THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



A visit was made to the Bagatelle Garden, Paris. If there is any here 

 who does not know the rose Gravereaux, let me recommend that he culti- 

 vate its acquaintance. This rose was named in honor of a French gentle- 

 man whose contribution to our profession deserves a more than ordinary 

 decoration. His own garden, about which I will tell you later, should be a 

 Mecca for continental travelers. But it is rather inconvenient of access, 

 and is private; therefore, with very good reason, he early advocated the 

 establishment of a rose garden that should be the gem and a jewel in the 

 popular park of the city of Paris. That rose garden is now established 

 and among French rose-growers, at least, if not of international im- 

 portance, forms a trial ground and a meeting place for the best of the 

 old and nearly all of the new continental introductions. 



It was in this garden, in the Bois de Boulogne, upon invitation from the 

 city of Paris, that I went last summer to act as a judge and in so doing 

 was asked to represent America. The Bagatelle is a little park in the Bois 

 de Boulogne; some people might say it is quite a large park. It is sur- 

 rounded by a high stone wall. More than half of it is covered with woods, 

 the rest in lawns and landscapes laid out with beautiful drives, and nearly 

 all well kept. It was built possibly by, and certainly for, Marie Antoinette. 

 After the French revolution it was sold to an Englishman and afterward 

 bought back by the city of Paris for park purposes. The grounds are now 

 in charge of M. Forestier who seems most affectionately interested in this 

 comparatively new rose garden. It covers, I suppose, two acres, laid out 

 with the roses arranged in families, with the climbers mainly at one end 

 or along certain avenues or walks. The roses of the last two years are 

 each grouped separately and will later find their permanent place in the 

 garden. 



The Bagatelle Rose Garden has so much of interest that one could 

 readily spend several days there; and in going to or from it one may run 

 across the " Battle of Flowers " or " Fete des Fleurs," in some of the 

 prominent avenues of the park, lined up with people four tiers deep on 

 both sides ; carriages and automobiles, sumptuously decorated with roses 

 and other flowers, parade up and down, prizes being given to the most 

 exquisitely decorated ones, after which the occupants of the vehicle begin 

 hurling their flowers at the bystanders who often toss them back. And 

 this exchange and riot of beauty has become known as the "Battle of 

 Flowers." I understand the proceeds, whatever they maj'^ be, go to the 

 hospitals. 



There is much more of interest in Paris, even horticulturally, than one 

 can stop to speak of, for here one finds the rose-growers whose names 

 have been associated with flowers in our own American gardens and green- 

 houses; for example, here was M. Cochet, M. Guillot, M. Gravereaux, all 

 men whose namesakes we grow. Therefore, it was with keen interest that 

 we set out to visit the establishments of these prominent rose growers. 



At Orleans we found M. Barbier, in whose well kept gardens we saw 



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