CHAPTER VI 



ROSE TIME 



June It is a poor garden that does not show Roses in June, 

 and in the early part of the month too. Nothing is more 

 amazing, and at the same time more delightful, than the 

 way in which Roses bound into bloom in June after a 

 slow drag through a cold spring. I sometimes think 

 that Nature, who often treats us harshly with cold winds 

 throughout April and May, which hold vegetation back 

 and give the whole garden a pinched look — that this 

 same domineering spirit provides compensation in an 

 unusual acceleration of speed when the weather-brake is 

 removed. Vegetation seems to spring as a motor does 

 when an extra whiff of gas is given. It is, of course, a 

 fact that plants in Arctic regions grow more rapidly, when 

 once they are started, than plants in the south. This has 

 been attributed by scientists to the effect of electric 

 discharges, but the vegetable forcer in this country 

 notices that plants which have been checked (might I 

 not say rested ?) by hard frost grow faster, when sub- 

 jected to heat, than others which have never had to feel 

 the pinch of winter. 



It is disappointing to see plants held up by hard 

 weather in spring, but one feels that it is almost worth it 

 when one sees with what gusto they go ahead directly 

 they are released. They are as full of life and joy as 

 a dog taken off the chain. 



June is perhaps the most enjoyable month of the 



