December 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
247 
: that disappoints me, and I am sorely puzzled what to do 
I with it. A friend informs me, on the authority of Mr. Rivers, 
1 the great Rose-grower, that it will not flower on its own roots. 
If such is a fact, I intend to throw it away; hut I would 
rather wait for your judgment in your excellent Cottage 
Gardener .—Lanc astrie n sis . ’ ’ 
[This is another instance of the danger of letting well 
alone, and of the value of summer-pruning such Roses as 
grow too strong without flowering, n lair'd, and other 
hybrid climbers, seldom bloom if well pruned in the 
winter and are not touched during the summer, and this 
happens whether they are on their own roots or are worked 
plants. August and September is the proper time for 
Lamarque to flower well, and such plants ought, certainly, to 
have their annual pruning in June. Every shoot that is at 
all strong ought then to be cut to two-thirds of its length, 
and the shoots which rise immediately from the other third 
are the proper flowering shoots. Weak shoots need not be 
i cut back in June, nor at any time ; they are not natural to 
! such strong Roses, and ought to be cut clean away in the 
winter. All shoots on this class of Roses, that are too much 
crowded, ought to be thinned out in winter, the rest to be 
left their full length till early in June. Take up your 
Lamarque immediately; shorten the shoots a little; plant it 
in the same place; cut out all the small shoots, and leave 
the rest till June; and our word on it, you shall have 
splendid Roses from it.] 
WHICH IS THE BEST EVERGREEN ROSE? 
“ Which is the best perpetual Rose to blow this summer 
and autumn, to place against a south and a west wall; the 
west being protected from the north. All the excellencies 
of the Rose being required — in colour, sweetness, and 
shape ? An evergreen is wished for; but such a thing is, for 
the duration of bloom, out of the question. The wall is 
eight or ten feet high.—A Well-wisher." 
[This question has been often asked, but there is no 
evergreen Rose to flower through the summer and autumn, 
nor an evergreen Rose of any kind, except the old 
Macartney Lose. The nearest Rose to that which this, and 
other correspondents w r ant, is still Madam LaJJ'ay ; that good 
old Rose, on its own roots, against a wall, will keep green 
till the end of January, and flower later in the autumn than 
any other Rose we possess, and in a few years will reach up 
eight or nine feet against a wall. It flowers equally well on 
the Dog Rose stock, but will not keep green so long that 
way.] 
MERITS OF ROSES. 
“ Among some bedding Roses supplied from a first-rate 
nursery, there are the following, which I do not find men¬ 
tioned in your valuable publication. Would you kindly give 
the following information, viz.: the kind (whether Noisette, 
Bourbon, or other], the colour, and the time of flowering. 
They are named as under— 
j “ Souvenir de Anselmo. 
“ Aristides. 
“Marqius de Murisnaris. 
—A Subscriber.” 
i [Your three Roses are not first, second, nor third rate, for 
| we have all the names of such at our fingers ends, down to 
I last September, but wo are not aware of having ever heard 
such names as yours, unless, perhaps, Aristides, and that we 
think we have seen or heard about some years back. Scores 
of French Roses are introduced every year, which turn out 
good-for-nothing in this country, although they are highly 
priced and prized by the French growers. Yours may have 
been from a sample of the kind, and may be as good as 
they were said to be, but that, or anything about them, has 
certainly not been made known by the “ proper authorities.” 
j Show this paragraph to your dealer, and insist on the proper 
authority for his recommendation. If he can only give the 
word of an “ ally,” do not pay him till you prove the lot for 
yourself.] 
GROWING CONIFERS FROM CUTTINGS.—SILVER 
CEDAR. 
I “ The owner of the trees I wrote to you to enquire about 
has rubbed up his memory since I enquired about them, 
, and thinks now they were called the Silver Cedar, not the 
Silver Spruce; certainly, the former name, is much more 
appropriate, as they are just like the Cedar of Lebanon in 
habit, except being more upright and taper in form, and 
lighter in colour. Will you please to tell me when is the 
best time for taking cuttings of Cedars or Lines, as I have 
seen recommended as a means of increasing some of the 
rarer sorts.—E. W. T.” 
[In warlike times, the best attributes of a nation or an 
individual, are, first of all, courage ; then truth ; and, last of 
all, kindness. With courage enough to tell the truth, and 
with kind feelings to all, we hesitate not to say that all that 
! has been written about getting Cedars, Pines, and Firs from 
j cuttings, is not worth a spent wadding from a “ Brown 
Bess." 
It is quite true that some of the very best propagators have 
struck cuttings of some of the kinds, just to show that they 
j are not to be beaten on their own ground ; but to write, and 
talk, and wish, and recommend, to plain dealing, common 
sense people, about this sort of gardening, is sheer folly; the 
thing cannot be done to any good purpose, and there is an 
end to it, and every lady ought to know that there is no 
earthly use in spending one’s time striking cuttings of Cedars 
of Lebanon, or of Atlas, or India, or of any of the Fir 
tribe, or of the Spruce tribe. Nevertheless, cuttings of all 
of them have rooted, and some prefer wasting time, and all 
may know that from the 5th to the 13th of September is 
the proper time to put in the cuttings ; that early in the 
morning is the best time of the day for taking the cuttings ; 
but we need not waste time and space about the matter. 
The Silver Cedar is only another name for the Mount Atlas 
Cedar, Cedrus eleyans .] 
ROSES FOR STANDARDS—GESNERA ZEBRINA. 
(The following arc a letter to Mr. Fish, and his answer) : 
“ My name is ‘Eeles,’ and, as it appears, we are both 
swimming in the same waters for our subsistence; though, 
probably, you might be a much larger fish, and swim in 
deeper waters than the eel can; yet, by your superior 
knowledge and guidance, I might venture to dive a little 
deeper, or swim something faster, with a little practice with 
you ; and as I do not believe you to be of the crab kind, or 
I might get a rap on my nose, with your hard knuckles, for 
this intrusion. Now for the sequel. I must first inform 
you, I commenced taking in The Cottage Gardener last 
January; but I find, since, I ought to have taken the first 
part in November, as I am two numbers, or parts, deficient. 
I suppose I could get the two back parts—that is, for No¬ 
vember and December—to complete the volume. I am 
sorry I did not take it in from its commencement, as I fear 
I have lost good information. 
“I certainly have read the pages of The Cottage 
Gardener with much interest, and some profit; and as your 
worthy old Boatman, or ‘ Beaton, can’t keep secrets,’ and as 
reader of your secrets, <fcc., I may venture to suppose you 
row in the same old boat very comfortably together for the 
benefit of your several correspondents, I shall, therefore, 
venture occasionally to ask your opinion in little matters. 
The first is, I am now making some little alterations in a 
small geometrical flower-garden, on turf; five feet is the 
general width between the beds, and, as the garden is a 
parallelogram, we have spaces between the curves, or heads 
of the beds, four on each side, in straight lines. On these 
open spaces I have formerly planted a large Tom Thumb 
Geranium ; but as I find there is room for a small circular 
bed four feet in diameter, I intend making eight circular 
beds, four on each side, exactly opposite to each other, and 
fill them with Roses ; I think of having the best perpetuals, 
but whether they shall be dwarfs, standards, or half-standards, 
I have not decided. I am not very partial to the full 
standard Rose ; and as our beds are on the dwarf, or bedding 
system, we have nothing more than two feet high, with the 
exception of a young Cryplomeria japonica in the centre, I 
have been thinking of dwarf pillar Roses for the four beds 
nearest the centre, trained as pyramidal Roses to three iron 
stakes, about five feet high, and of planting two or three 
good perpetuals, of different colours, in the other four beds. 
Nearer the end, I thought of grouping with dwarf plants of 
one good sort, and contrast of colours in a bed, which will 
be near the four corners of the garden. 
