3H POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



It is fitting to conclude this brief excursion into the 

 literature and history of the Rose with Herrick's lines 



" Gather ye Roses while ye may, 



Old time is still a-flying, 

 And the same flower that smiles to-day 

 To-morrow will be dying," 



for they remind us that we must not spend all our time 

 over the pages of the past, however pleasantly scented 

 they may be, but come to the present, realise that time is 

 fleeting, and make haste to fill our garden with Roses. 



Rose Gardens. Almost all country dwellers alas ! 

 that it cannot be said of townsmen are Rose-growers, 

 for even the cottager, whose garden is crowded with 

 Potatoes, Onions, Beans, Cabbages, and other vegetables, 

 contrives to get an arch for Roses in an angle of his 

 house. One sees the pink Monthly Rose in hundreds 

 of gardens, large and small. In many cases no one 

 seems to know how it got there, for it has no local 

 history. It looks after itself. It is never pruned, and 

 the most that it receives is a spadeful of manure now 

 and then. Villa gardeners grow Roses, generally with 

 some pretence of skill ; anyway, the plants are labelled 

 and pruned. And, needless to say, Roses are a feature 

 of every Vicarage and Hall garden. In many places 

 there is a special Rose garden extending to two or three 

 acres, but a Rose garden may be much smaller than 

 that ; indeed, one may be formed within a garden, the 

 whole of which does not extend to an acre. A small 

 Rose garden is before me as I write. A hedge has been 

 utilised as one side of the enclosure, the others are 

 formed of rustic Oak placed diagonally on Chestnut 

 uprights, the base of which was barked, painted with 

 tar and dusted with sand. In one angle of the rustic 

 fence a semi-circular rustic summer-house has been 



