[ '69 ] 



A PANORAMA OF ROSES. 



ROSES AND ROSE GARDENS. 

 By William Paul, F.L.S., of Waltham Cross. 



HIGH, high above your head, and on every side all down to the ground, the thicket 

 is hemmed in and clicked up by the interlacing boughs that droop with the 

 weight of Roses, and load the slow air with their Damask breath ! " 

 Everyone may not care to have a garden of Roses exclusively, but who 

 among lovers of flowers would not like to see in his own garden a scene like the above, 

 which was met with in Damascus and brought into notice by the facile pen of the author 

 of " Eothen " ? And to obtain such is the easiest tiling imaginable. Plant some score or 

 more free-growing Roses on any regular or irregular piece of well-manured and well- 

 trenched ground, placing the plants in position 3ft. apart. Prune closely the first year, 

 and then leave them to their own devices. They will flower yearly, and in three years 

 " high above your head, and on every side all down to the ground," the branches will be 

 crowned with masses of flowers. We have taken up the pen to record and emphasise this 

 fact ; and let it be noted that what is done once may be done over and over again with 

 the different varieties, either in single or clusters of masses almost ad infinitum. 



But we cannot leave the Rose with this brief notice. Grand as are the masses of 

 Roses we have occasionally met with, we have never yet seen anything even approaching 

 our conceptions of the scenes of grandeur and beauty that might be worked out by the 

 massing of the modern varieties of Roses. A Rose garden is now almost indispensable, 

 either as a part of or adjunct to every large and comprehensive garden. It may be a 

 botanical Rose garden, an exhibition Rose garden, or what we are now advocating — a massing 

 of Roses. 



If in the original plan of a garden it cannot be conveniently worked in with the 



