490 
JOURKAL OF HORTICULTURE AXD COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 12 , 18l». 
appearance. Madame de Watteville is much esteemed for its remarkable 
colour, white tinted with salmon, full flower of good form. Niphetos is 
too well known to need description here ; as an early flowering Rose it 
is good. Perle des Jardins, soft yellow or canary colour, full, and well 
formed flowers freely produced. Souvenir d’Elise, white with a blush 
centre is a beautiful Rose. 
Lady JIary Fitz william produces finely formed flowers on dwarf plants 
of exquisite shape, delicate flesh colour. W. A. Richardson is capital for 
a dwarf wall, the growth being branching ; it also flowers early, and by 
planting others in different aspects a succession of flowers might be 
ensured in this way for some time. Those on a western wall are the 
richest in colour ; when in the full glare of the sun on a south wall 
the colour is apt to he pale, the outer leaves are quite white, and the 
centre of the flower loses some of the rich orange so attractive to this 
charming Rose. Caroline Kuster, bright lemon yellow, perfect shape. 
The above are some of the varieties we have been enabled to cut useful 
blooms at a time when they were much appreciated.—E. Molyneux. 
NOTES ON ROSES. 
[A paper read on May 14tli, 1S90, at the Monthly Meetin" of the Cambridge 
Horticultural and florists' Society, by Mr. Alfred Chater.] 
(^Concluded from ytaye dTOA 
I WILL now run through the next ten years, 1871 to 1880. We 
received a great many seedlings, but only about twenty up to the 
mark. We are getting more particular. Etienne Levet, FranQois 
Michelon, Captain Christy, E. Y. Teas, Duchesse de Vallombrosa, Jean 
Liabaud, Star of Waltham, Magna Charta, Sultan of Zanzibar, A. K. 
Williams. Mad. Gabriel Luizet, Marie Verdier, Mrs. Laxton, and Duke of 
Teck. During the same time, nine extra good Teas were added, a greater 
advance than in the Perpetuals. First of all stands Marie Van Houtte, 
followed by Comtesse de Nadaillac, Anna Ollivier, Jean Ducher, Perle 
des Jardins, Mad. Lambard, Innocente Pirola, and Mad. Welch, with 
Caroline Kuster, a most beautiful Noisette. It is unnecessary for me 
to go through the last ten years, from 1881 to 1890, as the flowers are 
well known. 
I now ask the question. How do we stand at the present time com¬ 
pared with fifty years ago? Then we had Du Bourg, a lovely pale blush, 
now we have in its place La France ; then there was that dazzling rich 
scarlet crimson Gloire de Rosomanes, now we have A. K. Williams, 
Charles Lefebvre, Marie Baumann, Alfred Colomb, E. Y. Teas, Louis 
Van Houtte, and many others. Then we had Madame Desprez ; com¬ 
pare it with Etienne Levet, Fran 9 ois Michelon, and others, and what a 
change we find 1 In Noisettes, Jaune Desprez, Lamarque, and La 
Biche were our best. Grand Roses we thought them then, but now the 
beautiful Marechal Niel has quite eclipsed them all. Teas.—We had 
Devoniensis in 1840, fifty years ago, and we have it now, and is equ.al 
to any of the new ones. Yet we have added many to the family. 
There is Souvenir d’Elise, the best of all, Souvenir d’un Ami, Niphetos, 
Catherine Mermet, and many others. 
I ask. Has the Rose been brought to as great perfection as many 
other flowers have been during the last fifty years? I say. No ; it has 
not. There was a much larger field to work upon, a greater number 
in the family, and we ought to have had greater results. “ Why is it ?” 
I take it that it is not so much of a real florists’ flower ; it is more of a 
nurseryman’s plant, and grown for profit. It sells well, being a general 
favourite and growm by everyone. It has not been grown as a hobby 
the same as the Auricula, Carnation, Tulip, and many other florists’ 
flowers. Why, if we had had an Auricula Robert Headly, G. Light body, 
or James Douglas, a Tulip Horner or Barlow, a Carnation Dodwell,"a 
Picotee Fellowes, a Dahlia Widnall, a fancy Zonal Grieve, a Pelargonium 
Beck, a Clematis Jackman, a Pansy Hooper, or may I say a Hollyhock 
Chater, and many others equally competent to take up the Rose, by this 
time, we should have a “yellow Hybrid Perpetual,” the colour of the 
new Persian Yellow, and in form like Alfred Colomb; a striped 
Charles Lefebvre, a perfect Picotee-edged La France or Baronne de 
Rothschild. 
How many Roses of the present day are the work of the florist? Very 
few. Certainly John Hopper was a decided cross. I know there are 
plenty of raisers, but they take the seed indiscriminately, and trust to 
providence for a slice of luck. Although we have hundreds who grow 
their thousands of Rose plants, how many attempt to hybridise them ? 
If you want to improve the Rose it does not require many plants. A 
dozen or two are quite sufficient, and the true florist finds greater 
pleasure and enjoyment from his seed Led, where he has sown the 
seed from a few heps of his own c.areful crossing. He watches each plant 
as it comes up peeping out through the fine soil, and takes particular 
notice to see if there is any variation in the foliage from the same pod 
of seed. Then as they grow he finds some with more thorns than others : 
he knows their parents and notes which they take after. They grow 
on, then the buds begin to show. Oh ! anxious time. Some with large, 
round, plump buds. He feels a thrill of pleasure, the colour is showing 
through the calyx. Every day he looks and caresses them until they 
fully expand. He may be disappointed, but the chances are ten to one 
he will be rewarded with several new and distinct flowers. Is it so 
with the ordmary raiser ? No, he gathers the ordinary seed from his 
beds of Roses (he may keep the sorts separate), it is sown in large beds, 
and perhaps here and there he may get a good flower, the chances are 
ninety-nine out of the hundred will come single or semi-double, only 
fit for stocks to bud upon. I am afraid I have taken too much of your 
time, but as I said I would give a few hints how to grow Roses I will 
begin with 
Situation and Soil. 
They like an open place ; it must be sheltered from the north-east 
wind, as they require plenty of air, but not exposed to draughts. As to 
soil, they will grow in any kind. They prefer a deep rich loam. If the 
soil is very light with gravel underneath, you must add some good turfy 
loam from an old pasture with plenty of good well-deeayed farmyard 
manure—cowdung if can be had—and mulch round the plants in spring 
and autumn. If heavy soil with a clay bottom it will require draining 
and then well trenched two spits deep, adding plenty of manure. Pig 
dung is best for heavy soil, and mulch in spring and autumn. It matters 
not what sort of soil you have, it only requires a little judgment, using 
burnt earth on heavy soils, soot on medium, and broken bones and 
charcoal on all soils. The earth round the plant requires to be forked 
up at different times, being careful not to disturb the roots. 
Feeding. 
Roses like plenty of feeding and good liquid manure. The bes4 
time to apply it is when they are showing the flower buds. If there is 
a chance of a good shower give them a strong dose, and then the rain 
will wash it in. On cold soils guano is a capital dressing, but I prefer 
Rivers’ mixture if you have a place to prepare it—maltchiks and horse 
droppings, with urine poured on, lay it in a heap, and turn it over a fevz 
times before using. It is rather a high flavoured compound. It makes 
a capital dressing for pot Roses. 
Planting. 
If you are not going to make a Rose bed, but only plant a few about 
the garden, then it is best to dig a hole two or three spits deep, 3 feet 
across, and put in a barrowful of decayed manure. Well mix it with the 
earth, and when you plant be careful to spread out the roots, mixing the 
earth and shaking it between them, and then press it firmly with you? 
foot. If standards, drive a stake in and tie the Rose to it. 
Increasing. 
If you would like to increase your stock, you may do so by budding 
or cuttings. On light soils the Slanetti stock is preferable. It is best 
for all soils. You must bud close down to the soil, under if possible, and 
then when you remove your budded stock plant it below the bud, and it 
will soon get on to its own roots. For Teas the old Dog Rose is best,. 
Plant some stocks in a warm corner where it is sheltered from the cold 
winds. In choosing stocks get good healthy ones from 3 to 4 feet high, 
and when they shoot cut off all suckers and shoots that are not required, 
so that you may get all the strength possible in the one you intend 
budding on, and be particular to have strong buds of the sorts you 
require. 
Pruning. 
This requires judgment. No hard and fast line can be drawn. If 
you want good flowers you must not be afraid of the knife. H.P.’s will 
stand plenty of cutting. Teas are all the better for pruning sharp, 
some sorts more than others. Noisettes require cutting after blooming, 
and leaving the strong growths for flowering the next season. For 
varieties get any descriptive list to choose from, or leave it to the 
nurseryman to send you the best, and you will be sure to get a better lot 
than if you choose them yourselves. 
THE EDIBLE STACHYS. 
“ D., Beal,” is at a loss to understand why I have “ nursed up my 
wrath so long,” then poured it out on him on account of the short note 
which he says he gave on this vegetable “ some time ago.” And well he 
may be, because in the first place I was innocent of “ wrath” in my re¬ 
joinder to him as the assailant. It was my gossipy article (not his) 
that appeared “some time ago,” or, to be precise, on January 30th- 
“ D., Beal," can be jocular when it suits him, also it seems serious and 
severe. If there was any “ nursing,” I will not say of wrath, surely he 
was the “ nurse,” for his curious critique did not appear till my article, 
which contained absolutely no allusion to him, had been published more 
than three months, while my rejoinder to his reference (May 22nd) 
appeared on May 29th—one week. After an examination of those dates^ 
I think I may, without being considered very childish, be excused by 
failing to understand the meaning of the opening sentence of youi 
correspondent on page 470 last week. 
“ D., Beal," may be fully assured that I have no disposition to de¬ 
fend the name I did not give, but quoted correctly, though he has 
adduced plenty of precedents for incongruous names, and one person 
has as much right to indulge in a harmless fancy as another. 1 have 
heard the name “ Stachys ” scoffed at, but did not feel called on to 
pronounce the remark of any person “ very ridiculous and I fail to 
see that the use of that mature epithet was essential to the denunciation 
of the plant itself, or “to warn people against being led away by the 
love of novelty to grow a thing which is not only absolutely useless as a 
vegetable, but a horrible weed.” 
“ D., Beal," has felt it right to issue strong warnings before, and 
repeatedly, but the condemned articles have survived. Possibly the 
Stachys may survive also, at least for a few years longer. It certainly 
has some friends who are not quite children in the horticultural world. 
