218 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 1C, 1891. 
a fortnight while the plants take root again the inside of the hand- 
lights is covered with whiting and milk. 
After this I wash oft the whiting and still keep the handlights 
over them to shelter them from the autumn rains, still raised night 
and day on the three pots. When the frosts come on and there is 
less sun by day I use lower pots, say 2 inches high. During the 
severities of winter at times, night especially, I put the handlights 
right down on the ground, or one side raised on a small pot. 
As the spring advances they again have more air. At that 
season the ground is watered when necessary round the handlights, 
and never on the plants, as that would spoil the meal on the leaves 
and the advancing blooms also. For any approaching horticultural 
show they may safely be placed in pots for exhibition. I am 
careful to remove all decaying leaves at all times. 
When I replanted them in August all but one was perfectly 
free from any sign of decay at the roots, to which they are so 
•subject when in pots. The part of a long main stem was touched 
with decay, the one I speak of because all the fibrous roots were 
above it. This bare part should have been cut off a year ago. It 
was done now to the safety of the plant. 
I have given this statement of my mode of growing Auriculas 
as I consider it to be easier, safer, and more natural than to have 
them in pots ; and some persons may like to try the same way. 
All my plants survived the last very trying winter. By inserting 
the above in your valuable periodical you will oblige. I should 
have been very glad to have written occasionally to those growers, 
of Auriculas who have written in your periodical if they had given 
their addresses as well as their names. I refer to Mr. J. Douglas, 
Rev. F. D. Horner, Mr. Henwood, Mr. Dean, and many others. 
Would you ask them to oblige by so doing in the future ?— 
William Moody Bell, 8, The Colonnade , Cheltenham. 
[We are obliged by this communication, but cannot ask any of 
our friends to depart from their usual practice. Some writers on 
florists’ flowers and other subjects are obliged to withhold their 
addresses to avoid correspondence taxing them too severely.] 
A Visit to Colchester. 
The attractions of a Hose show are generally two in number. First, 
the Roses ; second, the band (occasionally, perhaps, this order may be 
reversed !). A good band will generally draw an attendance, and really 
first-class Roses are to be seen every day in few places ; but the town of 
•Colchester is unable to support a Rose show, because its fortunate 
inhabitants are quite blase to both these attractions. I do not know 
whether the old Roman soldiers when they camped here had much 
martial music, or whether the British young men and maidens turned 
out much to hear them ; but at all events the effect of a good band can 
have been no novelty to the good people of Colchester for many years. 
And as to Roses, they are fast becoming a speciality of the place. With 
three large nurseries almost entirely devoted to Roses nearly touching 
one another, and yet, I hope, in no way impeding each other’s trade, you 
might as well expect the people of the place to come to exhibitions of 
cotton at Manchester or coals at Newcastle as Roses at Colchester. It 
is otherwise, of course, with those who live elsewhere. It is far better 
than any exhibition to see the plants themselves growing in such pro¬ 
fusion, and if you have been charmed with a single bloom of any 
particular variety as shown in a stand, how much is your knowledge of 
it increased by the sight of a hundred plants or more of the same 
growing altogether, and with flowers in every stage of development. 
In company with a distinguished brother rosarian, I paid my annual 
visit to the City of Roses this year about the middle of August, too late 
to see any of the Roses at their best. A good time to go, in an ordinary 
season, is about the third week in June, when the lovely Teas are fast 
approaching their prime (the first blooms being generally the best), and 
the busy show season, when one cannot expect any attention, has not 
•commenced. At the close of a week of fine weather there would always 
be plenty to admire in any of the summer months, and we had been 
waiting for such a time, but as it did not come we had to go without it, 
though well aware we could not see many good flowers after such a 
sunless, rainy time. On arrival at the station we found 
Mr. Prior, 
■who has been most indefatigable in competing at exhibitions during 
the last two seasons, superintending the arrangements at his stall on the 
railway platform. It looked exceedingly bright and fresh, with much 
better blooms than are usually seen in such places, and there are certainly 
few stations which provide such a pleasant and attractive sight gratis to 
.passing or waiting travellers. 
Mr. Frank Cant 
was kindly waiting for us outside the station and drove us direct to his 
grounds, wilich are at no great distance. He needs no introduction from 
me, as the success of his exhibits during the last three or four years 
especially have helped to spread and increase the reputation of the 
name which his uncle first made so famous. We know that the lateness 
of the blooms this season rendered him unable to show in the 
champion class at the Crystal Palace, but he made considerable amends 
for it afterwards ; from about July 7th he maintained, I believe, a nearly 
if not quite an unbeaten certificate, and if Yorkshire has in the past 
triumphed at the Crystal: Palace, the return match was played off 
this year when the Northern (Jubilee) Trophy was carried away to 
Colchester. 
It is two years, I believe, since Mr. Frank Cant opened his new 
grounds at Braiswick. The soil seemed to me a trifle lighter than that 
at Myland, but they are not far apart, on the same slope of hill, and I 
daresay there is but little real difference. The largest field of Roses 
which runs right down to a cutting in the main line of the G.E.R. 
seemed to be particularly well situated in its slope to the sun, with a 
fair amount of shelter and protection from cold winds on all sides, and 
one amateur at least (who has attempted staging in wet weather, under 
trees, in a greenhouse, a coach-house, a bell tent, a storeroom, and a 
dining room) felt just a little covetous on inspection of the large and 
commodious staging shed at the bottom of the field. 
Many of the H.P.’s showed rust, which is certainly very detrimental 
to their general appearance, though I believe it does no harm, but if 
anything helps the ripening of the wood ; still, when plants have lost a 
good many of their leaves they lcok un-summerlike and depressing to 
any but experienced eyes. There was not much mildew, and it goes 
without saying that the plants looked well cared for. 
Budding was in full swing, and my friend and I, being both hard¬ 
working amateur “ Buddists,” were much interested in seeing how 
this operation is carried out on a large scale. What astonished me most 
—but then, I have a long way to stoop, and am no longer young—was 
to see a man budding Manettis from a standing position. There were 
four different operations, performed by different individuals. First one 
man to bend and hook the branches of the stocks back so that the stems 
could be easily got at; then another to clear away the earth an inch or 
two deep from the stems all down the row (it comforted me a little to see 
this man at least with one knee on the ground) ; then the actual 
operator—he stood behind the row of plants with his budding knife in 
one hand, and his prepared bundle of shoots containing buds in the 
other, and bent over his w r ork (it gave me the backache to see him). 
His first stroke astonished my friend, for it was an upward slice at 
the stem of the stock, taking away an inch or two in length of the outer 
but not going through the inner bark ; the cross and longitudinal cuts 
followed as quick as possible. Without waiting to reverse the knife the 
bark was opened on each side in no time by the blade, the bud was 
taken from the prepared stem from the lower end with a long sliver at 
the other end, the wood came out in a moment from this long end, in 
went the bud, and the long part was cut off to fit the cross cut with 
great precision ; and by the time I stooped down to see how well it was 
done he was half-way through the same operation on the next stock. 
It was explained to us that the first upward cut of outside bark was 
in lieu of any wiping of the stem from adhering earth, which is generally 
practised. We know that a particle of soil or dirt getting inside the 
cut between the inserted bud and the stem would be highly detrimental, 
but it must require great accuracy to avoid injuring the stock by such 
rough and ready means, and amateurs in general would certainly prefer 
wiping the stem. A boy followed to do the tying in with raffia, which 
was well done, in double fashion, and tied tight with a double knot. 
Mr. F. Cant told me that he had given up the staving or pinching back 
of the starting buds in spring, which is often done to ensure there being 
more than a single shoot to the new plant, and so have I, both in H.P.’s 
and Teas. 
There were really few good blooms to see, nor could we expect it, at 
such an unfortunate time. Of those unknown to me I noted Mrs. 
George Dickson and Souvenir de Rosieriste Gonod as possibly good, 
and Augustine Guinoiseau, the white La France, as decidedly worth 
growing; .Sappho (T.) seemed better than I expected ; L’ldeale (N.) 
was flowering most beautifully on quite dwarf maiden plants, at which 
I was surprised, but was told that this is its character as a maiden, and 
that the next year it sends up great long shoots. Another Noisette, 
Cloth of Gold, astonished me even more. There were whole rows of 
dwarf maidens in the open, and almost all of them in a flowering 
condition. I was informed that they alw T avs would bloom like this as 
maidens if budded from flowering shoots, but would, perhaps, never 
flower again. 
Our time was expired before we had completed our survey, and our 
host kindly drove us off to the house of his uncle, Mr. B. R. Cant, of 
whom and his work more anon.—W. R. Raillem. 
GOOD TOMATOES. 
I think of all the Tomatoes I have seen this season, nothing has 
been better both as regards size, appearance, and eating quality than 
Perfection early in the season, and Trophy for a later crop. Of the 
latter it may be said that it requires a somewhat special treatment, 
inasmuch as quantities of fruit that I have had the opportunity of 
seeing have been much ribbed, of bad colour, and unequal in size. I 
have plants raised from seed from the same packet which are in some 
respects quite different in appearance. Those of the worst quality are 
growfing in an extended border of good soil, and comparatively few 
of these are really gcod. The others planted as a kind of catch crop on 
