CHAPTER XIII 



ROSES FOR CONVERTING UGLINESS TO BEAUTY 



No plant is more helpful and accommodating than 

 the Rose in the way of screening ugliness and pro- 

 viding living curtains of flowery drapery for putting 

 over dull or unsightly places. For instance, no object 

 can be much less of an adornment to a garden than 

 the class of ready-made wooden arbour or summer- 

 house " made of well-seasoned deal, and painted three 

 coats complete." Yet by covering it with an outer 

 skin of ramping Roses it may in about three years 

 be made a beautiful thing, instead of an eyesore. The 

 illustration shows such a house that has been planted 

 with Crimson Rambler and other free-growing Roses. 

 Larch poles, connected by top rails, have been placed 

 round it. The spreading branches of the Roses will 

 reach out over the rails, and the whole thing will 

 become a house of Roses. Not only will it be beau- 

 tiful, but the deep masses of leafy and flowery 

 branches will keep off the sun-heat, which, without 

 such a shield, makes these small wooden buildings 

 insufferably hot in summer. 



Many an old farmhouse is now being converted 

 into a dwelling-house for another class of resident, 

 and wise are they who consider well before they pull 

 down the old farm buildings. For even a tarred 



