CHAPTER XI 



ROSES AS FOUNTAINS AND GROWING FREE 



Among the many ways of worthily using the free 

 Ayrshire Roses, one of the best is to leave them to 

 their own way of growth, without any staking or 

 guiding whatever. Due space must be allowed for 

 their full size, which will be a diameter of some ten 

 feet. Of these useful garden Roses none is more 

 beautiful than the Garland, with its masses of pretty 

 blush-white bloom. It is well worth getting up at 

 4 a.m. on a mid-June morning to see the tender 

 loveliness of the newly opening buds ; for, beauti- 

 ful though they are at noon, they are better still when 

 just awaking after the refreshing influence of the 

 short summer night. 



Several others among the old Ayrshires are excellent 

 in this way of growth, though perhaps there are none 

 to beat the Garland and Dundee Rambler. A grassy 

 space where they may be seen all round, or a place 

 where the great bush may be free at least on two 

 sides, are the most suitable, or they may be used as 

 central or symmetrically recurring points in a Rose 

 garden of some size. The young growths that show 

 above the mass when the bloom is waning are the 

 flowering branches of next year ; they will arch over 

 and bear the clusters of flowers on short stems 



