74 ROSES FOR ENGLISH GARDENS 



Cabbage and Moss Roses, the Damasks, and other old 

 garden kuids. Whether it is that they are so closely 

 associated with what one considers the true old 

 garden flowers, or for some reason of their own 

 ordaining, I could not say, but about midsummer I 

 have great pleasure in putting together Cabbage, Moss, 

 and Damask Roses with Honeysuckle and white 

 Pinks, and China Roses also with white Pinks. The 

 combination of these few flowers, all of sweetest scent, 

 seems to convey, both by sight and smell, the true 

 sentiment of the old English garden of the best and 

 simplest kind. 



Large Roses are top-heavy, and every one who is 

 used to arranging flowers, must at some time or other 

 have been vexed by a bunch of Roses carefully placed 

 in a bowl conspiring together to fling themselves out 

 of it all round at the same moment. It is well worth 

 while to have wire frames made for the bowls that 

 are generally in use. Two discs of wire netting with 

 a top rim and three legs of stouter wire can be made 

 by any whitesmith or ironmonger or by the ingenious 

 amateur at home. The lower tier of netting should 

 be an inch from the bottom of the bowl, to catch 

 the lower end of the stalk. I have often used three 

 garden pots, one mside another in a china bowl, thus 

 making three concentric rings and "one centre for stalk 

 space. Stiff greenery, like Box or Holly, kept low in 

 the bowl out of sight, also makes a good foundation. 



Roses are best also with their own leaves, the chief 

 exception to this being the beauty of red-tinted sum- 

 mer shoots of Oak, which in July and August are 



