THE EOSE AND ITS CULTURE. 



95 



Nearly all the Tea Roses are more or less sweet, 

 and do well as standards in sheltered places and 

 mild localities, the following being, however, the 

 sweetest. As a good second to Marechal Xiel comes 

 Devoniensis, which forms a capital standard, the 

 climbing variety being equally sweet with the com- 

 mon, and being most useful and floriferous on tall 

 briars. 



Eugene Desgachcs. — Large and fine ; pale rose. 



Gloire de Dijon. — One of the sweetest of all, and 

 the most free-flowering ; orange and buff. 



Goubaiilt. — Less grown than it deserves to be from 

 its full fragrance ; bright rose. 



Letty Coles. — Said to be a sport from the above, 

 and retaining most of its characteristic fragrance. 



31adame de St. Joseph. — A mixture of fa^vm and 

 rose ; not very vigorous, but worth trying for its 

 sweetness. 



Madame Wilier moz. — White and salmon. 



Narcisse. — Pure white, but only fit for dwarf 

 standards in a mild, warm situation. 



Fresident or Adam. — Rose-shaded salmon. 



Heine de Marie Henriette. — A red Gloire de Dijon. 



Triomphe de Guillot Jils. — White and rose. 



Those who enjoy the sight and the fragrance of 

 the old-fashioned Cabbage, Provence, Gallica, and 

 Moss Roses, may work a few of them as standards. 

 They do not grow freely thus elevated ; still it is 

 something to be able to raise them so much nearer 

 to our level of facile enjoyment. One of the most 

 popular Roses in a large garden, a few years 

 since, was a nice, round-headed standard of the 

 York and Lancaster Rose. A second was the so-called 

 ^Maiden's Blush, little better than a semi-double of 

 the Alba class ; and a third was a round-headed 

 semi-weeping example of the Golden-yellow Briar, 

 Harrisonii. Some of the stronger-growing Per- 

 jDctual Moss Roses form better standards than the 

 common Moss, Laneii, Luxemburg, and White Bath. 

 Very tall standards may be worked with chmbing 

 Roses, and among these the Musk Roses, and Balti- 

 more Belle, Riga, and Splendens, are the more 

 fragrant. 



Varieties for Weeping E-oses.— Few things 

 are more welcome, none can be more graceful, 

 in gardens, than these. To exhibit their beauty 

 to the full it is obvious they must either weep 

 over or weep under us. Weeping on our own 

 plane of vision, much of their beauty must of 

 necessity be lost. From three feet to nine or ten 

 includes the extremes of height in weeping Roses. 

 Four and eight are both good heights. The first 

 can easily be looked do-i^m upon, the other looked 

 up at. As not a few of our climbing Roses, however, 

 can rise from ten to fifteen feet, it follows that there 



is no limit to the height of weeping Roses, excepting 

 that of available stocks to work them upon. Xow, 

 the Wood-briar or Dog-rose, seldom grows much 

 higher than from eight to ten feet. Hence, if weep- 

 ing Roses are desired taller than this, strong shoots 

 of the Boursault, Ayrshire, or Evergreen Roses, 

 should be run up, carefully disbudded to within a foot 

 or so of the top, and firmly staked. These, with 

 careful cultui^e and training, will form admirable 

 weeping Roses. The commoner waj', however, con- 

 sists in budding climbing Roses on to the summit of 

 the tallest Dog-briars that can be obtained. 



As to the selection of sorts, all the more flexible- 

 growing species and varieties of Roses may be used 

 to form weepers. The weaker the wood the better 

 and easier it will droop. Hence, were they only more 

 hardy, the Banksian are really the very beau-ideal 

 of perfect weeping Roses. 



Xext to them, follow the A;vTshires, Evergreen, 

 Boursault, Xoisette, Hybrid China, Perpetual Musk, 

 and Multiflora Roses. All the varieties of the Sweet- 

 briar also form charming weeping Roses. The ex- 

 qmsite buds and rich-coloured flowers of these never 

 look so brilHant as when seen in di'ooping sprays. 

 While to sit under a weeping Biiar-bush at dewy 

 morn or eve is, indeed, to reap harvests of sweet- 

 ness, such as Gray so well describes : 



" Sweet-briar fragrant as the breath. 

 Of maid beloved when her cheek is laid 

 To yours, in downy pressure soft as sleep." 



Dwarf Roses.— There are fashions in Roses as 

 in ladies' di'esses or bonnets, and the lawless caprice 

 is, perhaps, as great in the one as in the other. Of 

 late years the fashion has run on dwarfs. Only a few 

 years ago it was all for standards, the taller almost 

 the better. Thus it has happened in Roses, as in other 

 things ; swayed by fashion, we have got back to our 

 starting-point, and as dwarfs were our first Roses, 

 they are likely to be our last. But, be that as it 

 may, it seems well that .our Roses in the mass should 

 get back nearer to earth, as perhaps dwarf Roses 

 are more easily cultivated and managed than those 

 of any other form. When the time arrives that all 

 dwarfs should also be own-root Roses, their culture 

 will become even more simple, being no longer com- 

 phcated with the dual life, and consequent com- 

 peting interests, of scions and stocks. At 2)resent, 

 however, the majority of our dwarf Roses are 

 budded or grafted on the Manetti, briar, or other 

 stocks, wherein lies a considerable danger to ama- 

 teur growers, who not seldom mistake the vigorous 

 growths and suckers from the stocks, for the Roses 

 worked upon them, and thus find their Roses but 

 wildings after all. 



Hence, and also for other reasons, the best dwarf 



