AUGUST. 
171 
in the plants as they are lifted, this diminishes very much, and becomes a part 
of the usual routine. A great many of the plants being annuals, have done 
their six-weeks or two-months bloom before the summer planting season, when 
they are pulled up and thrown away. It is, besides, surprising what a small 
space the perennial plants required for a large garden occupy. The gross 
foliage upon such plants as Primulas, Polyanthus, &c., dry off, leaving a few 
round the centre, so that they can be laid in almost touching each other. 
Anemones, of course, die down altogether; but, as a rule, they are better laid 
in for a time, to let what sap is in the leaves descend into the roots. This is 
also the case with Tulips, where they are required to be lifted earlier than the 
foliage indicates them to be ready. Such plants as the varieties of single 
Wallflowers may be treated the same as annuals, and cleared out of the beds 
as soon as they have done blooming, which is generally before the summer 
planting can commence. If a few plants of the different colours are kept 
separate on a kitchen-garden border, they will give sufficient seed to keep up 
any amount of growing stock that may be required. Among the easy-grown 
and hardy plants we have now in use, there is ample choice of colours sufficient 
to fill any garden, encouraging those that are most suitable to the soil and 
circumstances of the place. 
Another great objection by many is that it throws the summer planting late. 
This, I confess is quite true; but, as far as our experience goes, this proceeds 
from our employers, not the system. 
It is all but hopeless attempting to get a lady’s consent to clear a ribbon of 
Pansies, even after they have had nearly three months good bloom. We have, 
therefore, to wait until some of the lines are exhausted, which soon happens as 
the weather gets hot. But this is not the case with all the beds, some of which 
went off too early for us this season, as the Geraniums planted in their places 
suffered very much from the frost, getting quite blackened in the stems, and 
losing all their leaves. We would not, from this circumstance, if the beds 
were empty, plant out the half-hardy plants so soon another season. 
Cliveden . J. Fleming. 
A HOMILY ON ROSES. 
I must weigh well my words, and attentively consider my conclusions, as 
I approach this subject. I am a layman, and for some time past laymen have 
been silent on Roses, with one or two exceptions of brief and infrequent 
utterance. The Church and Roses have had a kind of ecclesiastical combina¬ 
tion, suggesting the idea that to discourse on Roses you must needs be in the 
current of apostolical succession. The oracles that speak to us are clergymen, 
and their office is an earnest of their veracity. One is a typal “ fine old Eng¬ 
lish gentleman,” a large grower of the flower, of great practical experience, 
good taste, honest independent judgment, sterling worth, and is a writer whose 
criticisms one loves to read. Another is a genuine lover of the “ queen of 
flowers;” his “ Floreat Regina Florum” is the very outcome of the ardent 
chivalry with which he engages in his sovereign’s service ; a conscientious 
and upright judge, and a kind of floricultural “ Dickens” in his literary rela¬ 
tions. He has the skill and enthusiasm that makes up a successful grower in 
so far as antagonistic conditions of soil and climate permit him to be so, but 
lacks the energy that makes a constant and leading exhibitor. A third speaks 
oftenest by his writings ; he is a standard authority, but his conclusions are 
not implicitly received. He grows well, and somewhat largely, but never 
ranks high as an exhibitor when he appears in that character. The film of 
