90 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULIURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 81, 1884, 
ject, by your correspondents “Thinker,” Mr. Waring, and Mr. Pithers, 
Co. Meath. All seem generally to agree with my recommendations that 
for general purposes and private conservatory decoration March is time 
enough to strike the cuttings, I am afraid Mr. Waring will not get the 
majority of Chrysanthemum growers to agree with him (page G8), 
where he says, “Booted suckers certainly make the finest plants.” Per¬ 
haps some of your readers who grow for show purposes would give 
us their experience—the point is of importance. “Will Mr. Murphy 
give me the names of the varieties that flowered as described page 25 ?” 
This would be an intrusion not to be permitted on your space. Mr. Can- 
nell has 800 varieties, and as I am always trying differ nt varieties each 
year, I have grown a large number of them, and only failed partially 
with one — the large Anemone refiexed, such as Fleur de Marie, old 
Gluck, St. Margaret, &c. All the free-flowering kinds, the Japanese, and 
early varieties submit to this treatment,—W. J. Muephy, Clonmel, 
ROSE A. K. WILLIAMS. 
A PRESS of more important matters made me pass by the reply by 
Mr. W. J. Murphy as to this Rose. In the matter of Alfred K. Williams 
being an empress he is perfectly welcome to his opinion, and if I am in 
.a “ miserable minority,” this, too, no doubt I shall take cheerfully. The 
character and constitution of Alfred K. Williams Rose is, however, quite 
j-apother matter. In reply to my opinion, based on the practical expe- 
/rieace of others as well as myself, he writes—“I have looked hastily 
through your report of the National Rose Society, held since I wrote, 
-and find it conspicuous in every winning stand, and some of the exhi¬ 
bitors, I believe, from the locality of your correspondent. No further 
> proof is necessary.” This is a somewhat ex cathedra style of settling an 
argument. Doubtless all the great growers, even if this Rose proved as 
weakly with them, would have large stocks of this glorious variety, and 
therefore be able to exhibit some blooms, perhaps even a profusion, but 
this would not make my assertion incorrect. Neither does the fact that 
with Mr. W. J. Murphy, “and those who grow it around h‘m, no other 
Rose comes near it,” make my assertion incorrect. What I wrote about 
the Rose was my actual experience and that of others in this neighbour¬ 
hood. Mr. W, J, Murphy jumps to the conclusion that it was prominent 
in the stands of National Rose Exhibition—some of the exhibitors from 
my locality ; well, that does not make my assertion incorrect. I have 
•cut several lovely blooms of it myself, but that is no proof that I did not 
curing the last very mild winter lose somehow several plants of it, and 
,^ree of my neighbours were in a like plight. Unfortunately I could not 
be present at the National at Salisbury, but several of my neighbouring 
friends showed there, and that most successfully, but I doubt much if 
.any one would have been able to stage a triplet of this Rose. Hence I 
take it that with us we still consider a further proof of the robust 
...constitution of this glorious Rose is necessary. 
If, however, we want the proof of the robustness of the Rose, I need 
no further proof of the correctness of my assertion than is contained in 
your issue of last week in the few lines from “ One Who Knows.” This 
writer speaks of its “ bafiling the skill of all the great rosarians.” What 
will Mr. Murphy say to this? But “ One Who Knows ” has done good 
service by explaining that the difficulty (weakness of constitution, or 
> whatever it may be) exists only after the transplanting, as, for instance, 
•when ordered from the nurseryman. Certainly it is after this move that 
( the great mortality takes place ; but I had two old plants not many feet 
apart that had survived this period, and made good wood and gave good 
blooms last year, yet one of these died last winter, and the other appeared 
dead this spring. However, I left it in, and was rewarded by a strong 
shoot coming up from below the surface. A third plant has been 
decidedly delicate. Personally I desire to thank “One Who Knows” 
for the hint how to meet the difficulty. 
During the many years that I have written in your pages—and I now 
natter myself that I am among your very oldest contributors, having 
■•written my first note to you about thirty years ago—I have kept one 
thing continually before me, whether writing on Roses or other matters, 
always to give my own experience, not hearsay of others, but my own 
•practical experience, and to back it up with the experience of others, 
verified by actual seeing. That it does not agree with the experience of 
Mr. W. J. Murphy no one regrets more than myself in this particular. 
'That it agrees with the experience of “all the great rosarians” would 
appear to be the opinion of “ One Who Knows.” Perhaps you will once 
again “ good naturedly extend so much of your space to ” your old corre¬ 
spondent “ Y. B. A. Z.” I am only in my humble way a searcher after 
truth.—Y. B. A. Z. J J 
1 MUST thank “One Who Knows” for his letter re.specting A. K. 
Williams. The failure of this beautiful Rose under transplanting is 
quite my experience, and its success under the replanting with dormant 
buds is happily mine as well. In the autumn of 1882 I removed seven 
plants budded on dwarf standards, and in 1883 they made beautiful 
growth. Owing to their exposed position in my garden I removed 
them to a more sheltered place, and as cut-backs this year they have 
been a miserable failure. Out of four bought plants of the same Rose 
only two are existing, and these are as good as dead. I hope and believe 
that “ One Who Knows ” has solved a most difficult problem.—H. B. B. 
Greenland Vegetables. —In Greenland attempts have been made 
to raise some of the common plants of European gardens. At the Danish 
station of Godthaab (latitude 04°), close to the open sea, Turnips, Radishes, 
Lettuces, and Parsley are almost the only plants that can be cultivated 
with any success. The Turnip, indeed, requires a favourable summer to 
produce anything like tolerable specimens. The Cabbages are scarcely 
worthy of the name ; but at two inland stations up the fjord, about thirty 
miles north of Godthaab, the climate is strikingly different. Here, Dr. 
Rink informs us, Turnips always come to perfection ; Carrots prosper 
well, and attain a fair size ; and Cabbages, though unable to develope 
thick stalks, yet produce tolerably large leaves, which the provident 
Danes stow away for winter use. Attempts have been made to cultivate 
Potatoes, but the tubers never attain a size larger than marbles, and are 
only grown and eaten as curiosities. Under the most favourable cir¬ 
cumstances Green Peas only produce shells, in which the peas are barely 
recognisable. This is within the Arctic Circle, or at least on its imme¬ 
diate borders. In South Greenland — the site of the old Norsemen’s 
settlements — horticulture is practised under more favourable circum¬ 
stances. At some of the posts, in about the same latitude as Christiania, 
good Carrots have been produced, and in a forcing frame Strawberries 
have grown well and yielded fruit for several years, but they afterwards 
died, owing probably to the severity of the climate. At Julianshaab 
Turnips often attain a weight of more than half a pound, and are fit for 
table in the middle of July. Radishes are fit to be eaten in the middle 
of June. Rhubaib grows pretty vigorously, and can be raised from seeds. 
Green Cabbage attains a good size, but never the normal taste and pun¬ 
gency of the vegetable. At Jakobshavn, in 69° 13', our good friend Dr. 
Pfaff used to raise a few Radishes, and the locality being sheltered, the 
tiny patch of earth on the rocks, which in that remote place passed for a 
garden, produced “ crops ” almost as luxuriant as Godthaab in the south. 
—{From Cassell's “ The Co^mtrics of the World.') 
STRAWBERRIES. 
The notes published last week were interesting and seasonable. In 
my opinion now is the best of all times to discuss the merits of Straw¬ 
berries. In late autumn or early spring when many might be thinking 
of renewing or extending their plantations of them, extenfive growers may 
have the motive or inclination to give advice, but with the recollection of 
the recent grand crops still fresh in the memory, many facts might be 
profitably noted now which would not be thought of a month hence. 
Our best early Strawberry, and the best I know, is Black Prince. This 
season we gathered the first fruits of it on the 1st of June, and in five 
weeks afterwards we had still many fruits ripe on the same plants. Many 
have an impression that the fruits of this choice vaiiety are small, but 
many of our fruits are as large as a Green Gage Plum, and none of them is 
smaller than a Damson. It is a capital variety to bear ; others may be 
thin or bare, but Black Prince never fails to produce a paying crop. The 
fruits are wonderfully firm, some of them being almost black in their fully 
ripe richness, and they are all of a beautiful colour for preserving. All 
who taste it in good condition like it exceedingly too for dessert. It has 
many good points, more than any other variety in cultivation. For forcing 
very early it is unique. 
Keen’s Seedling is another favourite Strawberry of mine. It, too, 
assumes a rich colour, and when fully ripe in dry weather the flavour is 
good and pleasing in the extreme. It is a soft, mellow fruit, and more 
suitable for sending to the house as gathered than packing off to a long 
distance. It is most prolific, and stands very high in thj class of first 
favourite Strawberries. The Vicomtesse Hericart de Thury I do not like. 
It fruits freely, but many of the fruits remain too small. They have a 
peculiar red colour which is not pleasing. There is nothing soft and 
mellow about the fruits when fully ripe. It will never be grown exten¬ 
sively here, I would not be sorry if I had none of it. President, to my 
mind, is the finest of all the main crop big-fruiting Strawberries. It is 
nearer perfection in all p ints than any other of the kind which I can 
name. British Queen I have none of, and I have no desire to possess it, 
as it is far too uncertain ; good in flavour it most undoubtedly is, but when 
properly grown many others are but little inferior to it.—J. MuiR. 
WATERING PLANTS. 
This is a subject which has been treated of frequently in the Journal, 
but not too often if the importance of the operation is taken into considera¬ 
tion. Good potting is essential to success, but caielessness in the application 
of water will quickly nullify the benefits of perfect potting. Too much 
and too little are the extremes to guard against. Supposing anyone to be 
growing four dozen plants; all maybe watered rightly until growth is 
satisfactory, then there comes a day when one of them is so dry that the pot 
in which it is growing sounds like an empty one if struck with the knuckles. 
This plant is permanently injured, the young roots which were forming fast 
to support the plant are dead, and although the man in charge may deter¬ 
mine that nothing of the kind shall happen again to that particular plant, 
his good resolution is too late. Once dry is once too much. By-and-by 
another plant in the same batch may be subjected to the same ordea’, 
and so it goes cn until nearly the whole of the plants are thrown into 
an unflourishing condition. There is no excuse for anyone who has the 
plants in charge, and can examine them twice daily. Staking and tying, 
and everything else connected with growing plants, are all of minor ina- 
portance to watering. There is another side to the question which is 
equally important. Besides the pofsibility of giving too little there is also 
the chance of giving too much. Of the two evils it is difficult to say which 
is the greatest. Both are decidedly bad, and those who go to the one 
extreme generally practise the other ; indeed a man who lets some of his 
plants beceme too dry generally makes up his mind, when reprimanded for 
