October 1.5, 1904. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
819 
When the flower-buds are well formed, they should be care¬ 
fully thinned, leaving the centre bud, and two, alt most, of 
the side ones well below the centre bud. Occasionally, the 
centre hud may be slightly malformed, im which case cut it 
out, and leave thei two side ones. 
Why it was the blooms grown by Mr. Douglas should have 
stopped growing when only half formed we are at a. loss to' 
know, as it. is generally an easy opener; it looks rather as 
though the “dodges and feeding” were probably overdone. 
We o-ather from Mr. Douglas’ letter the plants were maidens. 
Now, maiden Roses like a little help 1 , but their roots, it must 
be remembered, are young and somewhat soft ; so that an, ovei- 
dose of manure at all on ithe strong side would -hurt them, 
check root action, and undoubtedly spoil all prospective 
blooms. 
When the plants are two or three years old, high feeding- 
may be practised with success. 
We tender our apologies to 1 you, Mr. Editor, and to Mi. 
Douglas for such a lengthy letter, hut the above remarks 
apply equally well to many good Hybrid Perpetual Roses 
similar in habit to Ben Cant, and therefore, we trust, may 
prove useful to, your numerous reader s. 
Benjamin R. Cant and Sons. 
The, Old 'Bose Gardens, Colchester. 
Round the Nurseries. 
The Royal Nurseries, Belfast. 
At the beginning of September wei bad a run thiougli the 
nurseries of Mr. Hugh Dickson, Royal Nurseries, Belfast, easily 
reached from the city by tramcar. This being essentially a 
Rose nursery, we had not the best opportunity of seeing the 
Roses in perfection, but, nevertheless, with the lower tempera¬ 
ture and the frequent heavy rains that prevail in the Emerald 
Isle with the advent of autumn, wei were pleased, to And so 
many Rose® yet blooming profusely, notwithstanding the un¬ 
favourable conditions at that, period of the year. . We may 
say, however, at the commencement that neither rain nor low 
temperature prevented the arrival of Ro.ses in London, at the 
autumn, Rose show held by the Royal Horticultural Society in 
conjunction with the National Rose Society. Mr. Dickson won 
first prize and Silver Medal for the best Hybrid Perpetual 
Rosie in. the show with hist new variety Hugh Dickson, an 
account of which we give in, another column in connection with 
our coloured plate this week. 
He: also, secured the first prize and Gold Medal for thirty- 
six distinct varieties of Rosiest and other awards in connection 
with varieties which we shall mention in connection with, the 
same. We mention these facts to show that, even with the 
well-known moist climate of Ireland, it is possible to get beau¬ 
tiful Rosies: in first-class condition, even in September. Stormy 
weather had preceded our arrival in Ireland, SO' that, all things 
taken together, we had an opportunity of seeing the Roses 
under the most unfavourable conditions. We also made a,n 
inspection, of various other cultures, as the establishment, may 
be considered a general one, though the Roses here, within 
recent, years, have attained considerable notoriety at the lead¬ 
ing showsi in Britain. Some of the land pressed into service 
for the culture of Roses is at some little distance from the 
nursery itself so that the Roses have the benefit of the new 
soil, which isi mostly rich and good in most, places around 
Belfast, where it is: not actually too near the- level of the rivers 
and streams', and therefore: wet. 
The now area planted with Roses is within easy distance of 
thei nursery, and we enjoyed our ramble through the Roses 
both old and new in company with. Mr. Dickson. The: first 
Rose we noted was Oskar Cordel. a Hybrid Perpetual of 
vigorous growth and very floriferous. The large and very 
double fiowers are of a, lively rich carmine and sweetly 
scented. ■ It is very constant under the varying conditions 
inseparable from outdoor culture, and though, little known, 
is. well worthy of being added to any collection. The well- 
known Ulrich Brunner, with itsi massive flowers, wasi still 
flowering splendidly, and the blooms, were excellent. The new 
Hybrid Perpetual Rose, Frau Karl Druschki, was still flower¬ 
ing with great beauty, and the plants throughout the plantar 
tion were excellent. It, showsi the general confidence in this 
Rose when wei state: that 10,000 have been, budded this year. 
Another Hybrid Perpetual Rose that has enjoyed an im¬ 
mense run of popularity during thei last ten, years is, Mrs. R. G. 
Sharman, Crawford, which was accorded the Gold Medal of the 
N.R.S. when it first made its debut. Both this and Mrs. .T. 
Laing were: flowering splendidly, but, the latter is considered 
the best all-round Rose, in cultivation. The, plants coming 
under our notice showed great vigour of growth. 
At this point we came upon four new varieties of Roses 
raised by the [firm. Mr's. A. M. Kirker is a seedling from 
Caroline Test,out, and therefore a. Hybrid Tea. The buds: are 
long, conical, and expand into, very large and fully double 
flowers of a beautiful rosy-pink. The broad petals are of good 
substance, and we have every confidence that it will prove as 
free-blooming a Rose as, its parent. 
For some years past the complaint has been that red Rosies 
were a scarce commodity in the- Hybrid Tea, section,. That can, 
no longer be said, for there are, several Irish Roses of great 
beauty belonging to, the classi. One of them raised here is 
,T. B. Clark, a dark maroon-red, with broad petals that are 
strongly marked with veins: on the lower half. It is of long, 
conical shape in, the bud state, and is much darker in June 
than, in, September. It, is a, strong grower, and the: young 
foliage is tinted with red. It was accorded a Card of Com¬ 
mendation by the National Rose Society on a previous occa¬ 
sion, but at the autumn, show it was awarded the Gold Medal 
for a, new seedling. Altogether, this is regarded as the coming 
Rose for the Hybrid Tea, section. 
The above beautiful variety must not bei confused with Mrs. 
J. B. Clark, which, 'belongs to, the Hybrid Perpetual section, 
and also, a new Rose about to, be put into commerce by Mr. 
Hugh Dickson. It is a seedling with rich rose' flowers:, tinted 
with carmine:, and is very floriferous, as we can testify for its 
behaviour ini September. Another new Hybrid Perpetual 
Rose is, Bob, Davison, with rich velvety-crimson, flowers, of beau¬ 
tiful form. This also, flowers with great freedom, and the 
blooms, are of good size; the plant itself is of vigorous growth. 
Several of the older and better-known Roses are: admirably 
adapted for exhibition purposes, as well as for garden decora¬ 
tion, amongst which we 1 noted Rev. Allan Cheales, with lake- 
coloured flowers of large size, shaded with a silvery hue on the 
reflex. Marie Baumann and Alfred Colomb were also flowering 
freely, and both of them, we were assured, had been uncom¬ 
monly good all the season. The velvety maroon-crimson, 
Victor Hugo has lovely conical blooms, and is considered one 
of the best Hybrid Perpetuals for various purposes. It flowers 
more freely than, Horace Verne,t. Captain Hayward, originally 
sent, out in, 1893, has proved very popular for exhibition pur¬ 
poses on account of its massive scarlet-crimson flowers and 
very broad petals. It was flowering splendidly on. the occasion 
of our visit. Caroline Teistout commenced flowering in June, 
and was still profusely laden, with bloom. Apotheker George 
Hofer is a Hybrid Tea with brilliant, red flowers, possibly more: 
correctly described as a, rich dark rose in autumn, at, least, 
as: we understand colours. It wa,si also very floriferous and the 
plant of strong growth. 
Of the: beauty and utility of Bessie Brown for exhibition 
purposes it is unnecessary to, speak, as, everyone is, now pretty 
well acquainted with it who have had the opportunity of visit¬ 
ing the, leading exhibitions during the past, few years. Though 
described as a strong grower, the plants we noted were of dwarf 
habit. The huge globular flowers of the Hybrid Tea, Danmark 
are of beautiful silvery-pink, reminding one very much of La 
France, but the petals are of greater substance, and the plant 
