DECEMBER. 37] 
~ Passing over a’ thousand intermediate examples, and skipping to the 
top ‘of the social staircase, let us again suppose ourselves, three months 
latér in the season, at the third National Rose Show in the Crystal 
Palace!’ Do you see a lady in mourning, elbowed by the unscrupulous, 
anxious crowd, but making her way good humouredly as best she can, 
evidently charmed with the spectacle, and taking notes with all the 
enthusiasm: of an amateur? It is the Duchess of Sutherland, it is the. 
Mistress ‘of the Robes, waiting upon the only Queen in all the world. 
miore beautifully robed than her own. She bends in fond allegiance, 
hut not, more loyally, not more tenderly, not more heartily than those 
earnest men who win their daily ‘bread at Nottingham. 
_ For duration, in the next place, what flower dare upraise her head to 
dispute the supremacy of the Roseé..” “* Gather ye Roses, while ye may,” 
says old Herrick, and with us Rose growers is it not almost.‘ always 
May?” “From that month’ to December, at all events, from the first 
blooms of the charming Banksie@ and of Lamarque on our warm south 
walls, until the last: Giant of Battles-must yield to Jack, the Giant- 
killer, Frost, we subjects of Queen Rosa may wear in our button-holes 
““of loyalty this token true.” Whatsoever the weather in the inter- 
mediate months, however “ deformed by sullen rains,” or by continuous 
drought, a Rose tree, in good health to begin with, will have its bloom, 
sooner or later; and, because different seasons suit different sorts, some 
trees in the Rosarium will ever assume for our delectation their most 
perfect phase of beauty. © | 
“Consider, too, not only their diversity of colour,—and if you wish for 
special ‘examples of this compare Cloth of Gold with Boula de Nanteuil, 
or Celine Forestier with’ Empereur, de Maroc,—but also their diversity. 
of form. ~You' may grow the Rose ina thumb-pot, with a flower. 
““in shape no bigger than an agate-stone on. the fore-finger of an alder-_ 
man,” or-you may coyer'the front of your house with it. . You may,.in, 
fatt, grow the Roses you most like in the form you most like—standards 
or half-standards, ‘pillars, pyramids, or dwarfs. And I may say here, 
having been ‘asked to do so, that I prefer, to grow my own Roses, 
generally speaking, on briars about two feet. above the ground, for thus. 
they require no unsightly props, ‘no rain can spoil their blooms by beating 
them against the wet earth, as with dwarfs, their.complete beauty is 
brought at oncé before the eye, and, being within easy manipulation of 
the’ gardener, asymmetrical proportion is more readily attained, 
and of course more lastingly prolonged. ‘Tall standards* are very. useful 
for the back row in borders, or.as the centre of beds, but are rarely 
beautiful in an isolated state. Their most zealous admirers must allow, 
I think, that the more the briar is concealed the more attractive is the, 
trée, that’ the more we see of the banner and the less we see of its pole 
the better ; and no opponent of the Standard, though he liked it as little 
as the Scotch our Standard at Northallerton, could require a more full. 
eee SS “ch ff patel | 
Then, as to cost, you may.establish a Rose garden with the money 
i 
* J) take thissopportunity of: assuring “G:F.” that: I much appreciate hi | 
welcome words of commendation contained in an article on ‘* Standard Roses,’ 
which appears in the Florist for October. 
