152 MY GARDEN 



CLIMBERS. We now come to the glorious array of 

 Climbing Roses. Each year sees new beauties pre- 

 sented for our approval, and the difficulty is to find space 

 wherein to grow all that we would like. 



The wonder is that with all the long-limbed loveliness 

 at our disposal there are so many walls, porches, fences, 

 and arbours but scantily clothed, if clothed at all, and 

 considering the enormous variety of Climbing Roses to 

 be had how little originality and fitness is shown in the 

 selections made. The poor overworked Crimson Ram- 

 bler is the favourite, and is forced to blaze its unadapt- 

 able colour upon red brick walls, or pumpkin- coloured 

 houses, without a chance to show its possibilities. In 

 the right place it is a good Rose, save for its propensity to 

 mildew, and it should be honoured as the first of a race 

 which gives us now many more desirable sorts. The 

 Crimson Rambler is a multiflora, and to this type and to 

 the Wichuraianas we owe the major part of our Climb- 

 ing Roses, though we have also Hybrid Teas, Hybrid 

 Perpetuals, Teas, Ayrshires, Noisettes, Chinas, and 

 Prairie Roses. 



Many of the recent introductions and some of the 

 very old ones are single or semi-double, and we are 

 coming to realize and appreciate the esthetic value of 

 these simple shining flowers. For many years multi- 

 plication of petals, the more the better, was the end 

 aimed at by the Rose conjurers, and in a little book 

 published in Philadelphia, in 1830, by Robert Buist, 



