November 6. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
85 
but very likely no dealer grows such old things. Mr. 
Jeffries, of Ipswich, has a large stock of the Garland 
dahlia, the next best of the bedding kinds, but it is not 
nearly so dwarf as we must have them in a few years 
if we mean to have regular beds of them. After all, 
the whole question is a matter of taste, and the uni¬ 
versal adoption of great fancy sorts in almost every 
garden, renders it questionable if these dwarf, starry, 
and ragged sorts would be tolerated by those who make 
the first enquiries after them. It was only from the [ 
very highest classes that I learned this turn of fashion ; 
for my own part, if I could get single dahlias, such as I 
could picture from imagination, I would never plant a 
double one in a flower-bed at all, and if I did grow any 
double ones, I would have them all in one place by 
themselves, away from the flower-beds. 
Evergreens. —I do not now concur in the general 
belief that the autumn is the best time to plant all 
kinds of evergreens indiscriminately. Within the last 
two years I have planted evergreens every week in the 
year, more from necessity than choice it is true, but 
still, the result of the whole convinces me, that a dog¬ 
matic adherence to this or that given period of the year 
is just as bad and unphilosopbical as the old prejudice 
in favour of planting all kinds of evergreens late in the 
spring. Yet I have been as deep in the mud as any 
other writer in recommending these two extremes in 
their turns; but we should never be too old to learn 
from experience, and a Companion like this should 
touch only on matters founded on actual practice. 
That vast assemblage of evergreens belonging to the 
natural order Conifers, from the Cedar of Lebanon down 
to the trailing juniper, should be planted off-hand now 
as soon as possible, as from the middle of July to the 
beginning of October, according to the weather after 
St. Swithun’s day, is certainly the best time of the year 
to plant or transplant the whole of them. November is 
as good a time as can be, on the other hand, to remove 
evergreens of all kinds, provided that large balls of 
earth be removed with them. Hollies, Laurustinus, 
Alaternus, Phillyreas, and Tree Box will transplant as 
well in May and June as at any other time of the year, 
of that I am quite certain; I have removed hundreds of 
them in May and June without losing a twig. On the 
other hand, all these, and many more besides, will 
answer as well if planted now, but that is no reason for 
giving up the old plan of late spring planting such 
evergreens as do well at that time, although we need 
not do so from choice. The whole question amounts to 
this :—All evergreens succeed if planted in the autumn; 
a great number of them will do better from being 
planted in the autumn, and will not transplant safely 
except in the autumn ; while a large portion of them 
may be planted every day in the year with almost equal 
success. That appears to me to be the right state of 
the question, and here I leave it for the present, and 
pass on to the roses. 
November and May are the two best months to remove 
Roses. All the young and tender ones in pots we turn 
out in May, but for all those on their own roots, Novem¬ 
ber is the best month to remove them; this is also the 
best time to train down the strong hybrid perpetuals, on 
the principle of little or no pruning, as explained in my 
last letter, and it is also the best time to prune all roses 
that are weak, or nothing more than of common 
strength. Indeed, all roses which require close pruning 
should be cut in November, unless there is some par¬ 
ticular object in view to justify their being put off till 
the spring, such as, for instance, a desire to have them 
in bloom later than usual, or to check over-luxuriance, 
as late spring pruning is known to do. 
I subjoin lists of the best roses for different purposes, 
every one of which is well worth having, and we can 
refer back to them for a year or two in our answers to 
correspondents who may not be so lucky as to possess 
our former volumes. 
There is an old and very pretty rose called Crested 
Moss, though it is not a moss rose at all, and I. wonder 
that some of our best growers still continue to class it 
among their moss roses. Seven years since I offered to 
one of our greatest rose-growers live guineas for a plant 
of a Moss Rose and crested, that is, having the flower- 
cup fringed as completely as the legs of a bantam cock. 
Damask Perpetual. —The best in this division is the 
old rose which nsed to be called Lees Perpetual —the 
right name of it is Rose du Roi, or Crimson Perpetual— 
and Mogador, or Crimson Superb; this is an improve¬ 
ment on Lee’s Perpetual. They are two of the best 
roses in the world. 
Hybrid Perpetual. —In choosing out of this very ex¬ 
tensive class, the strongest growers should be preferred, 
and thos8 which open well in the autumn, and they 
should be on their own roots, or, if they must be budded, 
Madame Laffay is the best stock for them. They all 
grow from cuttings as freely as gooseberries. Baronne 
Prevost is the largest flower, Mrs. Elliot the strongest 
grower; this and William Jesse may always be known 
by the metallic-like shine of the outer petals. The shade 
of Comte de Montalivet is different from all other roses; 
it is a kind of light bronze, and the guard-petals fold in 
towards the centre of the flower, another peculiarity 
which no other rose exhibits ; Geant des Batailles is the 
most brilliant rose known. Madame Laffay is the 
hardiest and the latest flowering of this class:— Augus¬ 
tine Mouchelet, Baronne Prevost, Chateaubriand, Clemen¬ 
tine Seringe, Comte de Montalivet, Cornet, Duchess of 
Sutherland, Geant des Batailles, Jacques Lafitte, La 
Reine, Standard of Marengo, Madame Laffay, William 
Jesse, Mrs. Elliot. I have grown every one of the above, 
and a score more of the same cast, except the Standard 
of Marengo. 
Bourbon Roses. —The best of these blossom in the 
autumn, and some of them are very beautiful for beds, 
with few exceptions. They also should be grown on 
their own roots, or, at any rate, the strong growing ones. 
One great advantage in having Bourbon Roses on their 
own roots in flower-beds is, that if a very severe winter 
should damage them, they would soon throw up fine 
fresh shoots from the collar, or from the strongest of the 
roots, like the China Roses, from which the Bourbons 
first originated. Comte d’Eu, Paul Joseph, Proserpine, 
Soucliet, Dupetit Thouars, and George Cuvier, would 
make a splendid bed of dwarf roses, with mixed rich 
dark colours; and in cold soil would do better budded 
on stocks of the Manetti Rose, not more than four inches 
out of the ground; but they and Emelic Courtier, -And 
several others of that style of growth, should never be 
budded for standards, as they seldom live more than two 
or three years on tall standards. Another section of 
these Bourbons take after Madame Desprez, making 
long vigorous shoots, which bloom at the ends in large 
clusters; these, also, are not well adapted for standards, 
they are best suited for low walls, pales, or for stakes 
and poles. D. Beaton. 
To be continued. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Preserving Plants over the Winter : Calceo¬ 
larias. —Next to scarlet geraniums, the shrubby and 
half-shrubby varieties of these are the greatest favourites 
with our friends of the window, the balcony, and the 
small flower-plot, and deservedly so, for lew flowers 
delight us so long with their continuous trusses of 
bloom. In speaking of preserving them through the 
winter, I wish my observations to apply not to those 
