CHAPTER VIII 



BIG ROSE BUSHES 



The average amateur is fascinated by anything big 

 in the way of garden produce, whether it is a rose or 

 a cauliflower. I do not write disparagingly, for I con- 

 fess to similar appreciation. One would not, perhaps, 

 find greater delight in the high Alpine flowers were 

 they twice the size they are, but then they are minia- 

 tures, and one's appreciation is adjusted accordingly. 

 But most people prefer a big rose bush, I think, to a 

 little one, and a big rose bloom to one that is small 

 always providing that it possesses some charm of form 

 and tenderness of tinting. The production of a big 

 rose bush is very satisfying to one's vanity (and are 

 not all rosarians vainglorious?), even though it has 

 developed in spite of, rather than in virtue of, one's 

 care. A giant bush of Conrad Meyer is calculated to 

 give far greater delight than a puny plant of Tea rose 

 Lady Roberts, though the latter would be easily first, 

 and the former nowhere, on the show-board. And so, 

 having satisfied my conscience and justified the appeal 

 of big rose bushes, it remains to discover those best 

 suited to the purpose. 



There is none to excel Conrad F. Meyer, a variety 

 that is closely related to the Japanese Brier (Rosa rugosa). 



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