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THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
Slough, to the last meeting in July, at South Kensington ; the roses are very 
numerous, but this one, named Madame Hock, is, I think, an acquisition. 
I would like to recommend a bed which I admired very much in the North 
last year ; it was certainly the most pleasing feature in several good gardens. It 
is not new to many of your readers, but may be to some, and is only a mixture 
of Purple King Verbena and Mangles’ Variegated Pelargonium; the purple 
flowers of the Verbena mingled with the white foliage and pretty pink flowers 
of its companion were charming.—J. Douglas, Loxford Hall , Ilford. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF DRAINAGE FOR ROSES. 
wOHIS is one of the lessons taught by the present exceptionally,wet summer: 
A&Ej) —On undrained ground, the Rosery has become a pond or a swamp. It 
has been at times quite flooded, and altogether inaccessible. The Rose s 
bore it well for a season, growing away luxuriantly, and pushing forth rare 
cupfuls of sweetness, flooding the top with beauty,—as a means of drying up 
the river at their roots. But as it rained and rained heavier day by day, and ail 
night also, and almost incessantly for weeks together, the roots were drowned, 
the sap-vessels were water-gorged, and the leaves became mashed or starved into 
a pale green, bordering on albinism ; growth was arrested or robbed of all 
strength and vigour, and the Roses have lingered on to become victims of the first 
trial that the winter or spring has in store for them. 
The Rose season has, at best, been capricious and short. Hardly was the time 
of Roses fairly here, when we could only say that it was past. And this brevity of 
the Rose season was the more conspicuous on undrained ground. The water seemed 
to force the Roses off, as if they had had to breast the stream of a mill-sluice. 
Perhaps they had, but the sluice was the stream of life, emptied of nourishing 
sap, and filled to repletion with water. No wonder, then, that the Roses were 
flushed off, and quickly faded away. 
Where the drainage was more perfect the Roses also suffered from the heavy 
rains, but not in the same way, nor to the same extent. If their heads were ever so 
wet, their feet at least were kept comparatively dry. The rain passed over, and 
it was gone. They were not compelled to have their feet in a bath compounded 
of mud and water ; consequently there was no gorging of crude food, nor deteriora¬ 
tion of the sap, and the Roses have held their own. With the exception of 
growths of extraordinary strength and succulency, which cry out for sunshine to 
ripen them before the frost comes, such Roses present their usual appearance. They 
have hoisted no signs of root-distress in the shape of semi-blanched shoots ; on 
the contrary, the leaves are as green as grass, and they are throwing out countless 
autumn buds of extraordinary fatness. 
The contrast between Roses drained and undrained has been brought into 
prominent relief this season, and we trust the result will be that, whatever else 
is done or left undone this winter, the Roses that need it will be thoroughly 
drained.—D. T. Fish, HardwicJce. 
