52 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



Let " the small man," if he be a true Eose-lover 

 and has a mind to grow them really well, harden 

 his heart against all rival flowers, and go in, 

 practically, for Eoses alone. In every department 

 of life a man must be a specialist now if he wants 

 to succeed, and the Rose will amply repay special 

 care. There are several examples among amateur 

 Rose-growers of single-handed men who either un- 

 ceasingly superintend or do all the work with their 

 own hands ; and most of these have not the smallest 

 fear of meeting the best head gardeners in England 

 in any class at the largest shows. This is by no 

 means the fault of the great gardeners, even of such 

 as have fifty men under them, but is simply because 

 the Rose requires undivided care through nearly the 

 whole of the year, and they have such a multitude 

 of other things to attend to that they cannot com- 

 pete even with a single-handed man who gives all 

 his time to his Roses. 



What, then, shall our Rosarium be like in pattern 

 and shape and general effect ? Here I fear I shall 

 prove too practical and utilitarian for the taste of 

 many persons. Mr. William Paul in his large work 

 gives several carefully drawn diagrams of geometrical 

 arrangements and of noted Rose-gardens new and 

 old, some of them laid out quite from the landscape 

 gardener's point of view. And Dean Hole says : 

 " There should be beds of Roses, banks of Roses, 

 bowers of Roses, hedges of Roses, edgings of Roses, 

 pillars of Roses, arches of Eoses, fountains of Roses, 

 baskets of Roses, vistas and alleys of the Rose." 

 But though these things are good and desirable, 

 they will probably be beyond the means of most of 

 my readers, as they certainly are beyond mine. 



