July 21,'1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
59 
as an artist, so when we see the Rose in her beauty we forget the 
midden and the tank. I go further than this in my devotion to the 
ladye of my love, and her likes are mine also. However unsightly 
to the eye or unsavoury to the nose, they seem to say, like the Earth 
in the Persian fable, “ I am not the Rose ; but cherish me, for we 
have dwelt together ; ” and they do not appeal in vain. 
Ever since I lost my heart to the Rose I have been trying to dis¬ 
cover the esculent which she most prizes, and at this present time 
her menu in my garden consists of eight different kinds of (if I may 
be allowed the expression) manure. These were applied some weeks 
ago, so that they have been well washed in by the rains, and in every 
case part of the bed was left without any addition, so that a com¬ 
parison of results could readily be made. These confections are :—• 
1 cwt. of Peruvian guano; 1 cwt. of pure disolved bones ; 1 cwt. 
of these two in combination, £ cwt. of each ; 1 cwt. fine bone-dust; 
1 cwt. ammonia phosphate ; 1 cwt. mineral phosphate; a small bag 
of Clay’s fertiliser ; an unmeasured quantity of liquid manure from 
a farmyard tank. 
Three of these have signalised themselves by a special success 
—the farmyard liquor, the Peruvian guano, and Clay’s fertiliser. 
Pure dissolved bones is second after an interval, closely followed by 
mineral phosphate. Ammonia phosphate a bad fourth. The rest 
nowhere. I was prepared for the success of Clay’s fertiliser, having 
seen a grand collection of standard Rose trees in pots at the April 
Show of the Royal Horticultural Society at Kensington, grown by 
Messrs. Yeitch of Chelsea, and assisted by the reverend—I beg pardon 
—assisted by the tonic aforesaid. I do not, of course, regard this 
report as final, and shall note carefully, pro bono publico , the future 
influence of my application ; nor must I forget to remind our younger 
brethren of other victuals which are wholesome for the Rose, and 
which they will find in the sheep-fold, in the hen-roost, and the 
dovecote. Malt-dust, the sweepings of the kilns, or better still, but 
costlier of course, malt-culms, are also nutritious food. Mr. Rivers’s 
prescription of malt dust and contributions from the stable, mixed 
and fermented with liquid manure, is probably the most powerful 
stimulant which can be given ; and I have recorded how, many 
years ago, I took off my coat and barrowed a large heap of it to a 
lot of budded standard Rose trees, just before a very heavy thunder¬ 
storm, and how, some weeks afterwards, this adroit manoeuvre in 
manures achieved for me the highest honours of the year—the first 
prize for forty-eight Roses at our National Show in London. But 
that victory annihilated the army who won it; not one of these 
soldiers ever fought again. 
What is the main result of my long and varied experience in this 
matter ? It is that I find myself, as upon the Metropolitan Railway, 
at the place from whence I came. The system which I followed 
thirty years ago I propose to follow so long as I am attached to this 
machine, and have the happiness of growing Roses—namely, to give 
them a liberal supply of farmyard manure about the third week in 
November, which will act both as food and clothing also : to dig this 
in early in March, and afterwards to apply occasionally liquid from 
the tank or some other of the refreshments to which I have referred. 
From bird or beast, bovine, ovine, porcine, equine, animal or vege¬ 
table, dust of bone or barley, I recommend all to your experiment, 
and leave to you the selection of the fittest. 
But the young rosarian must not place his main reliance on these 
enrichments, beneficial, indispensable as they are —0 formose puer, 
nimium ne creae manure heap —but must regard his soil and its culti¬ 
vation as of primary and perpetual importance. Success in Rose 
culture can only be attained in accordance with the universal and 
eternal law—you must work to win. There must be draining and 
digging, hoeing and weeding, and a watchful loving patience, which 
defends the Rose from its enemies as well as surrounds it with 
friends. Hence the paucity of rosarians worthy of the title. There 
are numbers who gush at shows, take down names, give orders, plant 
Rose trees, but who never stoop to pull up a weed ; and as for ex¬ 
tracting the grub from his leafy bower and handling him somewhat 
severely between finger and thumb, v hy that is “ simply disgusting ! ” 
These are the sort of people who think when they have signed a 
cheque that Roses should immediately spring up around them about 
the size of punch-bowls, and that thankful nightingales should sing 
in them night and day. Somehow this firework wo’n’t go off. “ Oh, 
yer don’t want to go into business, don’t yer?” said an angry father 
to his lazy and loutish son ; “ Yer want an appointment in the Post 
Horfice, do yer ? Post Horfice indeed 1 Why all you’re fit for is to 
stand outside with your tongue hout for people to wet their stamps 
against! ” He who would grow Roses must not be afraid of dirtying 
his fingers—of resembling that clergyman of whom Sidney Smith 
said, that he “seemed to have a good deal of his glebe on his own 
hands ; ” or of a likeness to Martin Burney, to whom Charles Lamb 
remarked over a rubber, “ Oh, Martin, Martin, if dirt were trumps 
what a hand you’d have ! ” 
Where shall we buy our Rose trees ? From any extensive 
Rose nursery which is nearest to you and has a soil most like your 
own, or from any of those professional rosarians who have shown you 
to-day what the Rose can be. I say can be, because you must not 
expect to achieve perfection at once, and your first flowers may 
perhaps disappoint you. Only be not discouraged ; work at your 
model bravely, and you shall reproduce it. 
And I advise amateurs to visit some of the renowned homes of the 
Rose. They will find a far more genial welcome than the mere com¬ 
mercial spirit can give to a customer, because the hearts of our Rose 
merchants, whose friendship I have enjoyed for so many happy years, 
is with the Rose ; and they will have men as pupils, and please them¬ 
selves more completely as purchasers, than by any amount of reading 
or correspondence. 
And, on behalf of these visitors, may I express the hope that my 
professional brothers will take into consideration whether, in addition 
to their standard and dwarf Rose trees, they might not exhibit the 
Queen of Flowers in some other form of beauty—showing us, for 
example, the best varieties of climbing and pillar Roses, Roses for a 
shrubbery, Roses for beds, uniform or in contrast, Roses for edging, 
Roses for bouquets, &c. 
But I forget that this is the overture, not the opera, and I hear a 
bugle-call from conscience, “ Let the canon cease firing.” 
It only remains for me, as President of the National Rose Society, 
to thank you heartily for the pleasant reception which you have 
given to our brotherhood to-day, and to solicit those who sympathise 
with us in our desire to extend the love and successful culture of 
Roses, and therewith, as many who hear me can testify, the happi¬ 
ness of human life, “the purest of human pleasures,” to ask those 
who are inclined to help us to signify their wish to me or to our 
Secretaries, that their names may be enrolled upon our lists. 
The Pelargonium Society will, by kind permission of 
the Royal Horticultural Society, have a “ field day ” in the 
gardens at Chiswick on August 3rd. The arrangements will 
comprise the annual general meeting, a critical inspection of 
Pelargoniums under trial, and a luncheon in the vinery. Members 
of the Pelargonium Society are alone admissible, but persons 
wishing to participate may enrol themselves as members by appli¬ 
cation to the Hon. Sec., Mr. Shirley Hibberd, 15, Brownswood 
Park, N. 
- The heat in London has recently been very intense; 
95° in the shade were last Friday registered by the Meteorological 
Department of the Board of Trade, although in some parts of 
the metropolis the extraordinary reading of 98° was recorded. 
On Tuesday the 5th inst., when the heat was broken up by a 
violent thunderstorm, the shade temperature was 92°. That had 
been exceeded only four times within twenty-three years. On 
the 16th June, 1858, the record was 94°; July 22nd, 1868, 96° ; July 
17th, 1876,94°; and August 14th, 1876, 93°. Assuming last Friday’s 
reading of 98° to be correct, it was the hottest day which has been 
experienced in London for nearly a quarter of a century. New 
buildings in progress were covered with awning to enable the 
men to continue their work ; and fans have been employed nearly 
as freely by the male as the female population. Vegetation is 
exhausted, and many forest trees are flagging and casting their 
leaves. 
- International Horticultural Exhibition. — We 
have received the following letter from Mr. Bruce Findlay per¬ 
taining to the Jubilee Festival of the Manchester Royal Botanical 
Gardens:—“ The above Exhibition will be held in the Royal 
Botanical Gardens, Manchester, on the 24th of August and three 
following days. The Exhibition will be on a large scale, and 
4 acres of additional land have been taken for the purpose. The 
total cost is estimated at £4000, and the Committee hope to raise 
this amount in subscriptions, so that the receipts at the gates may 
go towards the erection of the new glass so urgently needed in 
the gardens, thus leaving a permanent monument of the Jubilee 
year, from which it is hoped that visitors may derive pleasure and 
profit for many years. Nearly £3000 is subscribed, and by making 
this appeal in behalf of an institution which has done good work 
in the past, the Committee hope to obtain the additional sum 
required. A banquet will be held in the Manchester Town Hall 
on the evening of 24th August. Subscribers of £10 and upwards 
