September 30,1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
299 
m 
THE EOSE SEASON OF 1880—A EETEOSPECT. 
® *he R° se season may now be said to be over 
I propose, as I have done in previous years, to 
give my review of it as far as it has come 
under my own knowledge. It must be borne 
in mind by my readers that it is only an indi¬ 
vidual opinion that I express, and that, although 
I have many facilities for forming that opinion 
yet it may be, and perhaps is, in some particulars al¬ 
together wrong. My travels in the cause of the queen 
of flowers have led me to many places. I have acted 
as judge on many occasions, have seen many gardens where 
the Rose is made the object of culture ; but instead of going 
into details (which indeed I have already in many cases done) I 
shall state in general terms a few things which have struck me. 
Although, according to the Yankee notion, you should never 
prophesy unless you are sure, I did venture to express my 
belief that, owing to the peculiar character of last winter, we 
should have a lengthened season, that Roses would bloom 
irregularly, and hence we should have them for a long time ; 
and so it has proved. The summer blooming has so prolonged 
itself that there has hardly been a break, and I was continu¬ 
ally receiving letters all through August as to the beautiful 
blooms the writers were gathering ; but with even this allow¬ 
ance it cannot be said that it has been a good season, the long 
dry weather of May and June, and then the deluges of July 
with its thunderstorms, made it anything but favourable to 
the Rose. Persons who grow them by thousands can always 
cut fine blooms. Their maiden plants come to the front, but 
the ordinary amateur has had to mourn over his best Roses 
destroyed by rain, and continuous deaths amongst those plants 
which the winter had seemingly spared. Again has the 
National Rose Society had to say that their exhibitions, 
although good, have not been what they ought to have been. 
Indeed only once during the four years it has existed has there 
been a favourable season, when the Show was held in St. 
James's Hall: something exceptional in the weather has marred 
their hopes. At the Crystal Palace a large number, and at 
Manchester quite one-half of the entries, failed owing to 
the unpropitious weather ; while in many smaller shows it 
would have been ridiculous if one did not feel how much 
disappointment must have been caused to see the poor little 
things draggled and torn that did duty for Roses. The past 
winter gave many lessons which will be of value in the future, 
not the least of them being, I think, that when Roses are hitso 
hard by frost it is better to prune them down almost to the 
ground ; for in how many instances has it not been seen that 
Roses which had seemingly escaped afterwards succumbed ? I 
have seen this very marked in two gardens very widely apart— 
that of my friend Mr. Tinsley in Cheshire, where I had noticed 
in May unmistakeable signs of decaying wood, and where I 
feared complete failure would ensue, but where in July after 
very hard pruning down to the ground most vigorous and 
healthy plants bearing grand blooms were everywhere to be 
seen ; the other that of our much-respected Vice-President of 
the National, Mr. Baker of Reigate, where the plants which 
had been most closely pruned right down to the very ground 
had broken out into grand growth, and where the flowers in 
August were quite equal to those shown in July ; so that 
in one way at least the unpropitious season tended to the 
enjoyment of the Rose-grower by prolonging the season of 
enjoyment. 
Another very noticeable point was the manner in which old 
Roses came to the front. While last year there were few Roses 
and still fewer stands on which we could dwell with satis¬ 
faction or cherish their memory, this year there were many 
Avhich will not easily be forgotten, and especially amongst 
the older flowers. Was there ever such a triplet of General 
Jacqueminot seen as that in Mr. Cranston’s stands at the Crystal 
Palace ? And how grandly Beauty of Waltham, Marie Rady, Dr. 
Andry, Due de Rohan, Lord Macaulay, Madame Victor Verdier 
and other dark Roses came out! showing that while here and 
there amongst the new ones a gem is to be found, older Roses 
still form the staple from which exhibitors draw their supplies. 
On looking over my notes and calling to mind the many excel¬ 
lent flowers that I have seen, I would say that the box of 
thirty-six exhibited by Mr. Jowitt at the Wirral Show was the 
most nearly perfect stand that I have seen ; that the best twelve 
Roses of any variety were either the Alfred Colombs of Mr. 
Jowitt at Manchester or the Marie Radys of Mr. Cranston at 
the Wirral Show ; and that the best bloom I saw the Avhole 
season was the Alfred K. Williams shown by Mr. Wollaston 
of Reigate at the Brockham Show—it was simply exquisite, 
so brilliant in colour and perfect in shape. That we have 
some good Roses amongst the newer varieties I think will not 
be denied, but these would require more detailed consideration 
by-and-by ; but the past season may well encourage those who 
are still dependant on the older varieties for their enjoyment 
and for the purposes of exhibition. 
I think one of the most noteworthy results of the season 
has been the collapse of the much-vaunted Stapleford Roses 
for exhibition. I have attended a good many shows, but I 
think the number of blooms of those Roses might be counted 
on the fingers of my hands ; and I have no hesitation in saying 
that in every case they made a point against the stand rather 
than in its favour. In all directions that I have been I made 
inquiries of those who have proved these Roses and tried them, 
and in no case did I find that they gave satisfaction. It must be 
remembered that Mr. Bennett submitted these Roses to no tri¬ 
bunal. The descriptions he gave were his own ; and the public, 
misled by their glowing character, and not a little led astray by 
the reporters of some of the gardening papers, bought, vulgarly 
speaking, “ a pig in a poke,” and they cannot be congratulated 
on the result of their misplaced confidence. Of this we may 
feel tolerably certain, that if Mr. Bennett tries to put out 
another set he will find the reception very different to that 
with which his first set met. If there are any who have found 
these Roses different to what I and all those with whom I 
No. 14 .—vol. I., Third Series. 
No. 1670.—Von. LX1Y., Old Series. 
