CHAPTER XI 

 THINGS THAT MATTER 



IT is very essential that a rose grower, be he employer or employee, 

 should know a great deal more about the rose than the details and 

 routine of its cultivation as set forth in the preceding pages ; and, 

 be it said to their lasting honour, we have never met one who did 

 not. We doubt if any intelligent worker could pass year after 

 year in its culture without absorbing from it many of its peculiarities 

 and much intimate knowledge that cannot be expressed on paper. 

 This book, strictly concerning itself with the practical commercial 

 side of rose growing, cannot enter fully into the history, character, 

 and development of the rose, or expound the subtleties of its 

 classifications, yet seeing that an intimate knowledge of these 

 things cannot fail to prove helpful to the cultivator, it would be 

 a flagrant dereliction of duty if we passed them by without notice. 

 The least we can do is to insist upon their practical value and 

 importance to suggest that they can offer vast stores of pleasure 

 and interest to the specialist and to recommend their diligent 

 study by delving deeply into that very generous literature which 

 deals with every phase of this most fascinating subject. 



We have sound, practical reasons for this recommendation, 

 reasons of commercial value upon which we would lay a considerable 

 emphasis. It is not only that " knowledge is power," but to be 

 known as a specialist, as a master who knows his subject through 

 and through, who can talk with intelligence and authority, engenders 

 a respect and a confidence which makes for " trade," and is a 

 magnet likely to attract the most desirable class of clients. This 

 we have ourselves proved and have seen it proved by many others. 

 It may at first sight appear to be a very long shot to suggest that a 

 knowledge of the rose, as it was before England was a nation, 

 had any bearing upon the selling of roses in this twentieth century ; 

 that a familiarity with the Tudor rose, only to be seen in mediaeval 

 ecclesiastic architecture, was a qualification for recommending 

 the latest creations of to-day ; that to be able to trace the hoary 

 Rosa Centifolia through the dark ages to its later home in Provence 



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