THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
134 
May 25. 
tliat the strongest opposition, and a great deal of 
raillery was raised against the subject, both in the 
councils of the Society, and out-of-doors, yet it has 
now been proved, to demonstration, that there is not 
a race of plants known to us which is capable of so 
much improvement, by pot cultivation, as the Tea 
Roses, the Bourbons, and the hybrid Perpetuals. The 
Roses this season have been as far in advance of those 
shown last May as the latter were on the exhibitions of 
1847 and 1848. No doubt the fine spring was a great 
cause of this effect, still, the growers deserve all praise 
and encouragement; I would not lose the sight for all 
the launches of all the vessels afloat. Such a sight may 
never be seen again; ten days of hot, dry weather, is 
worse for forced Roses, than war and pestilence are to us. 
Mr. Lane took the best prize for Roses, Mr. Frances and 
Mr. Paul coming after him. I had the good fortune to 
find Mr. Lane and Mr. Paul in a good talkative mood. 
I do not happen to know Mr. Frances, and I got out of 
them the whole art and mystery of forcing Roses to 
this perfection; and here they are, and almost in 
the very words of Mr. Lano, before two witnesses, 
as good growers nearly as himself. First. To take 
all Roses, whatsoever, on their own roots. This is 
the greatest secret of all, but 1 have all along in¬ 
sisted on it. Secondly. To give them the very best 
compost of rotten turf, and rotten cow or pig dung; 
the turf to be from the best yellow loam of meadow, 
moor, or common; to give them good pot-room; not to 
force them at all for the first three years, or very slightly, 
and never but very gently ; for every plant you mean to 
exhibit you ought to put ten plants in progress; not that 
nine of them are going to fail, for there is hardly one in a 
hundred expected to fail; but that there are ten chances 
to one against a plant being out in full bloom and in 
perfection on a given day. Never to allow them to 
want water for two hours in succession; never to give 
them too much water. Always to allow them as much 
light as the sun and the best glass will allow, except 
it be in the middle of very bright sunny days, when a 
little shade favours and refreshes them. Never to close 
all the ventilators till the mercury falls below zero; to 
allow as much air as they can breathe, night and day, 
unless the night is very cold indeed. To ripen them 
thoroughly in the autumn; to rest them completely in 
the winter; to prune them when they are one-quarter, 
one half, or three-parts rested, according to the times of 
forcing, or of exhibition; not to prune them closo, and, 
of course, not to throw away the cuttings. To make a 
point of looking at them the last thing in the evening, 
and the first thing next morning, all the time they are 
under glass, and not less than twice a week while they 
are at rest. On my expressing a wish that 1 was young 
again, to try all these necessary points, and also to try 
and beat the great grower himself, he candidly confessed 
that the whole secret was in a nut-shell: “ Keep them on 
their own roots, and you may defy the Russians; none 
of my plants before you are worked but Paul llicaut.” 
And why him? Because he was too valuable at tire time 
to be made into cuttings; but young Paul. Picauts are. 
getting up on their own legs, to fight the battles of the 
exhibitions. 
Mr. Paul is the only man of weight, or authority, 
who stood out against all England, Ireland, and Scot¬ 
land, in throwing cold wator on the Manettii for dwarf 
stocks. In his beautiful book on Roses he writes 
against the Manettii', and in the last supplement to it, 
and, indeed, in all his writing and conversations, you 
can perceive his dislike for it. Now, I thought all along 
that there must bo some real grounds, which none of 
us understood, on which one man could venture his 
credit and his fame against a whole kingdom ; and know¬ 
ing that many good writers hesitate to put things in 
black and white, which they know to be right and trite, 
for fear of criticism, I was most anxious to pump 
out of Mr. Lane wlmt his real private opinion of 
this Manettii stock is, now that he has so success¬ 
fully proved that no pot Rose should have any other 
stock but its own. He told me, candidly, and he knows I 
cannot keep a secret, that, unfortunately, it is but too 
true about all that Mr. Paul ever said against this stock; | 
and he was going to relate about bow he had worked ! 
five thousand Manettii one season—their fate, fickle- ; 
ness, or failures, I know not which, for a noble lord 
called him away just at that point in the story, to speak 
about buying Roses. After that, I saw a crowd of great ; 
ladies round all the growers, some who came back from 
the launch, and I could get no more Rose information J 
of the first class that day. 
And now for my own report of the prize plants 
as they |stood on Mr. Lane’s part of the tables. The 
first was a magnificent large plant of a Tea Rose, 
called Madame de St. Joseph, a new one to the exhibi¬ 
tions, with immense largo pink and salmon flowers, 
not so bronzy as Bouycre, but in that style of 
flower; it bad fifteen full, open blooms, and a number 
of flower-buds coming on: this is a vigorous, strong 
grower, and is as sweet as a tea-caddy. Auhernon, a 
hybrid perpetual of old standing, with fifteen large pink 
and red roses open, and twenty more flowers in different 
stages: this plant was five feet high and four feet 
across the bottom. Clicnedole, an old hybrid China, with 
sixteen full open blooms, bright crimson: this, also, 
was five feet high and four feet across the pot. 
Vivountess de Gazes, a yellow Tea Rose, three feet by 
three feet, and fourteen bright yellow blooms, which 
were more regular in form than I ever saw it before. 
Noisette Lanark, six to seven feet high and three feet i 
across, with twenty-one splendid white roses, and a 
great number of rose-buds coming. Paul llicaut, a 
hybrid China, with twenty-nine full-blown roses, all of 
a bright, rosy-crimson; and the next best Rose we have, 
after Geant des Batailles; but it is only a summer Rose, 
it was a worked plant, four feet high, and four feet across 
the bottom shoots; besides the twenty-nine blown 
flowers, there were twenty-two ready to open shortly, and 
many later buds. Duchess of Sutherland, a favourite 
hybrid perpetual, with twenty of its pale rose blooms, 
the bush being five feet high, and four feet in diameter. 
Paul Perms, a hybrid China, with as many blooms as 
Paul llicaut, six feet high and five >feet across; splen¬ 
did light rosy blooms. Souvenir d’un And, the most 
splendid, and one of the most vigorous of all the Tea- 
scented Roses; not unlike the Mahnaison Rose, but 
more rosy in the middle. It was a seven-feet-liigh pillar, 
with twenty flowers open, and only nine buds besidos; 
the diameter of this magnificent pillar was three feet, 
and the centre stem was stout enough for a Standard 
Rose; it should never be budded on any stock. The 
Queen, or La lieine, another magnificent bush, five feet 
by five feet,,' and twenty-seven full-blown roses, with ten 
flower buds ready to open, and such buds as no other 
is seen with, with about forty buds in different stages of 
development, a perfect sight in itself. Mr. Bircham, 
near Bungay, is the only other grower of Roses with 
whom 1 had seen such magnificence in La Heine, and 
that was at a bazaar near Ipswich. Coupe de Hebe, \ 
every lady’s favourite Rose, but, unfortunately, only a 
summer Rose, being a hybrid China. This plant stood 
six feet high and five feet across; it had twenty-seven 
open flowers, and eighty in different stages! and Comte 
de Paris Tea Rose, in the way of the Mahnaison Rose, but 
of a more fleshy or blush tint; it was four feet high and 
two feet across, and had eighteen full-blown roses be¬ 
sides. Now, count all these open roses on twelve plants, 
and consider the room required for a full viow of all 
parts of the plants, and say if ever such a sight was j 
seen before. The next twelve plants were within a | 
