March 81,18*7. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
245 
some labourer in the neighbourhood to dig them out of the hedges 
round about. The wild Briar, like most other varieties of Roses, is 
constantly renewing itself by sending up from the base strong 
shoots. These in their second year are what we want; they should 
be trimmed off close at the root, and it will only end in a wholesale 
lot of suckers being produced subsequently if any of the club root 
be left. The best way to remove this is with a saw, afterwards 
making the part smooth with a sharp knife. Fig. 44 at a shows a 
nice shoot ready for planting, and it will take root all the better if 
it is ] lanted with about a foot of the stem in the ground ; but if it 
will be required to stand permanently where planted, then it should 
not be put in so deep ; the nearer the roots to the surface the better, 
as I said before. Please note that the club root has been removed 
entirely. A shoot like this one, even if it has been cut from the 
hedges without any root whatever, may still be put in, after care¬ 
fully cutting out all the buds on the part which will be below the 
surface when planted, and in most cases it will take root and grow 
like the first mentioned. At b we see the kind of root favoured by 
many nurserymen ; these gentlemen will in time no doubt learn 
wisdom in the matter. The small black lines springing from the 
root here show the subsequent crop of suckers which will in due 
time arise to reward anybody who is foolish enough to plant stocks 
with roots like these. The dotted lines show where the branches 
to be budded during the following season will grow. All other 
buds which will break up and down the stem during the growing 
/ 
/ 
Fig. 44.—Briar sticks. 
period must be rubbed off as soon as they become apparent, so that 
all the vigour of the stock will go to strengthen the shoots that are 
allowed to remain. 
For the propagation of dwarf, or ground-worked plants, as they 
are called, we must have the cutting or seedling Briar, Manetti, or 
Grefferie. They are all prepared and budded in a similar way, and so 
one common description may be made to do duty for the lot. A Briar 
cutting is simply a branch or slip, cut from a Briar or Dog Rose, 
and inserted in the ground—when rooted, it is to be budded below 
the collar. The collar is where all the branches start from. The 
bud being inserted here, in the root as a matter of fact, and the 
collar being cut clean away at the proper time, it will be seen at 
once that suckers are, to a great extent, done away with ; but 
unfortunately a cutting can only be made of a piece of a branch, 
which, like all other branches, is covered with buds. Where 
there is a leaf, there is a bud. These buds require to be cut out 
when the cuttings are being first prepared, and no matter how care¬ 
fully this may be done, there are sure to be a great many buds or 
parts of buds left, and these will in time grow up into suckers. 
Fig. 45 shows a cutting, which should be about 8 or 9 inches long, 
and made of good firm wood ; all the buds, except the two nearest 
the top, should be cut clean out as shown at c, the leaves being 
retained on those that are left. The base of the cutting should be 
cut off close up to a bud, as in the illustration. The cuttings are 
to be planted as firmly and as deeply as possible, just allowing the 
leaves to be above the surface of the ground. The longer the 
leaves are retained on the cuttings after they are planted the better, 
as the leaves assist the cuttings to form callus at their bases, and 
once this is formed, which generally happens in a few weeks, the 
cuttings are pretty certain to root and become plants. Cuttings 
should be made and put in while the sap is in motion ; if deferred 
until after that time, the number of failures will be numerous in 
all probability. September is perhaps the most suitable month, 
taking an average, but if the sun should shine very brightly, or the 
weather be very dry after the cuttings are inserted, then it will be 
advisable to shade them by means of branches cut and laid lightly 
over them, or by some other means. As a rule Briar cuttings 
require none of these attentions in ordinary seasons, and may 
generally be left to take care of themselves. 
The stock, in my opinion, which is bound to carry all before it, 
is the seedling Briar. This consists of a plant grown from the seed 
of the Dog Rose or wild Briar, which grows so freely in the 
hedges. At the time of budding, indeed from the first, it is a 
perfect plant, not a branch of one, torn from the hedges with no 
root to speak of, as a standard is ; nor yet a part of a branch, with 
a tuft of roots at the end of it, and a whole lot of dormant eyes or 
suckers concealed about the underground stem, ready to start up at 
intervals, as a cutting is. The seedling Briar, being budded below 
the collar, like the cutting, and having the collar cut away after¬ 
wards, is, in that respect, quite equal to the cutting. But it beats 
the cutting in the fact that there are no dormant buds on the roots 
to spring up as suckers, though there is no doubt that some suckers 
do come up now and again even with this stock. But its great 
advantage seems to be in the fact of its great vitality and strength 
of constitution, and this, in my opinion, arises from its being grown 
from seed. Growth from seed is the true natural process of 
increase, and I believe this is the source that we must look to for 
our future stocks. 
Mr. Edward Mawley, the Secretary of the National Rose Society, 
and also, I believe, an ardent lover and cultivator of the Rose, in 
his article in the “ Rosarian’s Year Book ” for this year, gives 
what is to me a most interesting table, showing the comparative 
state of a quantity of Roses planted in his garden, and budded on 
different stocks as an experiment, and as his testimony favours my 
argument I have no hesitation in copying it here. I hope I should 
be honest enough to do so, even if it were against me, but in that 
case I should probably, acting up to my convictions, try to upset it. 
He says that he planted thirty-four varieties, twelve plants of 
each variety, four plants of each on three different stocks—Manetti, 
cutting, and seedling Briar, and in the table, which I give herewith, 
he places each four in three divisions, according to the strength and 
growth of the plants. It will be seen that the plants on the 
seedling Briar take the lead in twenty-seven cases, against the 
cuttings five, and the Manettis two. 
First. 
Second. 
Third. 
Manettis 
2 
18 
14 
Cuttings 
5 
13 
16 
Seedlings 
27 
3 
4 
The plants, at the time this table was drawn up, had been 
planted eighteen months. I am not much of a prophet, but I 
dare prophesy that when they have been planted twice as long, 
the seedlings will be still going ahead, and the Manettis still going 
behind. This little table represents a very capital experiment, and 
one that conveys a lot of information, and if Mr. Mawley carries 
out his experiments in all ca«es as he has done here, he may be sure 
that when he speaks, Rose growers who are in earnest will be only 
too glad to listen to what he has got to say. 
To return for a moment to the seedling Briar—the great draw¬ 
back at present is the price. Boses on this stock appear to be dear. 
I say appear to be so at first sight, but if we look into the matter 
we si all not find it so. If we buy 100 plants on the Manetti 
for £0s., and lose a quarter of them the ensuing winter, no un¬ 
common occurrence hereabouts, we shall have to buy twenty-five 
more at 12s. 6d. in the spring to fill up the gaps ; and if we keep 
