October 20, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
331 
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COMING EVENTS 
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Ianer Temple Chrysanthemum Show opens. 
Finsbury Park Chrysanthemum Show open?. 
20th Sunday after Trinity. 
Royal Horticultural Society—Fruit and Floral Committees at 11 a m. 
THE ROSE SEASON OF 1687. 
HAVE for several years past recorded in the 
pages of the Journal my review of the Rose 
season, and expressed opinions resting on a 
rather varied experience in all parts' of the 
kingdom as to its character; and in the years 
that I have done so I never had to record so 
terribly a disappointing one. The question is 
often put, When are we to have seasons for 
Roses such as we used to have ? It is no boyish regret 
of past days; no foolish praise of the better times 
which have preceded us, that leads to the question bein" 
asked. We, of course, have to look at things from our 
own point of view, for as a matter of fact for the general 
lover of the country and the bright summer time, we have 
not had for many years a more enjoyable summer; and 
yet it has been, as I believe, about the worst season for 
the Rose-grower I ever recollect, not even the terribly 
wet season of 1879 was more disastrous. 
I have had during the past season fuller opportunities 
01 giving my opinion than in the tw r o previous years. 
Once more have I crossed the border, and at our National 
ohow in Edinburgh, and at Helensburgh, seen what is 
the state of Eose culture and Rose showing in Scotland ; 
while m England I have had the opportunity of judging 
at Canterbury, Sutton, Hitchin, Farningham in the Home 
Counties; at Christleton, Wirral, Manchester, and New 
Brighton in the North; and later on at Taunton and 
Rath in the V est; and this with my experience at the 
National ought to give me a good foundation on which 
to iorm a comprehensive judgment. But, besides this, I 
nave been enabled to visit many private Rose gardens, 
and some, too, of the growers for sale, and to gather 
Irom these sources facts and opinions which have helped 
me to form my conclusions. 
No better adjective occurs to me to describe the Rose 
season ot 1887 than disappointing. We had hoped much : 
the Rose-grower had patiently waited for the time when 
all Ins care and trouble should be rewarded; things 
seemed to be favourable, foliage was healthy, green fly 
had not made its appearance, buds were well developed, 
and it only a propitious time were given at the end 
oi June and beginning of July there were strong hopes 
that a very fine Rose season would follow. But, alas! 
this was not to be. In the early part of June the drought 
set in. This was bad enough, but as the month drew 
to a close the temperature mounted up; while in the 
hrst fortnight of July, when the Rose shows mostly 
lake place, the thermometer was rarely below 80° in 
the daytime, sometimes getting nearer to 90°, with 
a ig i night temperature also. What this was in its 
results on Roses it requires no witch to tell. It pro- 
No. 382. —Yol. XV., Third Series. 
duced as a first result undersize throughout; it also 
produced in high-coloured Eoses a faintness of colouring 
and in some cases complete disfiguring; and the only 
flowers that really showed to any advantage were those 
!f ht - co 1 1 l )ul ' ed varieties to whom a dry sunshiny time is 
life itself. It thus happened that at all the Rose shows 
flowers had a tired and used-up look, and it was only 
where flowers could be cut close at hand and removed 
but a short distance to the place of exhibition, that one 
saw them at all in their proper condition. Thus Mr. 
Lindsell at Hitchin, Mr. Hall at Wirrall, and one or 
two others, made one much desire that all could exhibit 
under the same conditions. But it must not be supposed 
from this that Roses were not shown in fair condition, 
oi they. were, and the marvel to me was that after 
such a night for travelling as the night preceding the 
Yunbuigh Exhibition, Roses could be produced so well 
worth looking at; but they were not Al, not merely 
in matter of size, for this is a point on which I fear 
Rose-growers are going astray, but in that freshness and 
brilliancy of colour which go to form so much of the 
ciaim ot the Rose. And I think that most people who 
know anything of the difficulties of the season were ready 
to say, as they stood abreast of some of these stands, “It 
is wonderful how they do it, but they do it.” 
And jet, notwithstanding all these disheartening cir¬ 
cumstances, one can see no abatement in the zeal of Rose- 
growers, for although some societies have committed the 
happy despatch yet there are others springing up. Cardiff 
which had maintained under many disadvantages an uphill 
fight, has at last succumbed. Cray Valley, too, com¬ 
mencing well as it did, has had but a short life; let us 
hope it was a merry one. Henfield, with even a shorter 
span of life, has very soon died of inanition. Moreton 
has gone up like a skyrocket, but I am afraid has come 
clown like the stick thereof. Leek has revived, and I 
hear of a very successful one near Derby; but I fancy 
that there are not so many to take the places of those 
that have fallen out, while in some few there appears a 
slackening of interest. 
The National Rose Society, of course, claims the 
first place in the affections and interest of all real lovers 
of the flower, and this year has been a notable one in 
its history. For the first time it has crossed the border 
and nothing could exceed the loyalty and kindness with 
which it was welcomed in Edinburgh. The Lord Provost 
and some of the City dignitaries attended the Show, 
and welcomed the Committee and exhibitors, and such 
a show of Roses was given to the Scotch folk as they 
have not before seen. But I confess, for reasons which 
I have before given, that I do not anticipate a renewal 
of this, for the simple reason that there is in Scotland 
a complete absence of what we know as the amateur 
class. Such men as Messrs. Lindsell, Pemberton, Hall, 
Girdlestone, Grant, and others are utterly unknown there* 
An amateur with a couple of hundred Rose trees is a 
prodigy, and when our friend Mr. Gray started his Rose¬ 
growing at Dunkeld he was considered “aye daft.” This 
was painfully apparent in the district prizes at Edinburgh 
a more sorry lot it is impossible to conceive. I do not 
think that this arises from the soil or climate. There 
are districts in Scotland where both are as favourable 
to the culture of the Eose as some of the most favoured 
parts of England. The exhibits of Messrs. Smith of 
Strain aer,. and Cocker & Son of Aberdeen prove this, 
but it is just simply that the class is not there. The* 
same prevails to a great extent in France, and it may be 
No. 2038.—Yon. LXXVII., Old Series. 
