208 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. r March 17 , issi. 
green leaves. It was figured in the “Botanical Register” in 
1845, and is there stated to have been obtained by Messrs. Lod- 
diges at the sale of Mr. Bidwill’s New Holland plants a few years 
previously. It has also been known under the generic name 
Desmotrichum.—L. Castle. 
EFFECTS OF THE PAST WINTER ON VEGETABLES. 
I have been examining our vegetables, and I must say the 
sight is not very encouraging. I find to my dismay that we are 
in a worse state now than we were at this time last year. Last 
winter Brussels Sprouts were very little damaged ; we had a 
plentiful supply till far on in the spring, at the present time they 
are nearly all decayed. Ours were planted the first week in 
April, and were then fine healthy plants. Later plants were dead 
long ago, which proves that early plantings are the best. Last 
spring we had plenty of Broccoli that stood the severe weather ; 
this season there are very few. About a fortnight ago I thought 
that we had come through the severe weather very well, as they 
then looked fresh ; since then the return of bad weather has killed 
most of them. The Purple Sprouting Broccoli, which is highly 
recommended by some writers because of its hardiness, was here 
in Lincolnshire amongst the first to succumb to the severity of 
the weather. Last year we had plenty of Savoys in the spring 
that stood the winter well, especially the Drumhead variety ; 
this season they have all suffered alike, not one remains. Veitch’s 
Dwarf Green Curled Kale were very good last spring, I cannot 
say the same of them this, they have also fared very badly. The 
London Rosette Colewort is the best green I know of to stand the 
test of severe weather. August plantings look as fresh as can be, 
and will give a plentiful supply for some time before Cabbages are 
fit for use. Prickly Spinach as usual has withstood the severe 
w r eather. All should have a good breadth of it and Coleworts. 
These two vegetables are alw r ays acceptable.— J. McK. 
ROSES ON THEIR OWN ROOTS. 
The reason advanced by Mr. Luckhurst for “own root ” Roses 
being kept in the background by nurserymen—viz., “ from the 
large quantity of stout thoroughly developed wood that must be 
employed in making cuttings by the thousand, which wood could 
not well be obtained even in one of the largest nurseries without 
such a mutilation of the stock as would materially affect its 
value,” is not quite a satisfactory one, as I will attempt to show. 
First of all stout wood is not the sort which is best adapted for 
making into cuttings, that which is small and wiry being far 
more likely to grow. Secondly, those who have frames to spare 
for the purpose, as Mr. Luckhurst appears to have, need not wait 
for the wood to become thoroughly developed, but should insert 
the cuttings during July, or immediately the first blooms are fading, 
when, if the work is rightly done, every cutting will grow into a 
plant within a month. It is specially for those who have no glass 
that the practice of inserting cuttings of ripened wood is to be 
recommended, and to be successful with these they must be in¬ 
serted during October or November, when many of the varieties 
will strike as freely as Gooseberry cuttings ; and I think I might 
add that all the Perpetuals will do so if taken from a warm wall 
or from plants which have been well grown in pots, and conse¬ 
quently have their growth well ripened. 
I do not consider there is any advantage in having such cut¬ 
tings under glass, but rather the reverse ; for whereas outside they 
will commence their growth in the natural growing season, under 
glass they are liable to make growth earlier and of an inferior 
quality. They should always be inserted rather deeply in the 
ground, and if protection is needed an inch of cocoa fibre 
refuse or coal ashes is quite sufficient for the purpose. The de¬ 
tails of the operation have been so often given by myself and 
others in this Journal that I think it unnecessary to repeat them 
here ; and I may say that I am delighted that the practice of 
growing Roses on their own roots is fast coming into favour even 
with those who grow for exhibition, and that if the past winter 
has made us uncomfortable in many respects, it will have the 
good effect of sweeping away a few more of the remaining para¬ 
sites, and especially the mop-headed ones. 
I cannot agree that propagating by means of cuttings is in any 
way a slower process than by grafts or buds when once we have 
a fair stock of any given variety ; and in the case of Teas, Noi¬ 
settes, and Chinas, which for the purpose of propagation may be 
made into continuous growers, I should not be afraid to back 
cuttings for a three-years race, both as to number and quality, 
against any other method a professional propagator might prefer. 
I must think that our great goddess Fashion is responsible for 
keeping the best method of Rose cultivation in the background ; 
it has been in this wise for a number of years, when the stan¬ 
dards had it all their own way notwithstanding all that was said 
against them both by poets and prose writers. Of course nobody 
could wait to grow standards on their own roots, and ready-made 
stilts were found for them in the hedgerows ; then somebody 
thought that an odd dwarf here and there was admissible. But as 
budding and grafting had become established customs there was 
no thought of doing away with the standards even when dwarfs 
were employed, especially as ladies and gentlemen had learned to 
bud, and although it was somewhat clumsily done it was considered 
an accomplishment. Nurserymen of course benefited by the 
delusion (as they still do by others I could name, and are not to 
be blamed for it), for the average age of a worked plant is only 
three years, and own-roots plants live long, while those among 
amateurs who bud the most, from some reason not very clear to 
me, also buy the most. 
When we heard of amateurs during the good times of a few 
years ago spending annually from £80 to £100 on Roses, we 
could but rejoice at their prosperity as well as their enthusiasm 
for the queen of flowers. But all hobbies, whether of the animal or 
vegetable world, are liable to be ridden to death, and the Rose 
hobby is no exception. The standard has gone I hope for ever ; 
many of its admirers are silenced through misfortune and dis¬ 
appointment, while those who only moved along slowly still hold 
their ground, and their enjoyment, if not quite so emotional as 
that of their fast-going brethren, is undiminished and will continue. 
I would say to those who have lost most of their stock, and will 
probably when they know their full loss think seriously of giving 
up Rose-growing altogether, to take courage and a lesson from 
some of their less ambitious brethren, and they will find the Rose 
still worth growing, although in one respect it is like fire and 
water, a good servant but a bad master. 
Of all Roses to grow on their own roots Teas are the most satis¬ 
factory, because their existence depends on shoots sent up from 
the base while the plants are quite young, each shoot becoming 
stronger than its predecessor as the roots increase, and the best 
shoots are those produced immediately above the roots, which in 
the case of worked plants would be the stock. I have to-day 
inserted about a hundred cuttings in three varieties, which, if I 
have the opportunity of doing justice to, will all make flowering 
plants by the autumn. I no more expect that a cutting of these 
will fail than if they were so many Verbenas. It is of course 
possible they may fail from accident or neglect, but if they do it 
will certainly be from some cause which might have been pre¬ 
vented and which can be easily traced. The cuttings are formed 
of small shoots which have lately flowered. They are taken off 
mostly close to the old wood, although this is not absolutely neces¬ 
sary, for as long as the wood is about half ripe and the leaves are 
healthy they will strike very freely. They are placed firmly in 
boxes where there is 3 inches of sandy soil and 5 inches of space 
above it; they are then mounted on a couple of bricks in the path 
of a forcing house, heavily watered, covered with panes of glass, 
and made almost airtight by means of strips of paper pasted over 
the edges, partly on the glass and partly on the wood, and so they 
remain till growth commences. The three varieties are Souvenir 
d’un Ami, Catherine Mermet, and Devoniensis. Alba Rosea is a 
favourite too, but the plants of it have not been forced so early, 
and they are consequently not yet in condition to supply cuttings. 
Tea Roses two years of age are in 15-inch pots, and will flower 
well about the end of this month. For early forcing they must 
be older plants, and are best cut hard back to the ripe wood, but 
young plants need no pruning.— Wm. Taylor. 
PROLIFEROUS HYACINTHS. 
Hyacinths were better matured last season than for several 
years past, and this will account for their producing better blooms 
than usual, and may also be the cause of some of them throwing 
up several flower spikes. Some varieties are more prone to do 
this than others ; but this year I have noticed it more than for¬ 
merly, particularly in one of the varieties (Argus) mentioned by 
Mr.„C. M. Major, which appears to have this property this year in 
a marked degree. In one collection I saw a few days ago most of 
the bulbs of Argus had from two to four spikes, and may therefore 
be said to be both “many-eyed” and “many-spiked.” The 
seasons in Holland, like ours, are liable to variations, and when 
the spring is cold and backward the bulbs suffer in consequence. 
Should this be the case during the last year of their preparation 
they cannot be expected to produce spikes of bloom so good as 
when ripened during favourable seasons. 
I noticed last year when the bulbs arrived that they were very 
fine, and appeared to have been well matured, and I anticipated 
that the spikes they would produce with careful treatment would 
