EVER-BLOOMING ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION. 



5 or, 



EVER-BLOOMING ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION. 



By Wm. Paul, P.L.S., V.M.H. 



If the lover of the Rose will refer to the botanist's account of the genus 

 Rosa he will find two species, R, indiccb and It. semperflorens, both natives 

 of China, described as blooming all the year round. Now from these 

 species and their descendants, naturally or artificially hybridised, lias 

 arisen a whole host of seedlings, many of them possessing in a greater or 

 less degree the invaluable quality of continuous blooming ; it is only 

 necessary to keep them growing and you keep them blooming, for every 

 eye or leaf-bud that pushes into a branch produces a flower or Mowers. 



In the cultivation of ever-blooming Roses it is a point of the first 

 importance to avoid drought. Absence of moisture in the soil arrests 

 growth, and without growth there can be no flowers. Watering in dry 

 weather is therefore a necessity, and the morning is recommended as the 

 best time for the operation. 



Loudon, in the " Encyclopedia of Gardening," published in 1822, 

 tells us that the royal gardener at Monza had raised fifty varieties of 

 B. indica, and there are in the Waltham Cross Nurseries at the present 

 day scores of named varieties and thousands of unnamed seedlings from 

 the same parentage. 



These creations, as some have called them — but for which I think the 

 word " inventions " would be a better name — vary much in character and 

 quality, but are not all ever- blooming. 



The Riviera Roses stand in tbe opinion of some as the truest represen- 

 tatives of these ever-blooming varieties, but the profusion and constancy 

 of the Riviera Roses are due to the climate, soil, and system of cultivation 

 rather than to the varieties. I have seen the Roses there at their best 

 more than once and could find very few differing from those grown in 

 England, and while the profusion of branches and flowers is overwhelm- 

 ing in its appeal to the eye and mind, I conceive that we could only realise 

 the same conditions in England by bringing the Riviera soil and climate 

 with the Riviera Roses. Further, we have many fine varieties which 

 the growers there have not, and never have I seen there individual flowers 

 gifted with the freshness and bewitching beauty they derive from the 

 cooler and moister climate of our " island home." 



I think few will question the assertion that the Rose is worthy of a 

 garden to itself on account of its beauty, variety, fragrance, and adapt- 

 ability to the numerous forms and contrivances recognised as desirable in 

 ornamental gardening in England. But it is not of the " Rose garden " 

 as a thing by itself that I wish to speak to-day. I pass that by as a 

 desirable object of admitted interest and beauty. I wish on the present 

 occasion to show that Roses may be advantageously introduced into the 

 system of miscellaneous bedding in all gardens, large or small, but especi- 

 ally in those where, for want of space or numerous other reasons, a 

 separate Rose garden cannot be realised. 



