52 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
Let ‘‘ the small man,’ if he be a true Rose-lover 
and has a mind to grow them really well, harden 
his heart against all rival flowers, and go in, 
practically, for Roses alone. In every department 
of life a man must be a specialist now if he wants 
to succeed, and the Rose will amply repay special 
care. There are several examples among amateur 
Rose-growers of single-handed men who either un- 
ceasingly superintend or do all the work with their 
own hands; and most of these have not the smallest 
fear of meeting the best head gardeners in England 
in any class at the largest shows. This is by no 
means the fault of the great gardeners, even of such 
as have fifty men under them, but is simply because 
the Rose requires undivided care through nearly the 
whole of the year, and they have such a multitude 
of other things to attend to that they cannot com- 
pete even with a single-handed man who gives all 
his time to his Roses. 
What, then, shall our Rosarium be like in pattern 
and shape and general effect? Here I fear I shall 
prove too practical and utilitarian for the taste of 
many persons. Mr. William Paul in his large work 
gives several carefully drawn diagrams of geometrical 
arrangements and of noted Rose-gardens new and 
old, some of them laid out quite from the landscape 
gardener’s point of view. And Dean Hole says: 
‘“There should be beds of Roses, banks of Roses, 
bowers of Roses, hedges of Roses, edgings of Roses, . 
pillars of Roses, arches of Roses, fountains of Roses, 
baskets of Roses, vistas and alleys of the Rose.” 
But though these things are good and desirable, 
they will probably be beyond the means of most of 
my readers, as they certainly are beyond mine. 
