THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 17, 1860. 
GROWING ROSES NEAR LONDON. 
Is there any chance of success in growingRoses near London, the 
neighbourhood of Hackney ? I know no standards will flourish 
here long together ; and am told no Roses of any sort will grow 
well if budded on the common Dog Rose, but that a few .varie¬ 
ties—such as Geant des Batailles and William Griffiths —will 
answer well, provided they are budded below the ground on the 
Manetti stock or some other strong-growing Rose of the same 
habit. I should be much obliged by your informing me if this is 
likely to be correct; and, under such circumstances, if it would 
not be better to grow Roses on their own roots and not budded 
at all ? I should feel much indebted if you would furnish me 
with a few hints respecting the treatment of common and hardy 
Roses (for I should attempt no others), how they should be 
pruned, and the kind of soil they prefer. My garden-beds are 
composed almost entirely of loam and peat, with little or no manure 
on account of the American plants. Perhaps you would have 
the kindness to state if you know any hardy sort of vcllow Rose 
which would be likely to succeed ?— A Lady. 
[It is quite practicable to grow all kinds of strong Hybrid 
Perpetual Roses round London from Hackney to Highgate, then 
to Kensington and Fulham, then over the water, and at a like 
distance from St. Paul’s right round, and back to Hackney 
again; the only conditions being deep-worked or rather trenched 
soil—say twenty inches deep, and the top soil to be still kept on 
the top and well mixed with very rotten dung, or with half dung 
and half of the road-scrapings ot London in a perfectly dry state. 
At the Vauxliall Nursery we have seen Messrs. Milne & Co. in 
co. with the carman who clears that district of road dirt for the 
Road Commissioners. The man in co. was carting it into the 
nursery by tons, and multiplying them by tens and twenties, 
according to the state of the muck pies ; and Messrs. Milne & Co. 
were laying it on their Rose-beds six inches thick all over, and 
two or three inches thick all over their best quarters and wall- 
borders. That dirt is from ground granite and London-fed 
animals. The next condition for the success of Roses in the 
London suburbs is that they be on their own roots, and be free- 
growing kinds, and not be pruned more than one-quarter so much 
as would keep them from going to the dogs on Dog-Rose stocks, 
or Hanettis either. And the last condition is, that the Rose-beds 
or borders be mulched in summer, and soaked with water at least 
twice in June, July, and August. But any Londoner can go to 
the said Nursery, and learn ten times more than this from actual 
inspection of Roses on their own roots. The happy hit of buryin" 
the budded parts of Manetti stocks is to get Roses so worked to 
root on their own account from the edges of the worked parts— 
one of the best practical hits which Mr. Rivers, the godfather of 
many Roses, ever made. Manetti and Boursault root like Ver¬ 
benas, and no Rose-grower should ever be without lots of them 
fresh and fresh. Then every bud of a new Rose will soon make 
a plant on these stocks ; and by burying the worked parts the 
new Roses are on their own roots sooner than they could tell 
the tale of whether or not the Manetti or the Boursault would 
kill them, or make them better for being on them. Moss Roses 
and Cabbage Roses on their own roots in the vicinity of London 
require better soil than the Hybrids—say good Broccoli or Cauli¬ 
flower soil that is to say, if it is worked about six times deeper 
than we saw the plowing done at Camberwell this season with 
five horses in ‘a string, ’ and two louts and a lad driving the 
team ; that was across the way, not a gunshot from the Yauxhall 
Nursery! The plowing was from three to three inches and a 
half deep; the soil was black sand; and the bed below an im¬ 
pervious cake. The only hardy or very hardy yellow Rose that 
will bloom on very poor soil is Rosa Sarrisonii. , on its own roots 
of course, and treated like a Scotch Rose as to pruning—that is, 
never to let a knife near it for an age, but to nip off the top of 
any proud shoot when it is from six to nine inches long and no 
more.] 
STOPPING LEAKS IN AN AQUARIUM. 
As many persons besides “Elizabeth” have had much 
trouble to make their aquaria hold water, perhaps my experience 
may be of use to some of your readers. I have found red lead 
with gold size answer perfectly for a time, but it appears to be 
acted on by the water. I saw a receipt in The Cottage 
GtAbdenee of pitch and gutta percha, but with no proper 
directions for its use, and could derive no benefit from it. 
Seeing your advice to try marine glue, I sent for some, and was 
told by the “chemist,” who supplied it, that it was to be 
melted like common glue. I did not see how a substance that 
was to be dissolved in hot water was likely to stop cold, but, on 
trying it, found that water had no effect on it; heat would not 
melt it enough to enable me to spread it, nor would it take hold 
of the glass; but when cold peeled off easily. Believing it to 
be gutta percha and pitch, from its smell and colour, I mixed 
naptha with it when in a hot state, having melted it in a common 
glue-kettle—of course taking great care it was not set on fire— 
and found it made a nice paint-like substance, which has answered 
perfectly. Of course, the water should not be put in for a few 
days, and should be changed several times, to get rid of the 
naptha smell before the plants and animals are put m as they 
might be injured by it— J. R. Pearson, Chilwell. 
ILLUSTRATED BOUQUET. 
The last number of this beautiful drawing-room book, Vol. II., 
Part rill, opens witli a plate (34th) of Bignonia Chamberlaynd, 
the best of all the yellow ones that have yet flowered in Europe; 
but, according to Mr. Skinner, not nearly such a beautiful thin" 
as his Icconxa velutina, from Guatemala, of which it was said 
lately, in The Cottage Gardener, that it would never bloom 
in a stove under an English sun—a prediction we presume to 
mean, that T. velutina is not likely to be a stove plant. Bignonia 
Chirire first flowered in a stove at Dropmore, about 1830; but 
never in a stove that we have heard of since, it being a hardy con¬ 
servatory climber. All these peculiarities of the allied Bignonias 
are ably and very practically discussed under B. Chamberlagnii; 
and the common error of confusing Tecoma radicans major, of 
North America, with the Chinese Tecoma grandifiora, is pointed 
out by a full description of the two kinds in the plainest English. 
Plain practical rules'for cultivation accompany all the plates. 
Plate 35 represents anew seedling treePaiony, called Elizabeth 
(Casoretti), “ one of the finest yet introduced to British col¬ 
lections.” Many years ago, the late Lord Mountnorris raised a 
cross very much like this continental seedling. At Arley Hall, 
near Kidderminster, we have seen that seedling in bloom, with 
three or four other kinds; and we think Mr. Linmeus Pope, of 
the Handsworth Nursery, near Birmingham, made drawings of 
them ; but we never heard what became of them and other rare 
plants which were in that collection. 
Plate 36 represents ail extraordinary cross, called Dianthus 
Verschaffeltii (Verskafelti). The plant and the way of flowering, 
look like a Sweet William, and if you suppose a head of Sweet 
William to be made of the largest white florists’ Pinks you ever 
saw, with all the edges frilled and toothed, and with a deep 
purple dash on the bottom of each division of the flower, the 
truss would be like this plate, and such a flower was certainly 
never seen before. 
Plate 37 “ is a magnificent addition to the Japan Pinks, derived 
from the same source as the beautiful Dianthus Deddewigii.” 
There are four kinds of this magnificent flower represented, and 
called varieties of Dianthus laciniatus, from pure white through 
salmon, rose, carmine-crimson to deepest crimson, some single, 
some double, and some intermediate. The outlines of some of 
the petals remind you of the slashing sinuosities of the leaves of 
the Elkorn Ferns; the colours are inimitable, and the size 
altogether out of proportion to our ideas of any Dianthus. 
Plate 38 introduces a new rival to the Chinese Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, or rather an intermediate link between them and the 
Zinnias,—in recent improved variations from Pyrethrum roseum, 
a hardy border-plant and blooming in the autumn. This has 
been made to sport from seeds in Germany, and three different 
improved kinds are here represented under the names Atro- 
sanguinewn. Duchesse de Brabant, and Charles Ballet. The 
flowers are larger than those of Zinnia, but much in that style, 
and inclining to be double after some more turns of the cross, or 
proper selections for seed-parents. It is not fifty years since the 
Dahlia occupied the same point of departure from the wild state 
as these Pyrethrams do at present, and if the plants will ripen 
seeds in England, Pyrethrum is likely to occupy as much of the 
attention of the British florist as even the Dahlia itself. There 
are seven or eight more kinds of this new class of flowers on sale; 
and if the whole were planted together on a cool, rich border, 
they would make a fine mass of bloom from the end of June till 
late in the autumn, and every seed should be saved to see how 
they might improve in our climate. We believe they are al 
perfectly hardy. 
On the same plate is another German cross-bred Lychnis, 
