AngBBt 24. 11 7 J. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



1S&- 



nature. Sites for plants will, of eonrse, be the aim of the 

 rockwork constructor. Recesses, crevices, ledges, and these so 

 disposed as not to show a preponderance of rock or of verdure 

 throughout, bat imposing masses of both, rock preponderating 

 in some parts, verdure in others, the latter being mostly in 

 nature located in the recesses. As a rule the lesser forms of 

 Ferns only are in nature associated with rock in the mass, the 

 taller forms being present near the boulders, whilst the most 

 Btately are not associated with rock in any form. In planting 

 rockwork plants are frequently placed in positions in which 

 they cannot show themselves advantageously, and far too much 

 grotesqueness is attempted, intricate ugliness supplanting 

 Nature's simplicity. 



I must refer once again to the covering of wall surfaces or 

 rocks. I have already noted the covering of them with Ferns, 

 we will now do it with Fious repens ; and I strongly advise the 

 wall to be built rough, as it will certainly appear the better 

 when covered with the Ficus and the ultimate planting of its 

 surface with Ferns, for the Ficus forms by its branches and 

 roots (aerial) the finest of all holders of compost, it being only 

 necessary after the wall is well covered to make an opening 

 with the hand, parting the Ficus from the wall, and introduce 

 soil ; but I put in cocoa-nut ref use and turn out a plant from 

 a pot into the hole in the Ficus, and firming the cocoa refuse 

 about the plant. Any kind of Fern almost will grow in such 

 positions, but those with drooping fronds, as Goniophlebium 

 subanriculatum, Adiahtums, Aspleniums, and Platyceriums 

 appear best. These or others appearing upon or from the green 

 coppery mantle of the Ficus have, I think, a much better effect 

 than even a Fern-covered wall, exhibiting as it does, under the 

 best of circumstances, too much wall, the Ficus being a com- 

 plete covering. It is hardly necessary to add that soil must 

 be provided for the plants to grow in — i.e., the Ficus. I use 

 sandy peat with a little turfy loam, and the wall surface is kept 

 constantly moist. — G. Aeeet. 



[Ficus repens is not usually considered a " hardy " plant. 

 It is a stove plant, but we have known its sprays to protrude 

 from the inside to the outside of a house and pass through at 

 leaBt one winter uninjured. It is a native of the East Indies. 

 —Eds.] 



KOSES, &c— SYRINGING. 

 I was taken to task by one of your correspondents some 

 little time back for having made too general a condemnation 

 of the Briar stock, and quoting his own experience of success. 

 Now, if I remember rightly, the conditions under which the 

 Roses on the Briar which he mentioned as being successful, 

 were exactly those under which the Briar has a chance of 

 succeeding — that is, not as standards, but as stocks to Roses 

 trained against the wall and allowed to grow freely. I have 

 never said that the Briar will not succeed on certain favourable 

 soils and under certain conditions ; but I have always main- 

 tained that the system of growing Roses as standard bushes, 

 be they tall or be they dwarf, is one which militates against 

 the production of really good Roses. The whole system of 

 pruning and training is against the true nature of the Rose, 

 which is always inclined to throw up strong shoots from the 

 base. Look at a Dog Rose in a hedge, and you will find that 

 every year it throws up suckers from the roots. Look at all 

 Roses on their own roots or on Manetti stocks properly planted, 

 they will continually push up strong shoots from near the 

 ground. These are the shoots which produce the best blooms, 

 and which should be taken most care of by cutting away old 

 wood and encouraging free growth ; and this is precisely what 

 cannot be done with standards grown to mop heads. Stan- 

 dards well covered with Roses may be pretty while in bloom, 

 but for the greatest part of the year they are unsightly. I am 

 not going to repeat now what I have said before about the 

 mortality among standards on the Briar, but I do venture to 

 repeat my warnings against planting standard Roses in small 

 gardens. No doubt there are some soils more suited for the 

 Dog Rose stock than for the Manetti, as all heavy clays and 

 unctuous loams. But in these soils Roses might be grown as 

 dwarfs on the seedling Briar with the crown planted either below 

 or on the level of the ground, or they may be budded on the 

 Dog Rose grown from cuttings. Any way, as a rule, if the Briar 

 is to be used, it is far better to use either the seedling Briar or 

 cuttings, or grafting Roses on suckers of the Briar. I have 

 so often seen standard Roses completely destroyed by frost or 

 burnt up with dry weather, that I rarely now see a standard 

 in Yorkshire with a decent Rose on it ; but I do not on that 



account wish to condemn it as a stock when properly used for 

 dwarf Roses on strong soils. 



I see " Wyld Savage's" experience of his brother's Rnses 

 in the north agrees with mine. Always prune late. My Roses 

 were not pruned this year till the last week in April, and I 

 never had on the whole better blooms. The cold winds of 

 March and April with severe frosts had so injured all the- 

 young spring shoots that I had in nine cases out of ten to cut 

 back to dormant buds. Had I pruned back early the new 

 growth must have suffered. As I do not exhibit I do not go 

 through the agony of mind that " Wtld Savage " (bow long 

 will he continue his soubriquet ?) and others do about having 

 blooms ready for the principal 6hows, and I do not mind 

 having them late, and this year I hardly had any Roses till - 

 the first week in July. My experience of this year's season ■ 

 with several of the Roses he mentions has been quite similar 

 to his. Charles Lefebvre has been seldom good, nor has 

 Alfred Colomb been as good as usual. I have had some 

 wonderfully fine blooms of Thomas Methven, a sort originally 

 much recommended by the late Mr. Perry, a very good judge, 

 and I never before knew how fine a Rose it could be, two or 

 three blooms I cut this year being almost the best alike in 

 form and colour and fulness of petal of any Roses I have- 

 seen this year. Edouard Morren, too, I must confess, even 

 against my prejudices, has been good, and M. Boncenne, which- 

 is rarely really good with me, has been very fine. Other sorts 

 very good this year have been M. Marie Rady, Baroness Roth- 

 schild, La France, Maurice Bernardin.Xavier Olibo.BouIe d'Or, . 

 Marguerite de St. Amand, Marquise de Castellane, Etienne 

 Levet, F. Michelon, Fisher Holmes, Duke of Wellington, &&. ■- 

 I do not much believe in either the syringe or the water-pot 

 for Roses in the open borders. Give plenty of mulching and. ■ 

 manure during winter and spring, and, unless the season is 

 very exceptional, there will be no trouble with green fly an£ 

 no necessity for the water-cart, unless it is with Roses trained 

 to walls. 



While on the subject of water I venture to Bay that Mc. 

 Abbey's warning against the use of the syringe for Gvapee, 

 Peaches, &c, and amongst stove and greenhouse plants, seems 

 to me very fraught with danger. I see so many more plants 

 injured from not using the syringe enough than from the free 

 use of it, that, though he may be correct in theory in Baying 

 that leaves in a state of nature do not receive rain underneath, 

 yet he mnst remember there is many a heavy rain that comes 

 in driving showers and washes the under part of the leaf as 

 well as the upper. I do not believe in the bloom of Grapee- - 

 or Peaches being injured by pure rain water. I syringed a 

 bunch of perfeotly ripe Grapes with a jet d'eau a few days ago 

 as hard as I could force it within a few inches of the bunch, 

 and did not bring off the bloom. I do not mean to Bay that 

 plants may not be injured by useless syringing ; but I am con- 

 vinced that far more plants which are growing in houses much 

 exposed to the heat of the sun are spoilt through neglect of 

 the syringe than by the overuse of it, and that it is a most- 

 valuable remedy to keep down the attacks of red spider, thrips, 

 green fly, and other insect pests. I am not and never was a- 

 believer in the idea that leaves could suck in moisture through 

 their breathing pores, as I believe that all carbonic acid is 

 absorbed through the roots, and that daring light the growth 

 is matured and the carbon fixed when oxygen is given ofrV 

 and during the night the leaves evaporate moisture and car- 

 bonic acid; but syringing checks evaporation and keeps both- 

 the upper and under sides of the leaves clean and free to carry 

 out their proper functions, and I am consequently convinced, 

 that syringing the under sides of leaves will do no harm even 

 though in nature the upper surface may be most exposed to 

 the action of rain ; but as plants in houses are under artificial 

 treatment, the rain has also to be artificially applied, and so 

 long as leaves are not bruised or broken I do not believe soft : 

 water from a syringe will hurt them, unless a house is made 

 too damp and cold by too constant a use of it.— C. P. P. 



GRAPES CRACKING. 



Grapes seldom crack or split before they begin to ripen. An- 

 excessive flow of sap is generally supposed to be the cause of 

 the disaster. This may be correct in exceptional instances, 

 but I think as a general rule cracking is the result of a damp 

 close atmosphere more than anything else. It is pretty well 

 known how a shower of rain will cause Gooseberries to burst, 

 and moisture appears to act the same way on Grapes. 



I saw a large vinery a Bhort time ago which was chieflV 



