JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
68 
Birmingham. The indoor fernery there is most lovely ; I have 
never seen elsewhere anything of its kind to approach it in 
beautiful effect. 
But I must now go out of doors and look at the Hollies, for which 
this nursery is so famous. Here may be seen perhaps one of the 
best and choicest collection in the provinces as pyramids, standards, 
and bushes. Of the hardy Conifers I noticed especially Retino- 
spora plumosa aurea and argentea, R. obtusa nana aurea, and last 
but not least some very valuable specimens of the comparatively 
recently introduced Thujopsis dolabrata. Mr. Hewitt is a lover, 
and therefore an enthusiastic cultivator, of hardy herbaceous 
plants, large borders being devoted to Tritomas, Potentillas, 
Phloxes, Pyrethrums, Delphiniums, &c. Of Delphiniums he has 
a very large collection. Double Primroses are grown in great 
quantities for the trade. Roses, too, are largely grown, the flowers 
being cut in the bud state for buttton holes, all of which find a 
ready sale in the Birmingham market. From this little esta¬ 
blishment upwards of three thousand bouquets and twenty-two 
thousand button holes are annually sent. I concluded my inspec¬ 
tion by a visit to Mr. Hewitt’s house, which is surrounded by 
noble specimen shrubs, &c. On each side of a straight walk was 
a ribbon border of evergreens in three rows—at the back C. Law- 
soniana erecta viridis, centre Retinospora plumosa, and in the 
front Retinospora plumosa aurea—and very effective it was.— 
J. A. W. 
PITHY CELERY. 
I think we must look somewhere else for the cause of in¬ 
ferior Celery than in early sowing, but as alluded to by “ Prac¬ 
titioner ” on page 48, there is a considerable difference in the 
quality of different varieties. I have grown several of them, but 
found none equal to what was sent out more than a quarter of a 
century ago under the name of Cole’s Solid Red. I have grown 
no other for the last twenty years except for trial. It has never 
been inferior, except three years ago, when it was injured very 
much by the Celery fly. Out of nearly eight hundred sticks 
grown each year not one is pithy or runs to seed until late in the 
spring. The seed is sown in pans the second or third week in 
February. These are in the early vinery, and the young plants 
obtained are planted out in the open trench from the 20th to 
the end of May. They are not earthed-up in the least until 
the beginning of September, except those required for use at an 
earlier date. The whole is kept well watered through the summer 
if the weather is dry, when it is earthed-up. I frequently place 
some 2-inch drain pipes along the row 2 inches from the plants, 
leaving an inch open between the ends of each pipe. If the 
ground is level I place a pipe nearly upright at each end of the 
row ; if on an incline one at the upper end will do. Down this 
pipe the water is poured, which will go through the openings and 
supply the whole length of the row. With the above-named 
variety and even ordinary cultivation, I feel assured that no one 
will have any pithy Celery.—D. Walker, Dunorlan. 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1880. 
ROSES. 
As the notes which I have given in former years seem to have 
been acceptable to many of the readers of the Journal—simply, 
I suppose, as they are the record of one who has to fight against 
the difficulties consequent on not having a full purse, and who 
must superintend all the work and do a part of it himself, and 
not because there is anything extraordinary in his garden or his 
management—I shall again give my experience. 
There is no doubt that in climate and situation we enjoy in this 
part of England advantages which are denied to many other 
counties ; and although I once envied the greater mildness of 
Devon and Cornwall, I begin to think that, take it all round, 
gardening is more pleasant with us. There are things we cannot 
grow here which they grow in Cornwall; but then when a severe 
winter comes, as in 1879-80, the destruction which takes place 
is disheartening in the extreme ; while if the more favoured dis¬ 
tricts of the south-west of Scotland enable gardeners to grow 
some plants to their great delight and the envy of their neigh¬ 
bours, we must bear in mind that their rainfall is nearly double 
ours ; so that altogether I think we may not unreasonably claim 
to be the garden of England. Yet all that did not save us in the 
disastrous season of 1879, the effects of which I have to record in 
my notices of successes and failures in 1880. 
I have already in the pages of the Journal given a general view 
of the season as it affected Roses and Rose shows throughout the 
kingdom, but perhaps after all there may be some little interest in 
the record of my own few himdreds : there is certainly to myself, 
[ January 27, 1881. 
as I wish to ask the opinion and advice of my brother rosarians 
on one point. 
In one respect the winter of 1879 was a very disastrous one to 
me. It played sad havoc with my grand plant of R£ve d’Or. All 
that part of it which faced the north was completely killed, and 
a large portion on the east wall was also killed. I was afraid 
that the whole tree would have succumbed to the severe and long- 
continued frost, but happily it is not so, and it has made a very 
determined attempt to recover itself; so that I hope before the 
end of the season it will have filled up a good deal of the vacant 
space. I have the satisfaction of feeling that it is not likely 
to be subject to such a severe ordeal again, for we are not likely 
soon to experience such a winter following such a season. In 
the same way my plant of Cloth of Gold suffered, and certainly 
more severely ; for as the growth is so different the loss of wood 
is much more serious, in fact there was hardly anything left of 
it ; but here again the tree is alive, and has made shoots 16 to 
18 feet in length. I had carefully mulched the roots and stems 
of both plants, and if this winter had been severe should have 
matted up the shoots of Cloth of Gold, as it is evidently more 
easily affected by frost than Reve d’Or. 
I have been greatly discouraged with regard to my Roses gene¬ 
rally. I committed the mistake, which I believe many did, of not 
pruning their Roses hard enough after so severe a winter, and, 
deceived by the manner in which they sent forth their shoots, 
believed that they would do well ; but as the summer wore on I 
found out my mistake. Many died off; and many more, after 
giving a few good blooms, refused to grow any more. And here 
came a difficulty against which I have had to contend, and in 
some years more than in others—I mean orange fungus. It 
attacked my plants at the blooming season, and by the end of 
July nearly all the foliage had fallen. Can any of my brethren 
give me any consolation in this matter ? Let me say that the 
situation of my rosery is quite open ; I have no trees anywhere 
near me; it has all the benefit of light and air, and yet is not 
very exposed to violent winds ; the soil is naturally a light friable 
loam, but during the past few years I have added a considerable 
quantity of good sound loam to it, so that it is in fairly good heart 
now for Roses ; I have employed manure freely, but not to the 
extent that some growers do : and I see nothing in all these con¬ 
ditions that should subject the plants to this disease. If there are, 
I should like to be told which ; and if I can get no information on 
this point perhaps some kind friend will tell me how to treat the 
plants when they are affected. The disease seems to come all at 
once : the under parts become quite orange, and then the whole 
of the leaf drops off, the slightest touch sending it down. I 
have seen somewhere a suggestion that the moment it appears 
the diseased leaves should be picked off, as it is believed to be 
infectious ; but, with me at any rate, it would involve picking off 
the whole of the foliage. I cannot, therefore, think much of this 
suggestion. Then something has been said about syringing them 
with vitriol. I should like very much to know whether this has 
been known in any case to have stopped the disease. Unlike 
mildew, it does not seem to be dependant on atmospheric con¬ 
ditions, although it may be my ignorance to suppose that it is 
not. However, I have told my case, and can only ask for helpful 
advice. 
By-the-by, I see in the “Year Book” that my brother Secretary 
mentions the fact that at Hereford he saw at the end of Septem¬ 
ber at Messrs. Cranston & Co.’s nearly the whole of their large 
“ stock of dwarfs on the Manetti had not only ceased flowering, 
but that much of the foliage had turned quite yellow, and in 
some instances many leaves had already fallen.” This looked 
suspiciously like my enemy’s work, only that he adds that it was 
not the case with those on the seedling Briar ; but in my garden 
I have not traced that any difference existed, the stock seeming 
in no way to ward off or induce the attack. 
I have already given my opinion on the new Roses as far as my 
experience went, and I shall but repeat what I have said in the 
“ Year Book ” concerning them. As far as English Roses are 
concerned I think the order of merit runs thus—Duke of Teck, 
Harrison Weir, Duchess of Bedford ; while among the more recent 
French Roses Louis Dore, Charles Baltet, Gaston Leveque, Madame 
Eugene Verdier, Comtesse de Choiseuil, L6on Renault, Paul 
Jamin, Souvenir de Victor Verdier, William Koelle, Prefet Lur- 
berg, Jules Chretien II., Jules Finger, Gloire de Bourg la Reine, 
Baron Taylor, Comtesse de Mormart, Catherine Soupert, Madame 
Oswald de Kerchove, Madame Lambard (Tea), and Innocente 
Pirola may be regarded as containing the most desirable. It may 
be that some of them may not retain their present position, and 
that some outsider may appear to oust some of them. 
As so many of my Roses were crippled, and they were to be 
had at so reasonable a rate, I have discarded a large number of 
