their owners for the noble examples of the Italian Renaissance seen 
in Italy, and though climatic conditions militate against complete 
success in reproducing such gardens in the northern states, those that 
lie in the south give admirable facilities for making gardens of Italian 
character. I am of the opinion that the best type of garden and style 
of house for the north is what is known as the Colonial; I think I may 
claim that this is not from any national partiality, but because, when 
the existing Colonial houses were built, the English taste in matters 
of building and decoration was singularly pure. Think how good a 
time it was in silversmith's work, in joinery, in glass, pottery and por- 
celain, and in all the trades connected with building, and the simple 
charm of the portraiture; a charm now entirely lost. The houses of 
this type, which in England we commonly call Georgian, and the 
gardens that accompany them, have that quiet, restful quality which 
is the most precious attribute of a human dwelling and that must 
surely be the greatest solace and refreshment to those whose best 
years and longest hours are spent in the strain and hurry of modern 
business, or even social life. May I commend this thought to archi- 
tects and garden designers, and may I take this opportunity of offer- 
ing to the readers of the Bulletin and all who are stiiving to make 
their home grounds beautiful, the expression of an old gardener's 
sincerest sympathy and good will? 
Making New Roses for America 
By J. Horace McFarland, Editor American Rose Annual 
Hearing as I do from all parts of America where roses are grown, 
I have constant evidence not only of the bigness and breadth of our 
great land, but of the improper condition which makes our main de- 
pendence for roses rest upon exotic varieties. 
For example, a letter just received from Little Rock, Arkansas, 
tells of the total failure of roses in a city which heretofore has had no- 
table prosperity with the queen of flowers. My friendly correspondent, 
a noted architect who has learned wisely to substitute work in his rose- 
garden for the golf which previously engrossed him, gives a detailed 
account of the weather which is clearly to blame for the failure of his 
roses. He pathetically adds: "I must plant a new rose-garden this 
fall." 
Now the varieties of roses which he had to depend upon were over- 
whelmingly of French, English and German origin, and were hybrids 
of the roses which in those countries find a continuously congenial 
home. Even where American varieties exist — that is, varieties actu- 
lO 
