564 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 25, 1884. 
Apples, though plentiful enough, can only have brief 
notice. Of dessert sorts it would appear superfluous to 
praise Cox’s Orange Pippin, Margil, and other sorts, which, 
though excellent, are perhaps too well known and cultivated 
to the exclusion of other sorts of undoubted merit. Let me 
beg space in more gardens for Pine Apple Eusset, Eeinette 
Van Mons, Melon, Pearson’s Plate, Pine Golden Pippin, 
Golden Eusset, Lord Burghley, and Hubbard’s Pearmain, 
all which had good crops this year, and impart a pleasing 
and useful degree of variety to the dessert. Among culinary 
fruit Gooseberry is certainly worthy of general culture, 
keeping, as it does, better than any other sort, and being 
really good for cooking in May and June ; yet by Mr. Bar¬ 
ron’s showing it was only selected by three of the 130 exhi¬ 
bitors who sent him returns. 
One word about fruit knowledge. To know fruit well a 
man must live among it and learn to know trees and fruit 
by sight. Not only must careful naming be practised among 
the trees, but also of the fruit in the fruit-room. Name fruit 
in the bulk, and if you wish to know it thoroughly select a 
dozen or more of each sort and lay them in rows side by 
side with the names clearly written, and so become familiar 
with the form, colour, period of ripening, and keeping pro¬ 
perties of each.— Edward Luckhurst. 
HYBEID PEEPETUAL EOSES IN POTS. 
There has been more written about the successful manage¬ 
ment of Roses for beds and borders outside than upon any 
other flower of our gardens. The successful cultivation of Roses 
in pots for flowering indoors has not, however, been so frequently 
treated upon, and, judging from the correspondence columns of 
this Journal, this method of culture is rapidly extending. There 
is, perhaps, more questions asked upon this subject than upon 
any other. Vines excepted; thei-efore no apology is needed for the 
introduction of this subject. 
The first point to be considered in the cultivation of Roses 
is the stock upon which they are likely to succeed the best when 
grown in pots. Upon this, as upon many subjects connected 
with gardening, there is some difference of opinions. I have 
tried all, and after several years of experience, have come to the 
conclusion that no particular stock is really essential for the 
cultivation of the Rose. The only reason why stocks are em¬ 
ployed is because plants can be increased with greater certainty 
and rapidity, with 1 ss labour and expense, than could be the case 
from cuttings. Not that worked plants attain a larger size in 
less time than those upon their own roots, for plants raised from 
cuttings have a decided advantage in this respect. They throw up 
growths freely from the base from the very earliest stages, whether 
varieties of Teas or Hybrid Perpetuals, which plants upon stocks 
do not until they have been buried sufficiently long for the union 
of the stock and Rose to produce roots and become indepen¬ 
dent. When worked upon the Manetti the advocates of that 
stock advise that the union should be buried in the ground to 
induce the formation of roots. The majority of Roses do we’l 
on their own roots, and these 1 decidedly prefer for pots. It is 
advisable in every case where practicable to lift plants on their 
own roots from beds and borders outside, and if these do not 
exist, plants that have been originally worked and rooted freely 
from the union should be selecte 1, Even if the plants have not 
become independent of the stock upon which they ai*e worked, 
it is wise to lift them for potting in preference to purchasing 
them from a distance. When worked, plants have to be pur¬ 
chased, those should be selected that have been budded nearest 
the root, and it is immaterial whether they are upon the seedling, 
cultivated Briar, or the Manetti stock. 
The best time to lift plants for potting is towards the close 
of this month, but this depends in a great measure upon the 
earliness or lateness of the season, especially when the plants 
have to be obtained from a distance. They should be lifted 
directly the wood is ripe and before the foliage falls; for this is 
important, and gives the plants an opportunity of becoming 
partly established before winter. The only reason why plants 
lifted at home are preferred is because they can be at once potted 
with much less injury to their foliage than would be the case if 
they were packed and had a distance to travel. The preserva¬ 
tion of the foliage as long as possible after they are lifted and 
potted is important if the strongest gro vth is desired the fo low¬ 
ing spring. Home grown plants can be lifted two or three 
weeks earlier than those that may have to travel a distance. 
On several occasions we have potted plants before the end of 
October, and before they have been removed from the outside 
to be protected in frames large quantities of roots have been 
formed round the sides of the pots. 
Jf the plants are strong and home-grown, 8 or 9-inch pots 
may be employed, which are sufficiently large for them the first 
season, if the ordinary 7-inch pots are the most serviceable. 
The pots should be perfectly clean, as well as the crocks used 
for drainage. A large quantity of drainage is not needed, but 
what is used should be carefully arranged. Over the drainage 
a thin layer of the fibre of the loam should be placed to prevent 
the small particles of soil being washed amongst the crocks, and 
thus rendering the drainage imperfect. The plants should be 
potted deeply, and if they are worked the union of the Rose and 
stock should be buried to give them every chance of forming 
roots from the place where they are united. The soil must be 
in a suita’ole moist state at potting time—neither wet nor diy, 
but so that it can be pressed firmly together without becoming 
a hard mass. After potting, when properly treated, no water 
is needed at their roots before the ear y spring months. The 
soil should be pressed as firmly as possible into the pots, for I 
have never found Roses do really well in a light loose soil that 
is constantly requiring water during the growing season. No 
pruning should be done at potting time, merely removing tho 
long straggling ends of the shoots. 
The treatment after potting is simple, and consists of plung¬ 
ing the pots outside, syringing occasionally if needed during dry 
or windy weather, and protection in a frame as soon as severe 
weather approaches. When plunging in coal ashes or other 
material the rim of the pots and surface of the soil should be 
entirely covered, for in this condition will the soil be retained 
in an intermediate state of moisture, and it is surprising what 
a number of active roots will be formed in a very short time. 
Plants placed on the surface of walks or beds of ashes with their 
pots exposed, as is usually the case, very soon have the moisture 
evaporated fi'om the soil, and water has frequently to be applied, 
which is by no means conducive to the promotion of root-growth. 
While the Roses are in cold frames the lights may be thrown 
off on all favourable occasions to keep them cool and inactive. 
To prune and introduce these plauts into heated structures 
in spring for the purpose of forcing them into bloom is ruinous, 
but this method of treatment is too common. If blooms really 
must be had, it is better to prepare two batches of plants and 
sacrifice one lot, for they will only make poor weak growth, and 
be of but little service for flowering the following season. On 
the contrary, those grown under cold-frame treatment, as advised, 
will naturally start into active gi’owth about the middle of Febru¬ 
ary, which should be encouraged until the roots are thoroughly 
active. When in this condition they may be pruned, leaving 
about two eyes on each shoot if the plants are weak. If strong 
and they have a good quantity of roots when potted, the strongest 
shoots may be left 6 or 7 inches in length, and tied outwards 
towards the rim of the pot; but even in this case very little is 
gained, for they do not break so freely as if the plants were 
tboroughly established. After pruning and when signs of growth 
are visible, the pots may be lifted and stood upon the surface, 
or only plunged to their rims. The frame may be kept some¬ 
what closer to induce a free active growth, which can be accom¬ 
plished by closing the frame early in the afternoon while the 
sun is upon it. Air should be admitted freely during the day 
when the weather is favourable to insure a firm sturdy growth. 
It is much better to allow the temperature of the frame to rise 
considerably than to admit cold currents of air to the young 
tender foliage. Growth when once fairly started will advance 
with rapidity, and it must be determined whether the shoots are 
to be al owed to grow upright, or whether shapely specimens are 
to be formed. If the latter are desired, select those plants that 
have started the most strongly from the base. When the 
shoots are soft they can be gradually drawn outwards towards 
the rim of the pots by means of matting and a few small pegs 
inserted in the soil. This can be accomplished without breaking 
or injuring the shoots much better when in a young growing 
state than after the wood has become firm. Sufficient shoots 
should be trained outwards to form the base, and then be allowed 
to grow upright the same as the weaker shoots in the centre of 
the plants, which will have gained strength considerably white 
the process of training the others has been going on.—W. 
Baedney. 
(To be continued.) 
CHRISTMAS VEGETABLES. 
1881 will long be remembered as a good year for many vegetables. 
Dry and excessively hot as the summer proved it did not check the 
autumn and winter crops to an injurious extent, and of late all seasonable 
