January 23.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER,. 
253 
Selection, not collection. Inquiries concerning kinds arc 
always answered with the utmost caution in these 
columns; and we may here remark, that in the absence 
of special information as to the geographical position of 
the locality, we are compelled to prescribe for about 
the centre of England, as being least likely to mislead. 
Let not inexpei-ienced readers imagine these to he imma¬ 
terial affairs : the grape-vine is a pretty good illustration. 
Who would plant a vine for its fruit amongst the hills of 
the north of Ireland, or at Johnny Groats? 
R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Rose Bank. —Of all climbers for covering such banks 
as I described last week, perhaps roses are the most 
appropriate. A rose hank is indeed a very pretty thing 
where roses do well—that is, where the natural soil of 
the place suits them. Like the vine, the pink, and the 
thousand other plants with which we have to do, the 
rose likes one particular kind of soil better than any 
other, and far better than the best artificial mixture the 
gardener and the chemist can prepare it; and, which is 
more strange than that, with all our practice and our phi¬ 
losophy, there is no rule yet established by which we can 
determine beforehand whether this or that kind of soil 
will best suit any given kind of plant. There is one 
thing, however, which any one who has grown the rose 
for any length of time may have learned, and that is, 
that a rose garden can hardly be over-dunged, and 
that no soil is too good for the rose. It follows, if we 
are to grow roses after the manner here suggested, we 
should in the first setting out prepare a thoroughly good 
and rich border for them, and also make it a standing 
rule—never to be departed from on any pretext what¬ 
ever—that no other plant is to share with the rose the 
good tilings in this good border. If there is one thing 
more than another in which gardeners, amateurs, florists 
and all err, it is in making a suitable bed or border for one 
kind of plants with the right hand, and with the left one 
putting iu others “just for a season or two, while the soil 
is fresh.” Those who cannot resist this bad style of 
cultivation should not go to the trouble and expense of 
making a rose bank. 
On either a sandy or open gravelly bottom we seldom 
think of putting in drains for flower beds or borders, 
and I believe I have said already that there is hardly a 
flower bed in the gardens here that has not been clayed 
at the bottom to prevent the escape of moisture too fast; 
nevertheless, such a border as I now contemplate must 
be provided with a thorough good drainage, whatever 
kind of natural bottom it may be on, because all the 
rain which falls on the whole surface of the bank miist 
of necessity run down on the border, as oil the roof of a 
house; indeed, the borders on either side of a ridged 
bank may be compared to gutters under the eaves of a 
roof. Climbing roses would do all the better if the 
border is full two feet deep—they do not require a very 
wide border, but their natural way is to strike their 
roots down a good depth; a yard wide will be quite 
enough for any climbing rose I know, if it can go down 
deep enough. If the bottom was favourable—say either 
rock, sand, or open gravel—I would choose a four-feet- 
deep border a yard wide before a six or seven feet wide 
border only eighteen inches deep. Some day or another 
I shall advance proofs sufficient to establish the fact, 
that we—at least, we gardeners—have established an 
untenable doctrine with respect to the depth that roots 
should be allowed to reach ; but for the present border 
let us say two feet deep and three wide, of the best 
materials, the surface of the bank made sure for the 
next dozen years, and then we are ready to plant; and, 
that our next-door neighbours may not find out what we 
have been driving at all the winter, the best plan will 
be to put in a double crop of plants at once, placing 
two and two of a kind next each other; and when the 
hank is covered, which it very soon will be, we shall 
have a whole host of duplicate plants to take up and 
dispose of in any other of the ways that we have been 
suggesting in The Cottage Gardener. 
1 should think, if every thing went on favourably, 
that at the end of the third year we might begin to thin 
out some of these fast-growing climbers where they 
became too thick; then would be a good opportunity 
to try the experiment of close pruning them in the 
middle of September, so as to be ready to transplant six 
weeks afterwards, and do as well the year following as it 
not interfered with at all. Another way would be to try 
some of them against old or young trees about the 
garden, after the old tar-barrel fashion, and these would 
just be the very kinds of plants for this experiment. 
But why suggest, when there is no end to the ways one 
might dispose of a lot of well nursed and established 
hardy climbers like these? Therefore, the best way 
would be to order them in the lump, just as the nur¬ 
serymen often advertise them, and plant them at five or 
six feet apart to begin with: this would be by far the 
cheapest way, only if a large number was bargained for 
I would stipulate that one or two of the best sorts in 
each class should be included. And here I may as well 
give my voice iu aid of a suggestion I saw in a con¬ 
temporary the other day with respect to rose catalogues. 
The suggestion, I beg to assure the dealers, if acted on, 
would put more money in their pockets than would pay 
for printing a double impression of their most useful 
catalogues. It was to the effect, that all roses whatever 
should be entered in a continuous alphabetical arrange¬ 
ment, and the class to which each rose belonged be 
marked in one column on the same page, as is now done 
with heights and prices. I was once of opinion that 
not only rose catalogues but all dictionaries and ency¬ 
clopaedias should be arranged in natural groups, as 
botanists do their genera, and as rose growers do their 
catalogues at present; but I am now old enough to see 
the great folly of such ideas; and if I were not, the 
queries from correspondents of this work would convince 
me of my error. It is all very well for we gardeners, and 
for all those who have a pretty good notion of any class 
of subjects, to have them presented to us in their 
natural classification, but depend upon it, if we are in 
earnest in wishing to carry the great bulk of our coun¬ 
trymen and countrywomen along with us in the march 
of improvement, there are no means so easily to effect 
our purpose as the ABC plan of arranging all our 
catalogues and dictionaries. Witness the present 
demand for our own new Dictionary, and the piaises 
already sung in its favour, before people are aware of 
even a tithe of what is still behind. 
Now, to make a beginning, here is my own list for a 
rose bank just in the way all amateurs wish for the 
whole catalogue. JEvr. stands for Evergreen; Cl. for 
Climber; Noi. for Noisette; Ayr. for Ayrshire; link. 
for Banksian; Brslt. for Boursault; Bra. for Prairie 
roses; Mlt. for Multiflora; and Mslc. for Musk climbing 
roses; and what is to hinder any one from following the 
same plan if the sections were double the number, or 
any other simple plan which may be more easily under¬ 
stood. At the beginning of the catalogue all these 
abbreviations, or shortenings would be set down, also, in 
the order of the ABC, thus :— 
A yr. Ayrshire 
Bn k. Banksian 
Brslt. Boursault 
Evr. Evergreen 
Mlt. 
Msk. 
Noi. 
Pm. 
Multiflora 
Musk 
Noisette 
Prairie 
Then the greatest novice in the land would know at 
once what he was about as soon as he heard the strangest 
name in the whole list; or say that I had written, off¬ 
hand like, in a confused paragraph, that, next to the old 
i 
