Early Roses at this season, before the flowers have expanded, is Madame 
Alfred Carritre, whose vigorous growth of new green will 
already clothe its supports with beauty, and fill us with the 
pleasant anticipation of the pure white glory of its many large 
and snowy blooms to come. 
In forming a garden or in planting Roses these colourings 
of the early year should be well considered, for I hold that 
everything that is beautiful should be sought for and studied in 
a garden, and especially perhaps at that time when the Crocuses 
and Aconites impress upon the observant that the winter is very 
nearly over. 
Towards the end of May we may look for the flower of 
the first Rose, not to those protected by a greenhouse or a wall, 
but the bushes grown out in the open. For many years I have 
noted the date of the first Rose in my garden and [ find it is 
invariably A/taica. The sight of the first blowing Rose might 
be compared to the first notes of the newly-arrived cuckoo. 
However tired you may become later on with the bird, each 
year when on some still warm morning the magic sound is first 
heard across the hill or deep in the wood, we feel the same 
thrill in our hearts, for it proclaims that the spring is here. 
The opening of the first Rose is a joyous moment too, 
and a distinct commencement of something long expected 
and realised at last. However cold and treacherous the 
weather may be, the first Rose is found and it must be 
summer. 
The white 4/taica and its variety Hispida (yellowish) are 
single Roses with a perfume similar to that of the wild Rose of 
our hedges; they, requiring no pruning or indeed any attention 
at all after the first planting, form in time large bushes, and are 
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