March 1, 1904 — Stet, 
ROSES AT THE NATIONAL ROSE 
SOCIETY. 
Mr. Edward Mawley, the very able secre- 
tary of the National Rose Society, has 
published his annual analysis of the Roses 
exhibited at the Metropolitan Show, 
Since 1886 (he writes) the name of every 
Rose in all the prize stands at the Metro- 
ees Exhibition of the National Rose 
ociety has been taken down, and the 
result afterwards tabulated. The average 
number of blooms thus dealt with annually 
hes been about 1,800. In the complete 
tatle for the whole eighteen years can be 
found the number of times any variety was 
Staged at all or any of these eighteen 
exhibitions. 
pe 
¥ 
BESSIE BROWN. __ 
over the Hybrid Perpetuals. Five years 
ago there were only nine Hybrid Teas on 
the analysis for both of these classes, while 
there are now double that number in a list 
of sixty-eight, and out of the first ten they 
are as six to four. 
New Introductions.—Another interesting 
point is the popularity of new, and com- 
paratively new, roses. The first exhibition 
of the National Rose Society was held in 
the year 1858, and, of all the prize roses in 
this year’s show, only one was in existence 
at that date, General Jacqueminot, which 
had made its appearance only five years 
before. So that, of all the favorites of to- 
day, the oldest is just 50 years old. This 
table of Mr. Mawley’s biings home to one_ 
irresistibly the fact of how modern a flower 
the rose, as we know and grow it now, is, 
_THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
in spite of its centuries of ancestry. or it 
is not only that the oldest Rose to gain a 
prize last July has but attained middle age, 
but the greater part of to-day’s favorites 
are not yet out of their teens. The Rose 
most shown in 1902 and 1908 was Bessie 
Brown, a hybrid tea, introduced only four 
years ago. Mrs. John Laing, which took 
second place, has reached the mature age of 
sixteen, but, out of the first twenty, only 
two were introduced in the prolific sixties, 
and two in the seventies, while five came in 
the eighties, nine in the nineties, and two in 
1900 and 1901 respectively. 
Hesternee Ross.—Now if an analysis 
could be made of the Roses most grown 
to-day in gardens, as well as of those which 
make their way to the exhibition table, it 
would almost certainly be found that the 
results, from the point of view of the ex_ 
treme youth of the favorites, would be stil) 
EP. SEAGER + 
- Ses 
a 
te Stas 
more striking. If the growing of Roses 
for exhibition dates back less than fifty 
years, the growing of these for what has 
come to be called garden ‘“‘ decoration” is 
very much more recent stil]. It is so short a 
time ago since 99 gardens out of 100 which 
contained Roses at all bad them on stan- 
dards set in little round beds cut out of a 
lawn, that probably in vine out of ten that 
system is still the only one to be followed. 
The words of the wise old dean, the patron 
saint of English rose-growers and rose 
exhibitions, would have seemed extravagant 
to our fathers :—‘‘ There should be beds of 
roses, banks of roses, bowers of roses, 
hedges of roses, edgings of roses, pillars of 
roses, arches of roses, fountains of roses, 
baskets of roses, vistas and alleys of the 
rose.” Yet these ideals are fast gaining 
f tage 
ground. To-day for every one of the 
difficult show roses, ‘‘best in maiden 
plaut,” there must be ordered from the 
growers hundreds of Crimson Ramblers, 
Penzance Briers, and other varieties use- 
less for the exhibition table. 
 fAccusations.—This rise of a new ideal of 
rose growing has led to a curious contro- 
versey, in which neither side seems to be 
right and neither wrong. In recent writings 
Mr. Foster Melliar, author of ‘‘The Book 
of ‘the Rose,” holds a brief for the one 
side, and Mr. William Robinson, author of 
‘‘ English Flower Garden,” for the other. 
The opposing views are neatly put by Mr. 
Melliar. Is it to be the rose for the garden, 
or the garden for the rose? He, at leest, 
has to doubt about it. He does not even 
think the rose ‘‘ pre-eminent as a decorative 
plant,” and he writes: ‘So, with all the 
best roses, I should not wish for or expect 
apy general display at a distance, but come 
close and be content if I can find but one 
perfect bloom.” And, as a consequence, 
Mr. Foster Melliar’s labors amongst his 
roses all converge to the exhilarating 
moment when he sees his flowers staged on 
the show bench. Mr. Robinson has no 
doubt about it either :—Shows (he writes) 
have had a bad effect on the rose in the 
rose in the garden, where it is many times 
more important than as a show flowez. 
The whole aim of the man who shows 
roses, and who is too often followed as a 
leader, was to get a certain number of large 
flowers grown on the dog rose, Manetti, or 
any stock which enabled him to get this at 
the least cost; so, if we go tu ‘any rose- 
growing friend, we shall probably find his 
plants for show grown in the kitchen 
garden with a deep bed of manure on the 
surface of the beds, and as pretty as so 
many broomsticks 
And a Retort.—Mr. Foster Melliar re- 
torts rather plaintively that experts are 
generally credited with some knowledge of 
their subject, and in fact begs the question, 
which is not whether the rose expert knows 
‘fas much about the things necessary for 
the welfare of those plants as other 
Pech but whether he is necessarily the 
est judge of the “decorative” use of the 
roses. I think itis obvious that he is not, 
and cannot be, from the very fact that his 
ideal is not that of the garden made lovely 
by the rose, but the single bloom grown to 
perfection by whatever means are - best 
suited to that end. But, after all, why 
should either enthusiast blame the other ? 
Let each recognise that his opponent has a 
worthy end in view, although it is not his 
own, and the controversy melts into thin 
air.—TuHe Bysranper. 
New RosxEs were sufficiently numerous at 
the meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society to constitute a feature of cconsider- 
able interest to the large number of amateur 
and professional rosarians who were present. 
Messrs. William Paul and Son contributed 
their exquisitely beautiful hybrid tea 
Tennyson, which is unquestionably a most 
valuable addition to the section, and Pink 
Roamer, a Wichurian hybrid, robust in 
growth and exceedingly free in flowering, 
the blooms of medium size, deep rose, with 
white centre. Messrs. Paul and Son sub- 
