300 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



general cultivation of Tea-scented Roses was so long delayed ; 

 nor was it from lack of admiration, for the clause in the National 

 Eose Society's directions to judges, to the effect that in mixed 

 classes Teas and Noisettes are to have no especial favour shown 

 to them, must remind many exhibitors of the days (not very 

 long ago) when judges, almost as a matter of course, awarded 

 additional points to any bloom of a Tea Rose in a box, as though 

 the growing and showing of any Tea were something of a tour 

 deforce. 



The real reason why in so many Rose-gardens the Tea- 

 scented Roses have been so long in obtaining the recognition 

 they deserved is probably twofold. 



In the first place, after the introduction of the Manetti as a 

 stock, all Roses were very soon worked on it, including, of course, 

 the Teas, which, however, refused permanently to thrive on it 

 out-of-doors. An explanation of this is not easy to find, as Teas 

 will grow on Manetti under glass, and it can hardly be that the 

 stock is too vigorous, since upon other even more vigorous stocks, 

 such as the so-called Polyantha (Bosa multiflora) or de la Grifferaie, 

 Tea Roses do well ; but the fact remains that Teas on Manetti 

 stock were and are out-of-doors a complete failure. The fine 

 maiden-plants that can be obtained of almost any Rose upon 

 Manetti not unnaturally caused the stock to be universally 

 adopted, and the result was that people endeavoured to grow 

 plants of Tea Roses, which for no very obvious reason proceeded 

 shortly to die ; so that the Teas got an undeserved reputation 

 for delicacy through being worked on an unsuitable stock. 



In the next place, the Roses (other than Teas) that were in 

 general cultivation in early days were mostly so hardy and 

 vigorous that beside them the plants of Tea Roses must have 

 looked small enough probably — especially after a hard winter — 

 to give the impression that they needed special care or coddling. 

 No doubt, after pruning a series of plants of the vigour and 

 hardiness cf (say) Charles Lawson or Blairii No. 2, a grower 

 coming to a dwarf plant of Souvenir d'Elise Vardon, when after 

 a, winter like the past it would probably need to be cut down 

 level with the ground, would be struck by the contrast ; yet 

 although these vigorous old summer Roses are generally in bloom 

 before any of their modern successors, the Hybrid Perpetuals, the 

 Tea Roses will nevertheless be in flower earlier than either, even 



