132 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



Good roses not, however, the perfect flowers of the 

 connoisseur or even of the cottage exhibitions of Eng- 

 land may be had from early June until the first week 

 of July, but the hybrid tea roses that brave the latter 

 part of that month and August are but short lived, 

 even when gathered in the bud. Those known as sum- 

 mer bedders of the Bourbon class, chiefly scentless, of 

 which Appoline is a well-known example, are simply 

 bits of decorative colour without the endearing attri- 

 butes of roses, and garden colour may be obtained 

 with far less labour. 



In July and August you may safely let your eyes 

 wander from the rosary to the beds of summer annuals, 

 the gladioli, Japan lilies, and Dahlias, and depend for 

 fragrance on your bed of sweet odours. But as the 

 nights begin to lengthen, at the end of August, you may 

 prepare for a tea-rose festival, if you have a little fore- 

 thought and a very little money. 



You have, I think, a florist in your neighbourhood 

 who raises roses for the market. This is my method, 

 practised for many years with comforting success. 

 Instead of buying pot- grown tea roses in April or May, 

 that, unless a good price (from twenty-five cents up) is 

 paid for them, will be so small that they can only be 

 called bushes at the season's end, I go to our florist 



