374 
TEE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE, 
graminea aurea is quite hardy, but the stock intended for bedding purposes should be 
wintered in a cold frame. It is propagated by cuttings. The Golden Feather 
Pyrethrum is not likely to be surpassed by it, although it is very meritorious. 
3. Veronica ineana and SantoUna incana are perfectly distinct. The former has 
leaves about four inches in length, and one in breadth, and of a silvery grey. It is 
very dwarf, keeping close to the surface of the soil. The SantoUna should be 
wintered in a cold frame.] 
Roses. — A. H. — Ail the varieties may be kept down to the desired height by 
stopping the young shoots when about fifteen inches in height. The shoots referred 
to are those which push up from the base after the flowering-shoots are produced. 
All the shoots will require to be 'pruned low down at the winter pruning. The 
border mentioned is quite unfit for roses, and you will experience nothing but dis- 
appointment if you plant them in it. 
Tow.v Roses. — You would oblige me, and no doubt many more of your readers, 
by giving us a list of what you consider the best twenty-four roses, new and old, 
for London gardens. There have lately been many new additions highly praised in 
nursery catalogues, but the few I have seen in one or two exhibitions of this year 
I can make nothing of. Exhibition roses are no guide fur open-air growing in 
London, nor for indoor growing where amateurs with little experience and less 
skill are concerned. At least, that is my experience, and I may add that in roses 
out of doors even I have never been able to come near Paul and Sons, either in size or 
colour. Mostly my roses come much smaller, and frequently of quite a different 
shade of colour, than I have seen them at Cheshunt. There are a few exceptions, 
as, for example, DuTce of Edinlnrgh, Baroness BotJischild, and Ba Trance, which 
I liave found in every way satisfactory, and what I would call up to the mark, free 
in growth, handsome and prolific in flowering. Gloire de Dijon comes next, but 
shows dark orange colour with me, and, though a free bloomer, makes not suf- 
ficient growth. The rest have disappointed me : MarecTial Niel never shows me a 
llow'er, though I have had him in the garden and the house for four years ; Prince 
Camille de Bohan comes very small ; Charles Lefevre blooms very sparingly ; 
Miss Ingram makes wood, but no flower ; Boule de Ncige, Duchesse d'Orleans, 
Madame Viet. Verdier, Marguerite de Si. Aiiiand, Queen JUetoria, come weaker 
every year, and threaten to die out entirely. The foregoing are standards ; I pro- 
pose now to say something of the dwarfs. Of dwarf roses I obtained about two 
dozen on own roots last summer from Mr. 'William Paul’s nursery. I have now about 
six left, and those have made ve7-g Utile growth and no flowers, whilst two or three 
plants on Manetti stock, which I bought successively in Covent Garden Market, 
grow and bloom with sufficient vigour. One of them (the oldest) is a regular bush 
now, and never ceases blooming, showing me what a pleasure a really good rose 
can give. Unfortunately I have no name to it, but I suspect it to be General 
Jacqueminot. All my own root roses are poor tender things, looking as if they 
wanted any amount of patience and coddling to make them grow a little, whilst I 
feel tempted to pull them up and throw them away. Excuse the length of my 
epistle ; I love the rose, but if I cannot succeed a little better, in spite of money 
spent and care given, I shall give up rose growing in London. But perhaps you 
can name a few roses which I have not had, and which would be more suitable. It 
is no use asking the growers, they seem to call everything suitable which they 
have. — R. Schilhach, llighgate. [This correspondent endeavours to lay bis case 
before us with fulness and candour, as, indeed, is generally the case ; but he has 
failed, as, we are bound to say, is also generally the case. But we have obtained a 
clue to it, for he says his standard Gloire de Dijon does not grow freely, and we 
conclude therefrom that his roses, in common with many others, are humbugged. 
That his own root roses dwindle away is consistent with the failure of Gloire de 
Dijon, for this grand rose will grow well in any soil or situation, if it has fair play. 
Our friend may value own root roses more highly when he has done justice to them. 
But he will expect us to explain. Well, not being gifted with miraculous powers, 
we cannot. Perhaps they are planted so loose that a child might pull them out 
of the ground ; in such a case treading the plot would do some good. Perhaps 
he planted own root roses too early in the season, and they were killed with frost 
before they could take hold of the soil, for pot roses that have been carefully nursed 
all the winter undef glass should not be put out until the 20th of May. Perhaps 
the man who digs the ground only scratches it. Perhaps the manure paid for and 
