October 27, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
367 
TT is a very difficult matter to deal with and report on what 
-L appears so simple a matter as this, but, like several other 
things, it is not quite so easy as it looks. The circumstances and 
conditions under which the Rose is grown even in the narrow 
space of our own little island are so various that the estimate 
formed will be probably a good deal coloured by the person’s own 
experience in his own locality. Moreover, there are various 
ways in which we regard the Rose season. There is first and 
foremost the exhibitor s point of view, and I suppose in nine cases 
out of ten where the character of the season is spoken of this is 
the matter uppermost in the speaker’s mind ; but then there is the 
secretary’s point of view, where hard work and painstaking care 
may be all blown to the winds by an unfavourable day ; and there 
is also that very numerous class of Rose lovers who never aspire 
to the honours of the exhibition table, but to whom the Rose is a 
delight, whether it ever wins a prize or not. Now, I am not an 
exhibitor. I have the opportunity of seeing a good many exhibi¬ 
tions, and some private gardens both of professional and amateur 
growers. I hear the opinions of many of them, and I ought to be 
able to form a pretty fair estimate of the character of a Rose season. 
There are a good many who in so doing have a thought of their 
own success or failure. They think of that storm which swept 
down upon them before they had time to cut the blooms, and so 
conclude that the whole season was a bad one. 
Before the opening of each Rose season I receive a number of 
letters as to the prospects of the bloom. Like our weather fore¬ 
casts, they are sometimes woefully wrong, although oftentimes 
they are the reverse. Amongst those which I received last June 
was one from the Rev. H. B. Biron of Lympne, who wrote very 
confidently about a fine Rose season, and I am inclined to think 
that he was right. Grand blooms have been exhibited, which 
linger in one’s memory as none did last year, and although some of 
our shows were weak as iar as the quality of H.P.s was concerned, 
yet grand blooms have been shown, while the move forward that 
Teas and Noisettes have made is remarkable. Grower after grower 
says, “ I shall do away with or greatly diminish my growth of 
Hybrids, and go in for Teas.” And this is no wonder when one 
thinks of their beauty, their delicacy of perfume (though a lady 
came to see my garden who said she hated the smell of Tea 
Roses), and their staying properties, for in this past season I 
have seen the same Rose exhibited in prize stands in shows two 
days apart. I could not help thinking, as I passed row after row 
of boxes of lovely Teas at the Crystal Palace, of what it used to 
be when perhaps only some half a dozen boxes were all that were 
seen of this beautiful and refined class. 
I think perhaps the finest Hybrids that I have seen this past 
season were exhibited at Earl’s Court at the International 
Exhibition on July 5th, three days after the National. I do not 
think that those who saw them will readily forget the magnificent 
stands of Mr. E. B. Lindsell in the amateur and Mr. Frank Cant 
in the nurserymen’s classes. There is a finish in Mr. Lindsell’s 
flowers that is unsurpassed, and what a glorious bloom of Horace 
Vernet was that in his stand, to which added glory was given, as 
it was from a cut-back. Then, has anyone ever seen anything 
like the blooms of Her Majesty exhibited by Mr. Frank Cant this 
year ? If one could have any reasonable hope of getting such 
No. 644. — Voi. XXY., Third Series.; 
blooms we might be induced to give her a space to herself, where 
she could not contaminate surrounding plants with her mildewy 
propensities to which she, Abel Carriere, and Jean Soupert are 
most grievously addicted. Then, how fine was the bloom of 
Gustave Piganeau shown by Mr. B. R. Cant at the Crystal Palace, 
and the lovely and brilliant bloom of Gloire de Margottin by 
Messrs. Merryweather & Son at Chester. One had looked upon it 
as a first-rate garden Rose, but its capabilities as an exhibition 
Rose was a revelation. Then, could anyone readily forget the 
magnificent stand of forty-eight blooms of Margaret Dickson, 
exhibited by the raisers, Messrs. A. Dickson & Sons of New- 
townards ? There was such a solidity of petal, such luxuriant wood 
and foliage, that this Rose cannot fail to win its way into favour ; 
indeed, I do not see why it should not be regarded as the best 
white Hybrid we have. 
Another Rose that I have noticed as especially good is Comte 
Raimbaud, a flower which is not grown so widely as one might 
have expected. Tea Roses have been marvellously well shown, 
and here and there general excellence has been such that it is not 
so easy to recollect the extra fine blooms as it is in the Hybrids. 
Many of the older favourites have been grandly shown. I do not 
think, however, that Comtesse de Nadaillac has been quite as well 
coloured as I have seen it. There have been some grand blooms of Sou¬ 
venir d Elise, which still maintains its high position, and comes in as 
the best Tea oftener, perhaps, than any other. Catherine Mermet 
and her daughter The Bride have been very beautiful ; but really, 
as when one met the long array of boxes at our larger shows, the 
beauty of the Teas held one fast, and it was difficult to get away 
from them to their more showy rivals the Hybrids. 
There is, of course, always a certain amount of interest attaching 
to new Roses, but it would almost seem as if the French raisers had 
got as far as they well can, for during the last two years I do not 
think that they have raised one Rose that is likely to be a valuable 
addition to our lists. There may, of course, be something that 
we have not yet seen, some “ dark horse ” which is to win the race, 
but since 1889 there seems to be an absolute dearth of them. 
I say since 1889, for in that year Gustave Piganeau came out. 
Now, with regard to this Rose, despite the fact that although it 
must be in comparatively few hands, and in small quantities, it 
has twice at the National carried off the prize medal for the best 
Hybrid, in both cases in the nurserymen’s class. I cannot join in 
the chorus of praise which has been accorded to it, for I am afraid 
that is an indication of that vitiated taste which associates excel¬ 
lence with size. We do not want under-sized Roses, but neither do 
we want over-sized ones. I do not think that Paul Neyron or Ulrich 
Brunner are quite as much thought of as they used to be. No, it 
is to the home-raised flowers we must look now. I do not believe 
the French raisers take much care about hybridising, and where 
this is done one would hope for some such results as achieved by 
the late Mr. Bennett and by Messrs. Alex. Dickson & Sons. One 
of the former’s Roses, of which he thought a good deal, Captain 
Hayward, was again exhibited this year, but I do not think it took 
very well ; it has not improved, and is certainly under-sized. I 
believe the blooms exhibited at the Crystal Palace were not the first 
flowers, and hence perhaps their small size ; but at the same time 
it shows it to be a very early Rose, too early for most exhibitions, 
and it is of that colour, bright red, of which we have so many. 
The same must be said of Charles Gater (Paul & Son), but this may 
improve, for one would like to see a really good Rose bearing the 
name of so thorough a rosarian. 
Messrs. Dickson & Co. showed Jeannie Dickson in good form, 
and another grand Rose somewhat similar in colour, but entirely 
distinct in form and outline ; it was Mrs. W. J. Grant, which 
obtained the National Rose Society’s gold medal at Chester. I fear 
we are not likely to see much of it at present, for the 3 tock has 
been purchased in America for a high figure, and will not be sent 
out until 1894. They had also another very fine Rose, which will 
No. 2300 .—Yol. LXXXVII., Old Series. 
