126 



THE NATURE BOOK 



said, it will never play its part in the 

 making of a garden of roses. It may 

 win prizes in the exhibition tent, com- 

 mand praise for its shape and shades of 

 colour, but it cannot give pleasure to 

 those who recognise in the rose the very 

 spirit of fragrance, the emblem of a scented 

 flower. Surely the old roses have taken 

 too deep a hold in our hearts to be com- 

 pelled to give way to usurpers that would 

 boldly curry favour, wanting in the 

 attribute that has raised the rose to the 

 proud position of queen of flowers. 

 Doubtless, however, there is room for all. 



" Times change and we with them." 

 The favourite of yesterday is neglected 

 to-day, and to-morrow forgotten. 



We owe one debt of gratitude to the 

 newer roses, a debt so great that possibl}- 

 it compensates for the loss of fragrance 

 in some of them. The fault of the old- 

 fashioned roses, " grandmother's roses " 

 as they have been called, is that they 

 give such a fleeting display of bloom. 

 For two weeks or three they make the 

 garden gay, and then, alas ! it is a long, 

 long, weary wait until summer comes 

 again and the roses bloom anew. The 

 newer roses have changed all this ; it 

 is now an easy matter to have roses from 

 May until December. On a warm and 

 cosy wall in the merry month of May 

 the old favourite Gloire de Dijon may be 

 induced to bud and blossom, and a little 

 later Queen Marie Henriette, her petals 

 robed in carmine red, keeps company. 

 The China roses then take up the running, 

 to be followed quickly by an unrivalled 

 pageant throughout the summer months, 

 while autumn's first touch serves but to 

 awaken to fresh beauty many of the 

 newer sorts of Teas and Hybrid Teas. 

 Workers among the flowers have made 

 i.utumn in the garden far more delightful 

 than ever before — a time to anticipate 

 with joy rather than to view with re- 

 gret. Now roses form a bridge of blossom 

 over the gulf dividing summer from 



winter, bringing fragrance to the chill air, 

 rich colour to the dull, wan days. None 

 j)erhaps is more prolific of autumn bloom 

 than a proved garden favourite, Caroline 

 Testout, whose large, bright pink, shell- 

 like petals kindle a warm glow in the 

 drab and deepening gloom. 



How varied are the forms in which 

 roses may be grown. There are 

 standards and half standards, climbing 

 roses, roses that ramble and roses that 

 creep, as well as dwarf or bush roses. 

 Standard roses belong almost to a 

 generation that is past. It would seem 

 as though the secret of their cultivation 

 was disappearing with the gradual passing 

 away of the old English cottage garden, 

 for it is there to-day that one must seek 

 for the finest standard roses. Probably 

 the explanation lies in the fact that the 

 roses which make the best standards, 

 are some of those old-fashioned sorts still 

 exclusively grown in little country gardens. 

 For there are some roses that will and 

 some that will not grow well in standard 

 form. In gardens of more elaborate 

 pretensions all sorts of roses have been 

 grown as standards with the result that 

 many have failed ignominiously, and the 

 standard has fallen into disrepute. Prob- 

 ably, however, cultivation is not altogether 

 to blame, for a gardener alone cannot make 

 a garden. The rose garden must grow 

 slowly under the fostering care of time, 

 that crude effects may be touched to 

 subtle harmonies, gaudy colours to rest- 

 ful tones. There is something about the 

 cottager's roses that compels the acknow- 

 ledgment of the presence of some strange 

 and satisfying influence. It is a sense of 

 harmony, of subtle association with en- 

 vironment ; the flowers have so grown 

 up with the garden as to form an in- 

 separable part of one harmonious whole. 

 The cottager having planted the baby 

 rose leaves it to grow up as the garden 

 grows old, that time may weld them both 

 in a bond of peace. 



H. H. Thomas. 



