August 22 , 1 S 8 P. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
155 
becoming deformed and from not swelling ; indeed, if the mildew be 
left to itself the blooms turn blind. Plenty of air, water, and a broil¬ 
ing sun are the delight of the Strawberry. 
It may not be known that seedlings grown in G-inch pots placed in 
aframeearlyinNovember, always afforded air, but protected from frost, if 
removed to a light airy house in December and set on a shelf near the 
glass, will fruit in winter. Their handsome fruit and pretty foliage 
render them fine objects for table decoration, the red variety contrast¬ 
ing well with the white. The plants should be grown in partial shade 
until the end of August, have all blooms picked off, and then be potted 
in 6-inch pots, layering the first runners just within the rim as a fringe 
all round. Set the pots in the full sun and water well. The plants 
may be had in bearing throughout the autumn, and at any time you like 
by picking off the flowers six weeks before you want them. Remove 
all runners but those wanted for the fringe.-G. A. 
GRAND MOGUL, H.P. 
The note of my friend, “ Duckwing,” in a recent number of the 
Journal (p. 108) as to Grand Mogul has remained unanswered. While 
setting up at the Crystal Palace this year someone came along 
addressing the world in general and red rosettes in particular, with a 
similar query which sounded a good deal like a riddle, “ What is the 
difference between Grand Mogul and Jean Soupert ?” I hope he found 
a satisfactory answer, but I confess that I was unequal to supplying 
anything beyond the somewhat trite one, “ Give it up, ask me an easier.” 
As to budding, my humble advice would be not to waste valuable time, 
honest labour, or healthy stocks on either of them. 
THE GROWTH OF THE BUD. 
There are one or two questions connected with the growth of the 
Rose bud which might perhaps be elucidated in some measure by dis¬ 
cussion, for I, at all events, do not understand them for certain. At the 
end of the shoot, with the health and strength of which we have taken 
such pains, comes at last the bud, surrounded by its satellites. These duly 
removed we want the bud to grow and become big. Sometimes it will, 
remaining dormant a long time and swelling gradually. Sometimes it 
will not, but bursts into a premature loose and flabby bloom, though 
the shoot be of the strongest. This is most clearly seen, I think, in the 
case of Tea Roses, and especially with Comtesse de Nadaillac and 
Princess of Wales, which are of somewhat similar habit. With these 
two varieties I can never tell which shoot is good to produce a strong 
bud, the longest and strongest sometimes opening prematurely, and 
small shoots gradually thickening while the bud is dormant and grow¬ 
ing. The critical time is when the calyx turns back and a smoothly 
folded hard cone of petal appears. Sometimes this cone does not alter 
in appearance for a long time, however hot the weather may be, but 
simply swells, then it will be a great and probably a good Rose. Some¬ 
times it begins to unfold almost immediately, then it will be compara¬ 
tively small and probably hollow. Experience shows that neither the 
strength of the shoot nor the character of the weather is responsible for 
this different behaviour, and the question is, Why, in such cases, does 
the one bud swell before opening, and the other fail to do so 1 
As a possible help to the solution of this conundrum, let us have 
another. Why are second blooms, even on fresh strong shoots thrown 
up from the base, so generally inferior to the first ? It is a common 
maxim in the vegetable world that those growths are the best which 
are made without hindrance. With most plants it is a gardener’s great 
object to grow them along without any check. But the first blooms of 
our Roses have met with many checks ; they have generally been chilled 
and stopped again and again by cold winds duiing almost all their 
growing time, and sometimes have to put up with actual frosts, not to 
mention all manner of insects which can bite and destroy. The second 
hloom, on the contrary, which comes on a strong flush shoot, which 
starts from the base at midsummer or July, has no such check what¬ 
ever. Constant warm nights, no caterpillars, a thoroughly warmed and 
tilled soil, no wonder its growth is thicker and taller than that of the 
snoots which have borne the battle and the breeze of most specimens of 
our merry month of May. How comes it, then, that the bloom, though 
fair on some II.Ps., is generally not so good as on the earlier started and 
weaker-looking shoots 1 Anna Ollivier is a good example ; we know 
Jts habit of throwing up much stronger and taller shoots directly the 
first bloom is over, and that these shoots, as a rule, do not produce 
blooms so good as the shorter and earlier ones. 
Now, then, for a theory, which, however, is not put forward as 
anything new or original. Are the blooms of the secondary and 
stronger shoots flabby and poor because the unchecked and persistent 
flow of sap forces the buds to expand before they have time to grow ? 
If so, here may be also an answer to our first question. The weak 
shoots of Comtesse de Nadaillac, whose growing dormant buds produce 
such fine blooms, may do so because they get just enough sap to make 
the buds grow, and not enough to force them out too soon, and the 
strong shoots may get too much and thus be opened prematurely. And 
again, secondary later shoots produce weaker blooms, because they have 
not passed through the checking, hardening, delaying days and nights 
of an Engdsh spring. But if all this be true, are we doing wrong in 
our continued efforts to increase the flow of sap by strong stocks, 
healthy plants, liquid manure, stirred soil, and every means in our 
power ? I think not, because, as a general rule, and universally perhaps 
with H.P.’s, the strongest shoots of those that start in spring will have 
the strongest blooms ; and the same rule would generally hold good 
with Teas, except occasionally, as I have said, with Comtesse de 
Nadaillac, Princess of Wales, and perhaps some others. “Exceptions 
prove the rule,” they say ; my second bloom of Teas has this year been 
better, barring the rain, than the first ; but then the past July, when 
the secondary buds were dormant, has been cooler and less forcing than 
May or June. _ 
The idea arose in connection with a rosarian of repute, who spoke of 
bending down even such long and strong shoots as Marie Van Iloutte to 
get the buds under caps to protect them from the rain. “ But would 
not that check the sap?” was my question. “ All the better,” he replied, 
“ for then the bud would grow,” and that answer was the cause of these 
lucubrations. My Marie Van Houtte buds do grow. I find the strongest 
shoot does have the biggest blooms, and I can hardly think they would 
be better by being bent down, though I have not tried it. But the 
habit of Comtesse de Nadaillac and Princess of Wales has still to be 
accounted for if the theory given above is rejected (and I find a stiff, 
straight, perpendicular shoot of these varieties seldom has a perfect 
bloom). And if it be true what are we to do ? There are plenty of 
ways of checking the sap. Not thinning the side shoots or laterals too 
severely would do this I suppose. Often when the growth is rapid 
every bud will push and grow all up the stem, even before the terminal 
flower bud has thrown back the calyx. Are we wise to check all these 
side channels, and cram the sap up to the end of the shoot as quick as 
we can 1 Then, too, there are ligatures of sorts. What of something 
in the way of a tourniquet, which would act as a tap, so that we could 
turn the sap on or off as we liked ? But this is somewhat wild. I 
cannot think, till I am told by someone who knows, that a check of sap 
is necessary or desirable for anything but secondary shoots (which are 
perhaps not worth it), and for the mysterious growth of bud occasionally 
seen in the too good dwarf Teas before mentioned. The questions, 
therefore, which I wish to put to rosarians are these. Is the comparative 
poorness of the blooms on strong secondary shoots starting from the 
base in summer due to a want of hindrance to the too free flow of sap ? 
And is it the same cause or some modification of it which makes the 
buds of Comtesse de Nadaillac and some others so uncertain in the first 
stage as to whether they will grow and become big, or flower pre¬ 
maturely ?— W. R. Raillem. 
IRON FOR ROSES. 
Mb, Tones says iron is essential in the soil for the production of 
good Roses. Will he, or any other correspondent, inform me whether 
oxide of iron (which is very cheap), would be beneficial to the soil and 
consequent blooms if applied as a surface dressing, or dug in in the 
autumn or spring, and oblige one whose ambition to excel the whole 
convocation of rosarians, lay and clerical, has hitherto been — 
Disappointed. 
SCORCHING IN YJNES. 
Heat, as derived from the sun’s rays striking suddenly on the glass 
roof of a horticultural building, causes the rise of the interna! tempera¬ 
ture in a proportional rapid or slow rate as they proceed in a direct or 
oblique inclination from their source, which should prove that injury 
to Vines would be more prevalent during the height of summer, though 
as a matter of fact it is more so during the spring months ; this, of 
course, being accounted for through the young and tender foliage not 
being so well adapted to withstand the strain it is sometimes cal'ed 
upon to bear. When the rise of the temperature of the house is rapid, 
a corresponding rapid evaporation of moisture from all damp surfaces 
is caused, and this occurring in a structure in which no ventilation is 
afforded the heavily charged but rarefied air ascends until it comes into 
contact with the glass roof, which does not absorb heat so readily as the 
atmosphere, and is therefore considerably colder than the ascending 
air, the result being that the moisture becomes condensed in the form of 
dew on the glass ; this for a time acts as a screen to the foliage, and 
protects it from the fierce rays of the sun. In the course of a short 
time, as the glass absorbs heat and approaches the same temperature as 
the atmosphere of the house no condensation takes place,and the tempera¬ 
ture rapidly rises, and the air escapes between the laps of the glass, 
taking with it the moisture contained in the house, then such thin 
textured portions of the plants as contain liquid are forced to yield up 
their store, with the result that we have before observed —viz., the rup¬ 
ture and subsequent death of those portions. 
From this view of the cause of Vines being scorched we might 
almost think that ventilation is calculated to do more harm than good, 
inasmuch as it favours the escape of the heated air, consequently 
promotes evaporation of the moisture contained in the house, and there¬ 
fore predisposes scorching. To a certain extent we may perhaps be 
right, but we must not overlook the fact that in ventilation afforded at 
