360 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t October 20 , issi, 
to our autumn-blooming plants. I have under my charge a bed 
of the above which I think is worth a note. This bed was formed 
in April last year with eighteen small plants, which survived the 
past trying winter without injury, and have now eighty-seven 
spikes of bloom, many of which bear a hundred flowers each. It 
is one of the best plants I know for flowering in autumn. My 
mode of treatment is as follows :—The bed is made of fresh loam 
and leaf soil, with a liberal sprinkling of coarse sand. In this 
the plants make vigorous growth during the summer, and on the 
approach of winter 1 have some dry leaves worked in between 
the plants, and the whole then covered with turfy soil. In March 
this covering was partly removed, and I found the plants had 
already made some growth, and by the middle of June the bed 
was one mass of rich foliage and the flower spikes were appearing. 
During the summer several waterings of liquid manure were given, 
and the result has been most satisfactory.—A. Campbell, Ashford 
Gardens. 
HOW TO KILL THE PEAR SCALE. 
That is the heading that appeared in the Journal of Horticul¬ 
ture (page 285), from your correspondent Mr. W. Taylor. Anyone 
who is so unfortunate as to have scale-infested trees must thank 
Mr. Taylor for bringing the subject before the public. The writer 
of the letter introduced by Mr. Taylor recommends the affected 
trees to be painted all over with boiled linseed oil in January or 
February, but adds this caution : “Avoid oiling the bloom buds.” 
I believe the plan to be a most effectual one ; but I prefer and use 
pure whale oil for this reason : The whole tree can be painted over 
—bloom buds and all—without any bad effect, but rather other¬ 
wise ; and if properly done it is an effectual cure, and may be laid 
on either in December, January, or February with safety on any 
sort of fruit tree.— John Downie, Edinburgh. 
THE ROSE SEASON OF 1881—A RETROSPECT. 
It is difficult now-a-days to say when the season for Roses 
begins and ends, for what with Teas and Noisettes on walls and 
sunny spots in early spring, and late blooms of Hybrid Perpetuals 
and Teas which all those who grow Roses in any quantity can 
command until the frost sets in, there are but few months in the 
year when Roses may not be had ; but to the minds of most Rose- 
growers the Rose season means the exhibition season—means, that 
is, the quality of Roses as they are seen on the exhibition table. 
And when July closes most Rose-growers pack up their green 
boxes, clean and store away their tubes, and regard their work in 
that respect as closed for another twelve months. And it is in 
this sense, then, that I must answer the question so often put to 
me—What do you think of Roses this year ? That I have some 
opportunity of judging may, I think, be fairly conceded when 
I say that I have judged at the following Shows—Farningham, 
June 29th; Canterbury, June 30th; Maidstone, July 4th; Rei- 
gate, July 5th ; Cardiff, July 6th ; Oxford, July 7th ; Alexandra 
Palace, July 9th ; Uppingham, July 11th ; Birkenhead, July 16th ; 
Leek, July 19th; Helensburgh, July 21st ; Newton Stewart, 
July 22nd ; Newcastle, July 27th ; and Manchester, August 24th ; 
that I was also present, of course, at our National Society’s Shows 
at the Crystal Palace and Sheffield, although unable, owing to my 
duties as one of the Secretaries fully occupying my time, to act 
as Judge ; and that thus in all parts of the kingdom I have had 
during the exhibition season an opportunity of seeing Roses which 
perhaps no one else has had. A judge, it need not be said, has 
peculiar facilities for seeing the Roses. He has no prejudice in 
favour of his own flowers, as so many even of the best growers 
have. He sees the Roses at their best before crowds come in to 
heat the room or the tents and cause them to lose colour ; and if 
he has been, as I have, year after year honoured with the confi¬ 
dence of Rose societies, he can the better compare those of the 
present year with those which have preceded it. If, then, my 
judgment is wrong—if the conclusions I draw from what I have 
seen seem to other competent judges as incorrect—the fault must 
be in myself, and not because I have lacked opportunities for 
judging. 
The terribly severe winter of 1880-81 was but a poor preparation 
for the exhibition season. Tales reached me from all quarters of 
the havoc that had been wrought amongst Roses. One amateur 
wrote that he had lost four hundred Teas and Noisettes, another 
that all his dormant buds were killed, another that he had not a 
standard Rose left alive, and from all directions that the Roses 
were killed to the snow line. Those that were left, however, 
broke well ; but then came those late frosts which have for many 
years visited us in May and June and destroyed the hopes of 
many a grower. The early shoots were killed, and with them the 
finest and most promising buds ; and consequently, as the season 
drew near, I felt that we could not expect a grand Rose year. 
And so it has proved ; and so, I think, everyone with whom I have 
talked upon the subject has agreed to. It is no discredit to Rose- 
growers, either professional or amateur, to say that no one has 
exhibited in their usual form. I cannot call to mind any one 
stand of any considerable number of which I could say that it 
was perfect—no such stand, for example, as the thirty-six which 
Mr. Jowitt exhibited at Birkenhead in 1880. Nor were individual 
flowers of such pre-eminent merit as that they will haunt one’s 
memory for a long time to come—no such blooms as the General 
Jacqueminots of Mr. Cranston, the Niphetos of Mr. Jowitt, the A. K. 
Williams of Mr. Wollaston in 1880; for although the bloom of 
the latter Rose shown by Mr. Jowitt at Wirral was grand, yet the 
colour was somewhat gone. We never went to an exhibition but 
excuses had to be made ; and we may be sure of this, that when 
they are, those who make them feel that they are not up to the 
mark. Yea ! I think some growers must have been very much 
surprised at the position which they took, unhoped-for prizes 
dropping into their lap. Take it all in all, the provincial Show 
of the National Rose Society at Sheffield must be considered to 
have been the finest show of the year, not so extensive as the 
metropolitan, but in the general quality of the blooms superior to 
it; and yet there was much there we might have wished better. 
True, the terribly hot weather had had an injurious effect, and 
perhaps the wonder was that they were so good. 
In looking through the lists of awards it is curious to remark 
how situation and climate have influenced them. Thus, in the 
earlier shows Mr. Cant of Colchester was the most successful 
nurseryman, and at the Crystal Palace Mr. Baker of Exeter the 
most successful amateur ; afterwards the Cranston Company 
carried all before them, and Mr. Jowitt was equally to the front 
as an amateur ; and then when the later shows came on the north 
asserted its rights. At Newcastle Mr. Whitwell of Darlington 
beat Mr. Jowitt, and at Manchester no grower for sale could come 
near Messrs. Mack & Son. It will never be possible to fix a date 
for an exhibition that can satisfy both northern and southern 
growers, and therefore it is well that there should be these different 
exhibitions, that all parts of the country may share in them. And 
here let me ask, As the National Rose Society is now looked up to 
as the central sun round which the rosy planets are to revolve, 
might it not be possible for the authorities connected with our 
provincial societies, as soon as the fixtures for the National are 
made, to make theirs also? and if these were publicly announced, 
and any of them were seen to clash, arrangements for preventing 
it might be made. I call to mind one or two occasions when such 
needless clashing did take place, much to the injury of both shows. 
There was one show this year the date of which was twice altered 
simply because the date of one of the larger exhibitions had not 
been fixed. And there is no reason why it should not be done, for 
it is easy now after a few years’ experience to say what will be 
the most convenient time for an exhibition at Launceston as in 
London. 
I never recollect a season when so little was known of the new 
Roses, I mean the French Roses. When prizes were offered for 
new Roses the principal portion were either English-raised Roses 
or else the characters of which we already knew. Nor were there 
many new candidates for favour amongst our English raisers. 
Neither at the Crystal Palace or at Sheffield was there anything 
remarkable. Indeed at the latter place the prize was not awarded, 
and considerable doubt was expressed as to that at the Crystal 
Palace. Later on in the season The Cranston Company exhibited 
a very fine flower called Mrs. Gretton ; while Duke of Teck, 
Harrison Weir, and Countess of Rosebery maintained their position 
pretty much in the order that they are here placed. There may 
be amongst the French Roses some A. K. Williams or Marie 
Baumann, but as yet they are unknown to fame. Conjectures are 
indeed given by several of our leading growers as to the merits of 
some of the varieties, but it is evident that they are only tentative, 
and that they have not had many opportunities for judging. 
“ What about the Stapleford Roses, or Pedigree Roses as they are 
sometimes absurdly called ?” I have been repeatedly asked. Well, I 
have seen no cause to alter in any way the opinion i expressed upon 
them last season. They have hardly ever made their appearance 
in an exhibition stand, and as exhibition Roses they are an entire 
failure. I saw one at a provincial show as hard as a bullet. “ I 
have had,” said the disgusted exhibitor, “ that brute under a glass 
for three weeks, and he is as hard as ever.” The same thing is 
said of them as pot Roses with the exception of Duke of Con¬ 
naught, and this, from its colour and freedom of bloom, is likely 
to be useful for forcing for cut flowers. Abroad, I understand, 
they are more appreciated, the warmer climate of both France and 
America suiting them better; although I perceive that Messrs. 
Ellwanger Sc Barry, the well-known American nurserymen, in 
