WALKS AND TALKS AT BREEZE HILL— II 
WHEREIN IS REFLECTIVE, CRITICAL. PHILOSOPHICAL AND FRIENDLY COMMENT 
j. Horace McFarland 
On Our Beloved Roosevelt’s Favorite Rose and Some Things We Never Hear of 
But All Will Want to Have, Even if Our Gardens Are Already Running Over Full 
[S 1 write, in mid-July, I am inhaling the fragrance 
and enjoying the beauty, which is old-fashioned and 
dainty rather than upstanding, of a cluster of Duchesse 
i. de Brabant Rose, cut this morning in the Breeze Hill 
corner where some eight weeks ago I planted a dozen tiny little 
plants from two-inch pots. When, in response to my inquiry 
as to what was Colonel 
Roosevelt’s favorite Rose, 
Mrs. Roosevelt wrote me 
that|“ my husband’s favorite 
Rose was a very old-fash- 
ioned one, which I have 
found it impossible to get of 
late — the Duchesse de Bra- 
bant her name is,” 1 deter- 
mined to renew my pleasant 
memories of this profuse- 
blooming Tea Rose. I had 
quite a search for plants, 
but finally found that var- 
ious Rose growers of Spring- 
field, Ohio, had some; and 
it was a pleasure not only to 
get a few for my own garden 
but to see that Mrs. Roose- 
velt's need was supplied. 
The reason for Colonel 
Roosevelt’s liking for this 
rather shy, retiring and in- 
conspicuous Duchesse de 
Brabant, as given by Mrs. 
Roosevelt is that, “ he as- 
sociated it with his mother’s 
garden and mine.” 
1 commend this fine little 
Rose to those who are wil- 
ling to have a sentimental 
corner in their gardens, and 
most genuine gardeners I 
have known want a corner 
for this purpose. 1 grow some Johnny-jump-ups because my mother had them 
and loved them, and I carry along a few sacred plants of Lily-of-the-vallev 
and one old Peony which have been cherished — and moved as 1 have moved — 
for more than thirty years, because they take me back to that old garden. And 
1 now cherish the Roosevelt Rose. Do Garden readers really know what 
Duchesse de Brabant is 1 wonder? It has rather small, well-formed buds which 
quickly open into a full and cup-shaped flower of perhaps thirty-five petals, 
the dominating color of which is a pure pink, shaded lighter and mingled here and 
there with touches of fawn, or primrose, or some other yellow tint I cannot 
adequately describe. The fragrance is pure tea fragrance, and the foliage is 
the pointed Rosa indica foliage. The growth is free, but dwarf. 
I do not know whether the plant is hardy or not, but 1 shall 
not scold if 1 do not carry them over; for surely I can square 
myself for their cost in any one season as reasonably as I 
can for the cost of a box of candy or similar temporary ex- 
penditure. Duchesse de Brabant is not at all a new Rose. It 
is credited to the French grower Bernede as introduced in 
1857, and 1 knew it well in my greenhouse years, from 1870 
to 1880. 
Achillea Filipendulina 
I F ONLY there were a common name that worked better than 
this forbidding scientific name for this good perennial! In 
July its broad corymbs of bright, clear yellow, from two to nearly 
four inches in diameter, dominated a part of the garden^— or did 
dominate it before they laid down! 1 knew 
perfectly well that this good plant needed 
assistance to stand up, but because a few 
weeks before it seemed so sturdy on its own 
legs, 1 failed to give it the artificial support 
which heretofore it had had. And one sudden 
twisting thunder-storm did the business, com- 
pletely flattening out its upstanding stems 
of three feet or more in length. So they had 
to be cut; and a plant that would have 
maintained color all through July (for it is 
most enduring in its bloom) went out of busi- 
ness right after the middle of that month! 
Achillea filipendula does not touch upon 
any resemblance to the favorite Pearl variety, 
or Achillea Ptarmica, nor does it suggest the 
DUCHESSE DE BRABANT ROSE 
Largely because of its family association this now 
little known variety was given a favored corner in 
Col. Roosevelt’s heart 
A RARE 
FOXGLOVE 
Digitalis lanata, 
the Orchid- 
flowered Fox- 
glove, deserves 
the friendship of 
the flower-loving 
public 
95 
