74 THE BLOSSOM CIRCLE OF THE YEAR 



As the Rose fields of Turkey and Persia are famed for the 

 richness and fragrance of their blossoms, so ought the Rose gardens 

 and fields of the South to be known. There can be found in no 

 other part of the world a more magnificent wealth of bloom or 

 more extravagant depth of colors than are to be seen in the Rose 

 fields of the South. Hundreds of acres of Roses blossoming at 

 one time in the grounds of the southern nurseries is a sight worth 

 traveling far to see. Not only do Roses adorn the gardens and 

 grounds of the rich, but even the humblest cottage will have its 

 doorway framed in the fragrant masses of the old-fashioned Seven 

 Sisters, the sweet-scented Lamarque, or the Magnolia Rose of 

 the South, the creamy white Devoniensis with its rosy center, 

 while even the hedgerows from North Carolina to Texas are 

 framed in the rich dark green of the Cherokees. With the clear 

 petals of snowy white and the massed stamens of pure golden 

 yellow, sweet as the sweet-briered Eglantine of old England, is it 

 any wonder that the home of the Cherokee is called the land of 

 sunshine and Roses ? 



From mid-April until June is the time of all the year when one 

 most enjoys the growing things, for this is the time of Roses in 

 this section. White and gold, pink and crimson, American 

 Beauties, La France, the beloved old General Jacqueminot, the 

 clustering blossoms of the Dorothy Perkins, the clambering sweet 

 old Teas, all make us glad to be alive, glad to forget that there 

 are cares and trials to be borne, glad to remember that life is 

 sweet, that life is beautiful, that life is worth the living, that 

 there is a Heaven, on earth — ^just inside our garden gates. 



