October 18, 1677. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



293 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day ! Day 



of Of 



Month Week. 



OCTOBER 18-24, 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. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



Days. 







18 



Th 



St. Luke Evangelist. 



60.4 



40.7 



50.6 



6 81 



4 59 



3 39 



2 5 



12 



14 51 



291 



19 



F 



Sale of Orchids at Stevens's Booms. 



59.4 



41.7 



50.5 



6 S3 



4 57 



3 49 



3 15 



13 



15 1 



292 



20 



S 





590 



39.2 



49.1 



6 35 



4 55 



4 



4 26 



14 



15 12 



298 



21 



Sun 



21 Sunday after Trinity. 



584 



39.5 



49.0 



6 87 



4 53 



4 18 



5 88 



15 



15 21 



294 



22 



M 



Sa!o of Bulbs at Stevens's Rooms. 



58.9 



42.4 



50.6 



6 38 



4 51 



4 28 



6 58 



G 



15 80 



295 



23 



To 



Bobert Fish died, 1873. 



58.2 



89.8 



409 



6 40 



4 49 



4 46 



8 11 



17 



15 89 



296 



2, 



W 



Long Vacation ends. 



56-3 



39.6 



47.9 



6 42 



4 47 



5 13 



9 81 



18 



15 46 



297 



From observations taken near London daring forty-three years, 



the average day temperature 



of the week is 52.1° ; and 



its night temperature 



40.4". 















THE ROSE SEASON OP 1877— A RETROSPECT. 



^ S " Wyld Savage " (who, by-tke-by, is de- 

 scribed in tlie "Journal des Roses" as 

 " Mons. Wyld Savage") and others have 

 written their opinions of the Rose season, 

 I may perhaps as well add mine, especially 

 as I have done so in previous years. My 

 facilities for giving that opinion are about 

 the same as usual. I have acted as judge 

 in various parts of the kingdom, have visited 

 many well-known Rose gardens, and have 

 consequently seen Roses in the most varied aspects from 

 their earliest blooming in pots to the last exhibition at 

 which they were prominently brought forward — the Crystal 

 Palace Show of September 21st, an unusually late date. 

 I shall therefore record my views in just noticing a few 

 points that the season has especially fixed on my mind. 



1. " Has it been a good Rose year ?" is a question that 

 has been very frequently asked of me and others. My 

 own opinion is that it has not been so, and I do not see 

 how it could well be otherwise. The unusually mild 

 winter which stimulated an exceedingly early growth and 

 led in many cases to early pruning, the sharp early spring 

 frosts which destroyed the young growth, the cold easterly 

 winds that so long prevailed, the excessive wet in some 

 places, all combined to frustrate the hopes of the rosa- 

 rian ; while the lateness of the season threw many out 

 of their calculations in the matter of exhibiting. Doubt- 

 less grand, yea, magnificent blooms of Roses have been 

 exhibited, but I do not call to mind any that have left a 

 very marked impression on my mind ; and I think it 

 tells something for the zeal and skill with which Rose- 

 culture is carried out in this country that, despite all 

 these drawbacks, such Roses should have been generally 

 exhibited as to have at all made the question a debateable 

 one as to whether it was a good Rose or not. 



2. It has been demonstrated, I think, that late pruning 

 may be carried to excess. I will take my own Roses as 

 an example. I had five beds of newly-planted dwarfs on 

 the Manetti sent to me by Messrs. Cranston & Co. of 

 Hereford, and Mr. Dickson of Newtonards, Co. Down, 

 Ireland. They were admirable plants, vigorous and 

 healthy, but the unusually mild winter stimulated them 

 into early growth ; not only leaves but buds made their 

 appearance on the terminal shoots before I could prune 

 them, and I at first thought when I did so that the late- 

 ness of the operation would in no way affect them. In 

 this, however, I was greatly mistaken. I suppose that, 

 being newly planted, they had too much to do below- 

 ground to enable them to push out actively, and the 

 consequence was that many of the shoots died back, 

 others sent out short weakly growths of about 6 inches 

 and have made no progress since ; so that these beds, 

 having also since then been attacked by orange fungus in 

 a mild form, present rather a miserable appearance. I 

 conclude that their being newly planted had something 

 to do with it, because in those beds which have not been 

 disturbed, although they were pruned at the same time, 



No. 864.— Vol. XXXIII., New Series. 



the growth had not been hindered. In a visit I paid to 

 my friend Mr. Baker's garden at Exeter I found the same 

 thing — a fact which accounted, I thiDk, for his failure in 

 the cup class at the National, for on this piece of ground 

 he had depended for success. They had been pruned 

 late — as July 4th in ordinary seasons was late for Exeter 

 Roses — and the result was precisely the same as in my 

 own case ; for whereas in the other parts of his garden his 

 trees were marvels of growth and luxuriance, this quarter 

 presented the same woe-begone aspect as my own. Hence 

 the lesson one would have to learn from this is, that it is 

 better when plants have been stimulated by a mild winter 

 to run the risk of early pruning rather than defer it until 

 a later period. By-the-by, what had better be done in 

 such a case ? I have an idea that it would be best to 

 cut-back very bard to the old wood of last year, leaving 

 about two or three eyes, and trusting to their shooting 

 out low down, or even from underneath the ground, when 

 the bud is inserted low. 



3. It has, I think, demonstrated still further the excel- 

 lence of the seedling Briar as a stock, especially for late 

 blooms. I have elsewhere recorded the fineness of the 

 blooms exhibited by Mr. Corp at Taunton on August 16th 

 and at the Crystal Palace on September 21st, periods 

 when it is not easy to find good blooms. In both these 

 instances it is true that they were cut from maiden plants ; 

 but I understand from those who have grown them that 

 they are also very fine from the cut-back plants. I heard 

 so many persons expressing their determination to culti- 

 vate them largely that I am suro that this stock is in- 

 creasing in popularity. "With some, cuttings from the 

 Briar find favour, the one drawback to the seedling Briar 

 being that it takes so long to come to maturity that plants 

 can hardly be sold so cheaply as those on the Manetti, and 

 hence it is not a nurseryman's stock ; but after awhile, 

 when it comes to be more largely grown, perhaps this 

 may be obviated. 



4. It has been one of the most floriferous autumn 

 seasons I have ever known. I know that someone has 

 written about the Boseless autumn, but I cannot say that 

 it has been my experience, and should imagine that it is 

 very few localities to which this epithet would apply. 

 Teas and Noisettes have been something wonderful. My 

 plant of Beve d'Or has been full of bloom, and has now 

 (October 1st) a large number on it ; while Hybrid Per- 

 petuals have given me some excellent blooms, the prin- 

 cipal being Baronne de Rothschild, Charles Lefebvre, 

 Duke of Wellington, Capitaine Christy, Jules Margottin, 

 Hippolyte Jamain, Dupuy-Jamain, Dr. Andry, and Baron 

 Bonstetten. People sometimes sneer at the notion of 

 Hybrid Perpetuals, but the difference is at once seen be- 

 tween such varieties and Paul Verdier and others which 

 have been brought out as such, but which are simply 

 summer Roses, never showing a second bloom. I may 

 here mention that Mr. Noble's Queen of Bedders has 

 with me well deserved the title ; it is most free-growing, 

 and I have never seen a shoot made yet without a bud 

 at the end of it. 



•5. It has been a fine year for light-coloured Roses. 



No. 1616.— Vol. LVIII., Old Series. 



