192 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



of mixed ineffective planting of one kind in a place. The success of 

 the plan was remarkable both for length of bloom and beauty of 

 flower and foliage, variety of kind and charming range of colour, and 

 also curious and unlooked for variety in each kind. That is to say, 

 each Tea Rose varied as the weather varied, and the days passed 

 on : the buds of Anna Olivier in June were not the same as the buds 

 of the same rose in September, and all kinds showing ceaseless 

 changes in the beauty of bud or bloom from week to week. 



No Standards. — It was easy to abolish the standard as hopeless 

 and diseased in many cases and ugly in effect, but not so easy to get 

 out of the way of grafting on something else, which is the routine in 

 nurseries, and here I had to follow the usual way of getting all the 

 Tea Roses grafted on the common Dog Rose, but always getting the 

 plants " worked " low either on the base of the stock or on the root, so 

 that it is easy in planting to cover the union of the stock with the 

 more precious thing which is grafted on to it, and so protect the often 

 somewhat delicate kind from intense cold. There is also a chance in 

 this way of letting the plant so grafted free itself by rooting above the 

 union. If we plant firmly in the earth, slightly inclining it to one 

 side, and scrape a little off the lower part of the stems of the Rose, we 

 may encourage the rose to root itself above the stock, and in any 

 case we escape the ravages of frost. Certainly it is so in my 

 garden in a cool and upland district. For ten years or so, of the 

 many kinds we have planted we have had no losses from cold. The 

 Tea Roses were often cut down by the frost, but they came up again, 

 often vigorously ; some kinds undoubtedly go back or fail, but not, I 

 think, because of cold, but rather through not liking the stock. 

 Making all our beautiful and often tender roses grow on one wild 

 stock only may have bad effects, just as grafting all the precious 

 Rhododendrons on the wretched R. ponticum has bad effects. Some 

 kinds flower, do well for a year or two, and then rapidly diminish in 

 size and beauty ; some are very vigorous the first year but die off 

 wholly in the second. The Wild Rose stock has the power to push 

 the Rose into great growth the first year, and then, owing to the 

 stock and graft being of a wholly different origin and nature, there is 

 a conflict in the flows of the sap, and death quickly ensues. There 

 has been such a number of beautiful Tea Roses raised and lost that 

 it is worth while inquiring if we have not lost many of them from 

 this cause. Some Roses that grew freely did not open their buds 

 in our country, and others broke away into small heads and buds 

 which made them useless. However, out of the thousands planted 

 some kinds did admirably, and quite enough of them to make a 

 true garden of Roses, lasting in beauty throughout the summer and 

 autumn. 



