208 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September IS, 1877. 



number of rooks, which at the former date were kept from 

 increasing by the wanton destruction of the yonng ; rook- 

 shooting days being greatly in vogue at that time — the time 

 when the Potato disease first became so prevalent in this 

 country ; but now not a rook iB allowed to be Bhot in that 

 wood, a great one, with no better cover for pheasants than is 

 formed by Rhododendrons. The ground where was a mass of 

 Daffodils in spring, and a blaze of colour of deeper hue in 

 early summer, to wander through which with the rooks cawing 

 overhead must be cheering to the proprietor — a satisfaction 

 that he is preserving for the good of himself, his tenants, and 

 country the most useful of British birds. But for our land- 

 owners the rook would long ago have become extinct. I men- 

 tion this because of the dread some appear to entertain of the 

 introduction of the Colorado beetle. Only encourage the rook, 

 and with its aid and our climate between them not a single 

 beetle will survive the year of its advent. The starling, too, 

 would no doubt help to rid the ground of the larva? ; but 

 there is little to be expected from him with the insect upon 

 the plant, as the food of the starling is always sought for in 

 the open ; he must see all around. 



But I will return to the Heathblooms, for which peat is 

 not essential ; indeed most peats, so called, are slow but sure 

 poison for a majority of hardwooded plants. I write this 

 guardedly, for though I have access to miles of moor, high and 

 low, I find it very unsuitable for this particular class of plants : 

 hence the supply of peat alias leaf soil ; brown and light is 

 procured from a distance. Our home-made leaf soil is black 

 when rotten, but that bought is brown — no more like moor peat 

 than rock is like clay. It resembles cocoa refuse more than 

 anything else, and that material when about half decayed and 

 highly compressed is a very similar material. 



Setting peats aside for the present, for which not a necessity 

 arises, to successfully cultivate the various kinds of hardy 

 Heaths, they thriving in most good garden soils, all that is 

 wanted is an open airy situation and the soil freed of stagnant 

 water. If a clump is to be formed on grass the only thing we 

 do is to turn in the turf about 4 inches, and upon this the 

 Heather is placed, it being cut .with about 2 inches of soil, 

 selecting the Heather where about 6 inches high. The bed or 

 clump is simply turfed over, and we have a miniature moor at 

 once which for beauty and sweetness is in its season unrivalled. 

 Any time in autumn, winter, and spring in mild weather a 

 group of Heather may be formed. I would advise those con- 

 templating growing Heather to procure it in the turf state, 

 and it grows as 3nrely as grass turf upon a lawn ; but I have 

 seen the Heather planted in a sort of inoculation form patches 

 of Heath about 9 to 12 inches square at that or greater dis- 

 tances apart, in which case it is necessary to let them into the 

 ground to the extent of the thickness of the Heath turves. 

 We have several clumps formed in that manner, they in a few 

 years covering the whol6 surface, but it has, as compared with 

 a clump wholly planted at first, a lumpy appearance. There 

 is that in its favour, that it requires less Heather. 



In forming a clump of Heaths where there is no turf I have 

 found it desirable after digging the ground, after pegging out 

 the form, to give it a coat of turfy loam, adding a third of 

 cocoa refuse and a sixth of sand, a 3-inch thickness of which 

 will secure the growth of all the Heathblooms. We can plant 

 according to taste, either having isolated groups of one kind 

 or variety in one ; yet it is advisable not to fritter material 

 away by isolation, which grouped or massed is most distinct 

 and effective. The different varieties of Erica (Calluna) vul- 

 garis afford material for a group, the body being the common 

 Heather, and the varieties irregularly disposed on the margin, 

 but always divided by the species from another variety ; or a 

 large clump may be formed of the species and smaller detached 

 ones of the varieties, but with some connecting lick between 

 them. The species is more tall-growing than the varieties 

 except E. vulgaris Alporti, and should therefore form the 

 centre, whether of a group if all in one, or of groups if the 

 species and varieties are detached. There is some variety in 

 colour of flower as also of foliage with diversity of form of 

 plant, so that we have with a similarity of plant great diversity. 

 The species E. vulgaris, pale purple; the red, rubra; scarlet, 

 eocoinea; white, alba, both in the tall and dwarf (minor) form. 

 Then we have gold, aureo-variegata ; silver, argenteo-variegata ; 

 and the downy in tomentosa, the bush form in dumosa, and 

 the upright in stricta, with dwarfness in nana, and a mere 

 pigmy in pygmsea. 



The Grey Heath (E. cinerea) with its white, dark purple, 

 red, and flesh-coloured varieties are subjects for another group 



or groups. E. tetralix alba, vars. carnea and rubra, are de- 

 sirable as forming another group, and the Cornish (E. vagans) 

 with its varieties alba and rubra, giving us the fourth group 

 of natives, to which we can add E. Maekayana and its var. 

 carnea; the French E. mnltiflora, vars. alba and rubra, and 

 make up a seventh group with the Portugal (E. ciliaris). 



With the preceding plants very effective heatheries may be 

 made, either in groups of a species and its varieties, or sepa- 

 rate beds of the varieties themselves. They are to be recom- 

 mended for country residences when there is little in shrubs 

 that is effective, and not a great deal in herbaceous plants but 

 what is at any time liable to be washed out by heavy rains. 

 Heaths require little care. Weeds must of course be kept under, 

 and a little pruning will occasionally be required to keep them 

 in form, which should be done before they commence growing. 



Omission must not be made of the very beautiful Irish 

 Heath, the most lovely of all ; the white (Menziesia polifolia 

 alba) ; its dwarf form (M. pumila stricta alba) forms a fine 

 mass ; also the purple (atro-purpurea). 



HeathB are natives of Europe — i.e., the hardy kinds, though 

 generally classed with American from the supposition that 

 they, being associated with peat soil, thrive under similar 

 conditions. The American plants proper do not thrive in 

 bleak exposed situations, but Heaths delight in mountain air. 

 There is one similarity, however, between them — viz., they all 

 succeed in the atmosphere of towns. — G. Abbey. 



VAEIOKUM-AUTUMN KOSES, PLANTING, &c. 



Theee is a world of wisdom in the trite proverb, " Qui s'ex- 

 cuse s'accuse," so I will not deprecate like " Wvld Savage " 

 (although in his case always needlessly) the trial I am about 

 to inflict upon my possible readers, but I will at once say that 

 the sight of my old friend's initials, " C. P. P.," in his useful 

 paper in a recent Journal has been to me as " ointment to sore 

 eyes" — in a highly personal Bense, too, having a severe in- 

 fluenza cold — and nerved me to send you a few lines generally 

 under the same heading, " Autumn Roses." 



It must, I believe, be generally confessed that La France 

 easily would gain the pride of place if Mr. Hinton were ever 

 to make an election of autumn Roses ; but in addition to this 

 indispensable variety I mention a list of other Roses almost 

 certain to give me good blooms in September : — H.P. Exposi- 

 tion de Brie (I include this Rose's three brethren), Senateur 

 Vaisse, Baronne de Rothschild, Alfred Colomb, Horace Vernet, 

 Xavier Olibo, Mdlle. Victor Verdier, Emilie Hausburg, Lyon- 

 naise, Jules Margottin, Duchesse de Horny, Louis Van Houtte. 

 Among these Xavier Olibo and Horace Vernet have been superb, 

 while among Noisettes and Teas Triomphe de Rennes, Celine 

 Forestier, Niphetos, Madame Berard, Alba Rosea, and Cathe- 

 rine Mermet have given me second blooms more glorious than 

 I ever remember before. 



I hope few, if any, of my brother rosarians have been hit 

 so hard as I have been by over-manuring this year. Of course 

 so unusually wet a year might upset the very best calculations ; 

 bat I must come to the conclusion, after the experience of two 

 or three decades, that no stimulating materials can be given 

 with perfect safety except in a liquid state or as top-dressing 

 after the plants are once placed in situ, and even there appli- 

 cations must never be given without due consideration as to 

 time and other circumstances. 



I should just like to say a word also about that important 

 subject of planting RoseB. I may be wrong, of course, but I 

 believe most of ub plant our Roses too soon. There are many 

 reasons which prompt to early planting, especially taking the 

 first advantage of the ground working well to get one's plants 

 properly established before the winter, and a still more feasible 

 reason is that unless Roses are secured early from the leading 

 nurserymen the chances are all the best varieties will be sold 

 out. Of course this difficulty will remain to those who like 

 myself advocate, whatever may be the soil or climate, late 

 planting. The Rose I believe entirely ceases from all growth 

 — bybernates (if I may use thus the word) but for a very few 

 weeks, and so if the weather permit I recommend the week 

 after Christmas or thereabouts — the first open season after- 

 wards in fact — to plant out, as giving hardly if any check to 

 the constitution ; a very important faot, especially as RoseB 

 are grown now-a-days so precociously gross and large that it 

 oftener takes three than two years for the plants to recover 

 moving. Among new Hybrid Perpetual Roses La Rosiere, 

 Madame Prosper Langier, Abel Carriere, and Monsieur Totr- 

 nier are alone to be recommended as real tried acquisitions. 



