* In America, several varieties bear seed well. Sir Joseph
Paxton rarely fails, and is a very good subject for
experiment. The varieties named above by Mr. Rivers are not,
for the most part, of the first merit.
[Original]
We reach, at length, the vast family of the Hybrid Perpetuals,—a race of brilliant parvenus, which, within the last twenty-five years, have risen to throw other roses into the shade. As we look upon them, we survey a gorgeous chaos. Here are innumerable varieties of foliage and flower, perplexing us in our search for genealogies and relationships. All of them, however, have, as a basis, some hardy, once-blooming rose, with which has been mingled the blood of one, and often of many, of the ever-blooming roses, in sufficient proportion to impart some of their qualities of autumnal flowering. Many of the Hybrid Perpetuals have, as their basis, the Hybrid China Rose, already described under the head of the summer roses. This, as we have seen, blooms but once; but when crossed with the China, Tea, Bourbon, Damask Perpetual, or several of these combined, it becomes capable of blooming in the autumn, without losing its hardiness. Such, then, is the origin of this group; and the diversity of its characteristics answers to the diversity of its parentage. Thus two roses can scarcely be more unlike than Baronne Prévost and the Giant of Battles, or La Reine and Arthur de San sal. In Baronne Prévost and La Reine, the hardier and more vigorous elements prevail; and they probably owe their ever-blooming qualities to an infusion of the Damask Perpetual, rather than of the more tender China roses. In the Giant of Battles and Arthur de Sansal, on the contrary, the China and Bourbon clements are very apparent; and, while these roses are excellent autumn bloomers, they are much less hardy and vigorous than the other two.
M. Laffay, in his garden at Bellevue, a few miles from Paris, may be said to have laid the foundations of the Hybrid Perpetual family. Indeed, to a great extent, he created it; having originated a great number of beautiful roses, some of which none of the more recent productions have been able in the least degree to eclipse. Laflay's roses were chiefly of the hardier and stronger type, with La Reine, which was produced about the year 1840, at their head.
From the motley character of the group, the lines that separate it from the Bourbon and from some other families cannot be definitely drawn; and there are certain varieties which always hold an equivocal position, being sometimes placed with one group, and sometimes with another.
These Perpetuals differ greatly in the freedom of their autumn blooming; some giving a second and third crop of flowers in abundance; while others will not bloom at all after midsummer, except under careful and skilful treatment. All require rich culture and good pruning. When an abundant autumn bloom is required, a portion of the June bloom must be sacrificed by cutting back about half the flower-stems to three or four eyes as soon as the flower-buds form. When the flowers fade, these also should be cut off with the stems that bear them, in a similar manner. The formation of the seed-vessels, by employing the vitality of the plant, tends greatly to diminish its autumn bloom. Give additional manure every year, and keep the ground open, and free of weeds. If rank, strong shoots, full of redundant sap, form in summer, check their disproportioned growth by cutting off their tops.
In the North, these roses are better for a little winter protection, such as earthing them up at the base, or thrusting pine-boughs into the soil among them. They may with great advantage be taken up as often as once in three years, and replanted after two or three shovelfuls of old manure have been dug into the soil, which, at the same time, should be forked to the greatest possible depth. Indeed, it does them no harm to replant them yearly: on the contrary, they, generally bloom the better for it.
An excellent way to preserve them during winter, when they have been taken out of the ground, is to bury them, root and branch, in earth. The earth for this purpose should not be very moist. The place selected should be sheltered and dry; the latter point being of the last importance. The roses may be tied in bundles, and the earth thrown over them to the depth of six inches or more, in such a manner as to shed the rain and snow; and if a few boards are placed over it, in a sloping position, it will be so much the better. In this way, all the half-hardy roses, and many of those regarded as the most tender, can be safely wintered in the coldest parts of New England.