May 31,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
435 
apparently it will greatly militate against the probability of the Windsor 
Rose Show being the success we had all looked forward to. What the 
effect may be on the Crystal Palace Show it is as yet too early to judge, 
many thinking their plants cannot recover. If, however, we have what 
seems for the moment unlikely, a genial month or six weeks from this 
time onwards, new growth may be formed on the Rose plants, at present 
80 dreadfully crippled. The frost registered in various places on the 
20th has been reported to me as varying from 6° up to 14° ; the latter 
figure, which Mr. Lindsell noted at Hitchin, seems to have been nearly 
the lowest registered by any amateur in the southern counties, although 
I read that at Cambridge 15° was noted. No doubt the damage caused 
on the 20th was increased by the strong wind blowing from the 
north-east during that night of May frost. The Ash trees coming into 
leaf, as also the Acacias and Maples near my house, appear exactly as 
if they had been passed through a furnace, all the young shoots and 
foliage being perfectly black. As for fruit and Potatoes, the damage is 
universal and terrible for market gardeners.— Charles J. Grahame. 
A Wreck of Roses. 
I SEND you a few Rose shoots cut off at random from my plants. 
Many of them looked all right, but I cannot find a bud that is not 
completely frozen through and utterly spoilt. The frost was terrible 
with us, 11° on the grass both Sunday and Monday nights, and 4° in the 
screen. My thermometers are tested. My plants never looked so fine, 
and in the twelve years in which I have grown Roses for exhibition I 
have never seen anything approaching to the damage done. I am now 
practically repruning my plants, but can hardly expect blooms until 
the chief shows are over. Yew, Laurel, Ivy, and Beech are scorched ; 
Plums, Apples, Pears grown on close fences destroyed. The Strawberry 
crop is gone, of course, and bush fruits are falling wholesale. The 
Sandy and Biggleswade market gardeners have, I hear, suffered terribly. 
—E. B. Lindsell. 
[The growths received were magnificent wrecks, deplorable to see. 
Some of the stems were three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and 
bearing buds of the greatest promise, when the cruel frost converted the 
pith into pulp, and left black ruin behind it—a most regretable 
visitation.] 
The Rev. F. H. Gall. 
It was with the deepest sorrow, a sorrow which, I am sure, will be 
shared by all who knew him, that I received the news of the death of 
my much-valued friend, which occurred on Monday last after a paralytic 
stroke on the previous Thursday. Mr. Gall was well known in the 
rosarian world, and probably there was not one of the members of our 
National Society who took a deeper interest in its welfare. He had 
been for twenty years or more an exhibitor, but, as he used oftentimes 
to say, he ought to have received a prize for being a most unsuccessful 
one. He was indefatigable in exhibiting, and was as content with very 
small honours as some of his more aspiring brethren were with their 
trophies and cups. I have known him for many years, and can truly 
say (like all his friends) that I had the greatest regard for him. By 
both birth and education he was a gentleman, and no one could ever 
accuse him of a mean or underhand action. 
He commenced life as curate and rector in country parishes in Herts 
and Hants, and it was in visiting a parishioner that he caught the 
scarlet fever, which settled in his throat, and compelled him to undergo 
an operation, which so affected his speech that it prevented his 
afterwards fulfilling the duties of his sacred calling. I mention this 
because he never alluded to it himself, and many have sneeringly 
remarked, “ How could he ever think of taking orders ? ” Maimed and 
crippled as he was in later years, he had been in early life very fond of 
our English game of cricket, and many were the tales he could tell of 
his Eton days, and of the old criciet celebrities who have now passed 
away. Notwithstanding his many infirmities he was ever genial and 
cheerful; never looking on the dark side of things, and actuated by the 
highest motives, he was ever ready to do a kindness if it lay within his 
power. In fact, he was what has been styled the highest form of man 
—a Christian gentleman. Personally, I sWl miss him exceedingly, as 
he wag a constant hahitue of our Horticultural Club, and I always 
enjoyed intercourse with one whom I had been led to regard with much 
affection.—D., Deal. 
Work among Roses in Pots. 
The crop of bloom on Roses in pots will be over by the time these 
notes appear, but as so much depends upon their present treatment as 
regards our future crop, I propose a few hints upon the same. A partial 
neglect now is bad policy, as any check at this stage means a later date 
in securing the wood most suitable for next season’s use. When we can 
obtain blooms from sheltered spots out of doors, there is a natural 
tendency to place our plants outside. I fear this is too often done 
in a premature manner, and weak puny growth results. A check now 
means autumn before we can secure much real vigour again, and this in 
its turn means inefficient ripening for early forcing, as we cannot 
possibly succeed in the latter without the former. The bulk of our 
plants will remain in the house for a time longer yet, chiefly because of 
more uniform temperature and its great assistance towards well-flnished 
growths. Syringing with soft water will be freely indulged in, a very 
slight shade afforded, and ventilation dispensed with as much as possible. 
Room for the confined air to gently move among the growths is all that 
is needed ; we are sure to have some slight ventilation, but the full 
meed of this so often afforded is by no means a good plan until growth 
is farther advanced. As the plants have somewhat exhausted the soil, 
weak liquid manures will be freely used, and any suspicion of drought 
carefully avoided. 
By end of June or early in July, when the bulk of their growth 
is finished, we remove to the open, not before. Teas and Noisettes 
will continue growing as long as they are liberally treated, but it is not 
difficult to select a time when the majority of their shoots are com¬ 
paratively still, and this is an excellent period for transferring them to 
the open. Before doing this admit more air, and keep a drier atmo¬ 
sphere for a few days, thus breaking the change in a more gradual 
manner than if removed at once. Unless we take this simple precaution 
the wood is apt to shrivel, and mildew, red spider, and many more Rose 
pests speedily attack them. I have known a house of Roses that 
were in the pink of condition. In less than a week after being stood in 
the open they were a wreck of their former selves, and altogether 
unsatisfactory. The fact was they were hardly sufficiently advanced, 
and the tender growth could not stand such a complete change. A 
week’s preparation would have made all the difference. 
I do not approve of plunging the pots completely, nor yet of placing 
them upon a concrete or ash bottom. Rather take a midway course, and 
half plunge in some easily handled material ; cocoa-nut fibre refuse and 
sand is what we use, and find it keeps them cool at the bottom. This is 
more important than many seem to think, as much of the most valuable 
roots are made at the bottom part of the pots, and to run any risk of 
drying these up cannot be wise. Wind, air, and sun sometimes combine, 
and dry a plant before one can get round with the watering-can a 
FIG. 71.—THE HARKNESS CHALLENGE CUP. 
second time ; and even if the soil be ratber too dry, there is by,no means 
the same parching when partially plunged. 
Continue to syringe night and morning upon bright weather. This 
will allow of less water at their roots, and so greatly aid towards that 
efficient and early ripening of wood which is so essential a factor in the 
culture of Roses in pots. Some writers ml v, caLi keeping tut m much drier 
than I would care to see my plants, and I am sur- manv of the more 
fibrous roots must suffer severely under such conditions. A future note 
shall treat upon their autumn and early winter treatment.— Practice. 
Information Wanted in New Zealand. 
I have for many years grown Roses, and for as many have I read 
every scrap about them that I could find in print. You know how it is 
when that passion takes proper hold of a man. I am, though I say it, a 
methodical man, and I am often sorely distressed at my inability to 
obtain the results of my observation and my reading co-ordinated. 
Let me explain myself. As I have said, I have long grown Roses. I 
have bought Roses, budded Roses, grafted Roses, raised seedlings, ac¬ 
quired Roses by gift, and cuttings and buds thereof by petty larceny ; 
though by these latter devious ways had little profit, for in most cases I 
have but added an unnamed Rose to my list, aud so brought on myself 
all the worries of him who buys from a catalogue description that 
which he already has. I thus first acquired and then bought La France, 
“ Malmaison," Madame Zoutman, and many others. 
This brings me to the gist of my trouble—the identification of Roses. 
I do not mean of varieties, however, but of species. I have many Rose 
books—Dean Hole’s, Cranston’s, Gilmour’8,and others, and I always read 
the Journal of Horticulture. I have also the splendid Report of the 
National Rose Conference of 1889 ; but none of these exactly “ fill the 
bill.” I want to know if there is any book that will enable me to dis¬ 
tinguish between species (if I do not misuse the term) that all the books 
I have refer to as if the knowledge of them were elementary facts need¬ 
ing no teaching, but coming to the poor Rose amateur by intuition. By 
the way, let me say that our colonial nurserymen are generally Apple 
