PART III 

 Some Very Practical Matters 



CHAPTER XXIII 



ROSE GARDENS 



However big or however little a rose garden may be, 

 it should at least be solely and only a garden of roses. 

 Those who are still fond of a real old-fashioned border 

 of flowers, in which all sorts of old world and chiefly 

 fragrant blossoms commingle, may, even without fear 

 of committing a gardening heresy, find room here and 

 there among the herbaceous perennials — the Paeonies 

 and Oriental Poppies, Larkspurs and Lilies, Bergamot 

 and Sunflower — ^for little groups of hardy roses, especially 

 those that bear sweet-scented flowers and are vigorous 

 enough to take care of themselves. They will be appro- 

 priate to the scheme. But generally it offends against the 

 canons of rose growing to plant the Queen among her 

 suTjjects. A fiat has gone forth from the rose powers 

 that be that the rose shall be grouped in a garden of 

 roses ; and, reader, if you would do the right thing, 

 take heed and hereby be counselled. Moreover, since we 

 give even the cabbage a patch and the potato a plot, 

 each to itself, why not the rose, the Garden Queen ? 

 Even without reflection we shall be convinced that this 



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