October 10, 1890. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
331 
some nurserymen make a more pronounced specialty of hardy 
aquatics ? There are many amateurs who have more or less space 
occupied by ornamental water, but few who have any ideas beyond 
Water Lilies to grow in it. And what else is there for them to 
grow except, perhaps, Aponogeton ? There are very few things, 
I fancy, of actual merit in the lists of hardy aquatics as seen in 
catalogues. We want something better than Butomus, Caltha, 
Sagittaria, or Typha, not that these things are not pretty or elegant, 
but that they are simply wild British plants. Have the waters of 
temperate climes in other parts of the world been really and 
thoroughly investigated for pretty flowers or useful or edible 
plants ? For the latter purpose it would, I think, be hard to beat 
the common Watercress, but now that people are actually making 
bogs in their gardens for Irises, Orchids, and Osmundas, it seems 
a pity that true water plants, if there are any more good ones to be 
brought into notice, should not occupy more attention. 
I suppose that, in an unusually warm and favourable autumn 
like the present one, the fly of the Carrot maggot manages to work 
in two generations in the year. My Carrots had rather a bad 
attack about midsummer, and I thought the crop was spoiled ; but 
it seemed to pass away, the plants grew luxuriantly, and latterly 
•only the worst spots here and there looked rather thin. On taking 
them up now (October 10th) every single root is infested, though 
the tops are still flourishing ; the depredations have evidently only 
been commenced quite recently, and, I take it, these maggots are 
bred from eggs laid by the flies hatched two or three months ago. 
We ought to have worried those flies then if I had known how to do 
it ; and the moral here seems to be lift your Carrots sooner if you 
have had the maggot in the early summer. I expect the Celery fly 
has profited in a similar manner by the fine weather of September. 
I saw its blisters on dock leaves in the roadside hedges early 
in June, and knew we were in for it before it appeared on the 
Celery. We ousted them out of that with soot, but just lately 
there has suddenly been another severe irruption on my plants. 
This is, no doubt, a second generation bred from flies which escaped 
on the plants or hatched in the hedges. So a fine early autumn 
seems to have its drawbacks as well as its advantages.— 
W. R. Raillem. 
It is related of Sir Walter Raleigh that when he was writing in prison 
his “ History of England ” a street row happened beneath his window 
which he himself saw ; two of his friends came in to see him, and gave him 
an account of the transaction, but so different was their narration that 
he threw down his pen in despair, and said, “How impossible it is for 
me to give a correct account of things I have not seen when I cannot get 
a true account of that which has occurred under my own eyes.” Some 
such despairing thoughts come across my own mind when I come to jot 
down my reminiscences of the past Rose season. I wished to supplement 
my own experiences with those of other Rose growing friends, amateur 
and professional, and wrote to many; but oh I the conflict of opinion and 
the diversity of experience. The points I was most anxious to obtain 
information about were general character of the bloom, mildew, orange 
fungus, and aphis; and it was quite clear from the replies i received that 
no general description would suit all and every case. 
My estimate of the season has been formed from a tolerably wide 
experience. I have as judge visited many shows, and in going about 
■during the season have also seen many gardens, both of exhibitors and 
non-exhibitors. I have endeavoured to regard it from the exhibitor’s 
point of view, and also from that of the simple unambitious lover of the 
flower, who likes to grow flowers as good as those he sees on the exhi¬ 
bition table, but has no thought of “ putting on the gloves ” and enter¬ 
ing into the fray. Every year gives fresh proof their number is 
increasing, and that their zeal is much increased by the magnificent 
proofs of successful culture they see at the Rose shows. 
I must again record, as far as exhibitors are concerned, a disappoint¬ 
ing season. In May everything promised well. This month, as well 
as the early part of June, was magnificent, growth was rapid, and 
•except in some places frosts were absent; but then came a long spell of 
cold and wet weather. The early part of July was miserable in the 
•extreme. Shows were held under the most depressing conditions. That 
of the National at the Crystal Palace wms in striking contrast to that of 
last year, when a suffocating atmosphere destroyed everything. Happy 
was the society which secured a fine day, for on the first fourteen days 
we had in East Kent but one day without rain. The effect of this was 
•very manifest, especially amongst the Teas, and it was not until later in 
the aearson that they came out in their full beauty, being much finer at 
Birmingham than they were at the Crystal Palace for the same 
reason—excess of moisture. The smaller specimens fared badly, and very 
many “ fell out ” when the exhibition day arrived. This must ever be 
the case where a grower is dependant on a few plants, for however 
carefully he may shade there will be damage done by excessive wet, 
and hence we heard on all sides from the smaller growers of plants 
that they were out of the running altogether. 
And yet with all these drawbacks it was a grand year for Hybrid 
Perpetuals, especially for the high coloured sorts. At every show there 
were magnificent specimens, which showed not only that the cool 
weather suited them, but that their cultivation was better known than 
it used to be, and I honestly think that if we could resuscitate the 
stands of bygone days we should be fain to confess that we had 
advanced. This has been most notably the case with Teas, and in a 
favourable season the immense strides made in this lovely class would 
be very clearly manifest. 
A 3 I have already said, there seems to have been a very unequal 
distribution of Rose plagues. One large and very successful grower tells 
me that he had to put on six extra men, who for three weeks did 
nothing but wash the trees ; while another tells me he had no green 
fly, but was greatly troubled with maggot. In my own garden I never 
saw an aphis the whole season, and my plants never suffered so little 
from mildew. I fancy that the cooler weather checked it, and that its 
most productive cause is the alternation of heat and cold which we 
experience so often in the latter part of June and beginning of July. 
Very often, too, after the flowering season is over mildew sets in very 
severely, but with me it has not done so. Some of our Hop growers 
have a notion that when a garden once suffers severely from mould it 
never gets out of it, and I have seen acres in my own parish grubbed 
because of this persistent tendency, although in the very same field 
they do not suffer. I know, for instance, one Hop garden ; there was a 
corner of it, about an acre, where year after year it was a failure from 
mould, and yet 3 or 4 acres of the same garden grew very fine Hops. 
Whether there was anything peculiar in the soil I know not, but Hop 
growers believe that the mould is in the ground, and attacks the plant 
from below. I find in many places the same conditions as in my own 
garden—an absence of aphides and mildew. 
Those who regarded their Roses from a non-exhibition point of view 
had an immense enjoyment in them this year. Towards the close of 
July flowers came out in large numbers and of excellent quality ; 
indeed finer flowers were gathered then than perhaps in the earlier 
portion of the season. The absence of hot glaring sun kept many of them 
in flower a long time, just as it helped on wonderfully the staying powers 
of the cut blooms in the exhibition boxes ; and then, what a glorious 
autumnal bloom we have had ! Day after day during the lovely Sep¬ 
tember weather we were favoured with grand blooms of such flowers as 
Marie Susanne Radocanachi, Ulrich Brunner,Gloirede Margottin, Violette 
Bowyer, &c., while Teas have been a perfect garland of flowers. Marie 
Van Houtte, Cleopatra, Ernest Metz, Souvenir d’Elise Vardon, Mrs. James 
Wilson, and Rubens have all been as fine as I have had them in the 
height of the season ; but it has taken away the reproach from the 
H.P. of not giving us autumnal blooms, and even now (October 4th) 
there are numbers of buds which, with fine weather, we may hope for 
many flowers yet. 
In one point of view the season has been a noticeable one—viz., in 
the production of new Roses. It is somewhat remarkable, more 
especially as they have been home-raised flowers, when it is recollected 
that the National, since its establishment in 1876, has previous to this 
year awarded only four gold medals, and that two of these have been 
for sports, and that this year it has awarded three gold medals. It may 
well be regarded as an “ annus mirabilis .” I need not say much with 
regard to these, as your correspondent, R. W. Raillem, has sweetly dis¬ 
coursed on them. I quite agree with him in thinking that Margaret 
Dickson will be the most popular of the three. Salamander is a form 
and colour which is always popular, but we have several Roses approach¬ 
ing it in both respects. Mrs. Paul is a grand addition to the Bourbons ; 
but somehow the Bourbons are not in so much favour as the Hybrid 
Perpetuals ; but Margaret Dickson, with its fine broad stout petals and 
its magnificent foliage, is sure as a very white Rose to be very widely 
grown, and will be largely exhibited when it comes into general culti¬ 
vation, and its thick almost leathery foliage promises an immunity from 
mildew. There are some others which have laid the foundation of a good 
name, such as Miss Jeanne Dickson, Mr. James Brownlow, Cleopatra, 
Ernest Metz, and L’RKale. 
The National Rose Society has shown signs of increased vigour. Its 
exhibitions have been most successful; that at the Crystal Palace 
quite up to the average, and the provincial one at Birmingham probably 
the best the Society has ever held, while it has made a new departure 
in holding one for Tea and Noisette Roses at the Drill Hall on 
June 24th. This was due to a suggestion by Mr. T. W. Girdlestone, 
and although the Drill Hall (Baron Schroder’s dustbin) was as unsuit¬ 
able a place as could be found for these lovely flowers, an excellent 
Show was the result, the only regret being that so few persons came to 
see them. It was felt by all who were present that a most successful 
addition to the Society’s operations had been made. 
Probably the two most successful exhibitors have been Mr. E. B. 
Lindsell and the Rev. F. R. Burnside, the former the winner of the 
challenge trophy and a long array of prizes ; the latter certainly the 
Tea Rose champion, having won the Tea challenge trophy, Mr. Bos- 
cawen’s memorial cup, four silver medals, twenty-seven first, nine 
second, and two third prizes for Teas only—a most wonderful and 
