MARKET NURSERY WORK 



VOL. Ill 



ROSES FOR MARKET 



CHAPTER I 

 RETROSPECTIVE 



THERE is a glamour about the rose which, even to the oldest rosarian, 

 makes a strong appeal, and might perhaps tell against that purely 

 commercial spirit in which we desire to deal with our subject. 

 Seeing, however, that it is now some twenty years since we used 

 to gird up our loins and join in the fray at the Crystal Palace and 

 elsewhere, mementoes of which we still value, we are able to detach 

 ourselves entirely from the sentimental and concentrate on the 

 practical. 



Still, the old love for the rose burns in us as strong as ever, 

 and this is all to the good, for it makes our present task a labour 

 of love, and will enable us to transfuse some of the " rose " spirit 

 into these pages. 



We are not expected in this place to offer you a study of the 

 " rose," its origin, history, traditions, division and subdivisions, for 

 interesting as such a study may be, it would have no direct bearing 

 on the commercial side, and those who care to study it are amply 

 provided for in those popular standard works by Dean Hole, Foster 

 Melliar, and others. We are ourselves professional that is, trade 

 growers whose business it is to make rose growing profitable, 

 and it is for those who are similarly interested, especially those 

 who are less experienced, that we write. 



There is no reason why this commercial side of rose growing 

 should not be as attractive and create as much enthusiasm as the 

 so-called amateur growing of the more leisured and non-commercial 

 devotees, for who shall dare to assert that the Pauls, the Cants, the 



