TIME OF ROSES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 139, 9 December 1929, Page 13

TIME OF ROSES

THE GARDEN BLOOMS

WELL WORTH A VISIT

All who love the rose (and who does not) will find it worth while to visit the rosery in the Botanic Gardens. A visit there will also be a good guide for those who intend planting and wish for the best. According to tho nurserymen's catalogues every new rose is immensely superior to everything that has been grown in the past, but in reality the superior new roses are few and far between. The roses in the Gardens are grown for their garden decoration value, and this year have been out-

standing.

Among the various blooms a bed of Shot-Silk, introduced by Alex. Dickson in 1924, is outstanding. Tho raiser's description is "bright, cherry cerise overshot with salmon orange, with a clear buttercup yellow base," but the description does not do justice to this glorious rose, which was awarded the gold medal of the National Rose Society in 1923, before it came on to the market. Described as the finest pink rose, Souv. de Georges Peruet, introduced by the French grower, Pernet Ducher in 1921, was awarded a gold medal the same year. 'This rose should be in every garden. Betty Uprichard, also introduced by Alex. Dickson in 1922, is outstanding in many ways. The raiser describes it thus: A truly glorious combination of colour that attracts, delights, and varies in tone as the bloom develops. Its great charm is the wonderful deep cardinal crimson colouring in the outside of the petals, and the rich fragrance which seems to go with all dark roses. Truly, a great description of a great rose.

VAEIEITES OF PINK,

Pink roses which have a bed to each variety are: Madame Butterfly, Mrs. Henry Morse, Chas. E. Shea, Ethel Somerset, Lady Pirie, and the old favourite, Caroline Testout, introduced as far back as 1890 by Pernet Ducher. Among the reds, Hugh Diekson as a pillar rose or for covering a low fence, is still the best. Etoile de Holland, which Mr. H. Morse, the veteran grower, who was in Wellington recently, described as the best red grown, is doing well. It is an excelelnt bedding variety of splendid strong growth, and is sweetly scented. K. of X., a very much improved Eed Letter Day, named in 1917, as a tribute of respect to a great Britlih soldier, is at present a mass of dazzling scarlet. It is a semi-single rose ot marvellous beauty, and one admired wherever grown. Beds of red roses are: Mrs. E. Powell, Earl Haig, Covent Garden, Hawlmark Crimson, Waltham Crimson, Lady Margaret Stewart, and Dr A. L. Petyt. Among the yellow roses, the Rev. F. ■ f ™? Oberts ' in tr°<l«ced by B. R. Cant in 19,21, promises to be the finest yellow of recent years. Besides being a good garden rose, it is excellent for exhibition. Other yellow roses at present in bloom ar e: Mrs. W. Quinn, Margaret Dickson Hamel, Betty Hulton, and the W6? '°if f La/ y Hillingaon, a deep apricot yellow first introduced as far back as 1910. White roses do not seem M^?, r°i c *£ thS Same extent as othei'sMareia Stanhope, a seedling from Frau Karl Druschki, is one of the best. It Th P Yen r7 l ar t f' ful1' and of fino f°™ The only other white found worthy of a bed here :s Mrs. Herbert Stevens T^Wfr "t^^ea the same year as fate 7 5^ mgdOn- , U flowers e«ly and ate, with very long open blooms of large size and faultless form.

BAFFLING SHADES. Outside the reds, pinks, whites -mVI yellows, there are V ] ar ge I3r of Sion 1036 r W allUoSt baffles d" IoS-HerrloHfkes^o oT^ £1000 prize in 1912, also the gold medal of N.E.S. in '1913, it °t fnce came mto favour. The raiser's doscription is, coral red, shaded with yellow and bright rosy scarlet, passing vXw n "!', bU£ C°ral re(i' shaded w«h yellow on the base. The bed is one mass of bloom. This variety should be m every garden. Sunstar is another rose almost impossible to deaenbe. Its growth is good . The colour seems to be a combination of *l aa 8% yeU™> crimson, and vermillion and a n colours that attract and de- ! g =f '■ a + J vond, erf ul rose. Perhaps the best in the whole garden is Mrs. A. E. MaacieiJ. In commerce since 1908 rtis still.one of the garden favourites'. Ihe long reddish-salmon buds are borne m profusion, and it well deserves the anal of the nurserymen's description, a leading garden favourite: superb." Space does not allow of further lists of all xa the rose garden at the Botanic Gardens. There are a lot of the old favourites, also more recent introductions blooming at present. The enthusiast and the casual visitor will both find a visit well worth while, and there is not the least doubt that they eoino away with a conviction that as a garden flower, the rose stands out alone, "the queen of flowers."