THE FEAST OF FLOWERS 91 



This raw, red, unfertile-looking shale seems to 

 have in it something besides the liberally added 

 manure that roses like, to judge by the growing 

 that the climbers have done. When I look at the 

 photographic record of the bare rose-arbor, made 

 in September of the year we moved in, and then 

 at another photograph made in June of the second 

 year after, I can hardly believe what I see. And 

 when I remember that the awful ten-below-zero 

 winds of the next winter cut those roses down 

 almost to the ground, the way they got busy and 

 re-covered the arbor in one season seems also 

 unbelievable. Lady Gay, Hiawatha, W. C. Egan, 

 and Alberic Barbier are the names of the sisterhood 

 of sturdy loveliness that have done this great 

 growing and blooming. 



Leuchstern, at the eastern front of the arbor, 

 has not grown so vigorously, but its bloom has 

 been so copious, so exquisite, so enduring, each 

 year, that I cannot ask more of it. Clusters that 

 in substance and coloration surpass the rhododen- 

 drons they resemble stay in perfection through 

 almost two weeks, after they have been as fine as 

 any ordinary rose for many days. 



My wife and I are divided as to which of the 

 two dominant roses of the long hedge are most 

 impressive. Both are, probably; the Climbing 



