J96 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



those with the bronze-colored leaves 

 being very handsome. To get a good 

 growth of the ricinus the soil of the 

 bed should be deep and rich. 



ROSES. 



Volumes have been devoted to the 

 rose. It is known as the queen of flow 

 ers. Whole books have dealt with 

 merely the diseases of the rose. A 

 great church dignitary of England gives 

 all his leisure time to telling funny 

 stories and studying his favorite love, 

 the rose. In this country Mr. H. B. Ell- 

 wanger, and others, have published 

 volumes on the rose. And for centuries 

 the literature of the rose has been pour 

 ing out in a steady stream. 



The production of the plants and 

 flowers has made a fortune for a few, 

 a competency for hundreds and daily 

 bread for thousands. There is no longer 

 a sanguinary war between the roses 

 of York and Lancaster, in which thou 

 sands perished and a fair island was 

 laid waste, but strange to say in one 

 city, most famous for peace and broth 

 erly love, there still exists a Duke of 

 York whose pride it is not to exter 

 minate his countryman who grows 

 white roses, but to produce such grand 

 red roses with stems of such a length 

 as his lordship the Earl of Lancaster 

 never dreamed of. 



grace of form, the beautiful leaves, the 

 fine stem and the sweetness of the flow 

 er that place it preeminently above all 

 other flowers. 



In Europe the rose has been fostered 

 by any number of rose societies, and 

 we have a rose society here, an auxili 

 ary of our national S. A. F. So far it 

 has been a rose society only in name, 

 but at Detroit it took a new lease of 

 life and now bids fair to start off with 

 the enthusiasm that belongs to the car 

 nation society. It is sincerely wished 

 that it may, and if so what magnifi 

 cent displays may we expect at its 

 annual conventions and exhibitions! 



Space forbids me to more than men 

 tion the literature of the rose. Among 

 the books devoted to the rose may be 

 mentioned Shirley Hibbard s &quot;Eose 

 Book for Amateurs,&quot; and &quot;A Book 

 About Roses, &quot; by Eev. 1 Dean S. R. 

 Hole. Both of these gentlemen are 

 charming writers and ardent students 

 of the rose. There you will find the 

 history of the rose, almost from the 

 dawn of our own history, as well as 

 its present day beauties and associa 

 tions. This is far mor.e edifying litera 

 ture than campaign speeches, murders, 

 shipwrecks, or the latest movements of 

 the popular vaudeville actresses. 



Of American authors, besides Mr. 

 Ellwanger s book, we have &quot;Parsons 

 on the Eose, &quot; by S. B. Parsons, a noted 



Roses on the Wooded Island, Jackson Park, Chicago. 



The rose is not only queen to all 

 those who admire a beautiful flower 

 and they are low in the animal scale 

 who do not but is the most impor 

 tant by far in our commercial horticul 

 ture. If we happen not to be exten 

 sive growers, then seventy-five per cent 

 of our bills with the commission man 

 are for roses. Although I believe that 

 orchids are bound to become great fa 

 vorites with the wealthier flower buy 

 ers, yet they nor any other flowers can 

 displace the rose as queen of all of 

 Flora s gifts. It is the perfection and 



horticulturist; and &quot;The Secrets of 

 Eose Culture,&quot; by W. J. Hatton, a 

 practical florist. One more foreign book 

 is that by William Paul, &quot;The Eose 

 Garden. / It is an expensive but mag 

 nificently illustrated volume, and Mr. 

 Paul, as a raiser and cultivator, is per 

 haps the foremost rosarian of the 

 world. 



The rose has been emblematic of no 

 end of things, and I will conclude my 

 preliminary remarks by saying that 

 I have thought many times that I 

 could have improved on that mysteri 



ous and ambiguous story of the Garden 

 of Eden had I been the learned Israel 

 ite or syndicate of Israelites who by 

 tradition handed down or scratched on 

 tablets of stone or burnt clay the 

 stories of their forefathers whose 

 dreams included serpents, fig leaves, 

 forbidden fruit and murder. Strange 

 thtit these evil agencies surround us 

 yet, and encompass a man most fatally 

 if he steps far off the virtuous path. 

 I hope I won t be considered presump 

 tuous, but I would have made Miss 

 Innocent Eve tempt Mr. Frank Adam 

 to present her with a moss rose bud. 

 The roses were growing in Asia Minor, 

 but no one knows what kind of fruit 

 the forbidden species was. If Eve was 

 a dark-skinned damsel we would say 

 it was a watermelon. The moss rose 

 bud would be far more poetical and 

 has a meaning, for in our early youth 

 we learned that a moss rose bud was 

 an expression of true love, or at 

 least the first true, but in poor Eve s 

 case it would have been a case of neces 

 sity. It was first, last and only love. 

 No flirting, no jealousies nor need of 

 western divorce courts, where the sign 

 hangs out: &quot;Divorces granted while 

 you wait.&quot; 



If you were to ask an American 

 which was the most important class of 

 roses he would probably say the teas. 

 If you asked an Englishman he would 

 say undoubtedly that the so-called 

 hybrid perpetual class was much the 

 most important. The more temperate 

 climate of Western Europe is very fa 

 vorable to the rose, and in Great Brit 

 ain the tea and Noisette roses are 

 hardy out of doors. In our northern 

 states the hybrid perpetuals, while be 

 ing quite entitled to be called hardy, 

 are often injured by the severe win 

 ters, and the tea and Noisette sections, 

 unless most thoroughly protected, are 

 entirely unfitted for our winters. 



There is nothing that our people 

 crave to have in their garden, let it be 

 in the few acres of the millionaire or 

 the small garden plot of the mechanic, 

 so much as a rose, and in nothing is 

 there so much disappointment. With 

 our detached residences, both big and 

 little, there is always some garden, and 

 too frequently the attempt to grow 

 roses in them is a failure. The soil is 

 often worn out and there is not fresh 

 air enough. The budded stock is pur 

 chased from the tree peddler, and in a 

 few years there is a strong growth of 

 the Manetti stock. &quot;But the roses 

 don t flower.&quot; The rose is long since 

 dead and only the suckers of the Ma 

 netti exist. 



I believe that where there is a good 

 expanse of lawn and the soil is fresh 

 and good, the best results can be ob 

 tained by planting annually young 

 plants of the tea and hybrid tea vari 

 eties. Years ago where now stand 

 buildings we used to plant out every 

 May 3-inch or 4-inch pot plants of the 

 old Bon Silene, Safrano, Isabella Sprunt 

 and Duchess de Brabant, and from 

 June on till the middle of November 

 we cut thousands of handsome buds, 

 which I know would more than gratify 



