CHAPTER VII 



ROSES AND OTHER FLOWERS 



It is, of course, a crime in the rose world to advise the 

 association of any other flower with the queen of flowers. 

 Happily, it is not likely to be visited by any more seri- 

 ous punishment than that meted out by the critic, so 

 I may tell my tale as seems best to me and the advan- 

 tage of the reader. I have not the courage actually to 

 direct the reader, in plain words, to grow roses anywhere 

 except in beds specially prepared for them in the open 

 where there is no game of hide-and-seek between the 

 sunshine and the shadows, but where the sunshine plays 

 all alone. That is the place for the roses. But — there 

 must be a " but " in a chapter like this, for does not 

 its presence in emphasised form connote a departure 

 from the orthodox ? Indubitably it does, and I am 

 sure that the present chapter, if it does nothing else, 

 will add considerably to the character of a conjunction. 

 However — and it is a happy thought — I am out to 

 please and, if I can, to instruct the beginner, and cer- 

 tainly before he can be taught he must be pleased. At 

 least, that is my conception of the task, and I hope it 

 does not place the beginner's intelligence on too low 

 a plane, or make him feel, with too great a realism, 



that he is still in baby clothes, short stockings, and 



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