64 THE ROSE GARDENS OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 



Roses on the lawn facing the house, containing the leading 

 kinds of Hybrid Perpetuals. The Comte d'Eu, which was 

 among them, was said to be killed to the surface every 

 winter, but to break from beneath the ground in spring 

 and flower well. The cultivation of Pot-Roses is just 

 taken in hand here, and the young plants look healthy and 

 promising. The natural soil at a foot below the surface is 

 a yellow clay ; the surface soil is heavy, and in many 

 places full of cracks. It is the practice of Mr Cowell to 

 manure the Roses three times every year in spring, 

 summer, and autumn. Burnt earth is used freely, and 

 found to produce marvellous effects.* The hoe is kept 

 constantly in use during spring and summer, and it is 

 doubtless owing to this painstaking that such fine flowers 

 are obtained : Baronne Prevost was measured seven inches 

 and a half in diameter, and other flowers were fine in 

 proportion. 



We could not but remark the absence of the little green 

 caterpillars, the larvae of a saw-fly, which has proved so 

 great a pest in most Rose gardens for the last two years. 

 We were informed that it had abounded here also in the 

 previous year, but that a timely application of a remedy 

 which destroyed it then had proved equally efficacious this 

 spring. The following is the receipt : To twelve gallons 

 of water put half a bushel of soot, stir it thoroughly, and 

 add a quarter of a peck of hot lime. Allow it to settle for 

 three or four days, when it becomes clear as claret. To 

 this quantity add, just before using, one pound of soft soap 

 dissolved in warm water. This proved an efficient remedy 

 after tobacco-water and other insect-destroying applications 

 had failed. 



PONSBOURNE PARK. Proprietor, WYNN ELLIS, 

 Esq. Gardener, Mr SCOTT. This seat is about five miles 

 north-west of the Waltham Cross Station of the Great 



* For an account of the application of burnt earth, and the means of 

 preparing it, see "The Rose Garden," Ninth Edition, pp. 51 and 52. 



