JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
380 
in suitable places on all lawns. The method of striking Roses 
from cuttings has been fully described by Mr. Wm. Taylor in the 
pages of this Journal, and his practice, if followed carefully, will 
result in success. I will, if space is available, willingly give 
ray experience on the propagation of Eoses from cuttings, though 
I would rather an abler pen than mine undertake the task.— 
A. J. Sanders. 
[Please do so, we are always ready to find space for records of 
successful practice.] _ 
While I do not claim the title of “rosarian,” nor proclaim 
myself an “authority” on Eoses, I am not without experience 
both as regards raising the plants and estimating the merits of 
blooms at exhibitions. Although not a great competitor, I have 
had something to do with Eose shows, having assisted in awarding 
prizes to such giants in the Eose world as Messrs. Cranston and 
Canon Hole. I have also budded thousands of Briar and Manetti 
stocks, and raised hundreds of Eoses from cuttings. I have 
travelled somewhat widely too, and observed the work of others. 
Therefore I venture to attempt a reply to the letter of “ A. F. M.,” 
who on page 338 has made out the strongest case in favour of 
Eoses budded on other stocks as against plants raised from cuttings 
that, so far as I know, has yet been published. 
Before proceeding further I may, perhaps, say that I cannot 
agree fully with either “A. F. M.” nor Mr. Simons ; but I think 
the last-named gentleman is in the main right. There are some 
Eoses that succeed better on stocks than otherwise, and amongst 
them I find Marie Cointet and Xavier Olibo as named by 
“A. F. M. but the majority of Hybrid Perpetuals succeed as 
well one way as the other, while those raised from cuttings are 
the safer. 
I have seen Tea Eoses on their own roots produce blooms equal 
to the best that have been staged at the National Eose Society’s 
Shows, these blooms having been sent to me by Mr. Taylor of 
Longleat. I have seen Hybrid Perpetual plants at Longleat two 
years from the cutting larger than any I have seen of the same 
age in any nursery or private garden, counting from the date at 
which cuttings of the Briar or Manetti stocks were inserted. This 
is a perfectly fair mode of computing time, indeed the only fair 
one in estimating the relative earliness or maturity of the two 
kinds of plants. I could name another garden that at the present 
moment contains a large number of Eoses raised from cuttings 
that in three years have produced more “timber” than any 
budded plants that I know in the same period, and of these I have 
inspected at the least a million. 
Why should not such marvellously strong own-root Eoses pro¬ 
duce blooms equal in size and quality to those afforded by plants 
worked on any stock 1 In my experience they produce them in 
every way as good, and I confess I should be very much surprised 
if they did not. Roses have their caprices I know, and vegetation 
its vagaries, and opposite results to those just mentioned may 
have been obtained by others, but if so they must be considered 
very strange and unusual nevertheless. 
New Eoses and scarce varieties must, of course, be increased by 
budding ; on this point the argument of “ A. F. M.” is impregnable, 
as by no other process can a stock of plants be raised so quickly ; 
and, well grown, they will be as good as the most fastidious could 
require. But when, as is undoubtedly the case, cartloads of 
Eose “ prunings ” are burned annually, there could be no waste 
of material in making the prunings into cuttings and striking 
them. By the one practice we have plants, by the other wood 
ashes, and in such a case the “ economy ” of the matter is, in my 
view, on the side of inserting the cuttings. 
As to the greater certainty of success in budding than in 
striking cuttings your able correspondent is, generally speaking, 
probably right; but at the same time he will perhaps admit that 
there is no more difficulty in striking cuttings of John Hopper, 
La France, Alfred Colomb, and G-loire de Dijon than there is 
rooting portions of Briar and Manetti growths, and this after all 
is the real question for the purpose of comparing the two methods 
of increase. 
The success in covering the front of the house with the charm¬ 
ing Eoses enumerated by “A. F. M.” is highly gratifying. I 
have in the case of two of the Roses named—Marechal Niel and 
Belle Lyonnaise—covered a space of 25 feet in three years from 
inserting the cuttings ; but not in “ poor” soil, and in the rectory 
case in question there was Eose food in the ground before the 
plants could have appropriated it and expressed their appreciation 
in such a convincing manner. 
The remarks on the page quoted on the method of increasing 
Peaches, Plums, and Apples are not applicable to this discussion, 
as those fruits cannot be raised from cuttings, while Eoses can be 
without any difficulty; in fact, when I insert a Rose cutting in 
[ May 10, 1883. 
the soil it is with the same certainty that it will grow as if I were 
inserting a bud in a stock. 
As criticism, even contradiction, was invited by “ A. F. M.” at 
the close of his pleasant contribution, I have endeavoured to 
reply not so much as an exhibitor of Eoses as a cultivator and— 
A Judge. 
IVY ON HOUSES. 
Various opinions are expressed as the desirability of having 
houses covered with Ivy. Many persons entertain the idea that it 
causes a dampness in the walls, while others are of a contrary 
opinion. Anyone in doubt on the subject may soon satisfy himself. 
Let him examine a wall closely covered while a moderately heavy 
rain is driving against it, and he will find the wet running off one 
leaf on to another till it reaches the bottom; and if he examine 
the wall after a wet day it will generally be found to be com¬ 
paratively dry, as will also the soil at the bottom of the wall. For 
houses built of soft sandstone or porous bricks I think it is a 
decided advantage to cover them with Ivy. 
My present object in writing, however, is not so much to advocate 
its use as to warn those who have to keep it against letting it run 
wild in its early or any subsequent stage of its growth. Many 
matters of importance have to be considered in keeping it within 
bounds. Sometimes the young shoots are blown away from the 
wall and afterwards take a fresh hold, while the part not having 
hold forms a loop through which an arm may be passed, and which, 
at some subsequent pruning, is cut, and the branch dies in 
consequence. 
Care has to he taken not to allow the shoots to get between the wall 
and the down pipes from the roof, also from getting under the slates, 
or too close round the windows. Any of these, if neglected while 
the Ivy is covering the walls, prove a serious inconvenience in after 
years. Another great mistake is often made in allowing it to grow 
year after year without cutting till it forms long spurs. In such a 
state it becomes a nuisance. The old leaves keep dropping the whole 
summer, and making a litter where everything has to be kept tidy; 
and this is made worse by its giving extra shelter and encouragement 
for sparrows, and even rats sometimes make this the means of their 
getting into a house by the roof when they cannot find a more con¬ 
venient entrance. 
For this last three years we have been gradually reducing Ivy 
on a house which had been neglected till it was quite 3 feet deep 
on the walls. Our employer, though he wished to have it reduced, 
would by no means allow it to be cut clear back at once as some 
would have done; neither do I think it would have been advisable 
to do so, as the whole of the subsequent growth would have to 
spring from dormant buds. The first year we thinned out the 
longest of the shoots, cutting them with the knife as far back as we 
could reach. In the course of the season these broke and formed 
nice tufts of short shoots. The next spring the long spurs were 
pruned back some 6 inches shorter than those cut the previous year, 
and the third year those cut hack first were again shortened to within 
a few inches of the wall. Thus we accomplished our object with¬ 
out incurring the unpleasantness of a bare wall for a couple of 
months, and the trying ordeal of producing a crop of shoots from 
dormant buds. 
I think the best way to keep Ivy is to cut the whole of the old 
leaves off every spring as soon as it begins to grow. Some object to 
this on account of its looking bare for a time, but it soon assumes a 
beautiful fresh green colour, the growth being short and stout, and 
there is no more trouble as to litter. This annual pruning also 
gives the opportunity of removing or nailing all shoots that do not 
take a proper hold of the wall, and of otherwise regulating the 
leading shoots so as to form a close covering.— R. Inglis. 
VENTILATING. 
This is a subject of importance, and one in which all practical 
men are interested ; nevertheless, it is difficult to lay down hard- 
and-fast lines when and how ventilating should be done. Locality 
and varying circumstances that the majority of horticulturists 
have to contend with alter cases very much. Your able corre¬ 
spondent “ J. J.” on this subject (page 318) sets plant-growing 
entirely on one side, and confines his remarks to the cultivation 
of Cucumbers with or without air. That these can be grown to 
perfection without the admission of air from the time the seed is 
sown— whether summer or winter—until the time they have done 
fruiting and are cleared out, no one acquainted with the system 
will deny. But how can we draw any comparison between the 
system practised by growers for market and that followed by 
the majority of private growers ? The objects of the two are so 
different—one requires quantity with the least possible labour and 
