May 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
125 
about this time, with the idea of causing all the elabo¬ 
rations from the leaves of the laterals to be appropriated 
by the principal eyes; and such appears at least a 
strictly scientific procedure. 
Little more remains to be done the first season; and 
by the end of November the leaves will bo all decayed, 
and pruning must be performed. Now the length to 
which the rods must be pruned is regulated entirely by 
the strength of the shoot; if they have grown well, the 
shoot will be three-quarters-of-an-inch in diameter. A 
roof may be furnished with spurs from bottom to top in 
two years, and we have known it take four; something, 
however, depends on the length of the rafters. A three- 
quarters rod in a good border will thoroughly develope 
spurs six to eight feet, and that may bo the first year’s 
pruning point. Thus, supposing the rafters to he sixteen 
feet, one half will be furnished with spurs after the first 
winter’s pruning, and the other half after the second; 
consequently, after the third winter’s pruning, the whole 
rafter will be in full bearing. There are those who 
boast of a bearing rod the whole length of the rafter 
after the first year’s growth ; and the ability to perform 
this has been impudently mado the ground of advertise¬ 
ments for gardener's situations ; this, however, is mere 
clap-trap, or worse still. We hope none of our readers 
will be misled by such specious nonsense. All good 
grape-growers know it as an established fact, that pre¬ 
mature heavy crops ruin young vines; we have known 
such require two or throe years to rally in. That they 
will bear the whole length of a rafter in the second year 
is true, but woe to him who is silly enough to attempt it. 
Of course, at the first winter’s pruning, all laterals 
will be pruned away, nothing left but the six or eight 
feet of cane. This, as soon as pruned, should have 
every knife-wound dressed, in order to prevent bleeding 
in the ensuing spring; we use white lead. A patch of 
this on each knife-wound will secure them against this 
evil. Finally, a clay paint should be applied all over 
the stems with a painting brush. Beat up clay in 
water until a paint; then add four good handfuls of 
sulphur to a gallon of the clay-paint, and some water, in 
which three ounces of soft soap had been whisked; 
finally, a couple of handfuls of fresh lime, stirring the 
whole thoroughly during the application. The vines 
are now ready for their annual rest, and it must bo 
understood that frost is not essential to them in that 
state, yet a rather low temperature is beneficial. If 
they are in a plant-house, a temperature ranging from 
35° to 55° until February will suit very well, although 
55° will be seldom requisite for the preservation of 
plants from November to February. If it be necesssry 
to excite them early in March, by .all means use fer¬ 
menting material over the roots outside, if obtainable. 
Such may be applied one fortnight before any marked 
advance is permitted in the interior, and a heat of 05° 
to 75° may be encouraged in the material, until the 
middle of May. Be it understood, nevertheless, that 
this mode once begun must be carried out until the 
middle of May ; if this cannot be managed, let it not bo 
commenced. In a succeeding paper we will go through 
the second year’s culture, showing how the spurs are 
established, and pointing to the rod system. 
R. Errington. 
(To be continued.) 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S SHOW— May 8tii. 
(Continued from page III.) 
Roses. —The roses at this exhibition were magnifi¬ 
cently bloomed; the plants were large, most healthy in 
appearance, and not overstrained with too much training. 
People may say what they please, hut the rose-growers 
are now as high in the scale of good cultivation as the 
growers of orchids, or of geraniums, or of azaleas, or 
of any other plant. Better roses were never seen in the 
open ground out-of-doors in this country, taking them 
as a whole, and we have now arrived at a stage in our 
knowledge of the rose, to warrant us in the belief that 
old England is not a good rose country after all, and 
therefore that glass shades or houses must be devoted to 
all the best sections of them in our climate. Splendid 
as was the show at this meeting, there was not a single 
rose there which could come at all near to some Tea- 
scented roses which were seen three or four years ago in 
the large conservatory of the Society, and, from that 
single experiment, it is questionable if even the art of 
man can produce such large flowers in pots as some of 
the kinds are capable of doing when planted out in a 
generous soil, under glass. Ten to one if the hardiest of 
the hybrid-perpetuals will not be as much improved 
under glass as the Teas and Bourbons. Barron Prevost 
is the largest of that class, and Emperor Probus, a 
hybrid China, is the next to it; but one of the varieties 
of Blairii was nearly as large at this show. The Duchess 
of Sutherland and Countess Molle, not unlike each other, 
were much upon a par. William Jesse and Chenedole 
were also a fix; you could not tell the best of the two, 
for they were both best; but both of them were surpassed 
in colour by General Jacquemont , which, as a forced 
flower, is close on the heels of the Giant or Grant des 
Batailles. I was glad to see my favourite bedding rose 
there, Palmer. Viscountcsse de Cases stands at the top 
of the yellow class yet; but I have seen her flowers in a 
better state than on this occasion. Niphetos, a Tea 
scented, is a grand thing—white, and as pure as a 
virgin. When a little forced, but later in the season, 
and out-of-doors, there is a tinge of yellow in it. The 
very same remarks, with a little more of the tender feel¬ 
ing, apply to Souvenir d' un Ami, another Tea rose, 
shaped like the Malmaison rose. It would be worth 
while to put off one’s wedding a month or six weeks to 
get these two roses “ to order ” from a forcing-gardener. 
The bridesmaids would have Niphetos, and the gentle¬ 
men in white kids the Souvenir d' un Ami', ancl then 
the orange blossom for the happy couple. Devoniensis, 
Mrs. Bosanquet, and Miellez were never in better bloom. 
Triomphe de Luxembourg, a Tea-rose, not often seen, 
and in the way of Bouchere, was most splendid ; but why 
mention names, one could hardly say which were the 
best; hut there was one rose I never saw before, which 
pleased me much; it was a double Gloire de Bosamene, 
called Comte Robinsliy. I think this would make a fine 
bedder, if the habit is suitable. It comes nearest to 
Comte d' Eu, or to Grand Capitaine, and no one can tell 
to what section either of them belongs. They do not 
give you the idea of hybrid-perpetuals, and they are too 
thin, and too much jagged in the leaves to come in 
under hybrid Bourbons, hut Gloire de Bosamene gives a 
good idea of them. 
Geraniums or Pelargoniums were not so numerous 
as I have seen them, but they were in fine condition. 
Mont Blanc is still the best white of them. Incompa¬ 
rable and Magnet (Turner’s), are my two favourites of all 
that were there. These two are certainly most gorgeous 
things, and if the dark blotches on the upper petals of 
both of them could be washed out, they would come very 
near my own idea of the nc plus ultra —a fiery scarlet 
all over. Magnet is, I believe, rather new; at any rate, 
Mr. Appleby, our great florist, pulled me across the 
garden by the ear to see it as such, and if ho and all the 
rest of them would but take up colours, instead of being 
so daft about the form of their things, I could find it in 
my appetite to dine with them off the roundest dishes 
and plates in Staffordshire. But no! I dare say they 
will be giving high distinction to some of the wine-and- 
water-looking weeds, called Cinerarias, which were there 
in droves; but I protest against anything good that can 
