FLORA 
AND SYLVA. 
Vol. III. No. 30.] 
SEPTEMBER, 1905 
[Monthly. 
ROSE RUIN. 
I HAVE now at the end of August the 
pleasure of seeing a colony of Tea Roses 
of the choicest kinds in fine health and 
some inflower,which,nottwelve months 
ago were put in as cuttings. Many of 
them are now good stout plants, though 
less than one year old. They are in most 
cases Roses that perish on the Brier, or 
become so sickly as to be an eyesore — 
a common thing with the Tea Roses 
and others of ifidica origin. More than 
half the many Tea Roses I bought have 
perished on the Brier, some of them very 
quickly, and if they do not disappear 
quite they have such a hard and almost 
leprous look that I give them up in 
despair. 
One result is the false idea with many 
that they cannot growRosesof thisclass, 
and the loss of beauty and that of the 
highest kind is great, for no other Roses 
are quite so fair as these. There are 
also incidental losses from attempts to 
nourish the Brier with masses of manure 
to keep it in health, which leads our 
Roses to be put away as not fit for the 
flower-garden. The Rose catalogues 
which are issued by thousands every year 
emphasise this error, and perpetuate 
the custom of grafting Tea and China 
Roses on the Brier. Very few nursery- 
men in Europe sell Roses on their own 
roots, and often when they are asked 
for and sent they are found to be worked 
on the root, or upon Manetti or some 
other poor stock, so that the main ques- 
tion for Rose lovers is how to get over 
this difficulty. 
After many years experience I find 
it almost impossible to expect any help 
from the trade. The only way out of 
thediflicultyis to take cuttings for one- 
self of all one's favourite Roses. Some 
Roses perish so quickly that it is not 
easy to get good cuttings before they 
disappear ; ^om&^X^it Marie van Houtte 
and Anna Olivier^ having more of the 
blood of the European Roses in them, 
do well on the Brier. Weak cuttings 
will not do, we should always get them 
of medium size and of firm wood taken 
off" with a heel. Favourite Roses that 
fail in the ordinary way should be put 
inascuttingsduring September, orOcto- 
ber in warm sheltered gardens, slant- 
wise so as to keep most of the stem out 
of the weather, and with two or three 
leaves at the end only, three parts of 
the stem being inserted in the ground. 
This is the way in which my Roses 
were put in and in open sandy loam. 
