220 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 13, 1858. 
grower on it; and strangulation is the certain fate of a 
stock on which a dwarf kind of Rose is worked; that 
is, assuming that the stock is the Dog Rose. 
On the other hand, the symmetrical style of pruning 
all the Roses in an avenue, has, by this time, operated 
differently on the strong, robust-growing kinds. Being 
cut so close, they come out so strong as not to flower 
at all, or not half so well as they ought. Root- 
pruning the stock makes but a temporary shift insuch- 
cases, and if the Dog Rose stock itself gets once 
hide-bound by root-pruning, it will be every whit as 
bad as the other case. Well; but work on the 
Manetti stock,—it has hardly one-third of the strength 
of the Dog Rose,—and it will strengthen the dwarf 
kinds without weakening itself. 
A fourth unaccountable thing is, that the Manetti 
Rose does not do on many soils. It does not answer at 
all hereabouts. It is the worst of all the stocks that 
have been tried near Kingston, for no Rose will live 
more than three or four years on it, and be in health. 
It is the same with Gloire de Rosamene. I never saw 
a plant of it in this Rose country worth looking at; 
and when all dwarf Roses will be grown on their own 
roots, it will be just the same. In some gardens, some 
kinds will not do ; and with all our science and skill 
the fact is unaccountable. 
To have strong-growing Roses always healthy, the 
heads must not be pruned close, as above ; and to have 
the Dog Rose in health and vigour, for twenty or 
thirty years, no cultivated Rose is too strong to work 
on it. No Rose which is a vigorous grower should 
be confined to the usual compass : July is the best 
time of the year to begin the change. As soon as the 
first bloom of Roses is over, the heads should be 
summer pruned, and well thinned, and not an inch of 
weak wood should be left at this pruning. Keep to 
the strongest shoots, they are not too strong for the 
roots of a Dog Rose stock; they will soon break, and 
be able to carry the autumn bloom far better than 
under the present confined system. Cut out the weak 
wood again in winter, and merely shorten a few inches 
of the very strong shoots ; you will soon have a 
pyramid, but never attempt to have two different 
Roses to match. Make your matches with pairs of 
one kind. 
A Rose tree will soon come to its full size under 
this system; after that, the chief thing is to keep 
the head thin with the moderate-sized shoots, cutting 
out the weak and the very strong shoots, and keeping 
the outline regular. At the July pruning, is the best 
time in the year to make Rose cuttings for out of 
doors. The small side shoots, from the pruned wood, 
will make the best kind of cuttings ; have them with 
heels, and from four to five inches long ; the four 
top leaves will be enough. They will soon root, and 
sooner under handglasses; and they will be fit next 
February to plant out in nursery lines in the kitchen 
garden. D. Beaton. 
healthy, uniform row, if I sowed before the middle or 
towards the end of May. Natural-sown seeds would 
come up earlier, and what is strange, will often, at 
first, look more healthy than plants from seed sown 
carefully by the hand. This has often puzzled me, 
and, I believe, is owing to the fact, that the seeds 
scattered from the plant—at least those of them that 
grow—are almost certain to be little covered. We 
may sow seeds early, and cover them as carefully as we 
can, yet this covering, if the ground is at all loamy, is apt 
to enclose the seeds in an air-tight covering after heavy 
rains, and thus make germination impossible. Hence 
the importance of sowing all seeds in the open air when 
the ground is dry. The seeds, from the moisture even 
then in the earth, and the free admission of air, begin 
to swell at once. If coated with loamy, moist soil, air 
is excluded, and the seeds either rot, or refuse to vege¬ 
tate. Seeds thrown from the seed-vessel on the surface 
of the ground, may, in many cases, be scorched up by 
the sun ; but, in many cases also, they may just be 
sufficiently sheltered by the crumblings and the in¬ 
terstices of small lumps of soil, as to be in the best 
position for germinating, whenever the heat is sufficient 
for that purpose. Few things feel the first effects of 
frost more than the tender Purslanes, such as Por- 
tulaca splendens, Thellusonii, grandiflora, and their 
varieties ; and yet the self-sown seeds pass the winter 
apparently uninjured. In a late volume, I mentioned 
how beautiful some ribbon borders of these looked at 
Luton Park. On these borders, and on stumps of 
trees, &c., where the plants had been allowed to 
ramble, the self-sown seedlings have come up thick 
enough to supply a county with plants. 
ELEVATING INFLUENCES OF FLOWERS. 
RANDOM GLEANINGS. 
HARDINESS OF THE SEEDS OF TENDER PLANTS. 
. Tn previous numbers, Mr. Beaton has directed atten¬ 
tion to this subj ect. The only difference, between what 
I have noticed and his deductions, was the compara¬ 
tive inutility of early sowing. I do not know how it is, 
but it has almost been a general fact with me, that seeds 
at all tender, when sown early, not only do not appear 
until the ground is sufficiently heated, but, even then, 
they come up much more irregularly and patchy, than 
when sown a month or six weeks later. For instance, 
many people sow Mignonette in March and April, and 
1 have done so ; but I never succeeded in getting a fine, 
. Some years ago, I gave a short description of Tin- 
girth, and mentioned how nicely the front of the stables 
was ornamented with flowers, rustic baskets, and vases, 
&c.,—the work chiefly of the groom, who has been a long 
time connected with the establishment. I saw the 
place the other day, and found that this, like the other 
departments, had not been standing still. The chief 
addition was the formation of a little fountain, in the 
middle of the flower-border, supplied with a centre jet,_ 
and squirting lesser jets all round the circumference, 
—supplied from an elevated barrel placed behind a fine 
Laurel bush. Just as 1 expected, I found, on inquiry 
from Mr. Manning, that no trouble was experienced 
from such servants ; that their work was thoroughly at¬ 
tended to; and that keeping all these plants and orna¬ 
ment in good order, furnished recreation and amuse¬ 
ment. In such circumstances, I have uniformly noticed, 
not merely an apparent contentment and happiness,’ 
but also a speaking intelligence in the countenance! 
and an obliging and gentlemanly deportment. I lately 
read an article by a kind-hearted man,—well aware of 
the ameliorating influence of gardening,—and yet, at 
the same time, so convinced of the importance of keep¬ 
ing the Sabbath-day sacred, and free from all secular 
avocations, as to recommend to landlords the propriety 
of taking away the gardens and allotments, from those 
who would persist in working in them on the first day 
of the week. What would be most proper in a case of 
persistence in the face of kind remonstrance, I would 
rather not be under the necessity of stating; but, con¬ 
sidering that anything like force in such matters is 
the weakest of all arguments, and believing that 
gardening itself is a bettering and improving agency, 
I should be very sorry,—unless in an extreme case, or 
where the good of a greater number was concerned,— 
to be the means of removing that one elevating in¬ 
fluence from a man, when all others, even of a higher 
character, may have lost their hold upon his affections 
and judgment; knowing that, even in such cases, 
