422 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I November 8, 1888; 
turfy loam, sand, and leaf soil, the temperature cf a stove, and liberal 
supplies of water during the summer. 
FRUIT TREES ON NORTH WALLS. 
The profitable cropping of north walls is a subject which 
interests many readers. Every square yard of them may be made 
profitable, and they will produce crops that will succeed others 
grown in more favourable positions. Our favourite trees for plant¬ 
ing on north walls are Morello Cherries, Bed and "White Currants, 
with Gooseberries. We have tried Apples and Plums on them, but 
could never make them profitable. They bear sometimes, but do 
not always ripen, whereas the Cherries, Currants, and Gooseberries 
never fail. From trees in a sunny position we gathered Morello 
Cherries during the first week in August last, and from trees on a 
north wall we gathered the Cherries on October 5tb. Our Cherry 
season, therefore, extended over nine weeks, but it would have 
fallen far short of this had it not been for the north wall trees. 
Gooseberries remain good on a north wall from three to four weeks 
after those in the open, and Currants longer still; the fruit in both 
cases is always plentifu and good. 
Before, however, beginning fruit culture on north walls it 
should be seen that the soil is in proper order, and the soil in this 
position is not always suitable. It often happens that those who 
have to deal originally with north walls consider that they will 
never be of any value, and their neighbourhood is used as a 
receptacle for all kinds of bad soil and refuse. To plant in this 
would be to court failure, but if all unsuitable soil is removed, 
drainage introduced where necessary, and as much attention given 
to the soil for trees on a north wall as is generally devoted to south 
borders, success will be permanent. Without this care it would be 
better to leave north walls alone, as it will only be tin-owing away 
plants and what little labour is given to them to attempt their 
culture under such conditions. From November to March is the 
season when north walls may be planted, and only healthy young 
trees or bushes should be introduced.—A Kitchen Gardener. 
THE HOSE SEASON OF 188’. 
For many years I have been enabled to chronicle in the pages of the 
Journal my impressions of the Rose season. Year after year for some 
years now we have been looking for that which ever seems to elude our 
grasp—a good Rose season. Our hopes run high, our expectations are 
great, and then when we are looking at last for the fulfilment of our 
hopes the unexpected happens, and disappointment comes. Never has 
this been more thoroughly the case than with the past season. Conditions 
seemed to be promising, we had had a splendid summer in 1887, every¬ 
where people spoke of well-ripened wood, so that even if severe frost 
came the plants Would be able to resist it. Now it is very difficult to 
write about weather, for it varies so much in different parts of our 
islands that what I might write about Kent would not in the least apply 
to Surrey, although a contiguous county. We had no intense cold here, 
but we had two heavy falls of snow, which lay upon the ground for 
weeks, and kept the plants warm and comfortable. When pruning took 
•place, which was very late, there was hardly any wood to be cut away 
on account of its being frost-bitten. We had no late frost, and the 
young shoots started away without let or hindrance, the bloom buds 
were formed, and then set in that long period of drought, and low 
temperature occurred, which ruined our hay crop and did so much 
harm in our gardens. We had snow as late as the 9th of April; during 
May and June hardly any rain until the end of the month ; and 
throughout July, as many organisers of Rose shows know to their cost, 
heavy drenching rains and thunderstorms, which were, as is their wont, 
most erratic in the way they dispensed their favours. This was specially 
the case with the provincial show of the National Rose Society at 
Darlington, where a thunderstorm broke over the town just as the show 
was opened, and neither before nor after was there any more rain that 
day. The consequence of all this was that it was the most aggravatingly 
disappointing season that I ever recollect. And this did not end with 
the exhibition season, for I have rarely known a worse autumnal season. 
We had on October 3rd all over the country a frost which varied in its 
intensity in different places, but everywhere was quite sufficient to 
cripple the autumnal bloom. It was succeeded by a time of thick fogs 
and heavy mists, so that Roses got glued together ; and although light 
and pleasant weather succeeded and St. Luke’s little summer came in 
due course, yet the mischief had been done, and even the ever-faithful 
Teas succumbed to it. The Rose which has shone out conspicuously 
amidst the wreck has been Marie Van Houtte, with its fine foliage and 
sweet flowers ; I allude of course to the open. From the walls I have 
been enabled to gather some good blooms, but even these are not so 
many as in other years. 
I have had as in other years a good opportunity of seeing the flowers 
which have been put up for exhibition, have attended many of the 
principal shows and seen many private gardens, and the verdict which I 
have to pronounce on the season is that it was a very mediocre one. 
There was an absence of really grand blooms, no Roses that cling to 
one’s memory as superexcellent, no boxes of which one could say That is 
one of the best boxes I ever saw exhibited, nor was there any Rose 
which seemed to be good everywhere as in some seasons. And if it was 
bad for all Roses it was especially so for Teas and the lighter coloured 
Hybrid Perpetuals. Many Teas were exhibited with all their outer 
petals skinned off, and most light Roses of any fulness were absent 
from the stands. Thus of Her Majesty, out of thirteen entries at the 
National only one was staged, while one hardly saw any of the Victor 
Verdier race. Roses with fewer petals, such as Baronne de Rothschild, 
Mabel Morrison, and Merveille de Lyon (which seems after all to be only 
a sport of the Baroness) did not suffer so much ; shading was in many 
cases of little use. So heavy were the storms that even where the beds 
were mulched I have known the blooms to be spoiled 2 feet up by the 
splashing of the rain. 
All this was very disheartening to exhibitors, and then when, as was 
too often the case, the show day was wet and boisterous their troubles 
were increased. I have before my mind the case of an unfortunate 
exhibitor who, anxious to be in time, had come early to the show 
ground. His boxes were placed under a tree where he was told the tent 
was to be erected. After sitting there under an umbrella, the picture 
of patience on a monument, he was told that there would be no tent 
erected there after all, the Roses must go into one already erected, as 
the entries were so few. And so again, when we were expecting a good 
fight at Darlington, one exhibitor from whom we expected great things, 
had to telegraph that a thunderstorm, which had not extended a quarter 
of a mile on either side of him, had broken over his rosery and com¬ 
pletely put him hors de combat. These same causes prevented the new 
candidates for favour from being seen to much advantage. We had 
hoped for much, not from foreign raisers, for I think we have long 
ceased to place our hopes upon their fair promises and high-sounding 
phrases, but there were many of home production that we were anxious 
to see more of—Earl of Dufferin, Sir Rowland Hill, Miss Ethel Brownlow, 
Her Majesty, Grand Mogul, Princess Beatrice, Mrs. John Laing, &c.; 
but we have been disappointed. Comparatively few of them have been 
shown, but as far as they have we may, I think, say that Earl of 
Dufferin is a very distinct and fine flower, brilliant in colour, and likely 
to prove a most useful exhibition Rose. Sir Rowland Hill is a very 
distinct Rose of an unusual shade of colour, and is, I think, sure to be 
a favourite. Miss Ethel Brownlow is a very sweet coloured Tea, not quite 
like any other flower that I know. Her Majesty still holds a very 
doubtful position bcth as to her beauty and her constitution, some 
maintaining that it is a vigorous and others a bad grower ; but as I once 
heard of a gentleman saying to a fellow passenger that so and so was 
very much misunderstood, but that’s just what a person in his position 
ought not to be, so I say of a Rose nowadays, that it ought to have a 
constitution about which there is no doubt. Grand Mogul it is impossible 
to distinguish in flower and habit from Jean Soupert, while it is equally 
with that variety subject to mildew. Princess Beatrice is a very lovely 
Tea, and Mrs. John Laing is without doubt a fine Rose, perhaps the best 
the raiser has sent out. 
So far with regard to the Roses, and now with regard to the exhi¬ 
bitors. It must have been a great pleasure to all Rose growers (except 
perhaps to those who felt the power of his arm) to see Mr. R. N. G. Baker 
of Exeter, the champion of former days, once more exhibiting and re¬ 
sumed his place as the premier amateur grower. Again after the lapse 
of some years he has carried off the trophy, and has shown that, not¬ 
withstanding all the disparaging things said of it, the Manetti will, in 
some places at any rate, lead those who trust in it to victory. Other 
exhibitors are coming on, others taking higher positions, and, whilb 
some are retiring from the field, we are glad to think that there are 
others to take their place. 
Although the season has been unfavourable for Teas, yet there is a 
manifest increase in their popularity, and on all sides I hear of beds of 
Hybrid Perpetuals being done away with and Teas planted in their 
place, while I have again to notice the increased favour with which the 
seedling Briar and Briar cutting are held ; but we may perhaps run into 
error in imagining that the Manetti will never in any place find favour. 
There is also, I think, evident an increasing desire to cultivate the 
species of Roses, and it is one that ought to be encouraged. There are 
many beautiful things amongst them ; and now, as I am writing, the 
beautiful heps of Rosa rugosa and the brilliant foliage of the little 
Scotch Rose tell us that they are deserving of consideration for other 
reasons than the flowers, while some additions to the charming dwarf 
Polyantha Roses in Little Dot and others; but, on the whole, the season 
has been as disappointing with regard to new Roses as it has in the older 
kinds. 
There has, however, been no such record amongst exhibitors as in past 
seasons. No one has presented such a record as Messrs. Harkness dil 
last year, or Mr. Pemberton the year before. No one has been able to 
carry on the fight from beginning to end and to come out victorious in 
the encounter, through no fault of theirs, but through the extraordinary 
character of the season through which we have passed. 
The position of Rose societies is, like everything else, liable to change. 
