1 82 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



flower longer than any bedding plants, even without the advantage 

 of fresh soil every year which bedding plants enjoy. I have Roses 

 growing in the same places for seven years, which have the fine 

 quality of blooming in autumn, and even into winter. And they 

 must come back not only in beds, but in the old ways over bower 

 and trellis and as bushes where they are hardy enough to stand 

 our winters, so as to break up flat surfaces, and give us light and 

 shade where all is usually so level and hard. But the Rose must 

 not come back in ugly ways, in Roses stuck and mostly starving 

 on the tops of sticks or standards, or set in raw beds of manure, 

 and pruned hard and set thin so as to develop large blooms ; but, 

 as the bloom is beautiful in all stages and sizes, Roses should be 

 seen closely massed, feathering to the ground, the queen of the 

 flower garden in all ways. 



The Rose is not only a " decorative " plant of the highest order, 

 but no other plant grown in European gardens in any way ap- 

 proaches it in this quality. The practice of exhibitors of any kind 

 is of slight value from the point of view of beauty of the garden, and 

 not always of the very flower itself, as we see in the case of the Dahlia. 

 Thirty years ago the florists, like the late Mr. Glenny, who had the 

 law in their own hands as regards the Dahlia, would have knocked 

 a man on the head who had the audacity to dissent from their lumpy 

 standard of beauty. It was really a standard of ugliness as so many 

 of these " florists' ' rules are. Then came the Cactus Dahlias, of free 

 and distinct form, and the single Dahlias, and now we see proof 

 in cottage gardens even that the Dahlia is a nobler thing by a long 

 way than the old florist's idea of it. And so we shall find with 

 the Rose, that, brought back to its true place in the flower garden, 

 it will be a lovelier thing than ever it has been on the show bench, 

 seen set in the finely coloured and graceful foliage of the " Teas," 

 and with their many buds and charming variations as to flower and 

 bud, from week to week, until the first days of winter. 



THE STANDARD ROSE. A taking novelty at first, few things 

 have had a worse influence on gardening than the Standard Rose 

 in all forms. Grown throughout Europe and Britain by millions, 

 it is seen usually in a wretched state, and yet there is something 

 about it which prevents us seeing its bad effect in the garden, and 

 its evil influence on the cultivation of the Rose, for we now and then 

 ..see a fine and even a picturesque Standard, when the Rose suits the 

 stock it is grafted on, and the soil suits each ; but this does not 

 happen often. The term grafting is used here to describe any modes 

 of growing a Rose on any stock or kind, as the English use of the 

 term budding, as distinct from grafting, is needless, budding being 

 only one of the many forms of grafting. There is no reason why 



