January 19, 1S71. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



43 



The tree has been planted several years. In 1869 it grew I 

 9 inches in height, last year it made 10 inches, and 10 inches 

 o{ young wood, pendulous ; but the pendulous growth of the 

 previous year has risen quite erect, and so has every growth 

 that has been made ot the year previous. The leaders, of 

 which there are several, and the side branches, keep pace in 

 their growth. I think it a valuable addition to the pinetum, 

 and have not the slightest doubt that it will rise to the height 

 of 70 or 80 feet. — Jaues Shith, Fynone, Soutli, Tl'ales, 



RECENTLY-IKTKODUCED GRAPES. 



Having grown and fruited most of the new Grapes which 

 have been introduced within the last three or four years, it may 

 be useful to some of your readers if I state my experience with 

 them. There can be no doubt that difi'erences of climate, soil, 

 and treatment, have a great influence on the Tine as well as 

 on other fruits, so that the results of my treatment here may be 

 different from that of others, and different from what I should 

 have arrived at under other circumstances. The merits and 

 demerits of new fruits are much commented upon in the horti- 

 cultural press, and sometimes they are subjected to undeserved 

 abuse. It is scarcely possible for a gardener to write with con- 

 fidence about a new Grape the first year of its fruiting with 

 him, although in certain cases a pretty correct estimate may be 

 formed ; but it is best to have two or three years' experience 

 before [speaking confidently. There is more difficulty in intro- 

 ducing new fruits to the public than there is in the ease of new 

 flowers, and it is well for gardeners that it is so. Take, for in- 

 stance, a new Grape; if a vinery is to be planted, and the 

 Grape in cinestion is said to be better than any of the older 

 varieties in the same class, the gardener is anxious to give it a 

 trial, and it is very annoying, after considerable attention has 

 been bestowed on the plant, and valuable space appropriated 

 to it, to find that it is much inferior to older sorts that would 

 not have cost a fourth of the money. There is not a tithe of 

 the disappointment felt over a new flower if it is not found 

 worthy ; a flower can in most cases be proved a few months 

 after purchase, and if it is not quite up to the high character 

 received with it, there is little harm done, and it is not worth 

 while to get out of temper about it ; but when you have been 

 wasting your time over, and devoting space to a Vine or fruit 

 tree which after two or three years produces fruit neither fit to 

 place upon your employer's table nor to give to your friends, 

 truly there is some excuse if you are tempted to use a few 

 hasty expressions. Of course, it equally behoves those to be 

 cautious who have the assurance to laud a new variety of fruit 

 to the skies before they have seen it growing and had sufficient 

 opportunity to test its merits. Most of the recently-introduced 

 Grapes, if they do not quite sustain the high character given 

 with them, are worthy of cultivation for some peculiarity of 

 flavour or constitution. 



Mrs. Pince's Muscat is a good-keeping sort, superior to Lady 

 Downe's in flavour, but not in appearance. The berries set 

 quite as freely as with Lady Downe's, both growing in the 

 same house. The bunches are long, tapering, but the berries 

 do not colour well. It is grafted on Lady Downe's, and the 

 difierence in colour is easily perceived. It has done best here 

 on its own roots. 



Muscat Champion is the best flavoured of all the new Grapes ; 

 none of the other so-salled Black Muscats have the flavour so 

 fully developed a? this. It is a shy bearer, requires heat, and 

 colours badly. It does best grafted on the Black Hamburgh. 



Eoijal Ascot has proved to be an excellent sort, and has im- 

 proved io apf e.rince and quality ; as a black Grape, both for 

 early and late houses, it is well worthy of cultivation. The 

 bunches are large, sometimes shouldered ; berries large, black, 

 and covered with a dense bloom ; the flesh is firm and richly- 

 flavoured. I have it grafted on the Black Hamburgh, but the 

 White Frontignan is the best stock for it. I was much sur- 

 prised last season at the effect of this stock on the Black Ham- 

 burgh. A grower in this neighbourhood, who sends his fruit to 

 Covent Garden, had some White Frontignana planted in the 

 same house with the Black Hamburghs ; as the fruit could not 

 be disposed of to the best advantage, the Frontignans were 

 grafted with Hamburghs, and the Grapes from the grafted 

 Vines were superior in every respect, the berries being larger 

 and more highly finished ; the plants had also the same pecu- 

 liarity as the stock — viz., that of being the first to be attacked 

 by red spider. 



Of white Grapes the recent introductions are not numerous. 



Golden Champion is a very distinct sort, both as regards 



flavour and appearance ; it has succeeded best grafted on the 

 Black Hamburgh. The berries are large, with a peculiar and 

 rich flavour. I think it tender, and not likely to put up with 

 the treatment to which the Black Hamburgh is often subjected ; 

 it has, however, been exhibited in such magnificent style that 

 those who have not been successful should try again. I fruited 

 it for the first time last year. 



^{adresfield Court Black I have not grown, but having 

 seen and tasted it in the hands of others, it seems to be a very 

 desirable variety. The flesh is not so firm as that of Mrs. 

 Pince, and it is said not to keep well after Christmas. The 

 bunches are large, and the berries large and quite black. It is 

 again very highly recommended by Dr. Hogg in the "Gar- 

 deners' Year Book " for 1871. — J. Douglas. 



TEA ROSE CULTURE. 



The answer to your correspondent at pag5 433 had deter- 

 mined me to continue the subject of my special favourite, the 

 Tea Rose, but the many calls on the clergy at this season of 

 the year prevented me from doing so before, and now Mr. Kent 

 has forestalled me in some of my remarks. 



I am but a beginner, so offer you my notes in all humility, 

 and I shall be most grateful to anyone who will set me right if 

 I err. 



I have about sixty varieties of Tea and Noisette Roses, and 

 if I were asked to name my favourites they would be as 

 follows : — Marechal Niel, Celine Forestier, Souvenir d'un Ami, 

 Rubens, Madame Falcot, Madame Margottin, Comte de Paris, 

 Archimede, Niphetos, Madame Willermcz, Madame Bravy, Mar- 

 quise de Foucault, Monsieur Piton, Madame Charles, Souvenir 

 d'EIise, President, Sombreuil, and last, though not least, Gloire 

 de Dijon. These have done all I could wish ; they stood the 

 past winter in the open ground, and bloomed profusely all the 

 summer. 



I describe my treatment below. La Bonle d'Or will not do 

 here without the protection of glass, it will never open ; the 

 same is my experience of Marie Sisley ; under glass both are 

 fine. Now, I would ask your readers to tell me about Mon- 

 plaisir ; I have been much disappointed with it. On hearing 

 its character I bought four as fine plants as one could wish to 

 see ; I treated them to some of the best places I could find — 

 against a sheltered wall, in an open border, and planted out 

 against a conservatory wall. I did not obtain during the season 

 one flower worth looking at. It was shy to bloom, and when a 

 bloom came it was as ragged, ill-shaped a production as yon 

 could well find. Archimede is a great favourite of mine ; it is 

 always in bloom, and if thinned out, so as to leave one bud on 

 a shoot, expands like a beautiful white Camellia. 



I find that the strong growers of this class do best on a very 

 sh rt Briar. Marechal Niel I 1 a7e against a wa'l, under glass, 

 and as a standard ; it is never bad anywhere, and with the 

 tying up, described below, is as good in the open as under glass, 

 perhaps even better, as I find the blooms larger. I am very 

 favourably inclined towards Unique ; it is a good grower, and 

 its peculiar flower is very pleasing. Many of the newer Roses, 

 including Belle Lyonnaise and Madame Levet, which, for the 

 information of Mr. Kent, is one of the new seedlings from 

 Gloire de Dijon, I have not yet bloomed, though I have plants 

 of them. 



In my judgment many make the mistake of planting Tea 

 Roses in situations where they get the full heat of the sun all 

 day, which causes the flowers to expand so rapidly that they 

 lose both shape and colour. My Tea border is under a waU 

 facing due east, but protected from the north. The soil, being 

 stiff clay, was deeply trenched, some of the subsoil burnt, and 

 a good supply of manure and old leaves worked in. The 

 plants are in rows, with occasional trenches between, which 

 trenches in summer are filled with good, rich stable manure, 

 well trodden by pigs, and from time to time water is pumped 

 in by means of a hose. I am constantly among them with the 

 aphis brush dipped in a concoction of 1 lb. quassia steeped in 

 two gallons of boiling water, and half a pound of soft soap. 

 I pinch out all superfluous buds. When I want Roses of extra 

 size I tie a piece of tracing or tissue paper, dipped in oil and 

 then dried, round the stem of the bud, leaving the paper to 

 project about Ij inch beyond it ; this draws out the bud, and 

 causes it to elongate and to swell gradually. The paper must 

 be increased in size according to the growth of the bud. The 

 oil throws off the wet, which would otherwise cause the paper 

 to adhere to the bloom ; it also causes ants to keep their dis- 

 tance. I had many a fine bud destroyed by these pests last 



