BIG ROSE BUSHES 71 



for his company a Mock Orange, a climbing Hydrangea, 

 two or three bushes of Forsythia, a Spiraea or two, a 

 colony of Lupins, and some sprihg-flowering bulbs. 

 Was he content with the damp, dank comer, and happy 

 as one in a crowd ? Not a bit of it ! As befits a king 

 among the roses, he was soon out of the garden mists 

 and revelling in the sunshine. And now, after the lapse 

 of a few years, he towers proudly to a height of eight 

 or ten feet, " monarch of aU he surveys " — in the way of 

 roses. I have, I think, not exaggerated the merits of 

 Conrad Meyer. I know of none that grows so well and 

 bears such perfect flowers — big, double, well formed, of 

 lovely colour, and fragrant. 



There is a similar rose with white blooms called 

 Nova Zembla, but so far as my experience goes, it 

 neither grows so lustily nor flowers so freely. If the 

 strong, thorny shoots of Conrad Meyer are not secured 

 in some way, they disfigure each other most unmerci- 

 fully when the wind blows : the bark is scraped off and 

 hangs in shreds, and the buds are torn out. They may 

 be tied to rough supports, or bent so that the ends can 

 be attached by string to pegs in the ground, or to the 

 stem of the rose tree. It is wise always to bend down 

 some of the biggest stems, to obviate their tendency 

 to produce blooms towards the top only. 



The true Japanese Briers and their single or semi- 

 double-fiowered varieties make splendid bushes, and 

 they have the advantage in late summer of bearing big, 

 brightly coloured fruits. They seem scarcely so desir- 

 able for a garden of limited extent as Conrad Meyer, 



