THE NEW ROSE GARDEN. 187 



US a few dead sticks from the Dog Rose. Even if " worked " low 

 on the " collar " of the stock, grafted Roses have a chance of rooting 

 and keeping out of the way of frost, which they never have when 

 stuck high in the air. Then there is the fact of certain Roses dis- 

 liking stocks, or certainly some stocks, as all buyers of Roses may 

 see certain varieties always " growing backwards " so to say, and soon 

 dying. This happens even where the first year's growth and flower 

 are all we could desire. The question for the seller is how his stocks 

 look the year of sale no doubt, but the buyer should see whether his 

 Roses improve or not after the first year, and it is certain that many 

 varieties do go back when " worked " as the term is. 



Another element of uncertainty is the kind of stock used. Even 

 if the propagator knows the right stock for the sort he may not for 

 some reason use it, as many have found to their cost who have bought 

 Tea Roses grafted on the Manetti stock — a stock that in any case has 

 no merit beyond giving a few large blooms for a show the first year. 

 And in many cases it paralyses all growth in the kind grafted 

 on it. 



There is a way to solve the question as to any kinds we are really 

 interested in — say Gloire Lyonnaise, Princess Marie d'Orleans and 

 Bouquet d'Or, or any other hardy and good Roses we fancy, old or 

 new. It is easy to try a few of each kind in the same soil in the 

 natural way on own roots, and also grafted on the wild Dog Rose or 

 any other stock that may be recommended for a given variety, using 

 the " worked " kinds both as Standards and half Standards or dwarfs 

 as may be preferred. The first care should be to get plants on own 

 roots about as strong as those worked, and it is not difficult to do 

 this with a little patience, as some gardeners and even cottagers strike 

 Roses from cuttings very successfully. But no trial would be of any 

 use v/hich did not go over the first year or two, because of the 

 dread phase of the grafting humbug above alluded to, that the things 

 are grown to sell, and although they look well when they come to us, 

 after a year or two they perish, and we are as much in want of 

 Roses as ever. This may look very " good for trade," but any 

 practice which leads to the vexation and disappointment of the 

 grower is not good for trade, as many people give the Rose up 

 as hopeless on their soil when they get a poor result. 



If we go into the Rose garden of the Luxembourg at Paris or any 

 of the regular roseries in England, we shall find more than half the 

 plants in a sickly, flowerless state. So sickly are the bushes, or what 

 remains of them, that it is common to see a rosery without any 

 Roses worth picking after the first flush of bloom is past, and this 

 is a great waste of time and temper. When we think of the number 

 of beautiful things which this has to do with to their harm : — the 



