ROSES AND ROSE SHOWING. 155 



rally indifferent it has not been universally so. In my 

 nurseries, and in other nurseries and well-known gardens 

 in Hertfordshire, the flowers on the old plants never were 

 finer or more abundant. The mass of my young plants 

 are hardly yet in full bloom, as it is my practice to remove 

 the first blossoms, by which means larger heads, a more 

 regular growth, and more thoroughly ripened w r ood con- 

 ditions essential to the future wellbeing of the plants are 

 obtained. This stopping of the young shoots produces an 

 intermediate flowering in July and August, which has been 

 already good, and still promises well. 



It may be some consolation to those who have suffered 

 disappointment this year to know that it is a matter of 

 season rather than of cultivation, and therefore more or 

 less beyond their control. The cold nights and sunless 

 days are at the bottom of the mischief. I have recently 

 been through the principal nurseries in France, and find 

 the same result, only in an exaggerated degree there as 

 here. Never were the Roses there so few and indifferent. 

 The grand Rose Show, which was to have taken place at 

 Brie-Comte-Robert in July, has been postponed, and the 

 growers intend showing their flowers at Tournay in Sep- 

 tember. 



Finding but little work for the eyes when in France, I 

 made the best of the circumstances by using my tongue 

 and ears in discussing various knotty points in Rose cul- 

 ture with the most intelligent growers. 



In England there are two classes of Rose growers, 

 those who grow for plants, and those who grow for flowers. 

 The two points are not usually combined in the same indi- 

 vidual with the highest degree of success. As the results 

 sought are different, so are the means used in their attain- 

 ment. Those who grow for show let the dormant buds of 

 the last year's budded plants flower from the first growth, 

 and by means of high manuring, copious watering, and 

 disbudding, induce a fat growth and fat flowers, which, by 

 the use of hand-glasses, flower-pots, mats, canvas, and 



