ioo ROSE GARDENS 



in most cases, such blooms are the results of peculiar and costly 

 methods which the ordinary public cannot use. Therefore, when 

 people crowd to the front to note a new variety at the shows they 

 are only preparing for disappointment. Moreover this horrid 

 method of exhibiting flowers degrades the public taste, because it 

 makes English amateurs ignore garden effects and encourages 

 them to grow roses in the vegetable garden or in places coated with 

 manure simply to get big flowers to cut for the shows. It is an 

 open question whether English shows have not done more harm 

 than good. A better way to spread the love of flowers is for 

 every one to visit one another's gardens, because the cast-iron 

 standards of the florists cannot then tyrannize over us. However, 

 this small comfort may be a fleeting one, since fashions change. 



A surer basis for encouragement can be found in our climatic 

 superiority with respect to climbing roses. True, we cannot yet 

 produce the effect (shown on plate 43) of large double roses 

 blooming all summer on house walls up to the second story, but 

 even now we can make a bigger show in June with small roses in 

 large clusters (the sort of thing pictured on plate 44). For the 

 three great Japanese roses seem better adapted to our climate than 

 to that of Europe. They give us more and better foliage than any 

 European species ever can; they are less troubled with insects, and 

 require less care than large, double roses. The many-flowered 

 rose (Rosa multiflora) has already given rise to the Crimson Ram- 

 bler, of which more plants have probably been sold, it is said, than 

 of any other rose ever introduced. The memorial rose (R. Wich- 

 uraiana) gives us foliage that retains its glossy beauty a good part 

 of the winter. The Ramanas rose (R. rugosa) gives us the best 

 bush and the best foliage of any rose in the world. 



With these as a foundation we can build two American types 



