^^^^been disbudding since eight o'clock,' 

 stopping at twelve for his noon hour and 



f resuming work just before the visiting garden 

 club entered the rose garden. I said he had been 

 disbudding, but how had he done the work? 

 Why, by pulling off the immature buds at their 

 bases, not cutting or pinching away any of the 

 stems, but leaving a thousand stems more or less 

 beheaded. Our hostess, who frankly admitted she 

 knew very little about gardening and nothing at 

 all about the correct method of disbudding, in- 

 stantly recognized that something was wrong, 

 and then and there sent for her superintendent. 

 His excuse when he saw the devastation was, 

 that the young man (I will not call him a "gar- 

 dener") was "new, that he had misrepresented 

 his ability. When questioned in regard to rose 

 disbudding, he assured me he understood it per- 

 fectly, so I sent him into the rose garden." Our 

 hostess exclaimed, "Now I know why I see cut 

 roses in abundance in every house but my own, 

 and I only blame myself. I am unworthy of this ^ 

 garden. I have only cared for it as a source of ^ 

 supply, and I shall never forgive myself until I 

 can come into this garden knowing how it should M 

 be cared for." I attribute one reason, a very 



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