January 2. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
257 
aud caterpillar, and all blights, took to them more than 
ever all through the summer, and it was late in the 
autumn before the tine harvest weather told effectually 
in their favour, and so forth. But, strange to say, there 
is a garden not far from me here, in a flat part of the 
country, and only a few feet above the level of the 
Thames, where about twenty or two dozen kinds of the 
best Tea Roses passed last winter and spring without 
the least apparent injury to any one of them, and yet 
they had not the smallest protection of any sort for 
years; some are on their own roots, some are worked 
low, and some are on standards; but all “ fared” alike, 
to use a Suffolk phrase. From Kew Bridge, or, at least, 
from Richmond to Chobham, the land on either side of 
the Thames is generally very sandy, and water is not far 
from the surface; in some parts along the river the ponds 
and ditches are full, or well filled all the year round; 
the garden I allude to is surrounded on all sides, and 
close to it, with pond and ditch water, or, I might say, 
Dutch water, for this really is a hollow land, or Holland 
to the very letter, barring the fine timber; and yet, for 
all that, we can beat all the Rosaries in Great Britain, 
as I have often told. 
There is nothing known to mo to excel some of the 
Pillar Roses at Bank Grove, the seat of W. Byam 
Martin, Esq.; and in all the gardens round about, where 
people are fond of Roses, they, the Roses, do as well, 
and much better, than growers on strong loam could 
hardly believe. The Tea Roses which I allude to are 
growing in two-thirds black sand and one-third rotten- 
dung and vegetable remains, on a damp, flat bottom— 
that being the kind of compost of which the garden is 
composed; and to my certain knowledge, no Tea Roses 
can bloom better than they do, year after year, and this 
autumn in particular. The only thing which I can see 
in their favour, is, that the gardener is a Rose fancier, 
and knows what he is about Well, what I was going, 
to say, is this: are we sure, that we ourselves do not 
kill Tea Roses more than the frost, by the way we grow 
them out-of-doors? I think many of us do kill them by 
too much kindness, too much loam, and in situations 
too dry for them by far in summer; and I am among 
the number, as I shall tell presently. But, first of all, 
let me tell my experience beyond twenty years back. 
When I was experimenting on stove and greenhouse 
plants, in open-air beds, the top soil was too heavy, and 
the whole of it had to be moved down to the rocky 
gravel on which the garden stands. The beds were thou 
filled from the top spit from Bromsberrow common, 
mixed with as much rotten and half-rotten leaves as I 
could spare; but not to the extent of one-third of the 
mass, oxcept the last nine or ten inches on the top of 
the beds, which might be about the proportion of two- 
thirds turf to one-third leaf-mould. This common was 
of a bastard kind of half peat and half black-sand, far 
too light for Rhododendrons ; but the Messrs. Wheeler, 
from Gloucester, and even the nurserymen round Wor¬ 
cester, used to take it for their American plants; their 
nurseries being on more moist bottoms than our experi¬ 
mental beds, which we filled with the fresh turf, chopped 
up at once. Almost every kind of plant would grow in 
these beds for two or three years, and it was easy to 
renew them from the common close at hand ; but what 
used to surprise people was, that marsh plants, as 
Gannas and Hedychiums flourished there so well; also 
Juslicias, and others which like very rich soil, as Salvias. 
It was in one of these experimental beds that the first 
Salvia falgens flowered in England ; also the first of it 
in Scotland, I sent to Mr. Barnot, then gardener to the 
Caledonian Horticultural Society. I bought it for nine- 
pence, in a mistake, from the Messrs. Young of Epsom; 
but next year it was up to ten shillings aud sixpence, 
and I made a good harvest of it by exchanging to fill 
the experimental beds; but I lost tho credit of having 
first flowered it. Then, and at that time, the Odorata 
Rose aud the Ghent Azaleas were new plants in the 
West of England ; and Douglas’s things were tumbling 
in by handfuls from the Horticultural Society. His 
Calocliortus venusta and splendens perished in one of 
these beds, and they have not been heard of since. 
But let mo keep to my text,—the Odorata, or Tea Rose. 
In 1830, Mr. Ellis, who was gardener to the Marquis 
of Bath, at Longleat, and after that to the Lord Bishop : 
of Armagh, and since dead, wrote a letter on the Odorata 
Rose, in the “ Gardener’s Magazine,” and, fora year or 
two after that, no Rose was ever more sought after than 
the Odorata. I bought it, I begged it, and I exchanged 
largely for it, to put it into the experimental beds; aud 
I question if ever it flourished in any beds so well since; 
certainly not with me, for I tried it in far better beds, as 
I thought, both at Kingsbury and at Shrubland Park. 
The first bed was forty feet long, eighteeen inches wide, i 
aud fifteen inches above the natural surface, and against 
the south front wall of a conservatory; it was filled with ‘ 
the best yellow loam from Watford Common, and leaf- j 
mould, and some rotten dungs; and the second border 
was also a raised one, and filled with the best yellow j 
loam, and the best rotten dung and leaf-mould, but I 
the Tea Roses would not do well in either, although the 
same loams did well enough for them in pots under 
shelter. This is my own experience, and every one 
now recommends the best yellow loam, and the best 
rotten dung for them; but I fear we have gone too far, 
and I think that fresh turfy soil, from a poor common, 
with rich leaf-mould, and rotten dung, is the best for 
them out-of-doors. My own experimental beds, in Here¬ 
fordshire, and the experience of Mr. Thomas Manners, 
gardener to the Lady Lambert, in this neighbourhood, 
go to confirm my opinion. At all events, if any one 
takes up the subject as I lay it down, and as I mean to 
, try it myself, this next season, the bottom and body of 
his bed, for Tea Roses, must be just contrary to the 
ideas of the present day. 
I recollect very well, that twenty years ago, when 
Mr. Rivers first classified the Roses into groups, that ho 
used to write and say, that pure sand and rotten dung 
was best for tender ones in clay soils; but now he, and 
all the great Rose men, stick more to what suits them 
best in pots, and having failed that way, and knowing 
of the all but universal failure with others, I want now 
to return to the practice of times long gone by, and use 
poor, half peaty soil, or black, sandy soil, aud very rich, 
rotten dung, with loaf-mould, to see whether wo may 
not overcome the difficulty of having Tea Roses in the 
open ground, as well as other Roses. If tho bed for 
them is on a dry bottom, let it be eighteen inches deep; 
but if clay, ton inches will be better, and tho next six 
inches below to be of drainage materials; anything, 
from rough cinders to pebbly stones, such as they mend 
roads with, and a rubble drain in the bottom of all; let 
this bed be filled with fresh top soil, from the poorest ; 
common or roadside in the parish, one-hall'; and let the 
other half be the richest things that can be put together; 
very rotten pig-dung or cow-dung, or both mixed with 
leaf-mould, or any dead mould from vegetable remains, 
such as tho “ rotten heap " in the back-yard. If the 
common from which tho turf is cut is of as good peat as 
Bagshot Common, all the better and safer; then a full 
spade deep may be taken, so as to get some of the poor, 
black, sandy parts, which always lie below good surface- 
peat, to mix with the rest If the soil of the common 
is at all brown or yellow it may bo sandy enough, but 
it is not lit for.such a bed as I contemplate. I burnt my 
fingers that way already, and I put great stress on 
having what you might call bastard peat; but do not 
go to too much expense with it, rather let us feel our way ; 
into it. 1 am only going to try a couple of yards of it, 
in a trench eighteen inches wide, in the middle of the i 
