156 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 8, 1894. 
Rose Show Fixtures in 1894. 
June 26th (Tuesday) Farningham. 
„ 27th (Wednesday).—Windsor (N.R.S.). 
„ 28th (Thursday).—Bltham and Sutton. 
„ 30th (Saturday).—Sittingbourne. 
July 4th (Wednesday).—Croydon and Reigate. 
„ 5th (Thursday).—Hereford and Norwich. 
„ 7th (Saturday).—Crystal Palace (N.R.S.). 
„ 10th (Tuesday).—GHoucester and Wolverhampton.* 
„ 11th (Wednesday).—Hitchin. 
„ 12th (Thursday).—Bath, Harleston, Woodbridge, and Worksop. 
„ 17ch (Tuesday).—Helensburgh. 
„ 19th (Thursday).—Halifax (N.R.S.). 
„ 21st (Saturday).—Manchester. 
* A Show lasting three days. 
Any dates of Rose shows, or of other horticultural exhibitions where 
Roses form a leading feature, not named above, I shall be glad to receive 
as soon as fixed for insertion in future lists.— Edward Mawley, Rose- 
bank, Berkhamsted, Herts. 
The Sutton Rose Show. 
The attention of the Sutton Rose Show Society’s Committee having 
been called to the fact the date fixed for their meeting clashed with the 
N.R.S. meeting at Windsor, and also with that of the Farningham Rose 
Society, have promptly altered their date to the 28th June. For this 
consideration to rosarians they deserve our thanks and a successful 
meeting, and it is to be hoped they will be rewarded.—C. J. G. 
The Clashing of Rose Meetings. 
I KNOW how very difficult it is to arrange Rose fixtures without 
clashing, but surely, as Mr. Grahame has called attention (page 162) to it 
thus early, the Secretaries of Croydon and Reigate might endeavour, if 
possible, to make some other arrangement; also it will be calamitous 
for “ Sutton,” as of course we shall all go to the “ National.” I have 
exhibited for many years at each of the above, and I am sure any 
brother rosarians will join with me in the hope that some alteration may 
be made.— A. Slaughter. 
Earliness of Rose Growth. 
Referring to Mr. Machin’s note upon this (page 162), I have seen 
much Rose growth south of London equally forward with the piece of 
Madame B^rard he mentions. L’Ideal, Pauline Labontfi, Sombreuil, 
Kaiserin Frederich, Auguste Mie, and the Chinas are particularly 
forward. Several of the older varieties, such as Homere, Elie Morel, 
Baronne Provost, and others are more forward in growth than the 
majority of newer introductions. At present there is every appearance 
of our cutting Roses as early as last year, which was about the 
middle of April. Of course, this is upon a warm wall, and in a sheltered 
portion of a southern county. This premature growth will induce early 
pruning—in fact, a large amount of pruning has been done, but I 
do not believe in pushing the lower eyes too soon, and would rather 
leave the terminal growths as an outlet for the extra early rise of 
sap. I believe that much of this is attributable to the splendid 
ripening of late growth last year, the whole being in good condition, and 
so responding even too freely to the present mild season.— Rosarian. 
Pruning Climbing Roses. 
These are usually most appreciated when in bloom early or before 
any in the open, and by attending at once to the pruning, tying in or 
nailing, this will be all in favour of early and abundant flowering. Not 
pruned at all they soon become unsightly, and of comparatively little 
value. All must not be treated alike. Hard pruning in the case of such 
strong growing Noisettes as Mardchal Niel, Bouquet d’Or, W. A. Richard¬ 
son, L’Ideal, and Aim4e Vibert, would lead to the formation of still 
ranker growth, and but few blooms. Thin out the spray, cut away all 
growth badly placed for training, and only remove the unripened ends 
prior to securing to the walls and trellises. Strong young trees of Gloire 
de Dijon and Madame Berard should not be severely pruned, and may 
well be treated similarly to the Noisettes, but older trees should be 
freely pruned in order to keep up their vigour. Other Teas, as a rule, 
ought to be pruned moderately hard, as they cannot well be grown too 
strongly, the rankest growths branching and blooming freely. Remove 
much of the spray, and cut back all shoots reserved to within three 
or four joints of their starting point last spring other than those required 
for furnishing blank space. Furnishing growths to be shortened to 
about two-thirds of their length. If Hybrid Perpetuals are grown 
against walls and pillars prune as advised in the case of Teas. Bank- 
sians flower more abundantly from lengths of medium sized to small 
growth and shortened spray, but some of the stronger shoots may 
well be reserved, and laid to nearly their full length with a view to 
keeping them in full vigour.— Somerset, 
North and South. 
The altered arrangements as to the exhibitions of the National Rose 
Society seem to have fluttered some of our rosarians. For the last few 
years the Society has held three exhibitions—one for Teas and Noisettes 
in the Drill Hall, Westminster, at the end of June ; the great metro¬ 
politan exhibition at the Crystal Palace on the first Saturday in July ; 
and a provincial exhibition, which, though not actually a northern one, 
was so arranged as to locality and date as best to suit northern growers. 
The present year witnesses, as your readers already know, a great change 
in this respect. Three exhibitions are still to be held ; the metropolitan 
still continues as before, but in lieu of the one in the Drill Hall a 
southern exhibition has been established, and in lieu of the provincial 
one a northern exhibition, and herein comes the difficulty—what is to 
be considered north and what south ? The curious state of mind upon 
this subject may be illustrated by the fact that one eminent rosarian 
proposes to make Peterborough a northern town, while 1 had a very 
indignant letter from an amateur in the Isle of Wight protesting 
against the notion that Windsor was to be classed as a southern town ; 
you might as well, my correspondent said, place Hertfordshire in the 
south. It will be thus seen what fanciful lines some are inclined to 
draw. What, then, would be the true dividing line, and have we any 
data by which to decide it ? 
Many years ago there was a strong difference of opinion amongst 
Pink and Carnation growers as to what constituted the best style of 
flower. The southern growers were for one full of petals, which the 
northern called mops, and thought a flower with two or three rows of 
petals was a type to be aimed at. At that time the Trent was con¬ 
sidered the most suitable boundary dividing the northern and southern 
men. Then, again, we have in the cricket season a game played between 
north and south ; I do not know whether they do define a boundary 
(I suppose they do), but we all know that the champion cricketer, 
W. G. Grace, always played for the south, and he hails from Gloucester¬ 
shire. I think therefore that the dividing line suggested by one of our 
local secretaries in the west might be fairly taken upon the whole as 
suited for all purposes—namely, one drawn through Birmingham across 
England; and in truth the Committee of the N.R.S. have practically 
come to this conclusion, for they have agreed to recommend that the 
southern Exhibition should be held at Gloucester in 1895, and the 
northern at Derby. The date is after all probably of more importance 
to exhibitors from the locality. In these days of rapid railway com¬ 
munication the north and south are equally open to exhibitors, and 
whether the Show be in the east or west, north or south, they can 
manage to put in an appearance. 
The Clashing of Shows. 
While writing on this subject I may refer to a letter from Mr. C. J, 
Grahame, which appeared on page 162, relative to the clashing of 
Rose shows, in which he suggests the assembling of a conference of the 
managers of various Rose societies to see whether this could not be 
prevented. He is evidently unaware that this was done some years ago 
—such a conference was summoned, but resulted in a ghastly failure. 
The parallelism of the cricket clubs is quite beside the mark. There are 
at least four months during which cricket can be played and about three 
weeks during which Rose shows can be held. It is easy to arrange for 
some twenty matches which are to run over four months, but it is not so 
easy to arrange for the same number of Rose shows in three weeks. It 
was found, moreover, that local circumstances had a powerful influence 
in the fixtures ; Wednesday and Thursday in the week are the favourite 
days, because they are what are called early closing days, and hence 
the managers of the societies are anxious to choose one of those days for 
their exhibition, and at the conference above named when an alteration 
was suggested in some cases it was met by a dogged" non 2 ^ ossumus." This 
is not to be wondered at, because so much of the well-being of the 
society depends on the gate money. I think it is an unfortunate 
thing, however, that a newly started society interferes with the arrange¬ 
ments of a long established one. This has been done in the case of the 
newly revived Reigate Show. Croydon has for a number of years, 
I believe, held its exhibitions on the same date, and Reigate when I 
knew it used always to hold its shows on a Saturday, and considering 
how many of the residents there are connected with the City I should 
have thought it would have been desirable to have kept to that day. 
But upon the whole I am inclined to think that very little can be 
done in preventing the clashing of Rose shows, and that we must.put up 
with the inconvenience. 
The Queen’s Prize for Roses. 
Just a few words with regard to the once much talked of Queen’s 
prize. I find many people speaking and writing about it as if it had 
some similarity to the Queen’s prize offered at the meeting of the 
National Rifle Association; it bears no likeness to it whatever, it is 
simply given because the show is held at Windsor, and will not be given 
another year. Her Majesty, on the same principle, because of her 
residence at Osborne, gives a gold medal at the Isle of Wight Show each 
year. In throwing it open to all amateurs, whether large or small, the 
Committee of the N.R.S. have, I think, acted wisely in following out 
the wishes of the local authorities, and I feel tolerably certain that the 
trade growers, with that generosity of feeling which characterises them, 
would not wish to see the coveted prize pass out of the ranks of 
amateurs. It is a prize in which the small grower will have as good a 
chance of success as the larger one, for during my long experience I 
have seen many a stand of twelve which would have successfully 
