46 



THE BOOK OF THE ROSE 



CHAP. 



to long and comparatively narrow beds, and when you 

 have them there seems no escape from actual rows, 

 following the shape of the beds, whether straight or 

 curved. Anything else would waste the precious room, 

 for if the whole bed be made of the best soil and fed 

 and manured equally, the room that will hold another 

 plant is precious. Straight rows may be condemned 

 as formal, and so they are, but they are thoroughly 

 practical and economical, and undoubtedly the best for 

 an exhibitor, who wants to be able to go over all his 

 plants easily and expeditiously. 



My own rose beds are simple parallelograms five- 

 and-a-half feet wide, and such beds may be as long as 

 you like. I may wish mine were longer than they are 

 but not wider. Longitudinally they are separated by 

 grass paths of the same width, and there should be cross 

 paths here and there, but not too many. Grass paths 

 are much superior to gravel in appearance and in cost 

 of keeping in order ; and of course if the Rose beds are 

 made out of a meadow or pasture, the grass is simply 

 left. These paths should not be narrower than five 

 feet, not only for the convenience of visitors, but also 

 for the conveyance of water or liquid manure in hand- 

 carts. 



In these beds are three rows of Roses, the rows 

 sixteen inches from each other and seventeen 

 inches from the grass, and the strongest and tallest 

 growers naturally in the centre row. There should 

 be no hesitation about planting the Roses pretty close 

 to each other, for the bed will be all prepared and 

 fed alike, and they will not rob each other much. 

 Beginners are apt to make a mistake in this respect, 

 probably having young trees and shrubs in their minds ; 

 but they should remember that in the case of ordinary 



