JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t September 28, 1m. 
Abies Douglasii evidently requires a deep rich soil. Several 
have been planted, and all have made tolerably free growth, 
but the shallow soil does not suit them. 
Particular attention should be given to select trees and shrubs 
suitable for the positions they are to occupy. To plant Conifers 
near to or beneath other trees is ridiculous, yet I have seen it 
done by persons professing to have competent knowledge of 
the work. Hollies and Rhododendrons answer beneath trees 
so far as to continue healthy and grow freely, but blossom 
must not be expected. Conifers may in many instances re¬ 
quire some shelter, but they also want an airy open position 
and a pure atmosphere. 
The best time for planting is near the end of October or 
early in November ; no favourable weather should then be lost. 
Plant well then, and there will be very little risk of subsequent 
failure. “ Plant well" is a comprehensive term, pointing to 
well-drained soil, carefully prepared stations, quick transplanta¬ 
tion, little exposure to the air or injury of any kind to the roots, 
soil well and firmly packed among the roots, a mulching of 
litter at the time of planting, and due support to the stem at 
the same time, so that there is no risk of wind rocking and a 
consequent loosening of the roots in the soil. These are matters 
worthy of our best attention, for I am sure that they make 
success almost a certainty and failure an exception, arising 
from causes altogether remote from the planting.— Edward 
Luckhurst. 
AMONG THE CANTERBURY ROSES. 
There are some good people who affect to doubt the good 
influence that exhibitions have in encouraging the growth of 
flowers. Now I know no place that can better refute such an idea 
than the good old city of Canterbury. Like most cathedral cities 
where manufactures have not reached, rejoicing in that dolcc 
far niente which seems so consonant with the old walls and the 
glorious cathedral, it seemed as if no power could wake it out of 
its sleepiness. No flower shows seemed able to make anything 
like a firm foundation there ; but some few years ago there went 
to the old city a parson who had for many years been a rosarian, 
and who has taught both by his practice and writing had shown 
that his was no ’prentice hand. He found there one or two who 
were equally ardent in their love for the Rose ; and to these three 
gentlemen—the Rev. H. B. Biron, Captain Lambert, and Mr. Wm. 
Mount—Canterbury is indebted for having established a most 
vigorous and flourishing Rose Society. It has brought out other 
exhibitors, encouraged those who already grow the Rose, has 
brought some of our largest growers for sale to exhibit there, and 
altogether has added considerably to the interest with which the 
Rose is regarded in East Kent. 
Two causes led me to visit Canterbury. One was that I was 
anxious to see the garden of one of the most successful of our 
new exhibitors—Mr. George Mount of Harbledon ; the other was 
that my valued friend Mr. Biron is about to leave to take the 
living for years held by his father at Lympne, and I wished 
before he went to take a last look at his Roses, for he has made 
Harbledon famous in the Rose world, not only by his own excel¬ 
lent growth, but also because Mr. Mount is his pupil. 
Mr. Biron’s Roses have had no exceptional advantages of either 
soil or situation. They are grown on the top of the hill near the 
church, and are very much exposed to high winds, while the soil 
is rather of a hungry nature and requires good feeding. Now 
from, I will not say carelessness, but from the pressure of other 
matters, they were not so liberally treated last autumn as usual, 
and as a consequence they have not been anything equal to his in 
former years, and the trees looked as if they resented the neglect. 
Orange fungus, too, had been, as in many places this year, very 
busy." A large quantity of the Hybrid Perpetuals had lost their 
foliage ; and although I do not think that this materially affects 
the plants for the future, it does detract from their appearance at 
present; but it is a singular thing with regard to this pest, that 
neither here nor anywhere else that has come under my notice 
have I seen a trace of it on the Tea Roses. Here some Teas right 
in the middle of Hybrid Perpetuals that were badly affected had 
no trace of it. Probably the readers of the Journal will take note 
of this and see whether this coincides with their experience. If 
Mr. Biron has raised no new Rose, to him at least belongs the 
merit of rescuing a Rose from oblivion and making it famous. 
I allude to Eugene Fiirst, one of the grandest of dark Roses, which 
had almost passed away unnoticed but for his excellent exhibits 
of it, taking more than once the National Rose Society’s medal 
for the best Rose in the Show with it; and now the demand for 
it is so great that nurserymen are unable to supply it.. It is a 
fine Rose, somewhat like Reynolds Hole, but even richer in colour 
—that is, in texture, and more constant. 
We had a talk over his flowers and his method of growing. In 
one thing I think he is unique—the manner in which he prepares 
his Briar stock for budding. Instead of being anxious to secure 
fibres on the wild stock he pares off everything, and when inserted 
in the ground it is as bare as a cricket ball; but the result justifies 
the practice, as his plants have always rooted well and grown 
vigorously. He had thought highly of Harrison Weir and budded 
it largely in various ways and on different stocks, but he is com¬ 
pelled to say that it is a poor doer although a pretty flower. We 
had Madame Gabriel Luizet under discussion, and he showed me 
what evidently seemed second blooms, while Mr. Mount and others 
have expressed the opinion that it is a Hybrid Perpetual—a fact 
which I am happy to corroborate from my own garden, for I have 
just looked at one of my plants with six blooms on it, and.so all 
I can do is to take off my hat and humbly apologise to him for 
my rudeness. 
From Mr. Biron’s garden I walked on to Mr. Mount s a little 
further on, past the house and grounds of that grand artist Mr. 
Sidney Cooper, who has made the neighbourhood of the old city 
known to many, who would have been otherwise ignorant of it, 
by his grand cattle pieces, who so often in his pictures repose, in 
the quiet meadows that border on the Stour. No external sign 
marks the home of the Rose at Harbledon, for Mr. Mount is the 
village blacksmith—not such a one as is described by Longfellow, 
for it cannot be said of him— 
“ The smith a mighty man is he, 
With large and sinewy hands; 
And the muscles of bis brawny arms 
Are strong as iron bands.” 
For our friend is a little man in stature, as unlike one’s ideal of 
his craft as can possibly be—spare, and by no means strong ; but 
he is like Longfellow’s, a man of good purpose and strong reso¬ 
lution ; and so when he went in for Roses, and his preceptor Mr. 
Biron asked him, Did he wish to excel, and he replied “ Yes,’ he 
set himself to it in right earnest. His garden is but a small one. 
It is sheltered and the soil is good : perseverance, skill, and deter¬ 
mination have done the rest. What is that rest ? Well, here it is. 
Sittingbourne Rose Show, June 22nd—First prize, twelve vais. , 
first ditto nine vars.; second ditto, six Teas ; first ditto, three 
trebles ; best box and best Rose in the Show. Maidstone First, 
nine vars.; first ditto six vars., three trusses each ; seconc* prize, 
six Teas ; second ditto, six of one variety. National Rose Society, 
Bath, June 29th—Second prize, twelve vars. ; second ditto, six 
Teas. Farningham Rose Show, June 30th—First prize, nine vars. , 
first ditto, six Teas; second ditto, six, same var. ; seven-guinea 
cup, twelve vars., which would also have had the prize for best box 
in the Show, but was precluded. National Rose Society, South 
Kensington, July 4th—First prize, nine vars.; first ditto, six 
Teas ; third ditto, six same variety. Canterbury, July 6th—First 
prize, twelve vars. ; first ditto, six Teas ; second ditto, three 
trebles. 
Now this I think an unprecedented record in Rose-showing ; 
and when people say the victory must always be on the side of 
big batallions I can adduce this as a case not in point, for Mr. 
Mount has not all told more that four hundred Rose trees. When 
I was there, there were still some grand blooms, and I was there¬ 
fore not surprised to hear that he had taken at Ramsgate on 
August 16th the following prizes—First prize, twelve Roses ; first 
ditto, three Roses ; first ditto, best box : and at St. Peter’s, May 30th, 
first prize, twelve open; first prize, twelve amateurs. Thus out 
of twenty-eight boxes shown he has gained nineteen first prizes, 
seven second, and one third—in all twenty-seven. Surely we 
may say to him— 
« Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, 
For the lessons thou hast taught.” 
And I am sure the good wishes of all true rosarians will go with 
him in his future course. 
From Mr. Mount’s I went to his namesake, Mr. W. Mount, the 
active local Secretary of the National Rose Society, whose pretty 
Rose garden I have ere now described in the Journal ; but its 
very prettiness has been its fatal gift. It has laid too close to the 
water, and consequently the plants have suffered ; nor has the 
Tea shed which he put up been as successful as he had hoped, so 
that altogether he was somewhat downhearted. But this very 
want of success has led him to fresh determinations. He hopes to 
secure a place elsewhere, and is already arranging for the plants 
that are to occupy it. Thus must it be with true rosarians : 
success in one case encourages to future exertions, and failure to 
fresh efforts to gain successes. 
Captain Lambert is another enthusiastic grower of the Rose, 
