THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[July 24. 
254 
to be carried out with a special regard to the blossom- 
bud, and would speedily resolve itself into protection 
of blossom. 
We pass on now to the second period of retardation, 
namely, a little before the fruit in question commences 
its last swelling. This period, of course, varies in our 
fruits; but it is well known, that nearly all of them, 
after the first swelling, remain stationary, to all appear¬ 
ance, as to their extension, for some weeks; the straw¬ 
berry, and, perhaps, the rasp, excepted. We have 
repeatedly covered fruits at this stage, and accomplished 
the end in view without any ill effect; and, therefore, 
dare recommend it. With regard to such fruits as the 
gooseberry, the currant, the rasp, and such-like hardy 
fruits, the covering may be allowed to produce a con¬ 
siderable amount of shade; but with our more tender 
things, as the peach and the nectarine, the shading can 
scarcely be too light. 
The last period of retardation, as before observed, 
must, of necessity, be when the fruit is ripe. Every¬ 
body knows that ripe fruit, in general, may be kept a 
good while, even when gathered, if proper means be 
taken. How much more so when adhering to the tree. 
Now the same conditions are requisite in both cases, 
namely, as low a temperature as possible, and a slight 
circulation of dry air. Whatever the material be, then, 
by which the tree or bush is shaded, it should not be 
impervious. We find canvass, possessing a stoutish 
thread, yet with tolerably open meshes, the best thing. 
Unquestionably, however, improvements will, before 
long, take place in sucli materials for garden purposes. 
Impervious materials, or things of a MTntosh character, 
might answer well, it may be, better than the canvass; 
but tbe amount of attention required would be too much 
for ordinary cases, inasmuch, as such covers would re¬ 
quire to be taken off every fine day, or, at least, once or 
twice a week, in order to prevent the lodgment of damp. 
In all cases of covering, in order to retard fruits, it is 
most essential that they be frequently examined. Be 
as careful as we may, circumstances will occur when 
mouldiness, damp, &c., will be engendered, and prove 
fatal, unless a free circulation of air is permitted; this, 
too, even in the most genial seasons. If so, what must 
be the case in ungenial ones? Besides all this, some 
seasons are notorious for a deficiency of solar light; no 
cut-and-dry rules, therefore, for shading fruits can be 
rigidly adhered to. All requires caution, and a careful 
consideration of those principles on which not only 
retarding depends, but the future welfare of tbe trees. 
It has been well observed “ there is no royal road to 
geometry,” and neither is there to gardening. The best 
of plans, supposed to be founded on correct principles, 
may be nullified and set at nought by unexpected 
contingencies. Verily, our old poets were right in 
affirming “ there is no rose without a thorn.” Thorn¬ 
less roses there may be, but they will not repay the 
trouble of plucking. R. Errington. 
THE ELOWER-GARDEN. 
Roses. —No sooner do we get the flower-garden up to 
the full standard of our ideas of perfection, as they now 
are, or ought to be, than we begin to think of how we 
can improve it, or, at any rate, provide for it the 
year following. Every one who can afford an extra bed 
next year, cannot do better than go to work immediately 
with the cream of all the new roses. Geant ties Battailles, 
the best one in every respect for planting by itself, in 
groups, or in beds. For such a purpose, if the soil is 
light and rich, it will do as well, if not better, on its 
own roots as if worked on the dog-rose; and cuttings of 
it put in now, under a hand-glass, or even without a 
glass behind a wall, will be ready to jdant out in the 
beds next February, and be ready to bloom abundantly 
next summer. There is no way of showing off this 
most splendid rose half so well as having it entirely by 
itself. It should never be disgraced by working it ram¬ 
pant-mop fashion, as a standard. Tall standard roses 
are getting less fashionable every year, and I rejoice at 
the change. Nothing above three-feet stems are now 
admitted into first-rate gardens, with people of good 
taste; and for rose-beds, if they are budded just out of 
the ground, it is better than anything higher. At the 
present moment, I would bud every rose sucker that I 
could find, all over the garden, instead of pulling them 
up as we usually do; and, for the first two or three years, 
1 would let them take their chance. If the suckers were 
from some old standard, the new rose, or, indeed, any 
roses budded on them, would help to hide tbe ugly, 
naked stems, and by that time, or sooner, some good 
genius of the rosary might kill or injure the head, 
leaving a full bottom and a choicer sort or sorts behind. 
This is the only way I know of for reconciling us to 
part with an old favourite standard rose, which we our¬ 
selves, or some one dear to us, had budded years ago. 
This is an experiment I have over and over again 
indulged in, and I always found it as I say. About 
seven or eight years since, I had a beautiful little rose, 
a perpetual, on a tallisb standard. It did not seem 
quite at home, and the standard was prone to make 
suckers. I budded some of the strongest of the suckers, 
about a foot from the ground, with Gloire de Rosamene, 
which we did not know then to be so loath to grow on 
any but its own roots. I also budded about a hundred 
of it on different stocks that same season, all of which 
have been dead long since, except the one on the sucker; 
but that one grew away famously, and soon hid the 
naked stem, and sucked the juices from the roots, so as 
to hasten the downfall of the little favourite rose, which 
was cut away at last, leaving one-half of the stem for a 
stake to the Rosamene, and there it is to this day, and, 
perhaps, the only real good-worked plant of the sort, 
and of the same age, in the country. 
But there are top as well as bottom suckers to be 
dealt with, when one is short of stocks. Many old 
standards, when they get hide-bound, and also some 
young ones that are not vigorous enough to take up 
the sap as fast as it comes to them, cause the stock 
to push out a strong shoot or two just below where 
the top was budded on; and nine persons out of ten 
snap off such as soon as they can see them, but that is 
very bad practice. Wbat they cut them off for is, as 
they say, because they rob the lawful head of the 
portion of the sap which flows to their own wild, luxu¬ 
riant leaves,—a plausible theory, certainly, but it is 
founded in error, and it is most certainly against the 
laws of nature to cut out such suckers at all the first 
season, and more so, if the head has been languishing 
for the last year or two. The right way to deal with j 
wildings issuing from just below the head of a standard I 
rose, is to see that they do not get above the head, by 
stopping them. There is no question about these shoots 
being able to rob the head, and ultimately to kill it, 
perhaps, if they were allowed to grow on in their own 
way; but it is equally true that, in a few months, two 
or three wild shoots, if not allowed to gain more strength 
than those forming the head, would be capable of re- 
newing tbe health and strength of both stem and head ! 
of an unhealthy rose-tree. Practice, in a thousand in- I 
stances, has proved this theory to be the true solution of 
what we gardeners call “ robber-shoots,” and few things 
can be more easily explained than how all this is 
brought about. 
Take a standard rose of any age or size in any garden i 
in England, and unless the head is one of the climbing 
sorts, or what we call weeping-roses, it is two to one if 
the stem is healthy. A dog-rose will fight its way in a | 
