September 26.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
393 
is in full bloom against tho laurel hedge, and seen at a 
distance on a dull morning or in the dusk of the evening, 
one might imagine the hedge was on fire. Now, every 
other plant in this hedge is cut down close to the ground 
every year, late in April, and hy this time the fresh 
shoots are from three to five feet long, after being once 
stopped in -I uly to cut away the first blossoms, so that 
the cut-down plants are only used for the autumn bloom. 
Next year these shoots will be trained against wire, 
almost at full length,, only the small side shoots being 
cut out, or very close, and the next set of plants cut in 
their turn. A stranger passing along this hedge could 
hardly perceive that anything particular is done to it, 
because the new shoots are trained as fast as they grow 
against the shoots of last year. Two points are thus 
gained—the hedge is not allowed to grow beyond a 
certain height, five feet, a plan which is necessary for 
that situation, and the enormous quantities of cut 
flowers it would yield. I have seen our boys make 
bouquets of roses in bud from this hedge, with a couple 
of rows of the buds of the old White China round the 
outside of it, and I am ashamed to say the diameters of 
them, they make thorn so large. 
Here, now, is a fair sample of how a gardener 
gets entangled in roses when he wants to work among 
them or write of them. Farther back I thought I 
would keep to the two roses on t.heir own roots, the 
hedge rose and Fulgore, but here the White China 
appears as an edging for a silly bouquet, and if I 
do not say something about it on the spot, I shall 
be besieged with letters. This is always the way 
when we let the pen slip, and mention a plant inci¬ 
dentally. This White China rose had the good fortune 
to come into the world before they found out the way 
to give roses such hard names, and, like old gardeners, 
very few people care anything about it; in short, T do 
not know if tbe nurserymen grow it at all, it is so old; 
but this I do know, that they grow no China rose half 
so useful. It is in full flower every day from May to 
December, and late in the season it is the only white 
rose one can pick to make a variety in the glasses. In 
November the buds of it are as hard as acorns, and as 
pointed as a bayonet, and if it is wet weather, the out 
side row of petals look much faded, and nine persons out 
of ten would pass it as gone; but strip off the faded 
covering and you have the nicest white rose bud you ever 
saw, and it will keep ten days fresh in a dry warm room. 
All the autumn roses for house decoration ought to be 
cut before the buds are more than half blown ; they will 
keep all the longer, and look as well if not better than 
if they were quite open; they escape the damp, and will 
open in the glasses. 
It often happens, that one’s garden in front or behind 
the house is a long narrow piece of ground, and the end 
farthest from the house is often taken up with choice 
vegetables, so that tbe flower and kitchen-gardens are 
almost all in one. Now, with that arrangement, this 
Gloire de Rosamene would be the very thing to make a 
hedge of to divide the two gardens from each other; and 
where the walks interfere, I would make an archway 
over them of a different rose for variety—say the 
Felicite Perpetuelle, the best of the evergreen section, 
and also tbe best of them to bud others on. Then, in 
June, how well the delicately white blossoms of this 
beautiful rose would contrast with the fiery red of the 
Glorie de Rosamene. Besides, one might well amuse one¬ 
self of an evening to bud perpetual roses all round the 
archway; for every rose in the catalogues will grow 
famously on the Felicite perpetuelle. To make this 
hedge thick, and to allow of every other plant of it, or 
every third plant, to be cut down, if that was thought 
advisable, the plants should stand a foot apart; and 
then on the flower-garden side of this splendid hedge I 
would plant a whole row of the old white China rose, 
and about two feet from the bottom of the liedgo. This 
arrangement would provide more roses at less cost of 
space in a small garden than any one could believe who 
did not see the plan tried. To keep the hedge in its 
proper place, a row of stakes would be required tbe 
second season after planting; and for the first two years 
the stakes need not be higher than a yard; because all 
that would be necessary would only be to keep the lower 
part of the hedge in a straight line; the tops might lean 
over on either side a little, and look all the more grace¬ 
ful; but as soon as the plants are of full strength, I 
think they would look best trained regularly as a hedge 
from “ top to bottom ”—as the mason built his house. 
There is no speculation in all this; I have had such a 
hedge under my control these seven years, and I am 
quite sure of the plan, and that there is nothing in the 
garden looks better. The stakes need not stand nearer 
than from six to nine feet apart, and small wires to pass 
from stake to stake, and eighteen inches from stretch to 
stretch. Very small wire will do, and a pound of it, for 
very little money, will run a long way. 
Another plan, which would add greatly to the pleasure 
of having such a beautiful hedge to divide one’s garden, 
would be to plant the Fulgore rose as every fourth or 
fifth plant in the hedge ; and, if one could get them so, 
the plants would do much better on their own roots. 
This Fulgore does not do well, I believe, anywhere 
worked on another plant, after the first few years. It 
would grow better on the Gloire de Rosamene itself than 
on any other rose, and might safely be budded on it as 
it stands in the hedge; and so might Madame Laffay, 
the third best rose for such a hedge. Fulgore is gone 
much out of fashion for the last few years, because it 
does not grow well on the dog-rose stock, at least, it will 
not live long on it if pruned close; but of all the late au¬ 
tumn roses it is by far the sweetest, and comes nearest the 
old Cahhagc rose in shape, and blooms as late as Madame 
Laffay; but the true way to manage it is to get it from 
cuttings, and to cut it right down to the ground every 
second or third year, and then after thinning the flower 
buds, and with “ pot victuals,” you might cut dozens of 
full blown roses of it that the people in London could 
not make out from regular cabbage roses, and nearly, if 
not altogether, as sweet. Sometimes it will make three 
or four shoots as many feet in length, and then flower 
at the ends, while the rest of the head is languishing 
for want of nourishment; and when that happens away 
go the weak parts by the first hard winter, and of course 
an under bark disease follows; and the sweetest of the 
autumn roses is pronounced to be bad to keep, and, as 
there is no lack of sorts, it is thrown aside. It is true, 
that bad habits of this nature are a good deal under the 
control of the gardener—the long shoots might have 
been stopped when it was seen that they meant to have 
it all their own way; but then they would turn sulky, get 
hide-bound, and you must either assist them to follow 
the bent of their own nature, and not allow them a 
foster-parent, but to grow on their own roots, when by 
an occasional cutting down to the ground they will 
make the best autumn bloomers we have. 
Now, in my experiments with rose stocks —for I have 
been driven to make all sorts of trials with them—I 
have found out more secrets than this of managing 
the Fulgore. There are twelve or fifteen other per¬ 
petual roses that will grow on their own roots much 
better than when they are worked on the best stocks; 
and, what is of far more consequence, they will succeed 
on poor land where the dog-rose could not keep a leaf 
after the first fortnight of dry weather; and if I had to 
grow beautiful bushes of the dog-rose, I must reverse 
the present custom, and bud it on Madame Laffay , 
which is perhaps the best stock of all for the whole race 
of hybrid perpetuals on all soils inimical to the race. 
I have had bushes of this exquisite rose which made 
