FREIHERR VON MARSCHALL 
MRS. HERBERT STEVENS 
ad MME. LAMBARD 
SNOWBIRD 
SAFRANO- 
Scarce Koses of Great Mert 
In the back-yard garden of Misses Annie and Julia Wright is an old Tea Rose, Bon Silené, planted by the 
grandmother of those ladies 90 years ago! It has persisted with the minimum of care. Recently, Mrs. M. G. 
Nicholson told the Georgia Rose Society she has on the grounds of her residence at Athens a number of old 
Tea Roses ranging in age from 35 to 50 years, and that she has never sprayed or dusted these varieties one 
time. It is Roses such as these that show ours Is a section ideally suited to growing Tea Roses, including climb- 
ing forms and the closely related Noisettes. 
Most nursery catalogs do not offer Tea Roses, nor such other kinds ideally surted to Southern gardens as 
the Banksias, the Cherokees and Hybrid Perpetuals. Rather, most growers offer you Radiance, Paul’s Scarlet 
and a few others, with which we have no quarrel. While admittedly some of the new Hybrid Tea Roses are 
outstanding, many of those shown in glowing colors will hardly justify the extravagant descriptions. 
We agree that there is a fascination about the NEW. And our gardens should have new varieties. But, lest 
failure dampen our enthusiasm, let’s plant more of the Roses that are time-tested and dependable. If today 
the old Tea Rose William R. Smith were a NEW variety, it would be featured in catalogs and advertisements 
throughout the land. Yet the flower is more double, more fragrant and more lasting than many of the Hybrid 
Teas we consider standard varieties. And this old Tea will be living when many other Roses have passed on. 
“If a thing is old,” said Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker in an address several years ago, “‘it is a sign it was fit to 
survive. The guarantee of continuity is quality. . . . Old-fashioned hospitality, old-fashioned politeness, old- 
fashioned honor in business had qualities of survival.” 
Tea and related Old Roses have survived because they were fit to survive. 
After fifty-six years, we have come to believe that often there is little merit in the new, and to love Old 
Roses like old friends. And, speaking of “‘old,” let us quote these lines from Mrs. Keays’ “Conversation at a 
Garden Club.”’: 
“What do you call old?” 
“Old Roses are those of type and class 
Used in good gardens of the past.” 
“But when did the past end?’’ 
WILLIAM 
R. SMITH 
Too Many Varieties? 
“Are there too many varieties? Have you 
propagated every Old Rose you could lay your 
hand on?” Certainly not. We are not growing 
old varieties simply because they are “‘old.” 
According to Richardson Wright in his “The 
Story of Gardening,’ there appeared three 
hundred China Roses, five hundred Bourbons, 
three hundred and fifty Notsettes, three hundred 
Hybrid Perpetuals and fifteen hundred Teas! 
So the list in this catalog ts relatively very 
short. Perhaps it does not contain all the best 
of the Old Roses, but we are listing the finest of 
those we have seen. 
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