November 7, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
345, 
water alone being given. From one year’s end to the other 
the soil is kept in a moist condition. When in full flower in 
rooms, saucers to fit the pots are used and kept full of water. 
These are the essential points I observe in cultivating Lily 
of the Valley—much trouble, many of your readers will doubt- 
less think. Well, there is more trouble necessarily involved 
than in growing continental produce, or in stowing the pots 
away in some corner where they may be sometimes remem- 
bered, oftener forgotten. But then the potfulls of charming 
flowers and foliage I have every season to present my em- 
ployers with would fully compensate for much more trouble 
than is incurred in their cultivation, and I am certain anyone 
who may be induced to try the mode of cultivation just ex- 
plained and give the plants attention, will never regret any 
little extra work that may be thereby imposed on them.— 
R. P. RROTHERSTON, Z'yninghame. 
GRAPES NOT COLOURING. 
WITH regard to the note (page 298) made by “ A KrrcHEN 
GARDENER” on the want of finish in Grapes this year, allow 
me to say that my remarks in the “Gardener” applied to five 
or six counties besides East Lothian, in which I had seen 
badly finished Grapes. At the grand show of fruit in Edin- 
burgh there was a great want of finish in many of the Grapes. 
Thick-skinned Grapes, such as Lady Downe’s and Alicante, 
have coloured well, but it is notorious that some of our best 
Grape-growers did not exhibit this autumn, and that in one 
instance where some magnificent specimens were shown these 
had been ripened some ten weeks before being shown. Another 
evidence of the bad effects of oyer-much heat I find in the 
number of rusty berries amongst white Muscats. I believe 
Mz. Douglas of Loxford Hall cured this tendency in Muscats 
to rust when ripening by increasing the ventilation. 
Tam starting late Grapes earlier every year, and in localities 
like this, where there is the chance of having the Grapes 
cooked into sweetness now and again, a still earlier date for 
starting and ripening must be instituted. Grapes ripened in 
July keep in excellent order till the following March or April : 
and as Lady Downe’s, the latest keeping of Grapes, is not 
affected as regards ripening by over-much heat, we must make 
a point of getting such fine late Grapes as Gros Guillaume, 
Calabrian Raisin, Royal Vineyard, Gros Colman, Black and 
White Muscat of Alexandria, and perhaps Mrs. Pearson, ripened 
in July. The only Grapes I expect to keep well this season 
are Lady Downe’s and some Muscat of Alexandria ripened in 
that month and the beginning of Aucust.—R. P. B. 
MANETTI versus SEEDLING BRIAR. 
First, the Manetti does not produce suckers like the Dog 
pe but it emits a quantity of shoots beneath the neck or 
collar. 
Secondly, the Dog Rose produces suckers in abundance, which 
are more easily discerned by the inexperienced than shoots on 
Manetti. 
Thirdly, the Manetti is the best stock for most Roses; it will 
thrive well on nearly all soils, but especially on poor or sandy 
soils if heavy manures (cow or pig) are added. 
The above notes are written from practical experience, for 
being in the trade I have had to contend with Manetti shoots 
the same as have other growers. But why? Because I was in 
the habit of trusting careless hands to make the cuttings for 
stocks. Now I pass every cutting through my own hands or 
some other experienced persons, who will allow no eye how- 
ever small to escape cutting out, and now as a consequence I 
te scarcely ever bothered with the Manetti throwing up a 
shoot. 
How is it the Manetti has got into such disrepute? Because 
nurserymen or trade growers will not always carefully disbud 
the stocks that are sent out. They say it does not pay to dis- 
bud when Roses are so cheap and labour so dear; therefore 
many Roses when sold linger awhile and then in course of time 
are completely smothered by the stock: hence so many fine 
Manetti bushes (not Rose trees) are seen in different parts of 
the country, the owners waiting in vain for beautiful flowers 
and healthy glossy foliage. 
The Manetti is a fine foster-parent (mothing more), for a 
Rose worked on that stock should be on its own roots the 
second season after planting, which is generally the case, 
provided it has been completely buried below the worked part, 
say2 or 3inches. Unfortunately Roses are not always planted 
properly ; the collar is often#leftZbare, and if there is an un- 
disbudded eye on the stock it is sure to assert its supremacy 
over the Rose. 
Mr. Prince, the champion of the seedling Briar, tells us iz 
his Rose list that how he accounts for his Roses doing so well 
is because he can change the soil at intervals, having plenty of 
fresh land at his disposal. Now I venture to say we can all 
grow Roses either on one stock or other well if we had the 
same facilities, but unfortunately we have not. Roses grown 
on fresh land would hardly need manure. We feel thankful 
if we can get hold of a little decayed turf now and then. How 
happy ought a man to be who can get plenty ! 
Here I should like to ask a few questions with regard to Roses 
on seedling stocks. Must rows on seedling stocks be planted 
above or below the worked part? If the worked part is left 
exposed how will a season like 1860 affect it? Will the plants 
be killed down to the ground, as ours were that year? if so, 
they cannot be regarded as the best stocks for the propagation 
of Roses. The Dog Briar never thrives well on sandy or light 
soils, a strong soil being its natural habitat. I do think the 
seedling Briar is a good stock for Tea Roses, as also is the Dog 
Briar raised from cuttings ; but they should be disbudded like 
Manettis, which would not be so easily accomplished with 
seedlings. 
The Manetti if planted deep will be safe from the severest 
frost, for if cut down to the ground line it would spring up 
more vigorous than before.—W. C. A. 
1 SHOULD like to take this opportunity of corroborating my 
friend Mr. Peach’s theory that the Manetti stock when properly 
disbudded does not fling out true suckers or runners like the 
Briar undoubtedly does. I bought from my neighbour at 
King’s Acre last autumn some eight dozen of Tea and Noisette 
Roses in pots, including among others all the varieties men- 
tioned in my list published on page 309. I wintered the lot 
in cold frames under an east wall, occasionally watering the 
plants with weak liquid manure. When planted out in the 
ground in spring I found that in the case of two plants only 
was there any trace whatever of Manetti shoots growing, and 
these in a very weak state; and I venture to state that where 
special care is taken (as generally is the case with pot Roses) 
in disbudding, there is no danger of any overgrowth from 
so-called suckers with the Manetti. 
It is also interesting to notice as a matter of fact that I find 
at the present time only one among the lot of Teas and Noi- 
settes I have mentioned—though budded on the Manetti, and 
many of the varieties undoubtedly delicate in habit and dwarf 
in growth—that has failed to grow healthily and does not 
promise, with the good start they have got, to hold their own 
in their rough foster-mother’s embrace, though I am aware my 
experience is in this respect contrary to that of most of my 
brother rosarians.—HEREFORDSHIRE INCUMBENT. 
! 
KYO LEEK CLUB. - 
THE above Club held their first annual Exhibition of Leeks on 
the 26th ult. in the large room of the Harl Grey Inn, Kyo. This 
Club is composed this year of forty-three members, each contri- 
buting 3s. 3d. per year in monthly payments of 3d. each. The 
members are principally miners ; and each having to.exhibit three 
Leeks bond fide their own growth, which rule is most zealously 
and strictly carried out, it creates a vast amount of interest in the 
growing ot this useful yegetable in the district, which embraces 
a two-miles radius of the Earl Grey Inn ; and the results show 
that the pitman gives his attention to something more than the 
proverbial bull dog. There are no better vegetable growers than 
the north country miners when situation and means are taken 
into consideration, one of the successful competitors living at aw 
altitude of 980 feet above the level of the sea and exposed to frost 
and snow till the latter part of April. 
As may be expected, the task of the Judges—Mr. J. Robinson 
of Shotley Bridge, and Mr. R. Shield of Swalwell—was no sinecure, 
as there was some keen competition among the thirty-nine exhi- 
bitors. The first-prize trio were a fine level lot with 10 inches of 
blanch and 53 in circumference. The second were about the 
same circumference, but half an inch shorter. The third were 
shorter again by an inch, but were 6 inches in circumference but 
not quite white. 
Atter the Judges had performed their task the room was 
thrown open to visitors at a charge of 3d. each, of which upwards 
of a hundred availed themselves of the opportunity of seeing 
the Exhibition. The prizes consisted of yarious useful articles 
for gardening and household purposes, varying in value from 16s. 
down to 1s. 6d. Twenty-six exhibitors received prizes for superior 
