June 30. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
239 
! without judging for themselves. This Golden Queen 
was from Mr. Robertson, gardener to Lady Emily Eoley, 
at Stoke Edith Park, where I have spent some pleasant 
days, in Herefordshire. There were also Oranges, 
Lemons, Citrons (a fine dessert dish when preserved), 
with Gamboge, Rose Aqiple, and Vanilla, from Sion 
House. Pino Apples were not so good as we had them 
i in the winter; the Noblesse and Royal George were the 
j chief Peaches; and the Elruge and Violette Hative, 
j the chief Nectarines, and they were wonderfully well 
; coloured. 
Large Conservatory. —One of the finest plants in 
! the large conservatory of the Horticultural Society is 
i the Norfolk Island Pine (Araucaria excelsa). The top of 
this fine tree reached the glass, and had to be cut back 
some time ago ; and soon after that a new leader started 
up as if nothing had happened, a very rare thing indeed 
among Conifers; now there arc three or four more 
leaders stalled from the broken-off part, but quite small 
as compared to the first one; and when I say that each 
of these secondary leaders might be cut off, made into 
cuttings, that the cuttings will root in the hands of a 
good propagator, aud that plants so raised are just as 
good, and as likely to make handsome trees as seedlings 
from native seeds, I affirm more than half the gardeners 
in the country are aware of. Indeed, there is no more 
reason for this, the handsomest and the most valuable 
tree, in some of our colonies, among all the conifer 
tribes, being either scarce or dear, or difficult to get in 
abundance. There are some propagators who would 
strike it with as few losses as a pot of Verbena cuttings, 
the only difference would be in the time. There is a 
proof, in this house, that breaking off the leader of the 
tree does not hurt it in the least; but suppose a good 
stock plant of it in a large pot, turned into the stove 
early in March on purpose for propagation; as soon as 
growth is begun whip off the first cutting by taking the 
very top ; if you could now apply a slight bottom-heat, 
there would be three or four more cuttings ready to take 
before the end of April, and in taking them, the best 
way would be to cut off that part from which they issued 
along with them, leaving a part of the stump full of 
fresh eyes or buds, which, in their turn, would sooner 
start under the stimulus than any buds that might yet 
be unstarted on the upper portion, and this might go on 
all the season, and a constant supply ot the best kinds 
of cuttings be at command, from a single plant only, 
and that plant, too, even if stumped down to within a 
few inches of the pot, has only to be allowed to carry 
one shoot, and it will soon run up, form a tree, and be 
'as healthy as ever in a year or two. 
The white and the red Daturas were in magnificent 
bloom in this house, which seems to suit them and the 
Acacia perfectly; and some of the original Tea-scented 
Roses, that were planted when this house was first filled, 
are yet very good. I noticed Mansais and Ganboult 
as very fair, notwithstanding the murderous attacks of 
the roots of the huge monsters which overshadow them; 
and the beautiful Luculia gratissima is now suffering 
severely from the same cause, and although it may go 
on flowering for a few more years, it is past the art of 
man to make a fine looking plant of it as it is. But let 
me stick to the Roses, if only to say, that after seeing 
how well the finer Roses did at first in this conservatory, 
aud even some of them do now, under such disadvan¬ 
tages, because the house is raised on a terrace, four feet 
or more, above the general level of the garden—after 
seeing that, I say, it is very difficult to believe that the 
rose-growers who planned and planted the new rose- 
house for the society, did not do so purposely to befool 
them—I said as much the first moment I saw it, and 
now the proof is as evident as. the “ proof of the 
pudding.” The new rose-house is a dead and dis¬ 
graceful failure, from no cause of the construction of 
the house, or after-management of the plants, but solely j 
and entirely from the stupid plan of sinking the beds 
below the level of the garden, on the one hand ; and 
then forming these beds as steep as the roof of a house, 
so that no mortal coidd ever water one of them unless 
he first made a cup in the face of the bank to hold the 
water. I am quite vexed with this experiment. It ! 
was only a year or two before it was tried, that Mr. 
Fleming and myself proposed and discussed the subject 
of rose-houses, in general, for large establishments, in 
our private correspondence, and we had a ripe plan 
ready, the very reverse of that adopted by the rose- ! 
growers, to whom the Society good naturedly gave up | 
their garden and their money, and now, instead of j 
doing good, this single experiment will throw back the 
system six or seven years at the least, for where can 
you find a gentleman who will listen to the subject in 
print, or entertain a petition from his lady and his 
gardener, after seeing the failure in the Society’s garden. 
When things are at the worst, they mend, according to 
the adage; but I question if the Roses in this house 
will ever mend, or be much better than they are; but 
how to arrange for a rose-house that would answer in 
any locality, is one of the simplest problems in garden 
contrivances—the same soil, the same wood aud glass, 
and, probably, the same plants, might be so arranged 
on the very same spot they stand on, as to grow such 
Roses as none of us have ever yet dreamed of. I am as 
sure of that as I am of my own existence, aud I would 
undertake to do it with my own hands, old as I am. I 
do not think it at all necessary that the bed in a rose- 
house, like that in this house, should be lower than the 
surrounding ground in any garden in Great Britain or 
Ireland. In the south of France and in Italy it might 
be necessary to do "so, a little in some situations, on 
account of the dry, hot summers; on the contrary, the 
rose-bed to be covered with glass should be raised a 
little above the surrounding soil in the highest garden 
in the kingdom ; but in the garden at Chiswick, on a 
dead level, very difficult to drain, and within a few feet 
of the tide mark, it would be an expensive job to make 
a rose-bed of this kind sufficiently high above the 
surface, and all such beds ought to be a dead level on 
the surface, and nothing else, so that a drop, or a glass 
full of water, would sink down into it just where it was 
intended. 
Glass Walls.— I had not sufficient time to examine 
the specimen of this kind of shelter tor bait-hardy 
things, but the general impression among the craft is 
against them also; yet the Society was perfectly justi¬ 
fied, and even liberal, to allow the experiment to be 
tested in their own garden, as well as that of the rose- 
house ; and it is better that they allowed the rose- 
growers, who supplied the plants gratis, to have it all 
their own way; and although they made a mess of it, 
we are not bound to follow their plan. The failure 
will be a warning to all who may entertain the strange 
notion that Roses, like Rose-bays (Rhododendrons), 
will answer better if sunk beneath the surface in such 
a climate as ours. 
All other parts of the garden looked better and 
fresher than I ever recollect to have seen it. The 
Wistaria was nearly over, and the original Indigo- 
fera decora was in flower-bud outside, with the bottom 
shoots turning quite woody, while in a pot iuside it was 
full in bloom ; everybody ought to grow this handsome, 
hardy plant, and a dry rockwork seems to suit it. The j 
new Tree Pceonies have made a large growth, and three 
kinds of them were in bloom, and quite different from 
the old ones. There was every appearance of a large 
crop of the different hardy fruits; and I was pleased 
to *see that the Society continue to appreciate my own 
seedling Geraniums and Petunias for beds. I saw a 
new bedding Geranium, of the Unique breed, in one j 
