416 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  13,  1897. 
are  beloved  of  slugs  and  other  beasties,  and  placarded  with  such  names 
as  should  deter  all  evildoers  of  the  vermin  tribe. 
For  years  there  were  but  few  beds  in  the  greensward  under  the 
windows  in  which  old  Job  set  out  his  scarlet  Geraniums,  but  eventually, 
and  with  infinite  pains  and  labour,  it  seemed  as  if  the  drawing-room 
carpet  had  been  run  out  over  the  whole  space  for  a  summer  airing,  then 
taken  up,  unravelled,  and  “  boxed  ”  for  storage  in  our  limited  glass 
houses.  “  Not  nearly  enough  glass.”  No  ;  old  favourites  collected  from 
far  and  near  are  relegated  to  obscure  and  crowded  cornera.  Now  and 
again  old  associations  tempt  us  to  bring  home  a  few  slips  of  common 
things,  and  we  had  a  little  weakness  for  potting  or  planting  them 
ourselves,  until  the  hint  that  a  gentleman’s  place  was  not  in  the  potting 
shed  brought  that  pleasure  to  an  end.  Old  Job  used  to  take  rather  a 
pride  in  pandering  to  these  tastes  of  ours,  and  his  life  was  not  made  the 
lees  happy  by  so  doing.  ■  •  .*>i*£s3 
There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  our  new  gardener  was  a  very  clever 
man.  Mr.  X’s  bedding  out,  his  fruit,  his  flowers,  his  house  were  freely 
expatiated  upon  by  enthusiasts.  Ah  1  “  his it  used  to  be  “  the  Squire’s.” 
Yet,  though  his  ways  were  not  ours,  we  would  fain  have  kept  the 
partnership  intact,  in  the  hope  that  by  mutual  yieldings  we  could  as 
master  and  man  have  shaken  hands  across  the  narrow  border  of  our 
difference  ;  but  this  was  not  to  be,  and  the  end  of  it  was  that  X. 
decided  to  go  where,  as  he  said,  “his  ability  would  be  appreciated;” 
and  he  went — into  a  nursery .  There  he  let  chance  after  chance  pass  as 
“not  good  enough,”  till  he  gradually  subsided  into  the  jobbing  staff, 
and  now  spends  much  of  his  time  in  “  doing  up  ”  suburban  gardens. 
Changes,  somehow,  do  not  suit  old-fashioned  folk,  least  of  all  old- 
fashioned  gardens.  We  have,  I  fear,  been  spoiled  by  old  J,  whose 
strength  laid  in  our  weakness,  whose  aim  in  fruit  and  vegetable  growing 
was  to  provide  the  best  of  what  we.  not  he,  thought  good,  and  whose 
eyes  beamed  with  delight  when,  unasked,  we  sampled  our  fruit  on  the 
spot.  Those  were  the  days  when  our  garden  was  to  us  a  paradise  of 
delight.  We  are  trying  to  get  it  back  to  the  past,  but  fear  it  will  never 
be  quite  its  sweet  old  self  again. — The  Squire. 
‘Rose  Show  Fixtubes  fob  1897. 
June  7th  (Monday). — Cambridge. 
„  9th  (Wednesday). — Chelmsford. 
„  15th  (Tuesday). — Ryde. 
„  16th  (Wednesday) — York.f 
„  18th  (Friday). — Portsmoutn  (N.R.S.). 
„  23rd  (Wednesday). — Richmond,  Surrey. 
„  24th  (Thursday). — Colchester. 
„  25th  (Friday). — Maidstone. 
„  26th  (Saturday). — Windsor  and  Dorking. 
„  29th  (Tuesday).— Canterbury,  Hereford,  Sutton,  and  Westminster 
(R.H.S.). 
„  30th  (Wednesday). — Croydon,  Baling,  Farnham,  and  Reading. 
July  2nd  (Friday). — Crystal  Palace  (N.R.S.). 
„  7th  (Wednesday).— Glasgow,  Hanley,*  Hitchin,  Reigate,  Leeds, f 
and  Tunbridge  Wells. 
„  8th  (Thursday).— Bath,  Gloucester,  Harrow,  Newcastle-on-Tyne,f 
and  Wood  bridge. 
„  13th  (Tuesday). — Wolverhampton .f 
„  15th  (Thursday).— Norwich  (N.R.S.)  and  Helensburgh. 
„  17th  (Saturday). — New  Brighton. 
„  22nd  (Thursday). — Halifax  and  Trentham. 
„  27th  (Tuesday). — Tibshelf. 
„  28th  (Wednesday). — Chester.* 
„  31st  (Saturday). — Liverpool.* 
*  A  show  lasting  two  days.  f  Shows  lasting  three  days. 
The  above  are  the  only  dates  that  have  as  yet  reached  me.  I  shall 
be  glad  to  insert  in  the  next  list  any  further  fixtures  that  may  be  sent 
me,  whether  of  Rose  shows  or  of  horticultural  exhibitions  where  Roses 
form  a  leading  feature.— Edwabd  Mawley,  Roseiank,  Berkhamsted 
Herti. 
The  Malevolent  Weevil. 
It  must  be  more  than  twenty  years  ago  that  I  wrote  to  the  Journal, 
enclosing  a  beetle  that  had  done  much  harm  to  my  Roses  and  a  good 
deal  to  my  peace  of  mind,  and  learnt  that  its  name  was  Otiorhynchus. 
It  is  not  a  very  easy  name  to  remember  or  to  spell,  but  I  remembered  it 
for  I  thought  it  suitable.  It  sounded  like  a  “  bad  name,”  which  the 
creature  fully  deserved.  I  have  never,  I  am  glad  to  say,  come  across  a 
human  being  who  merited  such  abuse  ;  if  I  did,  the  words  “  Oh,  you 
otiorhynchus,  you  1  ”  would  mean  a  good  deal  in  my  mind— the  malevo¬ 
lent  weevil,  which  loves  doing  evil. 
This  creature,  a  little  brown  long-nosed  beetle,  whether  0.  picipes  or 
O.  sulcatus  I  don’t  know  or  care— they  are  “  birds  of  a  feather  ’’—makes 
it  his  work  and  delight  to  come  cut  by  night  and  gnaw  away  and  com¬ 
pletely  destroy  the  inserted  Rose  buds  in  standard  stocks  towards  the 
end  of  April,  just  when  they  are  delighting  the  heart  of  the  budder  by 
showing  signs  of  growth. 
Those  who  do  not  know  the  enemy  are  often  much  puzzled,  as  no 
sign  of  him  is  to  be  seen  in  the  day,  and  even  at  night  with  a  good  light 
he  is  not  very  easy  to  find  if  you  do  not  know  his  “tricks  and  his 
manners.”  Now  why  I  attribute  to  this  creature  a  pure  love  of  evil  is 
because  I  have  never  found  it  or  seen  its  work  on  a  cut-back,  where  it 
could  only  spoil  a  bud,  but  solely  on  budded  standards,  where  it  has  a 
chance  of  destroying  the  whole  plant.  I  have' fancied  that  it  has  a 
preference  for  a  stock  which  has  onl^  one  bud,  but  have  not  been  able 
to  establish  this. 
Having  had  a  severe  visitation  of  these  weevils  this  spring,  after 
several  years’  immunity,  I  think  I  have  discovered  the  sort  of  place 
where  they  hide  by  day.  It  is  generally  said  that  this  is  in  the  ground, 
but  I  do  not  think  so  ;  I  have  never  had  any  plant  attacked  that  stood 
well  out  in  the  open,  or  at  all  events  but  rarely — the  worst  attacks 
have  always  been  at  that  end  of  a  row  or  bed  nearest  to  an  old  rubbishy 
or  ivy-covered  wall.  Five  plants  were  utterly  destroyed  before  I  was 
aware  of  the  attack,  and  I  visit  my  plants  pretty  often,  and  we  have 
caught  in  four  nights  about  four  dozen  of  the  enemy. 
The  stocks  were  planted  and  budded  where  I  have  never  had  Roses 
before,  reaching  almost  up  to  just  such  an  old  wall,  and  the  plants 
nearest  the  wall  were  almost  invariably  those  attacked.  I  have  actually 
found  the  creatures  in  the  daytime  on  the  wall  out  of  the  light,  and 
on  the  wall  in  a  little  outhouse  near,  and  under  rubbish  on  the  floor. 
I  should  think  it  likely  that  in  a  good  open  piece  of  ground  they  would 
be  almost  unknown. 
Many  a  rising  amateur,  however,  has  to  plant  his  stocks  in  just  such 
sorts  of  unused  corners.  Let  him  be  forewarned,  and  in  April  watch 
his  buds  daily,  and  at  the  first  sign  of  attack  go  at  night  with  a  lamp. 
He  will  find  most  on  a  warm  night,  but  some,  if  the  attack  has  begun 
and  the  enemy  are  numerous,  even  on  a  frosty  night.  Let  him  look 
oyer  the  whole  plant  carefully,  stem,  bamboo  stake  and  all.  No 
difficulty  in  catching  them  with  a  sure  finger  and  thumb,  and  taking 
care  not  to  jog  the  plant ;  if  they  once  fall  it  is  very  hard  to  find  them. 
Surely  there  is  no  insect  Rose  pest  like  this,  which  will  absolutely 
destroy  a  whole  plant  just  at  its  most  hopeful  stage  in  a  single  night ; 
and  I  think  I  may  well  class  along  with  the  scoundrel  sparrow  (which 
has  just  got  the  whole  of  the  little  Apple  blossom  that  formed  on  my 
trees)  the  malevolent  weevil.— W.  R.  Raillem. 
Pbogbess  with  Mabechal  Niel. 
I  HAVE  much  pleasure  in  sending  you  some  cut  blooms  of  Marshal 
Niel  Rose.  I  do  not  know  whether  they  deserve  commendation  or  not, 
but  from  the  surprising  growth  of  the  plant  I  thought  perhaps  your 
readers  would  be  interested  in  a  few  remarks  which  I  would  like  to  add. 
I  purchased  a  very  insignificant  plant  some  seven  or  eight  years  ago, 
and  having  no  glass  at  the  time,  it  was  placed  out  of  doors,  but  it 
only  appeared  to  make  progress  in  a  retrogade  direction,  which  was 
exceedingly  disappointing.  The  foliage  was  very  scanty,  and  about  the 
size  of  finger  nails,  and  the  stems  were  about  the  thickness  of  16  or 
18-gauge  wire.  After  I  had  a  house  erected  I  placed  the  plant  in  a 
14-inch  pot,  which  I  buried  in  the  corner  of  the  bed,  where  it  had  the 
morning  sun.  To  my  surprise  the  degenerate  Rose  made  rapid  progress 
in  the  desired  direction,  and  in  a  very  short  time  I  was  able  to  discern 
whether  it  were  a  Rose  or  not.  I  kept  it  in  the  pot  until  last  autumn, 
when  I  thought  that  perhaps  there  was  too  much  accumulation  of  roots, 
and  that  they  had  insufficient  room  to  nourish  the  now  extensive  growth. 
When  I  cracked  the  pot  and  removed  it  I  found  that  the  roots  had 
worked  round  and  round  the  interior,  and  were  like  so  many  hoops. 
These  were  cut  away,  and  a  good  foundation  made  to  receive  the  plant 
again.  Last  season  I  counted  upwards  of  250  blooms  on  it,  but  this  year 
it  has  not  done  so  well,  owing  to  its  being  disturbed  in  the  autumn  I 
suppose.  It  now  entirely  occupies  the  roof  of  a  house,  12  feet  by  8  feet, 
and  the  main  stem  at  the  base  is  about  the  diameter  of  an  ordinary 
60-size  pot. — H.  M.  Mills,  Pontardulais . 
[Considering  the  bold  treatment  of  the  roots  (which  but  for  others 
taking  a  downward  direction  would  have  ended  disastrously)  Mr.  Mills 
has  good  reason  to  be  proud  of  his  Marshal  Niel.  Its  first  progress 
in  a  “  retrograde  direction  ”  reminds  of  one  of  the  armies  in  Thessaly 
taking  up  a  “more  favourable  position  in  the  rear” — a  delightfully 
euphonious  way  of  describing  a  retreat.  The  army,  we  think,  did  not 
make  “rapid  progress  in  the  desired  direction;”  but  the  Rose,  judging 
by  the  “  finger-nail  ”  test  (which  is  a  new  one),  has  evidently  made  a 
great  advance.  The  foliage  sent  with  the  blooms  is  not  “scanty,”  but 
plentiful,  and  the  leaflets  would  represent  finger-nails  2\  inches  in 
diameter.  We  have  seen  larger  (not  nails,  but  leaves,  and  these  are 
large  enough),  also  we  have  seen  larger  blooms,  but  never  heavier  for  the 
size.  Those  before  us  are  unusually  full  and  symmetrical,  rich  in  colour, 
and  altogether  excellent.  They  seem  to  Lave  brought  into  the  suburban 
sanctum  a  sniff  of  the  sweet  air  of  South  Wales.  This  it  is  hoped  does 
not  represent  “  retrograde  progress  ”  in  alliteration,  and  Mr.  Mills  is 
thanked  for  the  beautiful  blooms.) 
Plants  fob  a  Shaded  Wall. — Will  some  of  your  correspondents 
kindly  advise  as  to  what  can  be  done  to  cover  the  back  wall  of 
an  Auricula  house,  facing  N.N.W.  ?  It  is  13  feet  long  and  6  feet  high, 
and  the  sun  never  reaches  it.  Ferns  no  doubt  would  grow,  but  would 
the  airy  dry  atmosphere,  suitable  for  Auriculas,  be  injurious  to  the 
Ferns? — T.  L.  C.,  Birkenhead. 
