194 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
our sympathies this year must be reserved for -those who have a lighter and 
more “ workable ” staple. On such .the Roses have been simply miserable. 
Even on strong soils, fine as have been the growth and flowers, the latter 
have been unusually evanescent, opening in the morning and fading before 
night. One might water again and again, hut watering at the root does 
not produce much moisture in the air, one necessary condition of a favour¬ 
able Rose season. 
I have often ventured to point out the superior freshness and beauty of 
the early pot Roses as exhibited in April and May, and never was this more 
apparent than in the present year. In my judgment, the Rose will not 
be fairly and fully represented at our flower shows till we have a grand 
show of pot Roses in April, at which Roses in pots shall figure, not by 
dozens but by hundreds or thousands. 
Time was when stove and greenhouse plants were partly if not chiefly 
represented by cut flowers ; hut when the plants came to be shown in 
increased beauty and greater quantities, the cut flowers excited hut little 
interest. So will it he with Roses. Can any of our readers recall the cut 
Roses at our Rose shows this year ? In many instances they lay flagging 
and shrivelling in the heat even before the public were admitted, and long 
before the fashionable hours of four and five o’clock arrived, a great 
number were things of the past! Could anyone have gathered from 
them a correct idea of the varied beauty of the Queen of flowers, or have 
noted varieties for their gardens with any certainty that they were choosing 
the best ? If not, where is the practical value of our Rose shows as at 
present arranged and conducted ? for a sultry day at the end of June or 
beginning of July—by no means an uncommon occurrence—would invari¬ 
ably produce similar results. True, there is much in a name, and the 
name of a Rose show falls sweetly enough on the ear; but if the thing 
is to continue popular, or to he anything more than a pretty sound, the 
Rose must he brought before the public in all its native freshness, on 
bush and tree. “ I never buy a Rose now from the cut flowers shown at 
the exhibitions,” said a Rose amateur to me the other day, “for there you 
see nothing but the flower. I want to know something of the foliage, the 
constitution, and the habit of the tree, especially whether it produces few or 
many flowers, and whether eleven of every dozen are good or bad.” 
Turning to our gardens, it is yet too early to speak of the year 1868 
as a whole, because if a “ dripping time ” should set in, we may reasonably 
expect a grand display of Roses in the autumn. The summer growth on 
Rose soils is unusually firm and mature, and the wood doubtless well stored 
with organised matter, which only requires the stimulus of moisture in earth 
and air, to produce the grandest results. 
I of course must only speak of my own Rose grounds, situate at 
