JULY 117 



the Madonna lily, and of some later kinds also, to 

 continue the season of bloom in that part of the 

 bed. 



Roses are a feature of the garden now. I am 

 not specially successful with them, but they are 

 doing well this year. To-day I cut seventy blooms 

 for the house, and left over three hundred equally 

 good ones on the bushes. The only very dark one 

 that never fails is Eugen Flirst. It is a beautiful 

 velvety claret colour, remarkably free -blooming, 

 and easily managed. It is not so perfect a flower 

 as Jean Liabaud at its best, which I consider the 

 finest of all the dark roses ; but I do not get one 

 good bloom in a dozen of Jean Liabaud, while 

 every one comes right of Eugen Fiirst. Of true 

 rose-coloured ones Countess of Oxford is as use- 

 ful as any, its early blossoms especially being of 

 a wonderful glowing tint. In bright crimsons 

 A. K. Williams is unsurpassed to my mind, Ulrich 

 Brunner and Marie Baumann being also excellent. 

 Among pinks I like best Madame Gabrielle Luizet, 

 Mrs. John Laing, and Captain Christy for good 

 all-round serviceable qualities, and Margaret Dick- 

 son, Violette Bouyer, and Clio are a good white 

 trio. All these are easy to rear and to do well. 

 I have made several disastrous experiments in rose- 

 growing, and am gradually getting rid of such as 

 will not repay ordinary attention. I had a bed, 

 for instance, of Salamander, and another of Ella 

 Gordon, both greatly lauded by the growers, and 

 admirable flowers at their best, but as they never 

 let me see their best I ceased to think them worth 

 giving up my beds to, and they are now trying to hold 



