THE ROSE GARDEN 103 



English gardens in general is very noticeable. 

 Progress is writ large indeed on rose growing, and 

 if to some of the older generation it might seem 

 to be advisable to put on the brake, lest in this, 

 as in other things, we may go too fast down- 

 hill it should not be taken amiss, for we have 

 need sometimes to be reminded that, in an ordi- 

 nary way, good work cannot be accomplished at 

 lightning speed. The danger is lest " the varietie 

 of Roses " should become too great, and so de- 

 teriorate in quality. 



Surely, amongst other changes, the seasons have 

 also changed ! In an old garden, years ago, 

 though the climate was in no way exceptional, 

 Gloire de Dijon used to come in with the cuckoo. 

 True, it grew on a sheltered wall with the broad 

 eaves of a thatched roof overhead ; but the morning 

 of the i6th of April, when the cuckoo's note was 

 sure to make itself heard for the first time in the 

 coppice, always dawned as well on two or three 

 well-opened flowers of the " glory" with plentiful 

 promise of buds. Rose gardens in those days, 

 beloved as they were, generally lay apart from the 

 rest of the garden. For this there were several 

 reasons, the chief one being, perhaps, that the 

 rose bushes themselves when they were out of 

 flower gave little indication of the fulness of beauty 

 they put on in time of roses. Rosarians, besides, 

 were generally keen to exhibit, and the treatment 

 necessary to grow exhibition flowers was not al- 

 ways conducive to garden beauty. A wise dis- 

 tinction is now made between garden roses and 

 varieties to be grown for the show tent. Happily 



