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JOURNAL 0? HOBTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Angost 9, 1877. 



the object be to obtain the greatest result in the briefest period, 

 rooting out the Vines afterwards ; nor is anything good had 

 by crowding the foliage, every leaf requiring full exposure to 

 light and air for the due performance of its functions — the 

 perfection of the present crop, and the no less important 

 condition of perfecting growth for producing future crops. A 

 great Vine is not necessary : of more consequence is the ex- 

 posure of the foliage fully to light and air, and when this is 

 provided, with the other elements of culture, a Vine in a 

 ground vinery or an amateur's small greenhouse will afford 

 Grapes of equal quality with the giant of Cumberland Lodge 

 or the mammoth at Hampton Court. 



I may inform those who differed with me as to Gros Guil- 

 Iaume being a shy bearer, that it still maintains the free-bear- 

 ing property attributed to it some time back. It bears freely, 

 one critic said, whilst the spurs were young; another gave 

 instances of its shyness of bearing. I do not know what may 

 be called an old spur. I have seen spurs 2 feet and more long; 

 but not being an advocate for more old useless wood than is 

 absolutely necessary to act as conduits of the sap to the bear- 

 ing parts, my spurs are short, though not so short as I could 

 wish, or they would emanate from the main rod annually; 

 yet I have spurs upon Gros Gnillaume of seven years' growth 

 producing in each year a bunch of fruit, the show of fruit being 

 as good upon the shoot from the first spur at the base of the 

 Vine as at the top. This year the largest bunch is at the base 

 of the Vine, the bunch measuring IS inches in length and 

 16 inches across the shoulders ; those at the top are not more 

 than 16 to 17 inches in length and 13 to 14 inches across the 

 shoulders, the Vine itself not having a rod much over a dozen 

 feet in length, yet it carries eight such bunches, and ten equal 

 to them were cut away when thinning. All it requires is to 

 have the foliage ample, and the BhootB thin, so that the wood 

 becomes perfectly ripened, and it then fruits freely. — G.Aebet. 



VARIORUM NOTES ON ROSES. 



Going about as I do all over the country exhibiting and 

 judging, I have many opportunities of taking notes of persons 

 and things, and the longer I live the more I learn about Roses, 

 their requirements, their strength, and their weakness. It 

 occurred to me that perhaps at this dull time of the year a few 

 notes might be acceptable to the Rose Journal on the subject 

 of Roses viewed in an exhibition light. 



It may be remembered by some of your readers that in one 

 of my former letters, before the exhibition season commenced, 

 I expressed my anxiety as to the result of this season's ex- 

 hibition to myself, inasmuch as I had made rather a bold 

 experiment. I determined for once to grow my Roses without 

 dressing them with farm or other manure in the autumn or 

 spring. I was led to adopt this plan — first, from a visit paid 

 to me by Mr. Walters of Exeter, who expressed his opinion 

 that my soil had been so manured of late years that it could 

 not hold any .more ; secondly, from the difficulty and expense of 

 procuring manure; and thirdly, from the untidy appearance 

 that the beds assume when the manure is left on the surface. 

 I therefore relied entirely on guano in the spring, Burface-moving, 

 and any amount of liquid manure. Concerning guano I know 

 there is a great difference of opinion. Many people hold that 

 it is of no use at all for Roses, others say that it is beneficial, 

 but must be employed with the greatest caution. I hold that 

 guano is one of the finest manures for Roses we have, and my 

 experience this year (to my mind at least) proves it. 



I pruned very late in order to suit the National fixture, and 

 I am confident that here I made a great mistake. When I say 

 late, I mean late for this neighbourhood, for it was the middle 

 of March before I pruned a Rose. Anyone who remembers 

 the late season will, I think, agree with me in saying that we 

 had a mild if not a very mild winter. February was so mild 

 (for the season) that the Rose trees grew wonderfully, and 

 when I came to cut them they were almost in full leaf, at least 

 the leaves were all formed. I then cut tremendously hard, 

 almost down to the ground. The check here must have been 

 very great, but after the pruning was finished a season of un- 

 exampled severity set in which checked all growth, and so 

 naturally my plants refused to grow. The very maid servants 

 here shook their heads as they saw such hard pruning to plants 

 in full growth, and I am convinced that, be the shows when they 

 may, it does not do to defer pruning to Buit them. In the first 

 week of Jane I looked round my roseries and saw no growth, 

 no buds, and no signs of being in form. Then in desperation 

 I called Peru to my aid, and put on the guano very carefully 



and in small quantities, and though my plant? did not grow at 

 all as they ought to have done I had fair blooms. Every rainy 

 day (we had only three all June and till the loth of July), I 

 put on guano again. Now as to results. I think anyone who 

 has read my accounts of shows will absolve me from any wish 

 to speak of my own success, and believe me that I only mention 

 what I have done to " point the moral and adorn the tale." 



I showed at the Crystal Palace in one class, at Exeter in two 

 classes, at Torquay in four classes, at the Alexandra Palace in 

 two classes, at St. James's Hall in four classes, and at Bristol 

 in five classes — eighteen classes in all at the great shows ; and 

 I won three first prizes, eight seconds, two thirds, and three 

 fourth prizes, or sixteen prizes with eighteen exhibits. This, 

 of course, is not in any way a grand result, but just a decent 

 succesB ; but it has been achieved without the employment of 

 a single load of stable manure, and I only mention it to show 

 that, where it is almost impossible to procure this, something 

 may still be done with artificial aids like guano. 



I must also mention in self-defence for not doing better, 

 that owing to our having no late trains on the South-Western 

 Railway, I am compelled to out either fifteen hours before my 

 great rivals do, or else to cut and stage in the hot sun. And 

 this leads me to the discussion of a point of much interest and 

 importance to men who, like myself, are obliged to cut a long 

 time before our rivals. Is it better to cut at 3 a.ji. with the 

 dew on the blooms, or to wait till 2 or 3 p.n. and cut in the 

 hot sun ? What say the authorities ? 



Mr. Keynes says, or did say some seven years ago when 

 asked by myself, " Undoubtedly it is better to cut in the early 

 morning, even twenty-four hours before the Bhow, than to cut 

 in the sun however near you can do it to the time of judging." 

 Mr. KeyneB' foreman said last week when I told him that my 

 Alexandra trebles were cut in the sun, "Well, sir, and if you 

 have the stuff in your Roses it is best to do so." Mr. Curtis, 

 I am told, positively recommends it ; Mr. George Paul con- 

 demns the practice; and Mr. Robert Baker, the champion, 

 says that under no circumstances would he cut in the morn- 

 ing. He always is able to cut at night ; but if he were not, he 

 would cut in the sun rather than at three or four in the morn- 

 ing. " There is one thing," he added, " one advantage you have 

 in cutting in the sun — you need never put in a bad bloom," 

 and when cutting in the early morning young blooms to last 

 for thirty hours, you often do ; in fact, you cannot fail to put 

 in some poor blooms. However, the idea of cutting in the 

 sun is quite new. It is like Wagner's music, violates all esta- 

 blished rules, sets custom at defiance; but whether it, like hia 

 music, will prove to be the " rage of the future," or whether it 

 will even be scoffed at then as it is now by the great majority 

 of rosarians, remains to be proved. My own idea at present, 

 and one which I shall follow out with extensive practice next 

 season, is to cut very young and cut in the sun, unless the 

 South-Western Railway mend their ways and carry the mails 

 instead of being content to see them carted thirty miles as 

 now away from their system. Any advice that your corre- 

 spondents will kindly give on this momentous question through 

 the winter will be of great service, and be most highly appre- 

 ciated by a Wyld Savage. The great charm, or at least one of 

 the great charms of the National Rose Show at St. James's 

 Hall, was the great freshness of the blooms. Mr. George Paul 

 cut as late as he could see the night before the Show, and 

 travelled-up slowly, and quietly, and coolly during the soft 

 night air. Mr. Turner cut all his blooms the morning of the 

 Show ; and Mr. Cant not only cut very late on the eve of the 

 Show, but also left his foreman to run over his plants and 

 bring-up fresh blooms on the following morning. Here, then, 

 were three of the great nurserymen showing blooms many of 

 which had only been cut five instead of the usual twenty-eight 

 hours. 



And now let me give one or two instances of the great 

 energy shown by the leading amateurs so that their blooms 

 might be as fresh as possible at the great tournament of the 

 year. Mr. Jowitt loaded his Roses on his own trap at Here- 

 ford, had the trap placed on a carriage truck at the station, 

 and did not unload it till he carried hia boxes into his own 

 private dreBsing-room at St. James's Hall. Hia great rival 

 " Hercules," who ran him so close at the National for the cap 

 and beat him on his own ground at Hereford, positively iced 

 all the water with which his tubes were filled, and he took a 

 spare bloom for every Rose he staged. He showed in thirteen 

 classes and took £32 in prizes. Was ever such a wonderful 

 success known? Next year Mr. Cranston's cup at Hereford 

 and also at St. JameB's Hall will be keenly competed by these 



