CHAPTER XIV 



ROSE GARDENS 



One of the many ways in which the splendid en- 

 thusiasm for good gardening — an enthusiasm which 

 only grows stronger as time goes on — is showing itself, 

 is in the general desire to use beautiful Roses more 

 worthily. We are growing impatient of the usual 

 Rose garden, generally a sort of target of concentric 

 rings of beds placed upon turf, often with no special 

 aim at connected design with the portions of the 

 garden immediately about it, and filled with plants 

 without a thought of their colour effect or any other 

 worthy intention. 



Now that there is such good and wonderfully varied 

 material to be had, it is all the more encouraging 

 to make Rose gardens more beautiful, not with beds 

 of Roses alone — many a Rose garden is already too 

 extensive in its display of mere beds — but to consider 

 the many different ways in which Roses not only 

 consent to grow but in which they live most happily 

 and look their best. Beds we have had, and arches 

 and bowers, but very little as yet in the whole range 

 of possible Rose garden beauty. 



The Rose garden at its best admits of many more 

 beauties than these alone. Of the Roses we have 

 now to choose from some are actual species, and 



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