A PLEA FOR SUMMER ROSES. 43 



A PLEA FOE SUMMER ROSES. 



[From the " United Gardeners' and Land Stewards' Journal" 

 June 6th, 1846, p. 357.*] 



THE Rose has its thousands of admirers, and with 

 that generous ardour which particularly distinguishes 

 those who engage in floricultural pursuits, many have 

 laboured to point out the method of culture they have 

 successfully practised, and by so doing have led others to 

 seek amusement from the same source, and to realise the 

 same pleasure experienced by themselves. Perhaps no 

 flower of modern times has been more universally patron- 

 ised than the Rose, and the results of this extended 

 patronage have been indeed remarkable. What vast 

 improvements may even our modern florists and amateurs 

 record in this flower. We have not only new features and 

 improved forms in almost every group of Summer Roses, 

 which it is more particularly my purpose now to speak of, 

 but we have a new tribe, a numerous Autumnal race, 

 sprung chiefly from the monthly and four seasons Roses, 

 which a few years since the most sanguine or far-sighted 

 cultivator could not have anticipated beholding. These 

 are indeed valuable, and it is not in the least my wish to 

 depreciate them. I am quite ready to acknowledge that 

 we find a rich treasure in the Autumnal gems, often 

 gladdening the garden with their lively and varied tints, 

 when even the Dahlia, Autumn's own flower, has shrunk 

 blighted from the chilling frosts. In pleading for the Rose 

 of Summer, I only seek for it a fair share of honour, and 

 in so doing I cannot help protesting against the unpardon- 

 able neglect with which some Rose cultivators seem 



* This paper was written by the request of the late Robert Marnock, when 

 editor of the above-named Journal. 



