooms profusely, 

 and is particularly showy and handsome. 



ROSE STOCKS. 



BY THOMAS APPLEBY, ROSE MOUNT NURSERY, YORK. 



I HAVE read with a good deal of interest the various comments in 

 the columns of a contemporary upon Rose stocks, and having myself 

 had seven or eight years' extensive practice, and tried various experi- 

 ments on a variety of stocks, and also with Roses on their own roots, 

 I can with a degree of confidence and satisfaction speak of their dif- 

 ferent merits. First, then, as to the Boursault stock : this I consider 

 the very Morst of stocks for general purposes. I have worked a 

 variety of sorts upon it, and I have frequently bought in Roses which I 

 have found worked upon it, and I have invariably found it subject to 

 produce innumerable suckers, requiring much labour to get rid of 

 them ; and, besides this, it is unfit for all the summer Roses and the 

 class of hybrid perpetuals ; and although some of the Bourbons, Chinas, 

 Teas, and Noisette Roses will thrive upon it for a time, they, with a 

 few exceptions, eventually pine and die. Mr. Curtis, a writer in tlie 

 Gardeners Chro?iicle, also says the Crimson Boursault is " apt to 

 suffer in winter from intense cold," and that it " naturally produces 

 strong root suckers." These are serious objections to it. He also 

 recommends heading off with a knife (not scissors) the tops of the 

 stocks immediately above the shoots for budding, to save it from 

 decaying. But whence the necessity for lateral shoots to bud upon ? 

 Why not bud upon the main stems close to the ground ? If a stock is 

 found to be equally suitable for all Roses, needing no precautions to 

 save its life — " is not affected by intense cold," and is " not subject to 

 produce suckers," why then cultivate a variety of stocks for different 

 Roses ? And that such a stock is found I have proved, as I will show 

 before I conclude this paper. The next I shall notice is the Celine 

 stock, being far superior to the Boursault for general purposes ; but it 

 is too robust and rough for delicate Roses, and especially for Teas and 

 Chinas, and it is not fit for pot culture on account of its strong roots 

 and paucity of fibres. Another serious objection to this stock (as 

 Mr. Rivers truly observes) is the uncertainty of the cuttings rooting. 

 This, with amateurs and gardeners, may be a trifling objection, for if 



