ROSES IN AND ABOUT LONDON. 



547 



Two courses are open in this treatment : one is to lightly fork over the 

 ground and then apply the manure liberally as a top dressing, after which 

 a light sprinkling of soil may be added to present a better appearance ; 

 another is to fork in the manure as it is applied, only adding fresh top 

 soil to cover it where it is not so easy to fork it in. 



Not sufficient importance is attached to the matter of watering during 

 dry or hot weather. If this be duly attended to better results will 

 assuredly follow, and it will tend to a prolonged season of bloom in the 

 autumn. I am also disposed to think that the mildew is, in a measure, 

 kept in abeyance by the liberal use of nitrogenous manures. As in the 

 country, we find that a deep loamy soil suits the Eose better than a 

 shallow soil resting upon gravel. The latter will have a tendency to 

 become dry — too dry, in fact, for the Hose to thrive well ; I would even 

 prefer the opposite extreme of a soil somewhat waterlogged, but not to an 

 excess of course. All Rose-growers know the harm done by the red 

 spider to some varieties. At Gunnersbury we have a preponderance of 

 Elm trees ; these are attacked by the spider, and thus this insect will spread 

 rapidly to other things, provided the conditions are favourable to its 

 increase. 



I have alluded to the extension of growth allowed to strong and 

 robust varieties. We prune as a matter of course. In the case of 

 climbers it is more a question of thinning than of actual pruning so 

 understood. Dwarf-growing varieties we prune as others do, but on the 

 whole I prefer to leave it a week later than I should do if further away 

 from London. 



Some dwarf varieties we do not prune at all, such, for instance, as 

 ' White Pet ' (fig. 155) and ' Perle d'Or ' of the Polyantha section ; these 

 we allow to grow into shrubby bushes, merely thinning out the weakly 

 wood. 



Varieties. — The following (in addition to the old varieties, the names 

 of which I cannot give, but which I have alluded to above) are of proved 

 excellence : — Of Climbers, ' Gloire de Dijon ' and its various forms, ' Alister 

 Stella Gray,' ' Charles Lawson,' ' Crimson Rambler,' the 'Penzance Briers,' 

 ' Zepherine Drouhin ' (the thornless Rose), ' Madame Plantier,' ' Carmine 

 Pillar,' ' Aimee Vibert,' ' Aglaia,' 'Thalia,' ' Euphrosyne,' and ' Reve d'Or.' 



Of Teas, Hybrid Teas and Hybrid Chinas — ' Caroline Testout ' (the 

 finest of all), 'Mrs. Grant ' (syn. 'Belle Siebrecht '), ' Viscountess Folke- 

 stone,' 'Marquise Litta,' 'Madame Abel Chatenay,' 'Hon. Edith Gifford,' 

 ' White Maman Cochet,' ' Gruss an Teplitz,' 'Kaiserin Augusta Victoria,' 

 'Georges Nabonnand,' 'Laurette Messimy,' 'Eugene Resal,' 'Irene Watts,' 

 ' Souvenir de Catherine Guillot,' ' Souvenir de J. B. Guillot,' ' Corallina,' 

 'La France,' aud 'Marquise de Salisbury.' Of Hybrid Perpetuals the 

 strongest growers, notably 'Duke of Edinburgh,' 'Dr. Andry,' 'Mrs. 

 Rumsey ' (the mildew-proof Rose, hence extremely valuable), and ' Mrs. 

 Sharman Crawford.' 



The ' Rugosa ' section do well and are valuable for their berries in the 

 autumn. ' Conrad Ferdinand Meyer,' pale pink, classed under this head, 

 is a hybrid twice removed from ' Rugosa ' ; it is one of our very finest summer 

 Roses, of wonderfully luxuriant growth, some shoots attaining a length of 

 ten feet in one season. It flowers very early in the summer, earlier even 



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