104 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



many a rose-lover, insensible as a rock to the 

 joys of cups and medals, can rejoice in roses as 

 beautiful as heart could wish, even though they 

 fall a little below the prize-winning mark. 



It is no exaggeration to say that a rose garden 

 to-day may come nearer to the ideal of perfection 

 than ever before, because we need not confine our- 

 selves to H. P.'s or H. T.'s or C. N.'s, or any 

 other lettered section of the queen of flowers, but 

 can choose as we like in any and every class accord- 

 ing to our own or our garden's idiosyncrasy. We 

 can plant a hedge of sweetbrier, or clothe a post 

 with carmine pillar. We may grow a single bush, 

 or, if we will, a group of La France at some cor- 

 ner where garden paths intersect the borders. We 

 can plant beds on grass or gravel of Griiss von 

 Teplitz or Laurette Messimy. We can fling one 

 of the beautiful new ramblers, or an old Dundee no 

 less beautiful in its way, over an arch, or wreathe a 

 pergola with a series of climbing roses of all tints 

 from pale moonlight to the saffron and orange 

 of sunset glow. There are roses dwarf enough to 

 grace the lowliest rockery, or sturdy giants that 

 will make a worn-out apple tree of considerable 

 proportions a fountain of blossom in its season. 

 It was not altogether that, in former years, there 

 was a lack of roses of all these different types 

 though there are certainly many more, and some 

 of them finer than those of old but we have 

 learned to use them better. In manifold ways, 

 then unthought of, folk to whom a separate rose 

 garden is a luxury beyond all reach, can now be 

 blessed with an exceeding wealth of the fairest 



