24th YEAR IN SPECIAL CULTURE OF ROSES. 



To Our Friends and Customers. 



The Song of the Rose. 



With the new year we come to greet you again. We have the same old melodious song, the song of the 

 Rose ; it was sung in earlier ears than ours, and will continue to be sung from generation to generation yet 

 unborn ; for Roses carry our highest idea of hope, of faith, of trust. We lovingly bring them to the 

 cradle, the bridal and the grave. We have simply added some new music to the song. We sing you a song 

 of new Roses our mothers did not dream of, growing them all on their own roots, a way to them entirely 

 unknown, of sending them to your door by mail, fresh live growing plants, an utterly unbelievable thing 

 only a few years ago. In 1869 success was first attained by us in sending Roses as we now send them, by 

 mail. Our first Rose advertisement was printed in the New York Tribune, the only one we ventured on 

 then. It evidently was taken as a huge joke, for we got no orders from it. Not so now; old friends and 

 new friends have carried our song from Alaska to the Equator, from ocean to ocean. Seventy large houses 

 are run on Roses, filled and emptied each year. " Where will they all go ?" asked a friend the other day, 

 looking over fully a million young Roses in their various babyhood stages. We answer, They will be 

 very thin when spread over the ground they have to cover before planting is over this Spring. 



Roses Our Great Specialty. 



Roses are our great specialty. With much tribula- 

 tion we have learned to grow them, and send them 

 to you safely by mail. We are on the sharp lookout 

 for all desirable new kinds; we have all the good 

 old kinds. Somehow people want our Roses. We 

 intend they shall continue to want them; we intend 

 that any one wanting the best collection of Roses to 

 be found in any establishment anywhere will have 

 to come to us for them. When they come we in- 

 tend to use them so well they will stay with us. 



We cordially thank our old friends, some of whom 

 have been with us for a quarter of a century. We 

 heartily welcome our new ones. Now a word of 

 explanation with you all. Roses are the major key 

 of our song, but we have many minor keys; all 

 varieties of desirable Flowering Shrubs, Climbing 

 Vines, Chrysanthemums, Carnations, Violets, Grapes, 

 Currants, Gooseberries and Bulbs in endless variety, 

 flower and vegetable seeds. The larger part of what 

 we offer we grow ourselves and have on hand; other 

 things, bulbs especially, we import from foreign 

 growers. Catalogues have to be gotten out far in 

 advance of the arrival of bulbs from abroad, or the 

 ripening of stock on our grounds. Orders very often 

 come in for bulbs, the party ordering saying, "send 

 immediately," when the things they order are still 

 growing in their foreign beds not ripe enough to dig, 

 and a long ocean voyage, with all of its uncertain- 

 ties between them and us. Small fruits, shrubs, etc., 

 that are grown in the open ground here, are very 

 often ordered, the party wanting to plant them at 



" once before going away," the plants not yet ripe 

 enough to dig; remember this happens some years 

 later than others; but if dug and sent when ordered 

 they would surely die. You do not get the plants 

 when wanted and you are put out, and occasionally 

 letters exhibit a slight tinge of vexation, almost bor- 

 dering on a scold. Believe us, good friends, we want 

 to serve you to the very best of our ability, but re- 

 member. " all things are not possible with us," we 

 cannot control the time when plants will ripen and 

 be fit to send out either here or abroad. 



Please accept this as the explanation of why you 

 do not get all your order at the time you especially 

 want it. Mistakes are the omnipresent liability of 

 all business transactions. The greater the detail of 

 the particular business, the greater the liability of 

 mistakes ; we make some in spite of our best efforts 

 to prevent. Pray be as lenient as you can ; write us 

 frankly, and at once, of any blunder we may make, 

 and we will promptly correct as far as possible and 

 try to do better in the future. With best wishes to you 

 all, we send the New Guide for '93, our song of the 

 Rose, and ask for it your kind consideration. 



"And thou, my song, I send thee forth 



Where harsher songs of mine have flown; 



Go find a place at home and hearth 

 Where'er thy singer's name is known ; 



Revive for him the kindly thought of friends, 



And they who know him not, 



Touched bv some strain of thine, perchance 



May take the hand he proffers all, 



And thank him for thy sake." 



5 

 5 

 S 



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Faithfully yours, 

 THE DINQEE & CONARD COHPANY, Rose Growers and Seedsmen, 



WEST GROVE, PA. 



