184 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 28, 185'J. 
GRAND NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF ROSES. 
HANOVER SQUARE ROOMS, LONDON, JUNE 23. 
The Roses from the home circuit were much larger and more 
fresh-like than they were last year at this Exhibition; but the 
Herefordshire Roses from Mr. Cranston were not quite bo nume¬ 
rous, and much about the same as last year. The eastern coun¬ 
ties’ Roses from Colchester, grown by Mr. Cant, were much 
better than came up last year from the east. The northern 
Roses were later this year, or, rather, the Exhibition was a week 
or ten days too early for them; and some from the south-west 
were the roughest I ever saw exhibited. But, as a whole, the 
show of Roses wa3 splendid. 
The competition for prizes was not nearly so keen and close as 
last year, Messrs. Paul and Erancis being the only large show¬ 
men who competed—more than one-half of the Roses came from 
them, and all the pot Roses as well. Messrs. Paul and Son 
furnished all the big-pot specimens they could muster; and Mr. 
Francis Was particularly l'ich and very uniform in small-pot 
Rosts. 
Mr. Francis’s style 'of flowering small Rose plants in little pots 
should bo the aim and ambition of every gardener who has to 
keep lip a show-house or conservatory on a moderate scale. It 
is very fir more difficult to flower 100 of such small Roses, 
ns uniform in growth and bloom as a Fancy Geranium, than to 
WiaSSge a score of those splendid bushes, in husliel and two- 
nushel pots, which we see at the May exhibitions. And suppose 
ninety-nine persons out of every hundred, who go to see Rose 
shows, had each of them half a dozen such large pot Roses given 
to them for nothing, what could they do with them ? Therefore, 
although it is a beautiful sight to see a May Rose Show in pots, 
the grand secret of cultivating Roses in pots for private use is 
never to grow a single plant for its flowers beyond the size of 
your rooms and conservatories. There are drawing-rooms in 
winch two match pairs of the Messrs. Pauls’ largest pot Roses 
would be no more in the way than the first volume of the 
“ Illustrated Bouquet,” which is just out; but there are five 
hundred other drawing-rooms to one, which are just as comfort¬ 
able, but into which you might just as well introduce an elephant 
as one of these pots. The best hint at this Rose Show, therefore, 
because it is as a hundred to one in usefulness, was Mr. Francis’s 
way of blooming scores of Roses in 48 or 32-pots all as one 
plant in size and in the number of blooms. 
The Hanover Square Rooms are much of the same form as St. 
James’ Hall, without the side galleries, and the extent for running 
out the Exhibition on is also much the same. The orchestra is 
raised six or seven feet above the floor at one end, and at the 
opposite end there is a gallery. In front of the orchestra, across 
the room, stood the Roses from the Messrs. Fraser, Lea Bridge 
Nursery, and from Mr. Cranston, of Hereford, or near thereto. 
Then there were two tables the whole length of the room—say, 
twenty-four or twenty-five yards in length ; and on each table was 
a single row of boxes “round and round,”—that is, a row on 
each side, and pot Roses in the centre. Messrs. Paul’s large 
specimens were in groups along the centre of one table, with open 
spaces between them ; and Mr. Francis’s dwarf plants made a 
complete Rose-bed along the centre of the second table, and that 
bed of Roses was edged as it were on each side with the boxes of 
cut Roses. Under the farthest end gallery was a bank of cut 
Roses for competition. This bank ran into a lobby to the left, 
and returned along the whole front side of the room. It was in 
this long stretch that the Messrs. Paul and Francis competed for 
the highest prize, each with a collection of 100 kinds—a magni¬ 
ficent sight if you could see it from end to end ; hut no one could 
with the crowd, and no one but genuine florists were allowed a 
private sight. They say the march of crime keeps pace with the 
march of intellect; and if that be so, florists must be as innocent 
now as the rest were 200 years baak, for the march of intellect 
has not yet made a flaw in their rules of piracy, or in their acts of 
jealousies, and their pace is still the same. But get once in among 
them, and you meet with the utmost kindness and the greatest 
liberality, as I did that day. Nothing could have been more easy 
for me than to sit down and draw up a full report from the 
schedules, which were freely given to me by Mr. Edwards, the 
acting Secretary; and I owe a score of apologies to the Honorary 
Secretary, the Rev. S. R. Hole, for the trouble I gave him anent 
admittance with the Judges, which was not in his power to grant. 
I said I would never stoop to report from a schedule ;* and when 
the public are admitted I can hardly do anything. The country 
party know me personally ; and if they saw me blocking up the 
way taking notes, they would go home and tell that I was nearly 
as rude as the rest since I came up to London. Besides, there 
is all the talk about the flower-beds, the colours, the new bedders, 
the discarded, and the discoveries jince last season to be got over 
in the afternoon : and, if you believe me, when this talk takes a 
certain turn, I quite forget about the Show, the rest of my notes, 
and go with the stream. And if I give up the country party, I 
may as well shut up shop at once. 
The great feature of this Rose Show was the excess of hybrid 
perpetuals over every other section of Roses. The Cloth of Gold 
was there, but Isabella Grey was not. Vicomtesse cle Cases was 
the next best yellow after Cloth of Gold. Gloire de Dijon and 
Eliza Sauvage were the next two nearest to yellow. General 
Jacqueminot (Shakameno) was the highest coloured Rose. Tri- 
omphe des Beaux Arts is also a splendid crimson. Souvenir de 
Leveson Gower and Triomphe de VExposition among the largest 
Roses, and very bright. Victor Trouillard , crimson ; Paul 
Duprey, ditto; Triomphe de Paris, dark crimson, and Cardinal 
Patrizzi are among the best dark Roses ; but the Cardinal is 
treacherous, being a bad grower. 
But rather take selections from some of the prize collections. 
The first prize to Messrs. Paul for 100 kinds included the fol¬ 
lowing, all superior Roses: — General Castellane, a splendid 
pillar crimson Rose; Dr. Juillard, a fine rosy purple; Lafon- 
taine, very large rosy purple ; Mathurin Regnier, light, very 
double, and one of the very best; Caroline de Sansal, light, flesh- 
coloured Rose, very large ; Eveque de Meaux, very double, violet- 
crimson, and a very hard bud, denoting that this fine Rose re¬ 
quires the richest soil; Baronne Prevost; Lame diamond, a 
very fine light Rose in the way of Madam Rivers ; Triomphe 
des Beaux Arts, aforesaid; Joan of Arc, a very fine blush white ; 
Souvenir de Leveson Gower, aforesaid ; Louis Peronny, very 
large, light Rose; Madame, very large, purplish crimson, a 
fine thing; Madame Vidot and Madam Rivers, two of the 
same cast of light flesh ; Lord Palmerston, a fine-shaped red 
flower ; Cardinal Patrizzi, a most beautiful cupped dark Rose; 
Madame Pauline Labonte, a most beautiful salmon-coloured 
Tea Rose; and Jules Margottin, a splendid cherry-coloured 
Rose. 
At one end of these stood a large box of a new bedding Rose 
from Mr. Standish, of Bagsliot. It is named Eugene Appert, 
and will be a rival to Geant des Batailles : it is of that breed, 
more stocky, and a most profuse bloomer. 
Mr. Francis’s 100 kinds came in at the other end of the 
Cheshunt rivals, beginning with Eliza Sauvage, which was really 
yellow this time; Paul Duprey , fine dark; Prime Leon, very 
fine red crimson; Triomphe des Beaux Arts; Lord Raglan; 
Colonel de Rougement, a very large pale flower; Eveque de Meaux, 
very double crimson ; La Reine; Gustave Corav.x, really a pure 
purple Rose; Triomphe de V Exposition; Cloth of Gold, very 
good ; the old Bov.le de Nanteuil, the best of the old dark summer 
Roses; Crested Provence, very fine; lots of Mosses; t Toques 
Lafitte, ten times better than when it first came out with Geant 
des Batailles, very full, and double reddish crimson; Duchess of 
Norfolk; Leon des Combats, a fine dark rose ; Gloire de Dijon 
and Lady Stuart, a beautiful light Rose. 
Mr. Cranston, from Hereford, did not compete; but sent 
beautiful boxes of Geant des Batailles, Jules Margottin, General 
Jacqueminot; Mosses ; Devoniensis, Mrs. Rivers, and Louis 
Chaix, a fine pillar Rose, dark red, and so forth. 
In collections of 50 kinds, Mr. Tiley, of Bath, was first with 
one of the freshest lots there, beginning with Du Petit Thouars, 
the well-known Bourbon, William Griffith, Baronne Prevosl, 
Souvenir de Leveson Gower, Devoniensis (tine), Triomphe de Paris, 
(very dark), General Jacqueminot (nearly as dark), Vicomie de 
Cases (a ticklish gentleman, done to a T, and beautifully yellow), 
Comtesse Cecile de Chabillard (in the way of Mrs. Rivers), Lord 
Raglan (a fine Rose), Mere de St. Louis (a fine blush), Prince 
Leon (a fine-shaped crimson), Auguste Mie, Mrs. Bosanquei 
(the only instance of it I noticed), the dark Cardinal Patrizzi 
again, Narcisse, a nearly-white Tea Rose. 
Mr. Cant, of Colchester, was in for a tie with Mr. Tiley; both 
lots being exquisite. He began with Prince de la Moskowa as 
the most noticeable. This Prince is as nearly black as Sambo, and 
a beautiful Rose it is. Solfaterre, fine; Madame Vidot, ditto; 
Duke of Cambridge, a fine red Rose; Emperor Napoleon, dark ; 
Charles Lawson, a large edition of Baronne Prevost; Bacchus, 
and a very beautiful Damask Rose called Madame Sloltz, nearly 
white; Souvenir d' un Ami; Victor Trouillard, a splendid dark 
Rose : and Gloire de Dijon. 
