12 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



help wishing* that it might be restored to 

 popuhir favor. We still find it in old 

 gardens, and when we meet it there we 

 feel like greeting it as an old friend whose 

 face we have sorely missed, and I fancy 

 that those of ng who haye a liking for old- 

 fashioned flowers find it qnite as delight- 

 fnl as any of the modern Eoses with aris- 

 tocratic names and the "bine blood'^ of 

 Rose lineage in their veins. 



The hybrid perpetnals, when they ap- 

 peared, rapidly snpplanted the snmmer 

 blooming varieties. Their name is a mis- 

 leading one, for not one of this class is a 

 perpetual bloomer. They give a profusion 

 of flowers in June and July, and some of 

 them bloom at intervals thereafter, but 

 never with the profusion which charac- 

 terizes the first crop of the season. Their 

 flowers are large and fine in form, as a 

 general thing, and exceedingly varied and 

 rich in color. Many of them are deliciously 

 fragrant, but some of the most beautiful 

 kinds have no fragrance whatever. The 

 hybrid perpetuals originally sprang from 

 crosses of the old Bourbon with the 

 Damask and Chinese varieties. Afterwards 

 crosses were made with different varieties 

 of the Provence, Bengal, and Tea Eoses. 

 The result hais been a branch of the great 

 Eose family in which there is such a 

 mixture and intermixture of all kinds of 

 Eose blood that it is impossible to trace 

 the relationship back to any definite source. 

 We have so many varieties in cultivation 

 at the present time that the list of desirable 

 sorts is a iDewildering one to the amateur 

 who would like to select a few of the best 

 and most distinct varieties for his garden. 

 It is a veritable embarrassment of riches. 



The hybrid Tea, which is a class of 

 comparatively recent introduction, is the 

 result of crossing hybrid perpetuals with 

 the Tea Eose, so-called because of its 

 fragrance, which has a close resemblance 

 to the aroma of freshly brewed tea of the 

 finest quality. This new class has large 

 and extremely beautiful flowers, of lovely 

 colors and exquisite fragrance, and great 

 freedom and constancy of bloom. But, 



unfortunately, it is not as hardy as a Eose 

 ought to be to be able to withstand the 

 effects of a Northern winter. If we would 

 succeed with it, it is absolutely necessary 

 that we give it the best of protection in 

 winter. Even then failure is quite as 

 likely as success. But the flowers of this 

 class are so fine in all ways that the lover 

 of the Eose will never give up trying to 

 grow it. It is well worth all the care that 

 must be expended on it. 



The climbing Eoses are general favo- 

 rites. '\^^ien well grown they are among 

 the most ornamental of all plants, but, 

 unfortunately, we seldom see them in per- 

 fection. Because of their thick, stiff, 

 stubborn canes, which are exceedingly dif- 

 ficiilt to handle, we often neglect to give 

 them proper protection against the rigors 

 of a Northern winter, and the result is, in 

 most cases, half dead stalks from which 

 we get very inferior flowers, if any. But 

 those who bend the plants to the ground 

 each fall, and cover them with earth or 

 leaves, are richly repaid for their trouble 

 by a great profusion of most beautiful 

 blossoms in June and July. The latest 

 candidates for favor in the line of climb- 

 ing Eoses are the Eamblers. This class 

 has proved to be much hardier at the 

 North than the old Queen of the Prairie 

 and Baltimore Belle, long the standard 

 sorts among the climbing Eoses. But the 

 Eambler Eose is not hardy enough to be 

 allowed to go without protection. It moi^ 

 come through all right, and it may not, 

 when unprotected. To make sure of its 

 doing so it should be laid down and cov- 

 ered well. It is rapidly becoming a favo- 

 rite because of its wonderful florifer- 

 ousness. Thousands of fiowers can be 

 counted at one time on large plants, when 

 the season is at its height, with buds in 

 various stages of development equaling 

 the expanded fiowers in number. ^lag- 

 nificent effects are secured by planting 

 this Eose in groups of half a dozen or 

 more. They make a most luxuriant growth, 

 often sending up canes twelve and fifteen 

 feet long in a single season. As each plant 



