CHAPTER X 

 THE SMALL ROSE GARDEN 



AN English garden without Roses would be an incom- 

 plete and soulless thing. I do not say that every gar- 

 den should include in its design a Rose garden. There 

 are, however, many advantages in allotting some por- 

 tion of the grounds mainly to the culture of Roses, and 

 it is almost inevitable that sooner or later some part 

 of the garden becomes known as such. Not the least 

 advantage of this giving over one portion of the garden 

 to Roses is the fact that the results obtained thereby 

 are, generally speaking, far more satisfactory than by 

 attempting to grow them mixed up with other things. 

 The Rose is one of those plants that thrives best in a 

 state of splendid isolation. It objects to being asso- 

 ciated with anything else. It needs a sort of special 

 treatment that is not applicable to many other garden 

 flowers. This exclusiveness on the part of the queen 

 of the garden would almost seem to extend to its com- 

 mercial associations. There are many firms who 

 specialize in this or that, but I do not recall a single 

 instance where there are a number of firms devoting 

 their entire attention to the culture of the plants of one 

 particular genera as in the case with Roses. 



It will, however, be universally conceded that the 

 Rose is worth this exalted position in the garden. 

 What else is there that gives us such variety of form 



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