SOME MINOR ACCESSORIES 275 



the gardener sins. He may err in connection 

 with the indispensable accessories. Flower 

 stakes are a necessity, yet there is no reason 

 why he should paint them red or yellow. 

 They should exist as far as possible without 

 being seen. For stout stakes, suitable for 

 rose standards and dahlias, there is nothing 

 better than one-inch square, rough-sawn oak 

 rods, unpainted. They weather to a pale 

 gray and sink into unobtrusiveness. Their 

 durability alone should commend them to 

 the gardener. If soft wood is used it may be 

 painted with one of the tar solutions I recom- 

 mended for fences in Chapter XVI. 



Bamboo stakes, which owe their popularity 

 to their low cost, have a very short life, and 

 bleach to a ghastly white, thus becoming 

 unpleasantly conspicuous. 



Reverting to rose stakes, my own practice 

 is to paint four inches in length on one side 

 at the top lead colour, and on it to write the 

 name of the rose in black enamel paint. This 

 saves the need for labelling. For very stout 

 stakes, such as one requires for pillar roses, 

 a thin cedar post is perhaps the best. The 

 white wood and green painted stakes on sale 



