2be IRational IRurscr^man. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated 
Vol. XXX. 
HATBORO, PENNA., SEPTEMBER 1922 
No. 9 
Message Delivered Before the Convention of American Institute of Park 
Executives and American Park Society 
By Robert Pyle, President American Rose Society 
MUNICIPAL ROSE GARDENS 
Judging from those of your number whom I know and 
from the history of your organization, I esteem it an es¬ 
pecial privilege for The American Rose Society to have 
this opportunity of presenting to you what they feel is 
an important message. 
Doubtless you have all read Elbert Hubbard’s little 
hook, “A Message to Garcia” relating the story of the 
Spanish Amrican War when President McKinley wished 
to secure the co-operation of and had need to send a mes¬ 
sage to General Garcia, who was somewhere back of the 
enemies’ lines in Cuba. The message must get past diffi¬ 
culties unnumbered and unknown. McKinley picked out 
the man Rowen and Garcia got the message. 
Just as President McKinley, for effectiveness in his 
campaign, required the co-operation of General Garcia, 
so The American Rose Society for the effectiveness of 
their campaign, require the co-operation of the men be¬ 
hind the “big guns” in the American parks. 
It is curious how, that a flower for which one once 
cared so little can come to be the object of devotion, but 
after twenty-five years life work with the aim of produc¬ 
ing and distributing the best roses for the American 
people, I can say that such indeed is the influence of the 
rose upon anyone I think who comes within the radius of 
her charms. 
This message to you comes from the heart of The 
American Rose Society. This organization is made up of 
those who love or care about roses, not only in forty-six 
states, Canada and Mexico, but in twenty foreign coun¬ 
tries, eight hundred and nineteen communities and over 
2700 people. This is merely a nucleus, but we are grow¬ 
ing, because the interest in roses is growing. 
(1) We are incorporated and as a corporation of the 
first-class are co-operating with the Bureau of Plant In¬ 
dustry of the Federal Department of Agriculture for the 
wide and equitable distribution of the rose creations of 
the late Dr. Van Fleet. (2) The American Rose Society 
furthermore, has the good fortune to work in co-opera¬ 
tion with certain outstanding public paik systems in 
Hartford, Conn., Portland, Ore., and in Minneapolis; with 
Cornell University at Ithaca, and the Federal Government 
at Washington in the maintenance of Rose Test Gardens. 
(3) The American Rose Society holds national exhibi¬ 
tions and fosters local rose shows. (4) It registers new 
American roses deemed worthy. (5) But perhaps the 
major source of our growing strength and rose influence 
is in our publications, which in the view of many of our 
members are alone worth the price of membership 
(which is $3.00 per year). These are edited by your 
friend and mine, Mr. J. Horace McFarland, President 
of the American Civic Association, whose office in Har¬ 
risburg as well as that of our secretary, Mr. John C. Wis- 
ter, 606 Finance Building, Philadelphia, is a focusing 
point and “broadcasting station” for world-wide rose 
information. 
(6) But we realize that with all our rose annuals and 
Member’s Hand Book and with all our syndicated news¬ 
paper articles, indeed, with all we can say, we cannot 
begin to reach the people with the same effectiveness and 
persuasive power that you gentlemen hold within the 
hollow of your hand. What people may see with their 
own eyes in the way of roses in your parks has far more 
influence in teaching them the love for roses than all the 
things we can possibly say on paper. 
What greater contribution could you gentlemen make 
toward the increase in wholesome joy in the life of the 
American people than to provide in your parks a taste at 
least of the most beautiful creations in horticulture. 
I think it was Colonel Goethels who said that the man 
who deserves most praise is he who carries through an 
achievement the first time. It is most auspicious for this 
cause in which I am sure we are all interested that the 
man who for the first time carried through to success a 
real municipal rose garden, so far as I know, is your 
honored director, Mr. Theodore Wirth, who as far hack as 
1910, made even more famous the Hartford Park System 
with the planting of the beautiful Municipal Rose Garden 
in Elizabeth Park. And now the people of Minneapolis 
also have had opportunity to appraise as worth far more 
than its cost, the rose garden which Mr. Wirth has estab¬ 
lished in Lyndale Park in this city. On August 5th, Mr. 
Wirth wrote me, “Our local people here believe in the 
rose garden and we could not take it away from them if 
we wanted to.” If there were time, I should like to tell 
you about the Municipal Rose Gardens in Cleveland, De¬ 
troit, Portland and elsewhere. 
Last season saw the establishment of a new Rose Gar¬ 
dens of Municipal construction in New Rochelle and 
other points, and within the past month Mayor Curley, 
of the City of Boston, has announced the construction 
in Franklin Park of $100,000 garden, which includes a 
rose garden to contain “All the best of popular kinds of 
