THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



ROSES AND THE NEW ROSE GARDEN 



It gives us a curious sense of historic continuity to think that there is 

 no nation, of which we have any written record, which does not mention 

 the rose, either in legend or literature. In legend are disclosed three 

 characteristics of the rose : doubling, color, and scent. The Indian legend, 

 accounting for the doubling of the rose, tells us that once upon a time 

 Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu, chose for her bed the heart of a rose which con- 

 sisted of one hundred and eight large petals and one thousand and eight 

 smaller ones. While another legend says that one day Venus, strolling in 

 the flowery meadows at the dawn of the world, when all roses were white, 

 pricked her foot with a rose thorn and a drop of blood fell upon the white 

 blossom, giving to it its sweet scent as well as its color. History tells us 

 that in the far East, in China, India and Persia the gardens were a riot of 

 roses ; but we do not associate roses with Egypt, where they nevertheless 

 were grown with almost ec^ual enthusiasm. Even in Scandinavia we hear 

 that roses were strewn upon the graves of warriors. In fact, the rose has 

 always been the emblem of youth and beauty. In comparatively modern 

 times we can recall the scene in Henry VI, in the temple garden, where 

 Somerset and Plantagenet pluck the white and red roses which are to be 

 the emblems of the houses of York and Lancaster during the so-called 

 wars of the roses. 



It is interesting to read what dear old John Parkinson, who wrote soon 

 after Shakespeare's day, tells us in his " Paradisi in Sole Paradisus 

 Terrestris," published in 1629, in describing his new rose garden : 



" The great varietie of Roses is much to be admired, beeing more than 

 is to bee scene in any other shrubby plant that I know, both for colour, 

 forme and smell. I have to furnish this garden thirty sorts at the least, 

 every one notably different from the other, and all fit to be here enter- 

 tained : for there are some other, that being wilde and of no beautie or 

 smell, we forbeare and leave to their wild habitations." 



The bush-roses which Parkinson describes in his own garden are the 

 same as those we find in the old cottage gardens today : — the cinnamon 

 rose, with its flat deep-red blossom, pale green leaves, and red twigs ; the 

 Scotch rose, with its tiny leaves and small china-like flowers ; the Austrian 

 briar, the Persian yellow and the moss rose; the cabbage rose and the 

 Province rose ; and the Damask rose, which Parkinson describes as being 

 " of the most excellent sweet pleasant sent, far surpassing all other Roses 

 or Flowers, being neyther heady nor too strong, nor stuffing or unpleasant 

 sweet, as many other flowers." 



From this group of roses are descended our roses of today; but I do not 

 propose to keep you here all night and shall, therefore, not even attempt to 

 tell you which are the parents of given types of roses. This is done 

 deliberately, because while many botanists and rosarians are sure they have 

 solved this complicated question, they all disagree, and the most that an 



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