XII 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 



277 



the prettily coloured buds add much to the beauty of 

 the truss. A free bloomer and fair autumnal, best as a 

 standard ; will sometimes bloom as a maiden or if 

 closely pruned, which many of the Noisettes will not 

 do ; tolerably hardy, but liable to injury in severe 

 frost ; of pretty good constitution, and doing fairly in 

 poor soil. 



Cleopatra (Bennett, 1889). — A poor grower, one of 

 the worst in this section. The wood is fairly stiff but 

 thin as well as short, and it is one of the most difficult 

 to propagate as the buds are small and scarce, and to get 

 two or three often involves sacrificing nearly the whole 

 of the plant. The flower buds are particularly long 

 and pointed, and if fair growth can be obtained they 

 open into grand blooms, retaining the fine point in the 

 centre, with splendid long broad smooth petals most 

 symmetrically arranged. A truly magnificent Rose, but 

 difficult to grow to perfection ; best as a standard, but 

 tender and requiring full protection ; hardly worth grow- 

 ing except where the situation and soil are very suitable, 

 for though the buds are lovely, it is not free blooming 

 enough to be cultivated for their sake, and it will only 

 retain its point when expanded where it can be grown 

 pretty strongly. 



Cloth of Gold (Coquereau, 1843). — Syn. Chromatella. 

 Of strong climbing growth on a south wall, liable to 

 mildew, but can probably stand a shower. Here are 

 manners, or rather the want of them, with a vengeance, 

 for this Rose is unfavourably known as the shyest of all 

 bloomers, and though acknowledged to be an excellent 

 flower is not to be found in the N.R.S. Catalogue at all. 

 A fine plant that I once had in the sheltered angle of a 

 south wall only once in eight years flowered at all and 

 that was after a very hot summer, when the wood must 



