December 5) 1908. THE GARDENING WORLD. 
rom The Warren was possessed of re- 
inarkable vigour. 
His gardener, Mr. C. Blick, was a most 
uccessful cultivator of Carnations, Chry- 
;anthemums and fruit. 
-*+*- 
n the Garden of . . 
Roses. 
The summer flowers and leaves are gone, 
The earth is cold and gray; 
3 ut hopes of summers yet to come 
Shall cheer us on our way. 
Baynton-Taylor. 
Here and there, if the season is a mild 
me, a few Roses may still defy the sea¬ 
son, but as a rule the plants are resting 
: or the winter, and during this month 
here is but little for the Rosarian to do. 
Now is the time, early in the month, to 
apply protection. During November we 
:ollected dead leaves, and bracken was 
:ut and set ready in sheaves (not in heaps) 
is soon as it began to change colour, 
and we are ready to tuck up the Teas 
and other tender Roses for the winter. 
Now we finish any arrears of planting 
and sally forth to seek stocks for stan- 
iards, although these do nearly as well 
f planted any time during the winter. 
Unless a winter mulch has been ap- 
alied, the surface must still be stirred and 
cept loose with the hoe. 
For the earliest forcing, Roses may be 
pruned and started at the end of 
:he month. Climbers under glass must 
not have too much heat, nor should they 
be watered too freely. As these few items 
include all that we can do for this month, 
we may as well consider, whilst we have 
time, 
The Points of Suitable Roses 
for the amateur. We begin by exclud¬ 
ing all very delicate Ro c es, all weak 
growers, and all which are grown for ex- 
aibition only. This leaves us garden 
Roses (which include many that also may 
be grown for exhibition) only ; from these 
we eliminate all which are grown for sen¬ 
timental reasons, such as Moss Roses, 
which make too poor a display to be of 
any real value for decorative purposes. 
From the remainder in a succeeding list 
we shall select only the most reliable 
kinds, for the simple reason that many 
splendid flowers have serious faults which 
:ause them to disappoint the inexperi¬ 
enced amateur. For example, Spenser 
gives us exceptionally fine, well-shaped, 
beautiful flowers, which rapidly de¬ 
teriorate as soon as they reach perfection. 
VFe want something quite as good, but 
also lasting. 
Your nurseryman will tell you which 
particular kinds are best. I am only 
Itrving to show you the points from which 
you should select. You cannot have them 
all in one Rose. Until you gain some ex¬ 
perience, you will be led astray unless you 
allow yourself to be guided by those who 
|have learnt as. you will learn, how to 
select to the best advantage. 
Another classification gives us Roses 
which bloom only in the summer, and 
chose which bloom only in the autumn 
'(by placing these together you extend 
your display'). Those -which bloom in 
summer and autumn, but some of -which 
bloom best either early' or late. Know¬ 
ing these points you can tinje your dis¬ 
play with some degree of certainty. Some 
Roses, like Gloire de Dijon, commence 
blooming early in the summer, and keep 
on until sharp frost comes. Habit of 
plant must be considered. Some form 
small, compact bushes, making them 
suitable for beds or pots. Some grow 
very large, some spread, some grow up¬ 
right with little spread, some are 
climbers, some best for pillars, and so 
on. When you know these points you 
can judge where to place your Roses to 
the best advantage. Foliage in some is 
very scanty', in others liable to disease, 
and some have an abundance of beauti- 
fully'-coloured leaves. Some Roses have 
no scent, therefore it is well to select 
those which - are perfumed if the other 
points are equal. 
Colour must be decided upon to obtain 
flowers which do not burn, which will 
stand the rain, and which last longest. 
Some flow'ers are best in cold, some in 
hot weather. 
Then it is best to select flowers which 
show well on long stiff stems, but to such 
a plant as Caroline Testout we forgive 
the semi-pendent habit, because the other 
points are so perfect and so many. 
Situation has much to do with the suc¬ 
cess or non-success of a garden. Plants 
may be divided into those which are best 
for” city, suburbs or country, for east, 
west, north and south aspects. 
Having chosen plants w'hich give you 
the best selection of points all round, we 
find ourselves confronted with a host of 
new details. 
Standards should only be chosen for 
good, fairly large, heads ; it is most dis¬ 
appointing, even with such a Rose as 
Liberty', to see the stem surmounted with 
two or three small weak shoots with 
nothing to speak of in the way of foliage. 
It is quite as vexing to have a Rose which 
grows so vigorously that its head looks 
top heavy. All Roses have their faults 
—even such a perfect Rose as Mme. A. 
Carriere has a straggling habit of growth 
which makes it difficult to train. 
The amateur reads his catalogues and 
picks out what takes his fancy, without 
any' regard to suitability'. Is it any 
wonder then that he makes many mis¬ 
takes and probably gives up in disgust ? 
Whereas a little study of these points 
would give him a display' of which he 
might well be proud. There are so 
many way's of growing Roses that one 
wonders why the amateur never seems 
to discover that his display' wbuld be all 
the better if he made the most of his 
possibilities. Climbers against walls or 
on arches form a fine background to 
other kinds. Weeping standards on a 
lawn are very effective. Pillar Roses 
alway'S look well, if introduced in ap¬ 
propriate positions. Pergolas are a 
grand and useful feature in any garden. 
I need not amplify as I only want to 
ask the amateur to study out these mat¬ 
ters now, between the seasons, so that 
when the time comes he may' be ready 
to take advantage of his opportunities. 
A great many books have been written 
about Roses, but I do not know of one 
that gives us an exhaustive condensed 
guide to what the amateur wants to know. 
It appears to me that Rose growers would 
do well to supply such a book, because 
it would increase their sales by teaching 
the amateur the beauties of their goods. 
He does not want to know about the 
history of the plants, nor to read a lot 
of poetical padding which teaches him 
