ON BEGINNING WELL 3 



glories that, since he began, have come into his life, he 

 will, at times, conclude that the roses he began with 

 were, in some ways, the loveliest and most lovable 

 of all, for they gave so much while asking for so 

 little. 



The beginner must certainly start with both climb- 

 ing and bush or dwarf roses ; the latter for delight 

 the first summer after planting, with fair, though not 

 full, harvest of blossom ; the former to captivate with 

 their lusty or lissom growths, giving promise of an abun- 

 dant blossoming to come. It would be a great mistake 

 to start with climbing roses alone, for the correct initial 

 treatment is to discourage flowering the first summer. 

 Luckily, the methods that discourage blooming also 

 encourage free growth, and so long as a happy ending 

 to one's anticipations is assured, much pleasure is de- 

 rivable from watching the development, often extra- 

 ordinarily rapid, of the lusty young shoots of a climb- 

 ing rose. How gingerly the crimsoned shoot starts 

 life, how tender yet how strong it is, how easily damaged 

 yet possessed of what remarkable possibilities. In the 

 warm, moist days of June one can almost see the rose 

 shoots grow; at least, one can measure their daily 

 progress by inches on a two-foot rule. So far as 

 the beginner is concerned, there are roses and roses 

 that climb. Some will blossom forth in bewildering 

 beauty almost in spite of what an unskilled grower may 

 do; others one may grow for years and still count 

 the annual harvest of blossom on the fingers of both 

 hands. I do not write in exaggerated phrase, for have 



