HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE 23; 



impression that you have overslept yourself, and that 

 the time for cutting Roses is past, you are comforted 

 in hearing the clock strike two. Another restless 

 hour, and you are up in the grey dawn. At 3.30 

 you should be among the Roses, never so lovely as 

 now, lifting their heads for the first kisses of the sun, 

 and, alas ! for decapitation ! See, your gardener is 

 there, keen as yourself! He fills a score of the tubes 

 with pure, sweet, rain-water ; he places them in one 

 of your spare boxes, and is ready to follow, when, 

 having glanced at your programmes, and armed your- 

 self with the trenchant blades, you lead the way to 

 glory and the Roses. 



Cut, first of all, your grandest blooms, because no 

 Mede nor Persian ever made law more unalterable 

 than this. The largest Roses must be placed at the 

 backy the smallest in the fronts and the intermediate 

 in the middle of your boxes. They become by this 

 arrangement so gradually, beautifully less, that the 

 disparity of size is imperceptible. Transgress this 

 rule, and the result will be disastrous, ludicrous, as 

 when some huge London carriage-horse is put in 

 harness with the paternal cob, or as when some 

 small but ambitious dancer runs round and round 

 the tallest girl at the ball in the gyrations of the 

 mazy waltz. So Perle des Jardins in your front row 

 is a beautiful yellow Rose. Placed in juxtaposition 



