July 19, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



47 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day Day 



of of 



Month Week. 



JULY 19—25, 1877. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 









Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



h. m. 



li. m. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



Days. 



m. s. 





19 



Th 





73.2 



49.9 



61.1 



4 7 



8 5 



3 41 



11 19 



9 



6 1 



200 



20 



F 





73.2 



50.2 



61.7 



4 9 



8 3 



4 58 



11 51 



10 



6 5 



201 



21 



S 



Cleckheaton and Bromley Shows. 



74.0 



50.8 



62.4 



4 10 



8 2 



6 4 



morn. 



11 



6 8 



202 





Sun 





72.2 



51.4 



61.8 



4 11 



8 1 



6 58 



35 



12 



6 10 



203 



23 



M 





74.0 



51.4 



62.7 



4 13 



9 58 



7 37 



1 S3 



13 



6 12 



204 



24 



To 



Sale of Nursery Stock at Hammersmith. 



72.6 



51.7 



62.1 



4 14 



9 57 



8 5 



2 40 



14 



6 13 



205 



25 



W 



Roehampton Show. 



73.9 



49.4 



61.9 



4 16 



9 56 



8 25 



3 53 



• 



6 14 



206 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years 

 60.7 J . 



the average day temperature of the week is 74.7° ; and its night temperature 



DISBUDDING KOSBS. 



O we exhibitors — amateurs I mean, for I do 

 not of course presume to speak of or to 

 discuss the practice of the profession — do 

 we disbud our Roses too freely ? 



This is a very important question, and 

 now that the shows are over — for before 

 these notes are printed the last show of the 

 year will have been held at the Westminster 

 Aquarium, and the great nurserymen will 

 all be hard at work budding, and the pres- 

 sure on your space will be much lessened — now is a good 

 time to discuss it. The question occurred to my mind as 

 I read " D., Deal's" account of the Rev. W. F. Radclyffe's 

 Roses, and the force of it has been increased by two visits 

 I have lately paid, one to a nurseryman's and the other 

 to an amateur's garden. 



" D., Deal" in speaking of his visit to Okeford Fitz- 

 paine, says, " My friend never exhibits and never dis- 

 buds ;" and then he proceeds to name certain varieties 

 which were splendid. He especially names Charles Le- 

 febvre, saying how beautifully the petals were shaded 

 with velvet of a darker colour. With the exception of 

 some blooms of Mr. Baker's I have not seen this Eose 

 really good this year. Certainly I have not had one good 

 bloom myself and I have fifty plants, and I can remember 

 quite well that the year I commenced growing Eoses how 

 fine this Eose was on the Manetti, and then I did not 

 disbud. I think Canon Hole describes this Eose or Lord 

 Eaglan, I am not sure which, but the description is so 

 beautiful and appropriate to Lefebvre that I prefer to 

 claim it for that lovely Eose — " The colour is exactly like 

 a sunbeam in a goblet of Burgundy ;" and since the first 

 few years of my growing Eoses I have never seen that 

 variety so nearly come up to this description as it did then. 

 Of course I am open to correction, indeed to annihilation, 

 when I ask, Can disbudding be carried to too great an 

 extent ? and I answer it can in my opinion and often is. 



Now, there are two kinds of disbudding — first, the 

 thinning of shoots ; and secondly, the rubbing-out of the 

 side buds and of the buds all down the shoot, so as to 

 drive all the sap and strength of the plant into one bud. 

 In some large nurseries which I will not name this is 

 done to an enormous extent, and the results certainly 

 are splendid blooms of extraordinary size, but when these 

 are cut all further blooming of these plants for this season 

 is over. Of course this is not of the slightest consequence 

 to the great nurserymen, who as soon as the shows are 

 over care not for blooms, nor indeed have time to think 

 of anything but budding ; but it is a yery different thing 

 with amateurs. 



Let me state my own case. On the day I cut for the 

 Crystal Palace— viz., the 23rd of June, I was not able to 

 cut a single bloom in my front garden. On the 5th of 

 July, when I staged for Hereford, I only cut three blooms 

 (in the front) of Hybrid Perpetuals. Between the Alex- 

 andra Eose Show and the National— i.e., between the 

 29th of June and the 4th of July, the blooms on my front 



No. 851.— Vol. XXXIII., New Series. 



came and went. They are now completely over. For 

 Clifton to-night I did not cut any blooms but Teas and 

 one solitary bloom of Mdlle. Marie Cointet. Not one 

 week out of the fifty-two did my blooms last. And what 

 is the reason of these short-lived blooms ? I answer, 

 Disbudding and excessive forcing. 



Ab I looked over my front to-day I could not help asking 

 myself, Have I not been a little selfish ? For fifty weeks 

 in the year the whole of my front has looked hideous ; 

 nothing in the shape of a flower. Eoses growing in lines 

 on terraces one below another, next a blaze of colour for 

 one brief week, and then the same monotonous sightagain. 

 "Second blooms," some one may exclaim; "what of 

 them? Wo'n't you have numbers of them?" Second 

 blooms, I answer ; what of them indeed. Let me quote 

 once more our President's words — " They are but the 

 gleaning of the Grapes, the echo of the chorus." Where 

 they do come they are scarcely fit to be called Eoses, and 

 they do the plants no good. Now, if I had not disbudded 

 so much all the side buds would follow after the central 

 blooms and still make the garden gay, and give poor Mrs. 

 Savage something to look at and some blooms to cut for 

 her drawing-room, but now there literally is not a bloom, 

 except, always excepting, the lovely Teas. This is, of 

 course, to a certain extent a sentimental reason, but cer- 

 tainly it is an unselfish one, and should have a certain 

 weight. 



But I now come to a more prosaic question. Is so 

 much disbudding really necessary ? Cannot good show 

 blooms be obtained without it ? I almost tremble as I 

 write No to the first question, and Yes to the latter. But 

 I do still assert my conviction that fine blooms can be 

 obtained from plants which are left to grow naturally ; 

 and why do I say so ? Because I have seen them. Let 

 me new say where. 



Mr. Walters is a nurseryman at Exeter from whom I 

 buy many Eoses every year. He is one of the best rosa- 

 rians I know. He also supplies Mr. Baker with the main 

 portion of his plants. He grows splendid stuff ; he works 

 his dwarfs very low, suckers from his plants are un- 

 known, and he buds them all himself with the assistance 

 of his sons ; and in July his nursery is one of the grandest 

 sights I know. His blooms are always good and very 

 often superb, and he never disbuds. Mr. Baker and I 

 have pressed disbudding upon his notice, entreated him 

 to practise it, but he only replies, " I can get good blooms 

 without. I can sell all the plants I can work without 

 going to exhibitions, and I like to have blooms to show 

 my customers when they visit me." And so he always 

 has, and wonderful good blooms too. 



The other place I visited was of quite a different order. 

 In Lyme Eegis a little above the town is situated the 

 vicarage house belonging to the Bev. Dr. Hodges, who is 

 exceedingly fond of Eoses. He cultivates these not largely 

 as exhibitors would consider, but very largely for a man 

 who thinks only of garden decoration. He asked me to 

 go and see his Eoses, and though I could ill spare the 

 time I did so, and so pleased was I with what I saw that 

 I was very glad I had gone. In this lovely garden on 



No. 1503.— Vol. LVIII., Old Series. 



