IRISH GARDENING, 



151 



the ubiquitous hen disputin<^ the enjoyment of 

 some vile g-;irbat;e with the i^entleman respon- 

 sible for the rent. Look on that picture, and 

 look on this ! Surely the ^reat difference 

 which is seen is obtained at but the least 

 expense of labour, and that merely a labour of 

 love. The trim hedi^e, the tiny front garden 

 with its old-fashioned flowers, framing- the old 

 home, from under the thatched roof of which 

 depends a shower of multiflora roses. A gentle- 

 man interested in the social condition of the 

 country, pointing to such, remarked — " Encour- 

 age that, and it will go far towards settling 

 the Irish question." 



But it is as raisers of new roses that I look to our 

 Northern tradc-g-i-o\vers with envious but adiniring^ ej'es, 

 for if you only will take up a respectable rose catalog'ue 

 (not one oi' the cheap foreig'n impostors), and run your 

 eye through that catalog'ue, especially the Hybrid Tea 

 section, you will be the better able to judge what I 

 mean when I say that practically all the good roses of 

 recent years have emanated from around Belfast. 

 Rose-raising- or hybridization is a very intricate affair, 

 requiring an enormous amount of patience and care — 

 not to speak of the cost — to carry it to success. The 

 success is only pro\ed when after years of testing the 

 rose makes its first bow to all the critical eyes of British 

 rose-growers at some show in England. Now, inas- 

 much as the first impression either makes or mars 

 the future of that rose, it will be seen that time 

 after time the raiser hesitates to show the flower, 



/•/„,/,. /.//] 



[ Mr. T. Mnguire. 



The "Orchard," Enniskillen, 



The Cottage Home of Mr. T. M.aguire. 



Roses. 



Bv O'DoNEL Browne, M.D. 



THE wet weather recently has to a great extent 

 marred our second bloom of roses, but as it has 

 been generally distributed over the whole of the 

 United Kingdom it is the same for all. The accounts 

 to hand of the London Rose Show, held on the i6th 

 September, all pointetl out that the flowers were not 

 up to the usual standard. Still our Irish nurserymen 

 came away well in their classes, and it must be always 

 a record to remember that from first to last all through 

 this year our nurserymen have more than held their own. 

 Some readers of this paper will never grasp the fact 

 that it is by sheer hard work that our tr.ade-growers 

 still keep above their H!iiglish rivals, and we ought to 

 give them all the praise, help, and custom we can 

 every year, and not send our money to foreign lands 

 for wretchedly bad trees. Deal at home, where only 

 the best is grown, and you will never repent it. 



because he cannot catch it at its best. Very often a 

 particular variety has to be kept back for several years 

 before it can go forth to be judged, and it is the storing 

 up of these varieties that cost the nurserymen so much 

 expense in land and labour. Is it any wonder then 

 that when the rose does come out that you and I should 

 pay a little more for it ? This is what I find so hard to 

 instil into the minds of some amateurs who have never 

 given this question beyond a passing thought. When 

 a rose is sent out as a gold medal rose in its first season 

 its price is rather prohibitive, but if you want it, pay for 

 it you must. Gold medals are hard to earn, rest 

 assured of it, and of all the earners none in the world 

 can compare with our Northern firms. Where would 

 the rose world be to-day without Messrs. Dicksons' 

 labour? We should have no Hugh Dicksons, Mrs. 

 Grants, Dean Holes, Killarneys, Bessie Browns, and 

 tliat lovely pair of giants, Mildred Grant and William 

 Shean, and a legion more. All these have cost labour, 

 and there are more to come. What has always struck 

 me as hard lines on these firms is the number of abso- 



