Recent Progress In Hardy Garden 



By Arthur Herrington. 



We are li\ing in an era of great proi^ressive achiexe- 

 ment. with such a concentration of aims and purposes 

 that we may be pardoned yerhaps if we un(kily exalt 

 the accomplishments of our time and masjjnify the 

 measure of attained success to exaggerated degree. 

 And among the many flowers that we cultivate, if I 

 should assert that the Rose in all its types and forms 

 as we grow them today, has been brought to a higher 

 degree of perfection than has ever existed, ])rol)ahly 

 no voice will be raised to argue the ciuestiiui nor to 

 deny the fact. 



Its development has been a long ;intl gradual iinicess 

 but always upward to varying and divergent degrees 

 of perfection. 



Probably no flower of the present day has such a 

 distinguished lineage nor such an ancient history as 

 the Rose. The Sacred Scriptures contain many men- 

 tions of the true Rose, even if we ignore such refer- 

 ences as to the Rose of Jericho or the Rose of Shart)n, 

 these not applying to species or varieties of the genus 

 Rosa. In the Book of Wisdom a reference to what 

 undoubtedly is the true Rose says, "Let us crown our- 

 .selves with Rose buds before they be withered." A 

 month ago when Mr. Totty addressed us upon the 

 Carnation his statement that 300 years B. C. Theo- 

 phrastus wrote about the Carnation was received with 

 levity if not with incredulity, but Theophrastus was 

 a great man in his da\-. He wrote a History of Plants 

 extended to nine volumes, and he knew the Carnation, 

 and he knew Roses, too, for he says in volume 6 : 

 There are many varieties of Roses. Most of them 

 consist of only five leaves, but some have twelve, and 

 some have as many as 100 leaves. These are refer- 

 ences to wild species, but there were double Roses in 

 his day, too, for he says of some of them, "For the 

 fashion in which the flowers put out their petals is 

 that some form the outer rows and some the 

 inner ones, but they have not much smell, nor are 

 they of any great size, and those with only five leaves 

 are the most fragrant, and their lower parts are ver\- 

 thorny." 



This is enough of ancient Rose history, but it suf- 

 fices to prove and establish that the Rose, as a flower. 

 has had a continuous existence from time immemorial. 



While, therefore, we may point with jjardonable 

 pride to the record of Rose develo])ment accomplished 

 in our day and time, some praise must be accorded 

 those whose earlier efforts made possible the later 

 achievements we glory in. 



Within recent times some noteworthy occurrences 

 have had an important bearing upon Rose histt)ry. 

 and have given rise to developments that have ma- 

 terially enhanced the garden value of the Rose, that 

 have given a new impetus to the Rose and its lltness 

 as an open sir garden flower. 



Until comparatively recent times the only relial)le 

 hardy large flowered garden Roses were of that type 

 or class erroneously but persistently called H}brid 

 Perpetuals. The popular name June Roses best char- 

 acterizes them. It is not my purpose to decry them 

 even now, for some of the largest, brightest and 

 sweetest of Roses ever raised are found in this group, 

 but you cannot deny the family as a whole is a ten 

 days' wonder. A rose garden filled with these varieties 

 alone is something to admire for about one month 

 and apologize for the other eleven, and so the rose 



garden was often planned to occupy an inconspicuous 

 spot so that it was not too obtrtisive after its all too 

 brief glory had departed. 



All this has been changed and there is a new class 

 of Roses that are hardy and truly j)erpetual flowering, 

 and with a suitable selection of varieties from this 

 class one may plant a Rose border or design and plant 

 an extensive Rose garden that will not only be a joy 

 in June, but will have flowers in succession till the 

 last buds are frozen stiff upon the bushes by Novem- 

 ber frosts. 



How and when was this most welcome change 

 wrought and by whom? It started gradually; it de- 

 veloped slowly, but within the past ten years it has 

 progressed so amazingly as to have made the Rose 

 many times more \aluable as a summer garden flower. 

 This class of Rose probably had its inception in that 

 old but still beautiful \ariety La h'rance, which was 

 raised by a noted French Rose grower in 1867. It 

 was first classed with the Hybrid Perpetuals, but the 

 National Rose Society of England pronounced it a 

 Hyljrid Tea, and at the time aroused a great discussion 

 among the Piritish Rose growers. 



In the "Book of the Rose," published twenty years 

 ago, the author says regarding its being pronounced 

 a Hybrid Tea, "There does not appear to be sufficient 

 evidence or authority for this distinction, and opin- 

 ions on the matter are divided." but he conceded, "it 

 seemed likely to be the founder of a new race and in 

 freedom of bloom, and as an autumnal Rose it is of 

 the very highest class." Later on Bennett gave us 

 Grace Darling, Viscountess Folkestone, Lady Mary 

 P'itzwilliam and Peronet and Uucher gave us Caroline 

 Testout and a class of Hybrid Teas become firmly es- 

 tablished, but the additions of the past ten years to 

 the Hybrid Teas have raised the status of this class 

 to a sujireme position, and the yearly additions to it 

 by far outnumber the aggregate of the additions to 

 all oilier classes of Rose combined. One catalogue 

 at hand from a noted British Rose grower enumerates 

 and describes over 200 distinct varieties of Hyl)rid 

 Tea Roses alone. A selection of 20. the very best at 

 the present, is emljraced in the following: 



Caroline Testout 



Dean Hole 



Gruss an Teplits 



Kaiserin Auguste I'iflorin 



Konigin Carola 



La I'osca 



Laurent Carle 



Madame Jules Groles 



Madame Melanie Soupert 



Marquise de Sinety 



Another important epoch in modern Rt)se develop- 

 ment starts with the introduction of a climbing Rose 

 that has probably been more geueralh' planted than 

 any other known modern Rose, namely, the variety 

 Crimson Rambler, and the almost contemporoneous 

 introduction of a single flowered species from Japan, 

 Rosa Wichuriana. The exact origin of Crimson Ram- 

 bler is, 1 believe, still an open question. It is a 

 hybrid that has Rosa multiflora for one of its parents, 

 and from this species it acquired a hardiness herettv- 

 fore non-existent in the many climiiing Roses that 

 were perfectly satisfactory in countries where the 

 winter is much less severe than with us in the Eastern 

 .States. The species Rose Wichuriana. in itself one of 

 the sweetest, hardiest, and fastest growing of all Roses, 



Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt 



Mrs. 11'. Christie Miller 



William .^hean 



.Sunburst 



Kayon d'Or 



Mrs. (/". Shaii.'yer 



Kadianee 



My Maryland 



Killarney 



