6 
January, 1919 
JHower (Brower 
THE ROSE 
[Written expressly for The Flower Grower . ] 
The Rose— The Reigning 
Queen in Flowerdom. 
By H. G. Reading. 
F or at least twenty-five 
centuries the Rose has reigned 
with undisputed sway as “ Queen 
of Flowers.” Sappho, the Greek 
lyric poetess, born about 600 B. C., so 
proclaimed it, as the following transla- 
tion of one of her poems will bear wit- 
ness: 
“ Would Jove appoint some flower to reign 
In matchless beauty on the plain, 
The Rose, mankind will all agree, 
The Rose the Queen of flowers should be.’’ 
Homer mentions the Rose in both the 
Iliad and the Odyssey. Isaiah honors it 
in a beautiful figure of speech, and in 
the Apocrypha, (Wisdom ii, 8) mention 
is made of crowning with rosebuds at 
feasts, a custom prevalent of the time. 
Indeed, as far back as history can be 
traced evidences are found that the 
Rose was the one flower pre-eminently 
employed on all great festal occasions, 
but the Rose of the ancients must have 
been far inferior to any of our Roses 
of modern times. 
The cultivated Rose is supposed to 
have been introduced first in either 
India or Persia and to have found its 
way later into the luxurious gardens 
of the Greeks and Romans, and from 
thence distributed during the follow- 
ing centuries to the four corners of the 
earth. 
Some form or other of the Rose has 
been found native to practically all 
countries of the world except those situ- 
ate in the tropics and some portions of 
South America. The great family of 
tea-scented Roses are the progeny of two 
rather insignificant little Rose plants 
brought from China to England, and 
subsequently removed to France at the 
beginning of the 19th century. As its 
name suggests, the Bourbon Rose origi- 
nated on the Isle of Bourbon. The 
Musk Rose was a native of Persia, and 
is the intensely scented variety from 
which the celebrated attar of Roses is 
manufactured in that country. The 
Rugosa Rose and also the Wichuriana, 
both of which on account of their vigor 
have become valuable to the hybridizer, 
are natives of Japan. The Noisette 
Rose, although named after a French- 
man, originated in our own America. 
The sturdy Hybrid Perpetual class is 
so universal that its exact origin is un- 
known ; France must be credited with 
most of the earlier productions but 
England’s climate has proven best for 
it, and the English claim this Rose as 
their own. 
The Ceniifolia or so-called Cabbage 
Rose, the Austrian Briar Rose, and the 
common Moss Rose were all introduced 
prior to the close of the 16th century, 
but no real progress in Rose creation 
took place until about 1815, when the 
Empress Josephine of France made 
Roses fashionable, and caused diligent 
search to be made for rare varieties 
for her celebrated garden at Malmai- 
son. With the exception of the two 
red roses, Gen. Jacqueminot and Senator 
Vaisee, there are few Roses of merit 
grown today that were produced prior 
to 1860, and a comparison of a catalog 
of twenty or even ten years ago with 
one of this year’s will reveal the rapid 
strides that are being made in Rose 
improvement, as few of the names of 
our best roses would be found in a list 
dating only ten years back. A decade 
ago the Hybrid Perpetual class fur- 
nished practically all the Roses grown 
in the north, while the Tea class fur- 
nished most of those grown in the 
south, and professionally in the green- 
houses of the tradesmen. Now, but 
few of either class have survived com- 
petition with the Hybrid Teas, the new 
class that combines the best qualities 
of both the others, and meritoriously 
enjoys the highest popularity. 
Mr. J. Horace McFarland, in com- 
menting on the universal popularity 
of the Rose, and the extent of her 
sovereign domain, writes : 
“ There can be no question as to the ex- 
tent of the dominion of the sweet and lovely 
Queen of Flowers ! In all lands, autocratic 
or democratic, king-governed or ruled by 
republican forms, she holds her gentle court. 
It is significant that the very name itself is 
virtually the same in nearly all the languages 
now spoken in civilized lands. To ask in 
the local vernacular a question in which 
would occur the English word ‘ Rose ’ in 
France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, 
Sweeden, Italy, Spain, Portugal or Holland, 
would cause the same smiling and under- 
standable response that one would expect as 
a matter of course in America or England. 
The only difference in all these lands is one 
of accent, or of adding the Latin termina- 
tion to make the word ‘ Rosa.’ ” 
The delver after knowledge regard- 
ing the derivation of the name so uni- 
versally adopted for the Queen of 
Flowers has to regret the lack of avail- 
able information. It is significant, 
however, that in many languages the 
same word stands for both the flower 
and the normal color that we describe 
in English as red or reddish pink ; and 
so we may infer that red was probably 
one time the prevailing color of the 
Rose. And here again the evolution 
of the flower is showing rapid progress ; 
no longer limited to such common- 
place, established colors as white, yel- 
low, pink, scarlet and crimson in their 
descriptions, our catalogues now an- 
nounce an almost innumerable variety 
of the rarest and most delicate col- 
orings, ranging from cream, ivory, 
straw and ecru through many such 
beautiful shades as blush, flesh, fawn, 
salmon, coral, etc., up to claret, ma- 
roon and amaranth. For many years 
the efforts of the hybridizers to pro- 
duce a blue rose have been unrewarded. 
When this dream shall have been ful- 
filled, the royal wardrobe of our beauti- 
ful Queen will be complete. 
“ The Best Yellow.” 
[ Written expressly for The Flower Grower. ] 
Happy in the thought that one is not 
treading on dangerous ground when 
merely voicing an opinion only allows 
me to briefly write about " The Best 
Yellow Gladiolus.” 
While there are several really good 
yellows, near yellows, blotched yellows 
and creamy yellows the ideal yellow 
variety apparently is in the distance. 
Or it may be in the hands of a hy- 
bridizer, who guarding his golden 
treasure, awaits the time of sufficient 
increase to meet the certain demand 
that will lead to near-fame and a snug 
fortune. 
Someone speaks up : What’s the 
matter with Kelway’s Golden Measure ? 
It is a beautiful thing of true Gande- 
vensis type with bloom well placed and 
of good size. But from all indications 
and reports it is a very shy producer 
of bulblets. This in itself is evidence 
of a not too strong constitution. If 
this be error let someone with more 
experience with this variety set us 
aright. Golden Measure will not be 
much of a factor for florists’ use until 
the present price of from $3 to $10 a 
bulb is somewhat reduced. 
Glory of Noordwijk— mere handful of 
the original stock brought the price of 
a good farm. It was an immense 
creamy-yellow that unfolded its gor- 
geous beauty for a season or two then 
seemed to lose strength and size, a sad 
experience that often occurs to grow- 
ers of seedlings. Have tried this va- 
riety for the past four years and have 
but few more bulbs than originally. 
Sulphur King is a fine sort and cer- 
tainly should be classed as one of the 
very best of the yellows, but in the 
ideal yellow we would hope for a larger 
blossom. Canary Bird, an old standby, 
while a smgll flower is worthy of grow- 
ing. Not plentiful and always brings 
a good price. 
Schwaben heads the list for rank 
growth and size of flower, but is pale 
in color and carries a brownish blotch. 
However, it has a lot of merit and will 
be much grown, especially for garden 
and vase decoration. 
The popularity of Niagara is assured. 
When cut in the bud and bloomed in- 
doors it is truly a grand flower, and 
for basket work is in high favor. Cer- 
tainly no Glad is more graceful in form 
and the bloom as clustered around the 
tip ends of the spike makes it a leader 
for decorative effect. Coloring up un- 
der certain soil conditions is the one 
fault of Niagara. Then of course it is 
not yellow but a soft creamy thing just 
suited for design work and a florist’s 
favorite. 
Golden King is one of the best 
blotched yellows and Yellow Hammer a 
good light yellow, and a dozen more 
might be commented upon. But suf- 
fice to say, you worthy growers, give 
us a yellow at least four feet in height 
with blossoms as big as tea cups, in 
color a pure gold with a brilliance as 
of the noonday sun, and one that can 
be "spotted” by an enthusiast clear 
across a ten-acre field. 
Joe Coleman. 
