344 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 7, 1878. 
meadow, alike injurious to man, quadrupeds, and plants; it 
was therefore hardly to be wondered at that neither Teas, 
Noisettes, nor the more delicate Hybrid Perpetuals should 
appear largely in my exhibition stands. Experience, however, 
taught me much and enabled me partially to overcome these 
apparently insurmountable obstacles; and although 1 was 
never able io counterfeit the late amiable Rey. Geo. Arkwright’s 
wax-like shell-built Souvenir d’un Ami, Mr. Cant’s famous 
La Boule d’Or, or the Rey. E. N. Pochin’s massive and deep 
golden Maréchal Niel, and as he showed in his first forty- 
eight at Grantham (I believe in 1872), and which is only 
justice to him to say was one of the best blooms in the best 
stand ever exhibited by an amateur, as Messrs. Gayter and 
Merryweather will, I am sure, confirm me—I did eventually 
succeed in securing very respectable show blooms, and for 
some years successively at the York Shows in June I carried 
off the first prizes for Teas and light Roses. That this success, 
however, was not obtained except at the cost of much labour 
and the yearly deaths of a whole army of floral martyrs I am 
free to admit, but at the end of fifteen years there was a 
remanet of other varieties whose health and vigour constituted 
a valuable testimony to their powers of endurance under such 
adverse circumstances; I cannot, therefore, do better than 
enumerate them. The older varieties being Céline Forestier, 
Gloire de Dijon, Cloth of Gold, Lamarque, La Boule d’Or, 
Maréchal Niel, Safrano, Solfaterre, Triomphe de Rennes, Alba 
Rosea, Devyoniensis, Rubens, President, America, La Pactole, 
Bougeére, and Madame Falcot: and of the more recent sorts 
best able to brave the defects of soil, situation, and climate I 
found Réve d’Or, Belle Lyonnaise. Madame Berard, Bouquet 
d'Or, Souvenir de Paul Neyron, Madame Hippolyte Jamain, 
Catherine Mermet, Marie Van Houtte, Anna Ollivier, Marie 
Arnaud, Marcelin Roda, Comtesse Nadaillac, Madame Caro- 
line Kuster, Climbing Devoniensis, and lastly, as a doubtful 
but necessary member of the family, and which I consider to be 
ene of the best, if not the very best, Rose ever raise¢c—Cheshunt 
Hybrid, and yet this Rose when first exhibited by Mr. George 
Paul at the British Association’s Horticultural Show at Notting- 
ham, like La France, was only captivating by its singularity ; 
but admirers of the Rose are liable to variation of taste as well 
as fashion in regard to their pets. 
The more delicate sorts Lcould only keep up by continuously 
working fresh stock on the Briar, as I neyer found Teas to 
survive more than about two years on the Manetti and on their 
ewnroots. The propagation of weak growers is neither a rapid 
nor useful process. The cause of death of the martyrs in most 
eases arose from the injuries sustained by the very early growth 
caused by the forcing character of the soil, as, notwithstanding 
any amount of temporary shelter, the young growth was sure 
to be checked and sometimes repeatedly by the frosts of March, 
April, and May. A good covering for tender Roses is the 
common Bracken, or better still, the dry haulm of garden Peas 
loosely tucked in between the branches, tying only where 
absolutely necessary ; this in a mild season can with advantage 
be removed and quickly replaced in case of a sudden decrease 
ef temperature. or growing Teas and Noisettes for exhibition 
a wall or fence from + to 5 feetin height with north and south 
aspect is desirable, the Roses to be planted on each side and 
alternately as dwarfs on their own roots and standards or 
half-standards on the Briar about 3 feet apart, the plants to be 
left unpruned, and the vigorous shoots when long enough to be 
bent back and loosely trained over the wall. By this means 
both sides of the fence will be well covered, and blooms may 
be had either from dwarfs or standards and from one side of 
the wall or the other during a very protracted exhibition sea- 
son, and the shade and shelter afforded by the overhanging 
branches will protect the blooms and heighten the colours. 
Such sorts as Cloth of Gold. Maréchal Niel, La Boule d’Or, 
and L’Enfant Trouvé will do well worked on a strong old 
Banksian or Fortune’s White, or even an established China or 
Boursault, which should be allowed to run wild and overhang 
at the top, so as to afford shade and shelter for the blooms, the 
importance of which in growing Maréchal Niel in its true form 
and colour cannot be oyer-estimated, and I have a suspicion 
forms at least one of the means of the Rey. E. N. Pochin’s 
success in obtaining the orthodox pure golden colour which 
his glorious blooms almost constantly show. It is, however. 
certain that wherever there is a want of foliage (and the 
Maréchal especially in early spring is particularly detective in 
this respect) the colour of the blooms is invariably washy and 
faded. A remedy for this want can be partially supplied by 
allowing the shoots to ramble amongst the foliage of a Vine, 
Pear, Plum, Fig, or other fruit tree on a wall, or to train the 
branches horizontally under a projecting coping or the eaves 
of a building, and the advantage of, and 1 might say the neces- 
sity for shade and shelter will be apparent; but the full and 
best remedy is supplied by the foliage of the stock, especially 
when the Banksian is employed for the purpose. These re- 
marks apply also to a considerable extent to Cloth of Gold, or, 
as it is termed on the continent and in Jersey, ‘ Chromatella,”’ 
which, so far as J have observed, is one and the same variety. 
The growth of Cloth of Gold, as the Banksian, when the knife 
is not unsheathed and a liberal treatment is observed, will be 
marvellous. Such a dislike has this variety to surgery that I 
have heard it stated if the gardener approaches Cloth of Gold 
with a knife in his pocket it will not bloom, and this dislike 
to knife and scissors is exhibited in little less degree by the 
Maréchal and most other Teas and Noisettes, and the only 
pruning they require is the removal of unhealthy overaged 
wood.—T. Laxton, Bedford, 
HOW I GROW LILY OF THE VALLEY AND 
FORCE IT. 
I HAVE just been examining our stock of Lily of the Valley 
grown for forcing, and find the crowns extra strong and forward. 
As the system I pursue in the cultivation of this esteemed 
flower is different from the means generally employed for the 
production of its flowers out of season, and the results better 
than one commonly finds, a detailed account of how our plants 
are treated may be acceptable to those of your readers desirous 
of having forced Lily of the Valley at its best. 
Suppose a commencement is made from the present time 
when the plants have finished their annual growth and are 
merely waiting to be introduced into a growing temperature 
to yield their crop of flowers and foliage, and make thereafter 
another season’s growth. The entire stock of plants will shortly 
be removed from their present position, when they are plunged 
in a border facing the south and placed close to the wall of a 
stove, where, with the addition of a few mats thrown over 
them during severe frosts, they are safe from harm at the roots. 
Many of the plants have so filled the pots with roots as to 
have forced themselves above the level of the pot rims. <All 
such are now transferred into pots just a little larger, so that 
water may be more efliciently applied. The surface of any of 
those that require levelling is also done now. The earliest 
forced batches of the preceding season are marked “ first 
forced,” “second forced,” “third forced,” and ‘fourth forced,” 
and it is from these that the earliest forced flowers of the 
cwrent year are produced, as they are found to be capable of 
being brought into flower quicker than are those which had 
not been started so early the previous season. 
Various ways have been tried to bring on the earliest lots, 
but none with such good results as placing the pots under- 
neath the stage of a forcing pit. and keeping them covered 
with straw until the buds have pushed an inch or two. They 
require to be gradually brought to bear the full light. As the 
flowers commence opening the plants are removed to a cooler 
structure in order to render them as hardy as possible and 
capable of enduring in rooms, or when cut. Those that are sent 
to the house are sent when the greater portion of the spikes 
have many flowers unopened. In this way the time they last 
is lengthened by several days, a matter of some importance 
when somewhere about twenty large and small plants are ex- 
pected continually in the house during the first four months 
of the year. When the plants go out of bloom they are placed 
in a growing temperature, and are kept growing under glass 
until the weather is warm cnough in May to place them out- 
doors. The later batches are brought on in moderately heated 
structures, and do not require at any time to be subjected to 
a forcing temperature. 
About this time any plants requiring larger pots are re- 
potted. A good loam is used. Fresh potfulls are formed at 
this season; clumps corresponding to the size of pots to be 
filled being lifted, potted-up, and kept with the other plants 
over the winter. The size of pot used varies considerably, the 
ereater number of plants being in 9 and 10-inch pots, though 
both larger and smaller pots are employed. 
About the beginning of June the plants are transferred to 
their summer quarters, a position on a sunny border, where the 
pots are plunged up to the rims. They are placed on smaller 
to secure a clear outlet for drainage water. Here they are 
supplied with liberal waterings of weak liquid manure through- 
out the summer; during winter and the forcing season pure 
