CHAPTER XII 



ROSES ON WALLS AND HOUSES 



The name Cluster Rose, which formerly belonged 

 almost entirely to the older class of garden Roses 

 known as the Ayrshires, varieties of sempervirens, and 

 the Musk Roses, has lately been necessarily extended 

 to all the beautiful things that the last few years have 

 given us, most of them hybrids of Rosa multiflora or 

 polyantha. All these Roses are derived from species 

 of rambling habit that in their native places climb 

 about among rocks and bushes. They seem willing 

 to extend their natural growth, for if guided into an 

 evergreen tree, such as Holly or Ilex, they will clamber 

 up to surprising heights. Climbing Aimee Vibert, for 

 instance, which is generally used as a pillar Rose or for 

 some such use as that shown in the frontispiece, will 

 rush high up into a tree, as may be seen in the picture 

 (p. 55). The uses of these free Roses are unending, 

 but just now it is their adaptation to house and gar- 

 den walls that is under consideration. When growing 

 naturally, these Roses throw out young rods of new 

 growth every year ; by degrees the older growths die, 

 and the younger ones, pushing outward, shoot up 

 through the dead and dying branches, both hiding 

 them and displaying their own fresh young beauty. 

 But on a wall this internal scaffolding of dead wood 



