ROSES IN F.-M. VISCOUNT WOLSELEY'S GARDEN. 



(Fioni the Hon. Fiances Wolseley's " Gardening for Women ') 



ROSES AND ROSE GARDENS 



By H. H. THOMAS 



TO write of roses and rose gardens is 

 to write of every garden in every 

 country, for how could a garden 

 bs a garden without its rose beds and 

 bowers, its arches and arbours, poles, 

 pillars and pergolas ? It would be as a 

 flower without fragrance, as a jewel 

 without its setting There is no flower 

 comparable to the rose in beauty and 

 variety of form, in grace and charm, 

 and —I more important still — in adap- 

 tation to all sorts of conditions in widely 

 differing gardens. There is not a wall, 

 whether it face north, south, east or 

 west, that may not hide its barrenness 

 beneath a screen of fairest rose blossom, 

 no plot, however small or smoke-begrimed, 



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in which some rose will not flourish. By 

 its indifference to environment, it has 

 become the idol of the people, a flower as 

 deeply loved as it is widely grown. There 

 is no garden so lowly that the rose will leave 

 it unadorned, if (ah ! what issues lie 

 upon an " if " !) there be great tenderness 

 in the tending, in the greeting a warm 

 affection whose ardour does not cool 

 as time flies by. For with all its in- 

 difference to vulgar show and elaborate 

 display, the rose was never a flower to 

 outstay its welcome. There must be 

 love, deep, lasting love in the gardener's 

 heart if he would vodK the queei\ of 

 flowers to the j)iniuicle of lier fzreatness. 

 Then other things matter little. 



