January 20, 1SG3. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



■15 



bark ten times louder for the delay than they now do, and every 

 one knows the barking is loud enough as it is. This I can tell 

 to my cost, for I am obliged to buy every inch of Rose I grow, 

 on account of my relation to Manetti, and though I went in for 

 John Hopper as early as the middle of December, I could not 

 obtain it for love or money ; but I was lucky onough to procure 

 Beauty of Walthavn on its own roots. 



All the nurserymen graft the new Roses as fast as they can 

 make them grow the first year, and many, if not most of them, 

 grow all their best Roses from cuttings both the first year and 

 until they have a full stock of them ; but the real new Roses 

 are difficult to be had on their own roots the first season, and 

 so I lost my chance of John Hopper for another year. 



It happens sometimes that when one is eutting-up a new 

 Rose for grafts there are some very small side shoots which are 

 too slender for grafts ; but being as good as so much gold they 

 are struck »9 cuttings, and are soon as good as the grafted 

 plants, and that was the luck by which I was enabled to pro- 

 cure Beauty of Waltham and some others of the same feather. 

 Well, budding Roses is one of the easiest operations to learn ; 

 but grafting them is an easier process and a much safer way to 

 make every bud tell for a plant ; so there are two best ways of 

 doing this part of the business. 



The best way to bud a Rose in Bummer or winter is not to 

 extract the bark and bud from the shield of soft sappy wood 

 as some do, but to take the thinnest slice of the sapwood along 

 with the bark and bud ; then if the edge of the bark does not 

 take at once, the soft woody slice behind the bud is sure to 

 stick to the soft body of the stock and amalgamate with it for 

 the flow of sap into the new bud, and it is on that same principle 

 that a grafted Eose is more safe than a bud put in on the ordi- 

 nary plan of budding. Grafting Roses is not like grafting 

 Apples and Pears, it is more of an intermediate process between 

 budding and common grafting ; the Rose-grafters, merely take 

 a thicker slice of wood behind the bud than is doue in bud- 

 ding — say a thicker and a little longer slice, and one bud 

 only ; then the stock needs only a like slice to be cut out of it, 

 and the new bud and slice to be nicely fitted to the part without 

 tongueing or wedging : nothing but to tie on the slice. Sup- 

 posing you took a slice of bark and wood off a branch, and cut 

 across the bottom to take it out fair, would it not be easy to 

 stick on the same slice again, and tie it round with some soft 

 binding ? Of course it would ; nothing was ever yet easier to 

 learn in this world. 



Rose-grafting is quite as easy, only you take the slice from a 

 different branch, which is all the difference. But clever prac- 

 titioners do it still easier. They cut off the head of the Rose 

 stock, and leave only a little stump out of the pot ; from the top 

 of this stump they slice off about 1J inch down, and make a 

 cut across the bottom of the slice which leaves a notch there, 

 and on that notch they rest or fit the bottom end of the graft 

 slice, then cut the top end of the slice square with the top of 

 the stock, tie, and clay ; sometimes they do not clay at all, but 

 it is more safe for ordinary people to put on a little clay for all 

 kinds of grafts. 



The best way to clay a Rose graft and all pot grafts is, to put 

 a lump of clay in a pot saucer and as much water as will make 

 it into a soft paste, like very thick paint, and with a little brush 

 paint the stock and graft all round, then dust it over with sand, 

 which will keep it from cracking, and all is finished. Gardeners 

 make their own brushes for this work, a bit of soft matting tied 

 on the end of a stick like a pen-holder is all they require. When 

 you hear of people grafting Rose9 in-doors, the plan is still more 

 easy. There is no pot or mould, only so many Rose stocks lifted 

 out of the ground on purpose, and any of the ways of grafting 

 will do. I am going to graft a great many Roses this next 

 month merely for amusement, and to try two or three ways, 

 the one against the other to find out which is the easiest and 

 most sure. Most of my stocks will be six-inch lengths of any 

 Rose roots that I can lay hold of, for, ultimately, I shall induce 

 the grafts to root on their own account. D. Beaton. 



PEAS— GREENHOUSES. 



I must this week ask to be a seeker of information instead of 

 being, as usual, in my small way, a giver of such ; although, 

 probably, the result of my questionings may be useful to other 

 folks besides myself. In one of the reviews of the Great Exhi- ' 

 bition just closed the reviewer remarked — there must be surely \ 



some great mist over our eyes about diamonds, that fabulous as 

 was their value it was not warranted by their appearance, that 

 to his mind the imitations of the Koh-i-noor in cut glas3 were 

 quite as brilliant, and that he questioned very much whether if 

 one of them had been placed in lieu of the veritable gem half 

 the crowd that pressed in to see it would have found it out. 

 Of course this was a most heretical declaration, but I only men- 

 tion it just to shelter behind while I make one as bad — namely, 

 that there is, to my mind, as great an illusion on the subject of 

 Peas. We have a wonderful variety — Peas as large as bullets, 

 and as sweet as if they were sugared ; Peas that grow 6 and 7 feet 

 high, and others that only grow one and a half. But I must — 

 turn me out of your company, oh ! ye gourmets — express my 

 entire abhorrence of the whole race of Marrows. I do not 

 think there are any Pens that equal those we have in the first 

 part of the season. Daniel O'Rourke, Sangster's No. 1, &c., 

 I can eat and enjoy them ; but when they are over, and these 

 great hulking grenadiers come in, my Pea-eating diminishes 

 in an inverse ratio, and I look foward to the coming-in of the 

 French Bean as a positive relief. Now, what I want to know is, 

 and will some one who does not blush for my want of taste 

 inform me, whether it is not possible to have such Peas through 

 the season, and, if so, what would be the conditions under 

 which one might expect to have them ? All through the summer 

 at Paris you have the petit pou ; and, I suppose, our Victorias, 

 Ne Plus Ultras, &c., would be considered as only fit for the 

 strong stomach of John Bull. As one must be now looking 

 out for seeds for the year, I 6hould be really glad of any in- 

 formation on this subject. 



Then, again, I want a little advice on the subject of a green- 

 house. My present one is all coming to pieces, and I want to 

 put-up a new one in its place. It is a lean-to, and heated by a 

 flue. Of course I want to put it up as cheaply as I can, and 

 for this reason purpose having the top a fixture, no sashes, 

 but simply bars glazed. I have in my mind the size I want, 

 and most of the details ; but I should be glad if some friend to 

 small gardeners would say what is the best plan of ventilating. 

 The house will be about 16 feet long and 10 wide, in a corner, 

 so that, the wall forms one end of it. It faces about south-west, 

 so that it receives a good proportion of sun. It needs good ven- 

 tilation, and that is one point I want information on. Then, 

 with regard to glazing, I remember seeing, some two or three 

 years ago, at the nursery of Mr. Wm. Paula new system, which 

 seemed to me much more economical than the ordinary one. 

 The glass was laid on putty, and screwed into its place with 

 screws on indiarubber bands. Will he kindly give his experi- 

 ence of the matter, and say how it answers, and whether frost 

 affects it or not, and how it is to be done ? I dare say such 

 information is to be had, and has been given before ; but then 

 every year makes such changes and introduces so many improve- 

 ments, that it is just possible one might reap the benefit of some 

 more recent experience. — D., Deal. 



CROSSING STRAWBERRIES. 



I had intended, on seeing in my November part of your 

 Journal the question put by Mr. Darwin about crossing Straw- 

 berries, to have replied, mentioning an experiment I had made 

 in that way, but having occasion to go to the country for a 

 time, 1 postponed doing so. It had gone out of my head till 

 after my return, when I was again reminded of it by seeing two 

 answers to Mr. Darwin's letter in the December part of your 

 Journal. These answers do not exactly meet the question, 

 neither does mine precisely, as I am now to give it. But, as the 

 subject is one of high interest and referring to a tribe of plants 

 among which I have been experimenting for many years, any 

 item of information, however small, may not be without its use 

 to some of your other readers, if it should be valueless, as I fear 

 it may, to Mr. Darwin. 



Having many years ago received from my friend Dr. Jameson, of 

 Ecuador, seeds of a large-fruited Strawberry, cultivated at Quito 

 as an importation from Chili, I sowed them and raised a very 

 large-berried brood, but with fruit so insipid that I regarded 

 them as utterly worthless. Having at the same time a very 

 fine but intractable kind of Strawberry in my garden, called 

 " Myatt's Pine," which after a time ceased to bear fruit, I be- 

 thought myselt of trying to infuse its delicious aroma into its 

 robust congener from Chili ; and I was induced to this the 

 more from observing one valuable property in this latter species 



