August 5, 1905I 



HORTI CULTUR E, 



True Beauties 



Of course it will be considered ungallant to find 

 fault with "American Beauties," but I must confess' 

 that if some of them were a little less aspiring theyi 

 would be more to my taste. I mean the roses, not 

 the ladies. It has become the fashion for some time 

 to grow several varieties of roses on tall, thick stems, 

 and so far has this been carried, as, in my mind, to 

 make them stiff and vulgar, instead of graceful and 

 elegant. One of the charms of the ' ' Queen of Flowers " 

 is its graceful, luiobtrusive habit of growth, em- 

 bowered in her wealth of foliage and surrounded with 

 buds as beautiful in their expansion as the full- 

 grown flower. Neither giants nor pigmies can be 

 considered beautiful; proportion is an element of 

 beauty; medium-sized objects are more agreeable to 

 look upon than very large or very small ones, what- 

 ever they may be. 



For large decorative work, these roses grown on 

 thick, long stems with one enormous blossom at the 

 top, may, no doubt, be very effective, but for both 

 hand and corsage, commend me to tlie more slender 

 and short stems with moderate-sized flowers, and not 

 the "sheaves" which ladies are expected to carry on 

 bridal or festal occasions. I suppose I shall be 

 considered a little "off the trolley," but I think my 

 ideas must appeal to those who look upon elegance 

 as of more importance than obtrusive display. 



Among all the new roses I do not know one which 

 comes to my ideal of what a rose should be, like a 

 variety 1 grew sixty years 9r more ago. This was 

 of the hybrid China class, of which we hear but little 

 now, but which contains varieties that would dis- 

 count some of the novelties of the present day. 

 Her name was "Coupe d' Hebe," and she was well 

 worthy of the title, for she struck a blow at me 

 which caused an affection for roses which I have felt 



I 



throughout a long life, but from which I hope I shall 

 never recover. 



At the time of which I write standard roses, budded 

 upon Rosa canina, the English wild or dog rose 

 (why so called I never could understand) were just 

 coming into vogue, and one of the first I ever pos- 

 sessed was a Coupe d' Hebe. The tree was planted 

 on good ground in a favorable spot, and well fed, 

 and well it repaid the care and attention it received, 

 for I think no rose ever secured for its owner so 

 much admiration, or single specimens of its flowers 

 won so many premier prizes. And now, briefly to 

 describe it: The growtli was medium, vigorous, but 

 not too robust; the foliage was moderate in size, 

 abundant, of a beautiful light green, refreshing to 

 look upon; the flowers were borne upon moderately 

 long stems, so that they appeared just above their 

 elegant backgroimd of leaves; the buds were deej) 

 pink before expanding, were exquisite when half- 

 blown, and the flowers were as. near perfection as 

 can be imagined; the petals shell-shaped and regu- 

 larly arranged so that they were not too much 

 crowded; the color that delicate, transparent, fleshy 

 pink, which is best described as "rose color," and 

 the fragrance was that of the old true garden rose, a 

 perfume unajiproached by any other. It is a pity 

 that the old classes of hybrid China and hylirid 

 Bourbon should be neglected for the hybrid per- 

 petuals, for they make up in the summer for their 

 lack of efflorescence in the autumn, and there are 

 are not many H. P.'s after all that give many flow- 

 ers then. 



i^^-^ 



Rose Prince de 

 Bulgarie 



This hybrid-tea rose, which 

 seems not to be well known in 

 America, is one of the most beau- 

 tiful of all the roses. It is of good 

 size, excellent substance, gorgeous 

 coloring, and is delicately fragrant. 

 The color is a very rich but deli- 

 cate salmon shade. The form is 

 ^(jually good in bud or in fuU- 

 lilown flower. I saw this rose first 

 in England, and admired it so inn 

 that I brought over a few pl.im 

 They seem to stand our climate as 

 well as any other varieties of the 

 same section. 



F. A. Waugh. 



