Roses.—These beautiful shrubs are so generally admired, and they are grown so universally in all gardens, that I think I ought to give some especial directions for their culture. In the first place, roses are said to require removing every third year; as their roots exude a great deal of matter unfit for them to reabsorb, and as their fibrous roots are few, small, and not widely extended from the hole of the plant. It is not perhaps necessary to take this rule strictly au pied de la lettre, but it is as well to keep it in view, and to remember that when rose trees look sickly, or fail to produce a due proportion of flowers, removing them to a fresh soil will generally restore their vigour.
It is not perhaps generally known that there are nearly two thousand species and varieties of roses. Among such a chaos it would be almost impossible to choose, had not florists arranged them in about twenty general divisions. One of the principal of these contains the cabbage-roses and their beautiful descendants, the moss-roses, of which last there are more than twenty kinds, some of which are very striking, and particularly the dark crimson moss-rose, generally called the Rouge de Luxembourg, and the white moss, though the latter is rather too delicate for a town garden. The crested moss is also a curious variety, and it is said to have been found growing out of an old wall in Switzerland. All the kinds of moss-roses should be planted in warm dry situations, and in March a little manure should be laid on the surface of the soil round their roots. Should the season prove dry, the plants should be frequently watered, and the result will be a brilliant display of flowers. There are twenty-five or thirty other kinds of cabbage or Provence roses, all of which are very fragrant, and indeed they are the kinds used for making rose-water, &c.; they are all quite hardy, and require no particular culture.
The autumn-flowering or perpetual roses are also remarkable both for their beauty and their fragrance. There are more than fifty sorts; one of the most beautiful of which is Lee’s perpetual, the Rose du Roi of the French. The Pæstum roses, mentioned by Pliny, are supposed to belong to this family; as does also the well known Rose des Quatre Saisons. All these roses should be pruned twice a-year, in November and in June; and after pruning, the ground about their roots should be loosened with a fork, and then covered two or three inches deep with manure, the manure being covered over with some fresh green moss, to prevent it from having an unpleasant appearance. The roses of all the perpetual kinds frequently fade without losing their petals; and when this is the case the faded flowers should be instantly removed. They are all propagated by grafting on the common dog-rose, as they do not readily take root from layering. These roses are particularly valuable, as with a little management they may be kept in flower eight months in every year.
The French, or Provins Roses, are generally widely opened flowers like the rose in architecture. The striped and marbled roses belong to this division. These roses have scarcely any fragrance; but they have generally showy flowers, and they are very hardy. The druggists use them for making conserve of roses; and for this purpose they are grown in great quantities near the little town of Provins in France, whence their name, which is often confounded with that of the Provence Roses from the south of France. The white roses are hardy, and bloom abundantly with very little care. The Scotch roses are also remarkable for their hardiness, for their blooming generally a fortnight earlier than any others, and for their ripening abundance of seed, from which new varieties may continually be raised. The yellow Scotch rose is very beautiful. Williams’s double yellow sweetbriar, and the Austrian yellow or copper-coloured rose are also well worth cultivating. The latter is yellow on the outside of the petal and red within. This rose will not succeed well in a smoky atmosphere, but it flowers beautifully in Mrs. Marryatt’s flower-garden at Wimbledon, and in that of R. H. Jenkinson, Esq., at Norbiton House, near Kingston. The common double yellow Rose, which seldom flowers well, should be grown in a rich soil and warm situation, and it requires abundance of air.
Of the climbing roses, the Ayrshire roses, particularly the beautiful white flower called the Queen of the Belgians, and Rosa ruga, a very handsome and fragrant variety, are perhaps the best for training upon frames to form what are called pillars and pyramids of roses, as they are quite hardy. For sheltered situations Rosa multiflora, and its near ally the Seven Sisters’ rose may be chosen; as they grow very fast and very high, and produce myriads of flowers, though they are easily killed by frost. The most valuable climbing roses are, however, the descendants of Rosa sempervirens, the evergreen roses; and these are the only kinds that should be used for pegging down over the dug ground of a shrubbery. They are of the easiest culture, as they will grow under the drip of trees, and they ought never to be pruned. Before planting them the ground should be dug, and well cleared from the roots of weeds, &c. It should then be manured with part of an old hot-bed, and the roses should be planted about five feet apart. The following autumn a good coating of manure should be laid on the surface of the ground; and the plants will require no after culture but pegging down the shoots to prevent them from leaving any part of the ground bare. The Triomphe de Bollwiller is one of the best of roses for this purpose. The Boursault division, one of the best of which is the Rose de Lisle, may be treated in the same manner. The noisette roses are known by the great clusters of flowers which they bear at the extremities of their shoots. Their branches should not be shortened, but the dead flowers should be removed as soon as they fade.
The Banksia roses, the tea-scented kinds, the Macartney and musk roses, are too tender for any situation but a south wall. The best roses in the neighbourhood of London are to be found at Lee’s, Hammersmith, and Loddige’s, Hackney. There are also very fine collections at Rivers’s, Sawbridgeworth; at Wood’s, Maresfield, and Hooker’s, Brenchley, both near Tunbridge Wells; and more especially at Lane’s, Berkhampstead,—the latter nurseryman contriving, by means of forcing, to have roses beautifully in flower from the latter end of January to the middle of November every year.
Roses are generally propagated by grafting or budding, and also by making layers and cuttings. In the latter case, the point of the shoot should be taken off, and the greater part of the leaves, to prevent an access of evaporation. (For Illustration, see [p. 84.])
CHAPTER X.
ROCK-WORK, MOSS-HOUSES, RUSTIC BASKETS,
AND FOUNTAINS.
Rock-work, though composed of somewhat ponderous materials, is very frequently arranged according to female taste; and one of the most remarkable examples in England (that at the Hoole, near Chester,) was designed by a lady, and executed entirely under her direction. There are many kinds of rock-work; but they may be all described as collections of fragments of rocks, stones, flints, vitrified bricks, scoriæ, and similar materials, so arranged as to afford a striking object in the landscape; and, at the same time, so as to form a number of little nests or crevices for the reception of alpine plants. The mode of arranging these materials depends entirely upon taste; and of course varies widely. The most natural kind of rockwork, is like that at Redleaf, near Tunbridge Wells; where Mr. Wells, the proprietor, taking, what Mr. Loudon calls the key-note, from the natural scenery of the neighbourhood, has made his rocks appear “to crop out” of the soil, as though naturally, in such situations as to give the best effect to the scenery. The plants deposited in the hollows of these rocks, are so admirably placed, and the art with which they are cultivated, is so skilfully concealed, that no illusion can be more complete; and we may fancy ourselves in a scene of nature, but of nature in her greatest beauty and highest luxuriance.