CHAPTER III 



THE BRIER ROSES 



Roses of one sort or another are with us in the open 

 garden for five months out of the twelve, namely from 

 the end of May to well on in October. 



One of the first to bloom in an ordinary garden 

 collection is likely to be Rosa altaica, the close fore- 

 runner of its near relations the Scotch Briers. Though 

 it is a native of a far distant mountain range of Central 

 Asia, it is almost identical in appearance with our native 

 Burnet Rose (R. spinosissima). It blooms some ten 

 days earlier and the flowers are a shade larger and the 

 whole plant rather more free of growth, but there is 

 the same bloom of tender lemon white, the same 

 typical brier foliage and the same showy black hips. 

 It is a capital garden plant, and takes its place naturally 

 with the hardy Briers. 



By the first week of June the Scotch Briers are in 

 flower, in all their pretty colourings of pink and rose 

 and pale yellow, besides the strongest growing of all, 

 the double white. Those who are interested in this 

 class of Rose should inquire in the good old Scotch 

 gardens, where no doubt fine forms still exist that have 

 not come into trade. One of the best and quite the 

 sweetest has become rare, and sometimes cannot be 

 had even in the best Rose nurseries. It is of a pale 



