fe 
= 
76 
out beyond the foliage; and the plant should be com- 
pact and bushy.— And as to climbing roses, the 
“joints should be short from leaf to leaf; the blooms 
should come on very short branches, and all up the 
main shoots; the plant should be always growing 
and developing its flowers from spring to autumn; 
and the foliage should completely hide all the stems, 
whether the plant be on front of a house or on any 
given device. 
Some of the horticultural families have hardly a 
good rose among them; and others have far fewer 
good ones than bad. In fact, nine-tenths or so of 
the varieties enumerated in catalogues are not worth 
possessing, either on account of their intrinsically 
bad properties, or because two o1 three or more of 
them are so closely like one another as to be practi- 
cally one. Mr. Rivers gives upwards of a thousand 
ptotessedly select varieties in thirty-three families, 
and makes out of this great multitude a selection of 
six of the largest, six of the sweetest, six of the 
most brilliant, six of the strongest, six of the finest 
shaped, six of the earliest small, six of the earliest 
large, and six of the latest; and this selection is 
probably the best guide which a purchaser can fol- 
low. if not to actual varieties, at least to groups and 
numbers. The six largest are La Reine. rosy pink, 
— William Jesse, light crimson tinged with ifiset a= 
Souvenir de la Malmaison, pale-fleshed tinted with 
fawn ,»—Calypso, pale rose,—Brennus, bright red,— 
and Chenédol, vivid crimson; and these comprise 
two perpetual, one Bourbon, two hybrid China, and 
one which partakes much of the character of a hy- 
brid Chinese. The six sweetest or most fragrant 
are Riego, a sweet briar, —Crested Provence, an or- 
dinary rose colour, the common Cabbage- ‘rose, an old 
favourite, —the common Moss-rose, also a universal 
favourite, —Crimson Perpetual, bright crimson,—and 
Prince Albert, purplish crimson; and these six com- 
prise no less than four families—one being a per- 
petual, one a hybrid perpetual, one a hybrid sweet 
briar, two Provence, and one moss. The six most 
brilliant are Vesta, a very old variety, — Rouge 
Eblouissante, or Assemblage des Beaut ‘s, —Eblouis- 
sante de Lequeue,—Feu Brilliante,—-Grande Capi- 
taine,—and Gloire de Rosaméne; and four of these 
belong to the family of Rosa Gallica, and two to the 
family of Bourbon. The six strongest or most vi- 
gorous growing are Great Western, deep reddish 
crimson,—Hortensia, bright pink,—Charles Duval, 
bright rose, Paul Perras, brilliant shaded rose,— 
Elise Mereceur, rose colour with red centre, —and 
Chen “dolé, already noticed in the first six; and here 
we have five hybrid Bourbons, so called, and one 
hybrid China. The six finest shaped are Triomphe 
de Jaussens, brilliant crimson, —Kean, nearly scar- 
let, —Coupe d’Hébé, delicate rose colour, often 
shaded with pink,—La Volupte, deep rose,—Rose 
Devigne, a delicate pink,—and Boula de Nanteuil, 
crimson purple. The six earliest small are Spong’s 
Rose, bright rose colour,—-Rose de Meaux, an. old 
acquaintance, —mossy Rose de Meaux, or Pompone, 
beautifully mossed,— Persian Yellow, bright gold 
colour,—Chinese Sweet-briar, bright pink rose,— 
and Burgundy, an old dwarf rose. The six earliest 
large are George the Fourth, Ne Plus Ultra, Ful- 
gens, Blairii No, 2, Magna Rosa, and Triomphe 
d’ Angiers, —all hybrid China roses. And the six 
latest are Madame Laffay, rosy crimson, —Lady Alice 
Peel, deep pink,—Baronne Prevost, rosy blush,— 
Doctor Marx, rosy carmine, —Duchess of Suther- 
land, bright rosy blush,—and Mrs. Elliott, light 
crimson tinted with lilac; and all these are perpetu- 
als, or hybrid perpetuals. 
The proper soil for the rose is strong rich loam, and 
either well decayed vegetable mould, or cow-dung or 
horse-dung. If the soil be light, holes must be dug, 
and loam and dung forked in; for troublesome as this 
ROSE. 
may be, it is the only way to secure a good growth 
and bloom. Among the evils of poor soil, it is not 
the least that it frequently makes the flower that 
would otherwise be double come single or semi- 
double, so as to destroy all identity of the variety 
by its bloom; and although many thousands of roses 
not worth a penny have been sent out, many others 
thoroughly good have been condemned, because the 
party growing them knew nothing about their culti- 
vation, and starved them into a false character. 
“The rose, perhaps, more than any other ornamen- 
tal shrub,” remarks Mr Rivers, ‘‘ requires constant 
culture to make it bloom in perfection, unless in the 
most favourable rose soils. Roses require to be re- 
moved, and to have their roots trimmed, every third 
year. When taken up, these roots will be found to 
have lost most of their fibres; but, naked as they 
are, if they are then trimmed, the branches thinned 
and shortened, and plenty of well-rotted manure 
mixed with the soil they are planted in, the plants 
will be quite renovated, and bloom as fine, and 
often finer, than young plants. This treatment, 
perhaps, is most applicable to standard roses. With 
dwarfs the trouble is too much, unless with the 
choicest sorts, as they are sold at such low prices, 
that it would be cheaper to make a new plantation. 
In very clayey cold soils, the finest compost possible 
for roses is well-rotted dung and common-pit sand, 
not road sand, equal parts. When standards are re. 
moved, they ought to have their heads thinned, and 
shoots shortened early in spring. A mistaken no- 
tion, which I often find current, is, that they ought 
to push, that is, begin to shoot, before the branches 
are shortened; this has sealed the doom of very 
many standard roses. I have an idea that standard 
China roses, of the most choice varieties, with stems 
from 3 to 4 feet, might be made highly ornamental 
summer plants. They are too tender to endure the 
ordinary severities of our winters as standards; but 
if taken up every autumn, put into large pots, and 
placed in a dry shed, they would remove into their 
summer quarters in the spring with perfect safety, 
and bloom much finer than if exposed during win- 
ter, and their shoots injured by the severity of the 
weather. The varieties of Rosa indica odorata 
bloom exceedingly well in this manner, as do all the 
strong-growing varieties of China roses. tusa Gr'e- 
villit and multifiora also form curious objects, and 
bloom very freely, when grown as standards. The 
hardy climbing roses, and several of the climbing 
China roses, form fine objects when trained en pyra- 
mide, that is, in the French manner of training pear 
trees; but besa trained in this manner, as climbing 
roses do not form a stem sttong enough to support 
themselves, the strong central shoots must be tied to 
iron or wooden stakes, and the side shoots from them 
shortened every season; in this manner, with proper 
culture, they will form pillars of roses, from 6 to 10 
feet in height. * * * Standard roses always ap- 
pear to me to have the prettiest effect when budded 
on neat stems, varying from | foot to 4 feet in height; 
they are more easily removed, are nearer to the eye, 
and their perfume is more readily inhaled. They 
will soon get over the habit of throwing up suckers, 
which with some is an objection, if care is taken 
when they are removed, to disbud the lower part of 
the stem, and to take att those roots which seem to 
have a tendency to throw up suckers. When thus 
treated, they form pretty compact heads, and yet not 
lumpish, if properly pruned. A prejudice is often 
found to exist against budded roses, and this has 
arisen principally on account of improper stocks 
being used. Most decidedly, roses never bloom so 
finely as when budded, and the most proper and du- 
rable stock is Rosa canina with its varieties; while 
Rosa arvensis is, perhaps, the worst.” 
The China rose, and all the short-jointed, smooth. 
