THE CANADIAN nORTICULTUEIST. 



139 



found none whicli has given me more 

 satisfoctiou than Marie Van Houtte. 

 It is a tirst-rate winter rose for the con- 

 servatory. In the wintfcr time, when 

 there is but little sun, it entirely loses 

 that rather coarse pink tinge which 

 it generally assumes in summer, and 

 becomes the most beautiful cream color. 

 It will adapt itself to the conditions in 

 which it may be placed better than any 

 other of the Teas. The past winter, at 

 the most severe season, owing to the 

 cold, and perhaps more still to the 

 darkening efiect of the snow on the 

 glass above them, all of my roses, with 

 the exception of Marie Van Houtte, 

 dropped their buds, or failed to opeu 

 them ; but Marie Van Houtte threw as 

 tine or finer blooms than ever. As I 

 tliink I stated before, I have found La 

 Fi-ance a paj-ticularly fine rose for the 

 conservatory. I did not, however, test 

 it the p;xst winter as I did not bring any 

 in from the garden iu tlie fall. The 

 small Polyantha roses are very suitable 

 for a limited conservatory. I have two 

 varieties, {I don't know if they are the 

 best) but they both do exceedingly well. 

 One is called Paquerette and is a most 

 beautiful, pure white, perfect, tiny 

 specimen of a rose ; and the other,called 

 Little White Pet, is, perhaps, not quite 

 so beautiful, but is a most prolific 

 bloomer and a strong grower. It is not 

 as small as the other nor is it quite 

 such a pure color, and though alto- 

 gether not quite so beautiful as Pa- 

 (juerette it is worthy uf a place in any 

 conservatory. I would advise my ama- 

 teur friends, who are really as yet but 

 tyros in rose culture, not to make their 

 first attempts with tlie very latest high- 

 j)riced kinds. The little points of differ- 

 ence between these latest arrivals and 

 the good old tried kinds may be very 

 interesting to the connoisseur, but are 

 altogether lost on the tyro. Although 

 these new roses are many of them very 

 beautiful, (and I am glad to see there 



is such a craze for them, glad that there 

 is such a passion for roses, new or old), 

 yet I doubt that they possess any more 

 reM beauti/, apart from their newness, 

 than many of those good old kinds tliat 

 have been before the public for years. 

 I have seen thousands of plants of that 

 famous new Hybrid Perpetual Mar- 

 shall P. Wilder in bloqm, and a beau- 

 tiful sight it was, but my amateur eyes, 

 unskilled in varieties, saw only my old 

 friend, A. Colomb. I have also had an 

 opportunity of seeing that tine new Tea 

 rose, " Sxmset,' that was ushered iu 

 with such eclat last season, and I can- 

 not see what greater value it could 

 possess to the amateur beginner than 

 that fine old favorite, Perle des Jar- 

 dines, even admitting that its color is 

 somewhat deeper. I don't wish to dis- 

 courage anyone from getting tliese fine 

 new roses, I only ^vish them to begin 

 right. Get A. Colomb first, then get 

 Marshall P. Wilder; Perle des Jar- 

 dines first, then Sunset. Begin with 

 the old kinds, and if you are successful 

 with them you will get the new ones 

 ffist enough without advice from any- 

 body. 



I find, on looking over the Ilortk-vJ- 

 turist of April (which arrived this even- 

 ing), that I intimated that I would 

 again take up the very dark I'oses. I, 

 however, think that the two kinds I 

 mentioned last month are as good a 

 choice as I could make ; perhaps adding 

 Baron de Bonstetten, which is a veiy 

 good dark rose. Some of the dark roses 

 other than those I have mentioned are 

 very subject to mildew, and all kinds 

 that ai'e subject to this disease had bet- 

 ter be carefully avoided, as being infec- 

 tious it is of serious effect in a rose gar- 

 den. I will close these remarks by say- 

 ing that in this country we labor 

 against great disadvantages in the out- 

 door culture of the rose ; but this \^vy 

 fact makes us, when we do obtain really 

 fine blooms, pi-ize them all tlie mori', 



