x RIVERSIDE LETTERS 79 



ported by low trellis-work. None of the 

 arrangements that I have effected in my 

 garden have been more successful, or met with 

 greater admiration, than these rows of China 

 roses. They have been planted for about 

 twelve years, and though I have never done 

 anything to them except occasionally cutting 

 out dead wood, and tying up here and there, 

 they are finer this year than I ever remember 

 to have seen them. They are hardly ever 

 touched by blight of any sort, they yield 

 many more clusters of bloom than any rose I 

 know ; they go on blooming, as long as the 

 weather is at all mild, even up to Christmas- 

 time ; nothing is prettier than a bunch of 

 their half-open buds, with their foliage, picked 

 late in the autumn ; cold weather seems to 

 add a deeper hue to their colour ; this year the 

 cold wet weather and the frosts did them 

 rather good than harm, as their colour never 

 was finer, and the first blossoming time has 

 been prolonged. 



The weight of the raindrops on their boughs 



