JANUARY. 



1 



A loord in reference to some Roses. 



(1) Isabella Gray. — I have had this Rose, three years in the crux of a wall 

 facing south-east, and have never yet had a flower. It was removed to a south 

 wall in September, and I shall not cut it at all ; it will only add to its blindness, 

 and produce more unripe wood. It will be merely cut "to a good eye on the 

 tips where the wood is ripe. If it again fails, I think to put it on a limb of 

 Madlle. Aristide ; it is probable that it would succeed on the Banksia. Sol- 

 faterre, Gloire de Dijon, Triomphe de Rennes, and Celestine Forestier are so 

 good, that I do not care much about it ; it will always have one of the faults 

 of the Cloth of Gold, whose daughter it evidently is — viz., extreme succulence 

 and tenderness at its tips. I have had two beautiful blooms of l'Enfant Trouve, 

 sent to me by Mr. Cant, which will, if hardy, quite supply the place of the 

 Cloth of Gold. I have ordered six plants of it. 



(2) La Boule oV Or.— This one should have been called the " Golden Peak" 

 as the buds are long, perhaps too long. " D." rightly says it is worthy of 

 further trial ; its proper colour is light yolk of egg colour. I have one plant of 

 it, which is the only pot Rose that I shall dare to leave out this winter ; the 

 wood is as hard as that of Gloire de Dijon. It came a little plant with three 

 buds on like eyelashes grafted on a darning needle; those buds withered 

 away, it then cast quickly 7 buds, and in a few days after three more. I took 

 off, when half grown, nine buds, and bloomed the other bud, which opened 

 well, and a beautiful Rose it was. After this it formed ten more buds, bloomed 

 two of them tolerably, and the cold weather spoiled the others. I shall buy 

 five more plants of it, which, added to six l'Enfant Trouves, one Solfaterre, 

 one Viscomtesse de Gazes, one Elise Sauvage, and seventy trees of Gloire de 

 Dijon and Triomphe de Rennes, will complete my yellow staff: whatever may 

 be said to the contrary, the two last are the two best yellows as yet. The last 

 is the best of all for substance of petal, smoothness of edge, and invariability of 

 good formation. Against a south wall I have grown it hard upon four inches 

 when expanded, and of a rich golden yellow. The Cloth of Gold is either 

 magnificent, or it is nothing : in country places it has bamboozled the country 

 judges more than any other Rose in Christendom, and caused more wrong 

 adjudication of prizes than any other. 



(3) Triomphe d' Amiens. — " D " says, " the French pronounce this Rose to 

 be a veritable Jacqueminot !" Then, I say, " a pump is an elephant." The 

 bloom is deep lake mottled like a coach dog. I had two plants of Mr. W. Paul, 

 and eight more most excellent ones are come; but neither the wood nor the 

 bloom is like Jacqueminot. There is only one point of resemblance : the blooms 

 of it when expanded would not this summer have been quite full. Let us 

 take the raisers' description, which I find to be true (minus fulness), " large, 

 full, velvety carmine lake strie et panache " ! ! ! Furtado aud Washington are, 

 without doubt, Al ; the last is a large clear red of good formation with fine 

 habit and foliage. Two briars budded this season with Furtado have now 

 (November 4) blooms upon them. I pronounce Amiens to be a most distinct 

 and choice Rose. As to fulness you cannot expect " weaklings" to fill up the 

 centre ; neither Senateur Vaisse, Madame C. Crapelet, nor M. Melaine were 

 quite full here to the centre. 



(4) Due de Cazes " is good for nothing ! " — I am sorry to differ again. It 

 was in Mr. Fraser's pan at the National, and it was the best dark Rose in the 

 show : his Princesse Mathilde was also beautiful. Three plants of this last 

 Rose, and also one plant of Abdel Kader, just come, are excellent. For the 

 general public, and also for amateurs, I have little doubt, bearing in mind 

 the above bloom, and looking at the plants here, that the Princesse will turn 

 out to be the Al of last year's dark Roses. Mr. Wood, in a letter to me some 

 time since, spoke of the Due de Cazes as a gem : it is difficult to account for 



