451 
JOURNAL OF HORTIGULIURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 20, 1884, 
Manetti, which succeed best on light soils. The union should 
be buried below the surface of the soil to induce the forma¬ 
tion of roots from the Eose. In low-lying districts the Briar 
should be used, and the union of the Eose and stock must 
not be buried unless they were worked close to the root, for 
this stock will live above the ground, and the Manetti will 
not do so long. 
Tea Eoses if worked should be as near the root as possible, 
^•aud upon the Briar, for they have done the best upon that 
stock with me. In planting, the union should be well buried, 
not only for the purpose of forming roots, but for the protec¬ 
tion of the lower part of the plant during severe weather. 
When planted moderately deep, if the top be killed by frost, 
these varieties spring up from the base with great strength 
afterwards if only a portion of the Eose and roots are left 
alive. 
It is entirely a matter of taste whether standards, half¬ 
standards, or dwarfs be planted. Standards in certain posi¬ 
tions are effective planted 3 feet apart and the ground covered 
with dwarfs. For either beds or borders we prefer dwarf 
Eoses, as better flowers, and a larger quantity of them can be 
obtained from the same space of ground. The dwarfs should 
be placed about 18 inches apart, and as soon as they show 
signs of crowding they should be lifted and placed farther 
apart, for nothing is gained by unduly crowding them. This, 
however, can be regulated to a great extent by thinning the 
shoots at pruning time and after the plants have fairly started 
into growth. It is an admirable practice when fine blooms 
are required to limit the plants to a certain number of shoots. 
At planting time the long shoots may be slightly reduced* 
yet may be left fully 2 feet in length. Cutting them close 
back or nearly so when planting, which I have seen practised 
by the inexperienced, is wrong. The Eose naturally starts 
into growth early, and if cut back in autumn the lower buds 
start into growth in spring and are very liable to be seriously 
injured by frost. 
When fine blooms are wanted beds and borders of dwarf 
Eoses should be lifted occasionally—say every three years. 
Lifting must be done carefully while the foliage is fresh, and 
then the plants start into growth the following spring with 
as much freedom as if they had never been disturbed. The 
greatest care should be taken that the roots are not dried 
while out of the soil. Not only does lifting, trenching, and 
manuring the ground tend to the production of first-rate 
blooms, but it checks the growth of the plants and ensures 
their passing the winter in safety. It is a fact that has been 
j)roved again and again, that plants which have been lifted and 
replanted will pass without injury through severe winters, 
while those left undisturbed have been killed to the ground. 
If planting is completed before the ground has become 
saturated with heavy rains the surface of the beds may be 
mulched with short manure. A heavy coating need not be 
given, but more may be added at the approach of severe 
weather, dry litter or fern being preferable to manure for 
the purpose of protecting the lower portion of the plants. 
This should not be left on too long in spring, as it will prove 
injurious and induce the lower buds of the shoots to burst 
into growth. Tea varieties need no more protection than 
Hybrid Perpetuals. 
The following are the names of thirty-six good useful 
varieties for beds, and if twenty-four only are needed plant 
the first twenty-four named, and if twelve only the varieties 
given first:—Alfred Colomb, Marie Baumann, Ducde Eohan, 
Duke of Edinburgh, Louis Van Houtte, Mdlle. Marie Eady, 
La France, Capitaine Christy, Baronne de Eothschild, Boule 
de Neige, La Duchesse de Morny, Madame Marie Finger, 
A. K. Williams, Beauty of Waltham, Charles Lefebvre, Duke 
of Teck, Prince Camille de Eohan, General Jacqueminot, 
Comtesse de Oxford, Elie Moie\ Violette Bouyer, John 
Hopper, Francois Michelon, Victor Verdier, Fisher Holmes, 
Francois Levet, Madame Noman, La Eosiere, Brightness of 
Cheshunt, Horace Vernet, Madame Lacharme, Duchesse de 
Vallombrosa, Madame Gabriel Luizet, Madame Victor Verdier, 
Madame Hippolyte Jamain, and Annie Laxton. 
The best Tea varieties for outside planting are Madame 
Falcot, Alba Eosea, Anna Ollivier, Catherine Mermet, Com- 
tesse de Nadaillac, Madame Lambard, Niphetos, Etoile de 
Lyon, Comtesse Eiza du Parc, Innocente Pirola, Madame 
Hippolyte Jamain, Madame Willermoz, Marie Van Houtte, 
Perle de Lyon, Eubens, Souvenir d’un Ami, and Souvenir de 
Paul Neron. For planting against a wall the following are 
amongst the very best:—Gloire de Dijon, Lamarque, Belle 
Lyonnaise, Bouquet d’Or, Marechal Niel (in favourable locali¬ 
ties), and Cheshunt Hybrid.—A Northerneb. 
NOTES ON MUSHEOOM CULTUEE IN SHEDS. 
Mushroom culture in the open air is certainly the most simple way 
of securing Mushrooms, and the next most simple and certainly a 
surer way is to grow them in cool houses and sheds. Speaking from 
some years’ experience, I have more reason to recommend shed cul¬ 
ture than either the open air or heated and special Mushroom house 
modes of culture. Heated and expensively constructed Mushroom 
houses are, in my opinion, superfluous. I have one at command, but 
it has not been used for some years, and there is not much prospect 
of its being used again. Asa departure from it we began with a bed 
under a plant stage in a Cucumber pit, and further by a bed in the 
potting shed, and they came up so freely there that we followed on 
with more beds in the sheds until scores have been made without a 
single failure. Beds have been formed in the potting shed, tool shed. 
Potato shed, and in other structures of a like character, and fine 
lasting crops were the result everywhere. 
Our supply of manure is obtained from the house stables, and 
begins early in August. We cannot get a cartload in one day, but 
the droppings are collected each day and emptied into an open shed 
in the stableyard ; there they are turned over frequently and added 
to until there is a heap of one or two cartloads, when they are taken 
to the garden, wheeled into a shed, spread out, and about a fourth of 
loamy soil mixed in. This tones down the heat and absorbs and 
retains the qualities of the manure. I particularly like to have a 
qTiantity of short straw with the droppings. I would not use drop¬ 
pings without it. 
Dry material is of no use, but short matter which is full of urine is 
capital. Beds made up of one half of this, the other half of drop¬ 
pings, and an extra quarter of soil, are capable of bearing first-rate 
crops. Very wet manure is never used, as it would heat violently 
and then become suddenly cold. Extra dry material is not used, as 
such is alwaj^s liable to fail to heat, but a medium condition which 
cannot be accurately described, yet is not difficult to see and under¬ 
stand, is the proper state. Then extremes of a great heat or none at all, 
and waiting for days or weeks for the heat to rise or fall, and con¬ 
sulting thermometers need never concern the cultivator, ihe time to 
avoid all this is to prepare the manure properly. Beds which heat up 
to 150° or more will never be benefited by it. In such a bed Mush¬ 
rooms may come and they may not, it is very doubtful ; but when the 
beds can be made up one day, spawned and soiled the next, and the 
heat rises to 80° or 90° and remains there for weeks afterwards, there is 
no danger of failure. It is a beginning of this kind I always study 
and secure with our beds, and satisfactory results follow naturally. 
A bed of 50° would never bear well, neither will one of 140° or there¬ 
abouts. From 80° to 100° is sure. Beginners may benefit by being 
guided by the thermometer, but they should pay attention to the con¬ 
ditions when it indicates that the bed is right, and always afterwards 
get the manure as near as possible to the same state before using it. 
1 have not had a thermometer in our shed beds for years, but I know 
from a sight of the manure before making up what the bed will do. 
Atmospheric temperatures might concern some growers, where the 
custom has been to keep the Mushroom house at 60° or 65° day and 
night, without allowing a rise or fall of 3° for weeks together, but 
fixed temperatures can never be thought of in sheds, and the best of 
it is the Mushrooms grow perfectly well in varying temperatures so 
long as cold draughts can be kept from them. One week the tem¬ 
perature of a shed may be 50° and next it may be 10° or 15° less, but 
with some protection over the surface of the bed the Mushrooms will 
never indicate a change. 
I have never tried ridge-shaped beds in sheds, as they have all 
been what might be termed lean-to’s, as thej" are made against the 
wall and slope down to the front. Some beds have been made 3 feet 
high at the back and tapered down to nothing at 3^ feet out in front. 
The manure is rammed and trodden into form as closely as possible. 
In other cases we have had woodwork fixed to make the bed level 
across from the wall, and both ways are equally good. When any 
woodwork is used to keep up the front we do not use wide and closely 
