CONCERNING ROSES.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 186, 1 February 1878, Page 7

CONCERNING ROSES.

The Gardeners' Chronicle of July 7, devotes a large supplementary sheet and several very fine illustrations, all about roses. The subject is a very attractive one, and justifies us in making an extract from the " Rose" supplement : — ROSE CULTURE. If you want to be a good customer to nurserymen, and to buy roses every year, purchase your stock from a good climate and plant them over as wide an area as you can when you reach home -:- plant on shrubbery banks and borders, where they will be half-starved or -roasted during a hot or dry summer, or worried with green-fly ; pr other aphis to ' which tho rose is subject when grown in unfavourable situations and well neglected. If on the other hand you desire to succeed, purchase your

roses from some grower contiguous to home, or at all events from a worse climate than your own if possible; have your mind made up that they shall have your earliest and best attention, which means careful planting when tbe soil (which must be as good as can be obtained) is in a favourable state for, the operation of planting to be performed. Pry if possible to select a plot of ground well sheltered from cutting winds ; and herein lies the greatest secret in rose growing in this variable Lancashire

climate of ours. I have seen cases where no expense has been spared in preparation fail, when others with half tbe expense have succeeded through selecting or rather boing in possession ofa favourable situation. Unnecessary shading* or coddling* is just as bad as tbe other extreme, but by having your roses in a good situation, and all or nearly all together, how much easier it is to attend to their daily wants ?

See what can be down with soft-soap, water, and a syringe, in tho shape of cleanliness, and also note bow dearly we pay — under new names — for what may be bought at 4d per pound. These new baptismal processess are said to kill, green-fly, red-spider, mildew, canker, and a whole host of other diseases — anything, in fact, but the Vine Phylloxera ; and they have also been known to do irreparable damages in all sorts of fruit-bouses, for the higher price you pa} r the more powerful it becomes in its effect. Now as this article is especially intended for non -profession al growers, let me strongly recomend soft soap at 4d. per pound, sold under its own name, as the most simple and most effective recipe that can be used at the rate of from 4 to 6 ozs. to the gallon, according to the hardiness or otherwise of the rose leaves and shoots at the, time the liquid is applied by means of a syringe or fine rose.

If the collection is kept well together, the same advantage in feeding as in cleanliness well appear evident to the intending cultivator, should the soil happen — as is often the case — not to be a proper mixture capable of assisting nature in producing roses of a modern type. All these little attentions are sure to be neglected if roses are to be scattered here and there and- every-

where, and yet we wonder how it is they are not up to a certtiin standard of perfection. We now come. to the question of pruning' in spring". How and when shall we do it 1 For my own part I must con/ess to being- often somewhat puzzled. I have decided against early pruning-, but not so " thinning-." We thin out all the unnecessary and weakly growths early, so that at pru.nn.ing 1 time we may have only to shorten according to judgment or circumstances the shoots that are left. Suppose anyone has, like ourselves, a spare plantation of roses that can be pegged down, it. will insure an early supply of roses — that is, in ease standards and half-standards suffer to an injurious extent through frosty winds experienced during; the spring 1 months, recommend "layering- to facilitate the work of protection, which cannot be so readily given to the standard section, but even those may be protected in a great measure by having* recourse to dry Asparagus litter, which is a wonderful protection, and a clean one, and offers but little obstruction to air and lig-ht. If those for whom these few hints are penned do not adopt, my views of the case, my object will be g-ained all the same if those who reject it are on the alert nes.t spring 1 , and try what remedy tluvy think best or have at command in order to prevent " Jack Frost" from slaying' the rose harvest. — W. Hinds, Otterspool. THE PROPERTIES OP A GOOD ROSE. The first and most essential point to constitute a good rose is that the variety he hardy, and ot a healthy and moderately robust habit, combining 1 ample foliage; for, be its bloom ever so good, if it l-efuses to grow under proper treatment it is almost worthless. Next to these are fine form, fullness, large size, g-ood substance, fragrance, freedom to bloom, and decided and distinct colour. The form of the flower, whether it be cupped, globular, or expanded, should be s} r mmetrical ; the petals even and regularly placed, smooth,. and free from all indentures^ full, but not crowded, the outer row being broad and cl.osely folded, to enable the flower to stand firm for several days. They should be thick and leatlrery in texture, and not (as we too frequently see them) thin and flimsy, find either faded or fallen to pieces after an hour's sun. The colour whatever it be, should be decided and lasting, and not changing to a dull, cloudy or objectionable shade. The flower-stem should be stout, to hold the blooms partly erect, so that it may be seen without the necessity of applying the hand. Every rose should be fragrant, and the more highly so the better. Whether summer blooming only or perpetual, it should be free to flower, in the former case yeilding abundance of blooms throughout; June and July, and in the latter from June till November, allowing for an occasional rest between each period of "flowering. A perpetual rose, to justify its name, should always produce blooms at the end of each shoot. As ; examples of finely formed and perfect roses the following may be instan^d :— , ; Cupped: Madame Vidot,ComtesseCecile de Chabrillan t. Expanded : Madame ,G. Wood, Souveinr de la Malmaisoh. Xrlbbular: Reinedu Midi, La Reine;-— From "Cultural Directions or the Rose," by John Cranston.