ROSES AND OTHER FLOWERS 63 



abbreviated pinafores, so far as the roses are con- 

 cerned. 



I am encouraged in my attempt to arouse the interest 

 of the beginner by the knowledge that very often an 

 enthusiasm for roses is aroused by the possession of a 

 few, perhaps gaunt and ill-kempt, specimens in the mixed 

 flower border. They are quite sufficient to imbue him 

 with some glimmering of the unfathomable charm and 

 bewildering delight that the rose begets in its lover. 

 When mental skies are grey, even when the clouds 

 are black and low and it seems as though the sun 

 never would shine through, there is always a smile 

 on the roses' lips even when there are tears in their 

 eyes. 



Not content with siumising that roses struggling 

 for an existence in the border may give birth to an 

 enthusiasm that only ceases to grow when it is not en- 

 couraged, and even then never wanes, I shall dare to 

 say that there are some roses you may grow, and even 

 ought to grow, in the mixed border if you would gain 

 from your garden all the intense joy and exquisite 

 companionship it is capable of affording. After all, 

 there is something just a little monotonous in the aspect 

 of a bed or border filled with one kind of plant, even 

 though it be the rose. There is a charm about the un- 

 expected that is not to be denied, and to come across 

 a big rose bush, lusty and abounding in blossom, rub- 

 bing shoulders with a clump of Larkspur or jostUiig 

 the stout shoots of a Paeony, may perhaps not afford 

 evidence of good gardening as standardised for us 



