THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



petals with intense brownish-purple. Messrs. John 

 Laing & Co., Stanstead Park Nursery, Forest Hill, 

 received a First-class Certificate of Merit for Begonia 

 Stanstead Rival, one of the finest single-flowered Be- 

 gonias yet raised, robust in habit, the flowers five- 

 2^etalled, and of a rich deep-crimson colour. The same 

 award was made to Mr. Henry Canned, Nurseryman, 

 Swanley, Kent, for Coleus Tricolor, with leaves of an 

 intense dark-maroon colour, divided by a band of 

 crimson down the midrib, the margin of the leaves 

 emerald-green. Fuchsia Eclipse, from Mr. George 

 Smith, Tollington Nursery, Islington, was similarly 

 honoured. This is a fine double variety, with stout 

 bright-red tube and sepals, and a rich plum-coloured 

 corolla. A Botanical Certificate was awarded to Messrs. 

 Veitch & Sons for a Conandron ramondioides, an inte- 

 resting little plant recently introduced, with thick, 

 fleshy, oblong green leaves, from amongst which 

 spring erect flowering stems, bearing several flowers, 

 measuring nearly an inch across, in colour rich lilac- 

 purple, the centre being chocolate, and the stamens 

 purple. Mr. John Wills, Onslow Crescent, sent a 

 flowering plant of Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, 

 a form that he is now raising largely for decorative 

 purposes ; it is one of the grandest of autumn -flowering 

 shrubs, and forces well when potted up. It is a plant 

 deserving much more attention than it has yet received 

 from plant cultivators. 



ROSE CULTURE AT EXETER. 



In the cathedral city of Exeter there lives a well- 

 known rose cultivator, Mr. R. N. G. Baker, one who 

 takes a leading position as an amateur exhibitor. We 

 have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Baker's Roses on 

 several occasions this season, and have been struck 

 with the wonderful size and brilliancy of his flowers. 

 So marked are these characteristics in Mr. Baker's 

 flowers generally, that appeals have been made to him 

 to reveal his rose secrets. This he has readily done in 

 the pages of The Garden; and as his blooms are simply 

 the "legitimate outcome of careful culture/' and "not 

 nourished into size, moulded into form, and coloured 

 perfectly by some specially rich food," Mr. Baker fears 

 that those who seek information may be disappointed 

 at the " meagreness of his revelations." He states 

 that his blooms were " not the produce of ' dwarf 

 maidens,' but were all of them grown on cut-back 

 plants (Manetti), most of which were five years old. 

 It has long been my opinion — and every year's experi- 



ence tends to strengthen it — that the blooms from 

 cut-back plants are superior in every respect to those 

 from maidens, and more especially so in finish and form. 

 My Roses ground was very carefully prepared in the 

 first place, being trenched to the depth of two feet, and 

 made very much like a sandwich, with alternate layers 

 of manure and earth. In this my plants rooted capi- 

 tally, and they throw up every year strong shoots from 

 the bottom. For example, last autumn I measured 

 some from Charles Lefebvre, which were more than 

 nine feet in height, and this season they are still 

 making fine growth ; indeed, Mr. A. J. Soames, who 

 paid a visit to my Roses a week or two ago, expressed 

 his surprise at my having such strong shoots so early 

 in the year. 



About the middle of August I have the greater 

 part of the old wood cut out, in order that the young 

 rods may have plenty of light and air, to enable them 

 to ripen properly, and from this wood I get my show- 

 blooms for the following year. In November I give 

 my plants a good dressing of thoroughly-rotten cow- 

 manure ; this I have dug in at once, as I do not like it 

 to remain on the surface during the winter. In March, 

 after the pruning is complete, the ground is lightly 

 forked, and after that occasionally hoed up to the time 

 of blooming. As soon as the bloom-buds are formed, 

 I give the plants plenty of liquid manure, composed 

 of sheep-droppings, soot, and a little guano, and 

 sometimes, in a wet season like the present, I sow a 

 little guano ; but I much prefer the liquid manure. 



With regard to protection of the blooms, I have not 

 shaded or in any way covered a single Rose during the 

 whole of the season. On the day before the Norwich 

 Rose Show we had a gale of wind and very heavy 

 storms of rain, and I quite despaired of being able to 

 show my Roses in good condition. However, I di- 

 rected two men to keep shaking the blooms all day, so 

 that the rain might not remain long in them, and in 

 the afternoon the weather cleared up, and the Roses 

 were pretty dry by the time we began cutting at 6 p.m. 

 We finished staging at 9 p.m., left Exeter at 10.10 p.m., 

 and reached Norwich at 9.10 a.m. on the following 

 morning. I think the cool nights were the cause of 

 the Roses bearing so long a journey so well, as I have 

 found this year that I have been able to cut larger 

 and rather older blooms than I can generally venture 

 to do." 



