THE 



GABDEW GUIDE. 



August, 1858. 



HE Feast of Roses, held on the first day 

 of last month, at St. James's Hall, Piccadilly, 

 proved so great a success in every respect, 

 that the rose-growing and rose-loving public 

 will look for its annual repetition in the 

 future, as one of the constituted features of 

 the flower season. With so peculiar a sub- 

 ject as the rose, the importance of public 

 competition was proved to demonstration, 

 for not only was the spectacle of thousands 

 ^■f^P^H of roses, of every variety of colour, frag- 



^Ai^-'^i i ranee, and habit, one of the most delightful 



that coidd be presented to the eyes of London, but to the connoisseur 

 of the Queen of Flowers, the exhibition offered the best possible oppor- 

 tunity for the institution of comparisons, and the determination of 

 the relative value of classes and varieties. After a long drought, accom- 

 panied with burning sun, many a skilful cultivator thought himself for- 

 tunate if he could find a dozen good rose-blooms in an extensive collec- 

 tion on the first of July last ; but here they were brought together in 

 thousands, and, with very few exceptions, their perfection of form and 

 colour, and their general robustness, was such as, in ignorance of what 

 the weather had been, would have compelled one to believe it the most 

 propitious, instead of the most trying moment for the rose, that has 

 occurred during this present season. 



Rose growers have hitherto found it necessary to make seasonal visits 

 to the nurseries, in various parts of the country, in order to select, while 

 in bloom, such varieties as they might desire to add to their collections, 

 and so various are the merits of some sections ot roses, as climate and soil 

 influence them for better or worse, that it has often been necessary for an 

 amateur rose grower to visit a dozen different nurseries, in order to de- 

 termine the actual merits of one particular flower. The annual migrations 



NO. VIII. — VOL I J 



