SUMMER 87 



around them every little while, they will 

 generally bloom, sometimes." 



And then I looked up the boss of a large 

 flower-shop and asked him, and he said : 

 " Roses will live out and bloom all the 

 time in any kind of a soil, and it does n't 

 make any difference whether they have 

 light or shade." 



Now, then, what are you going to do 

 about it ? I 'm going to keep on treating 

 mine as I treat the rest of the plants: weed 

 them, shower them at evening, and pick the 

 worms off. Then if they won't bloom they 

 can make way for something that will. I 

 may mention that the only roses that gave 

 us any satisfaction were the cheap, com- 

 mon kinds that were well grown before we 

 bought them. The dwarfs, so pretty in 

 the catalogues, were a mean and measly 

 lot, producing perhaps one flower apiece ; 

 and the crimson rambler that was to cover 

 our fence with pounds of bloom, promptly 

 rambled down into the earth and stayed 

 there, like our California violets that were 

 to bear flowers something less large than 

 saucers. 



