306 



grown. So that on the whole there is no lack 

 of fine things to go to the forming of what 

 would prove a charming addition to many a 

 country seat — a Pear orchard with the trees 

 all in their natural forms. 



* * * 



THE GREATER ROSES. 



This is an important subject for all who 

 think of a real flower-garden and seek 

 to avoid the ugliness of the pitiful sub- 

 stitutes for it both in France and Eng- 

 land. The stereotyped gardens are even 

 worse abroad than at home, since the 

 French and Germans have taken mosaic 

 culture from the Italians, and are riding 

 it to death. I have lately been through 

 one of the most beautiful parts of France 

 — the valleys of the Loire and Cher, 

 where all things in Nature are beautiful, 

 from clear sky to river bank, the one 

 human blot on the whole being the dabs 

 of mosaic culture in spots that ought to 

 be the most sacred: — before a group of 

 fine Cedars, the far side of a wide lawn, 

 or against a beautiful old chateau. No 

 such things ought ever to be seen in the 

 foreground of a beautiful house, and to 

 avoid these horrors we have (among 

 other things) to think first of the great 

 Roses. It is a question which is obscured 

 by the stupid division of Roses into many 

 classes, by giving an exaggerated value 

 to some, and by the still prevailing error 

 of growing mainly the summer-bloom- 

 ing kinds. In catalogues also we see 

 Roses of poor quality, like Homer ; de- 

 scribed in glowing terms year after year, 

 and not enough care is taken to exclude 

 Roses which do not open well in parts 

 of our country, like Francisca Krttger. 

 Raisers, too, are not careful enough to 

 exclude Roses of poor colour and effect 



for the open air, in which distant effect 

 has to be reckoned with; and so for its 

 colour I exclude Marquise de Salisbury \ 

 Also, with perhaps less reason, Roses 

 with long and absurd rigmaroles of 

 names, and kinds like Niphetos and Com- 

 tesse de Frigneuse, which are not good 

 for open air culture. There are also a 

 certain number that are apt to break into 

 many heads, like Comtesse Rizadu Pare, 

 which may be pretty in their first sea- 

 son but gradually become less so. I was 

 nearly excluding Mama?? Cochettox this 

 habit and for its general want of effect 

 throughout the year: famous as it is, I 

 should not at all place it near what I 

 should call a great Rose. The need for 

 this list is proved in one way at least, by 

 the fuss some make about poor Roses 

 such as C rims 07 1 Rambler, which give 

 their few weeks of colour and then sub- 

 side for the season. Such Roses maybe 

 of some value on outhouses, and among 

 trees and shrubs here and there, and to 

 give a pretty effect for a time, but they 

 are not worthy of mention beside such 

 sorts as are beautiful the whole summer 

 and autumn. There is, unhappily, a 

 greater cause of exclusion than all these, 

 and that is the effect of grafting all the 

 fine Tea Roses on the Briar. The last 

 Tea Rose in my chosen list, Yvonne 

 Gravier, even when I get it from the 

 best source, is very apt to die when on 

 the Briar. A few suckers that I got off 

 on their natural roots do much better. 

 In my trials, embracing thousands of 

 Tea Roses, a great many constantly die 

 back. They flower well the first year 

 and then perish slowly, flowerless ever 

 after. So I am haunted always by the 



