February 14, 1889. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
133 
“ drought-proof, frost-proof, and water-proof,” receptacles or safes for 
the preservation of mildew seed through the rigours of winter. There 
was a grim consolation in the midst of that terrible weather in thinking 
how our old enemy, with a querulous wonder at the brevity of his life 
of rampage, was tucking himself into his frost-proof safes in preparation 
for winter in early July 1 To-day (February 1st) my shade thermometer 
stands at 56°. Will the enemy wake, burst his boxes, and be sold 
again 1 _ 
Orange fungus, in the early part of the season, was rampant, worse 
than I ever had it before ; and as I have always rather derided this 
enemy, on the same grounds that some Auricula growers seem to think 
light ly of the woolly aphis— i.e., that it does no practical harm, I began 
to be alarmed at the rapid increase, and thought I was going to catch it 
for past sneers. I remembered, with much more reverence than before, 
all I had read about cutting off every shoot on which a speck appeared 
over a box that not a grain might be lost, and burning every particle 
(the box as well, I believe) with the utmost care. For some time I did 
cut off the worst, and (with some twinges of conscience) hid them or 
threw them away in distant corners; for I cannot believe that exter¬ 
mination is possible while our hedges are full of it ; but the pest 
increased so rapidly, I began to think the remedy might prove worse 
than the disease. 
What was to be done ? I finally took a very reprehensible and 
cowardly course, the only merit of which lay in its complete success. I 
had always had some orange fungus, and it had never done any harm 
till the first bloom was over, and not much then ; I determined therefore 
to act as I had always done before, and take no notice whatever of the 
enemy. It was rather hard to do this, but I carried it out ; persistently 
refused to see the orange fungus, or to look where I knew it was—on the 
lower leaves ; but gave my undivided attention to the tops of the shoots. 
If a yellow spot caught my eye I treated it like an undesirable acquaint¬ 
ance, and stared hard in another direction. This sort of treatment, so 
different to the anxious care recommended by books, and evidently 
expected by the enemy, was too much for it—it languished and died ! 
I did not search for it again, for fear of reviving any lingering hopes it 
might have of a little more attention ; but from the end of J une I 
certainly saw it no more. 
To speak seriously, I have no doubt that the cold weather was as 
fatal to this pest as to mildew, and I thus believe that the unseasonable 
inclemency of the summer, which maimed so many blooms, and caused 
us to look upon it as one of the worst Rose seasons we have known, 
almost entirely checked the ravages of mildew and orange fungus, 
and prevented the unusual abundance of earwigs from reaching the 
dimensions of a veritable plague. 
I need hardly say that the rosarian has to put up with other troubles 
and face other enemies besides insects and fungoid pests. How terribly 
a sudden gale of wind in June will show whether there has been any 
negligence during the last week or two in staking, and especially in 
tying-up the new shoots on budded stocks. I often wonder how it is 
nurserymen do not on such occasions lose more of their maiden standards 
on exposed situations. I suppose there is not quite so much leverage on 
unstaked standards. Last season was the first time I ever found it 
necessary to stake and tie-up dwarf cut-backs. Many of the strongest 
shoots of these were broken down or blown clean off. Perhaps the greatest 
misfortune that can befall a rosarian is to find some morning in J une a 
number of his heaviest and most promising yearlings “ blown out ”—a 
whole year’s work completely thrown away in a moment, and the most 
grievous and bitter part of such a sight is the reflection that it is his own 
fault in not having tied them up securely in time. 
I have no doubt that some Rose-growers will agree with me in 
anathematising as a serious pest, that wretched Mr. Nobody, who leaves 
the garden gate open. It is not given to everyone to profit, like the 
friend I quoted the other day, by having his Roses eaten down by 
sheep, and when I found on going out in my garden one morning last 
June that two cows had spent a good part of the. night in the rosery, 
it seemed to me an excellent occasion for practising restraint of the 
tongue. However, they had done wonderfully little harm, for the 
grass was sweet and fresh, and had most fortunately engrossed almost 
all their attention. Grand Mogul had suffered the worst, for, as a 
rule, a cow will single and “gofor” a new Rose with as keen an 
instinct as a weevil. 
I remember a case in point a long time since. It must be quite 
fifteen years ago, I should think, for Etienne Levet was then a new 
Rose, and I had one plant of it, cherished as the apple of my eye. From 
a window, whilst dressing, I beheld a cow taking advantage of Mr. 
Nobody’s neglect, and, while wrestling with my garments, saw it 
deliberately pass rich succulent heads of Gdntiral Jacqueminot and Duke 
of Edinburgh, and go straight to the new Rose. A few days later an 
old rosarian friend happened to ask after the welfare of Etienne Levet. 
“Alas 1 a cow got in, went straight to it, and wouldn’t Leave it till it 
was all Eaten ''— W. R. Raillem. 
ROSE GROWING FOR AMATEURS. 
In reply to Mr. H. V. Machin, I will give my treatment of pre¬ 
paring stocks for dwarf Roses. In November we take well ripened 
shoots of Manetti or Briar, and cut them into 6-inch lengths. The wood is 
cut straight across just below the bottom joint; the buds are all cut out 
excepting the top two, and the cuttings are inserted in the ground about 
4 inches deep, 4 or 5 inches apart in the rows, and a foot apart from row 
to row. The place where we insert our cuttings is rather shaded, and 
the soil is poor, and they are not often fit for budding the following 
summer. In the following November we replant them, and if they 
can be planted where they are to remain so much the better. If not, 
we plant them in double rows 18 inches apart, and a foot apart in the 
rows. The double rows are 3 feet apart. The stocks are planted nearly 
on the surface, just covering the roots with soil. The 3-feet alleys are 
shovelled out and placed on them, making raised beds, and when the 
budding is done I use an old label to pull the soil away, so that I can 
insert the bud on the stem close down to the roots. The soil being high 
is easily pulled away, and the alleys being low, it does not require quite 
so much stooping. Sometimes we insert the cuttings in these raised 
beds in a good open position, and many of them are ready for budding 
the following August. But I find cuttings in poor soil make more 
fibrous roots, and are better for planting. Seedling Briars are trans¬ 
planted in beds the same as the above, and they are budded on the root 
stem just below the crown.—J. L. B. 
GLOUCESTERSHIRE ROSE SOCIETY. 
The report for 1888, presented by the Hon. Secretaries, the Rev. 
T. Ilolbrow and the Rev. F. R. Burnside, to the first general meeting, 
held at the Tolsey, on Thursday, January 24th, 1889, says:—“The 
ladies have led us to success—a success not less, we trust, than their 
expectation—in the first effort made to establish a Rose Society for the 
county. The Rose Show held at the Corn Exchange on Tuesday, 
July 10th, though far from being the limit of this success, is a very 
pleasant element in it. The number of patronesses is large; that of 
the subscribers just reaches the century. The receipts for the year, 
including a satisfactory sum of £28 2s. taken at the doors on the day 
of the Show, amount to £104 8s. 6d. To this sum must be added a 
donation by Messrs. Cranston of £5 in Rose plants. The sum dis¬ 
bursed in money prizes was £75 ; and the expenses altogether are only 
£23 15s. 6d., thus leaving a balance of £5 13s. in the hands of the 
Treasurer. With regard to the Show itself, it was an undoubted 
success, the liberal schedule of prizes which, thanks to the generosity 
of the subscribers, the Committee were able to issue, attracting nearly 
all the principal Rose-growers in the kingdom. It was acknowledged 
on all hands to be one of the best provincial shows of the year. This 
result, coming as it did after one of the worst Rose seasons remembered, 
is highly encouraging. 
“ We trust that the love of Roses may already have attained such a 
growth amongst us as that in the near future manyand many a cottager 
in every village around us may be sharing with us the pure delight 
which God has given us in the Queen of Flowers. The Committee 
confidently look forward to a very successful Show, both florally and 
financially, in the coming season.” 
IN EAST ANGLIA. 
Fok reasons that it is not necessary to particularise, I am greatly 
in arrear in the preparation of notes on a visit to the eastern counties 
in the autumn ; and unfortunately there are other arrears still farther 
in the background, and much of what it was intended to record must of 
necessity be effaced from the memory. A little, however, remains, and 
the record may possess a small measure of interest to some readers. 
IPSWICH. 
As has been previously indicated (page 419 last vok), the first halt 
was made in this, the chief town of Suffolk. The day was bright, and 
autumn flowers gay. The smallest gardens appeared filled with them, 
walls covered with them, and window boxes attractively furnished. 
There appears to be no large nurseries in the neighbourhood, but Ipswich 
is the abode of a seedsman who, working in a quiet way, has introduced 
many new flowers to our gardens—Mr. William Thompson. Time did 
not permit a call on this gentleman, as I was due the same afternoon at 
Bury St. Edmunds, and if Mr. Edward Luckhurst should have met the 
train there in vain, he might have driven home to Nowton with his 
proverbial good temper slightly ruffled. 
The few hours spent in Ipswich were rendered most agreeable by Mr. 
Spencer King, of the Suffolk Chronicle, who is much interested in, and 
derives great pleasure from, the pursuit of gardening, especially fruit 
culture. It was this gentleman who thought the singular variety of 
Apple that is represented by round and pyriform fruits, not only pro¬ 
duced on the same tree, but in the same cluster, unusual enough to send 
to the Editor of this journal, in which it was figured last summer. Some 
of the fruits are as perfectly pear-shaped as can be imagined, while 
others are quite round. It is a small dessert Apple, possibly of local 
origin, and the tree from which the fruit was gathered was grown from 
a sucker taken from an old tree in the town, which tree, if I remember 
rightly, no longer exists. Two suckers were planted, but only one has 
borne, the crop being a heavy one, and many of the fruits exactly 
resembled Pears in shape, but in colour, texture, and quality were 
identical with the round fruits, being in fact pear-shaped Apples. 
Whether Pears sported from Apples, or Apples from Pears, in some 
remote age I know not, but if they sprung from a common origin this 
freak of the Ipswich Apple may be regarded as a curious example of 
“ reversion.” Such morphological changes appear somewhat mysterious. 
