Notes on the Arrange-ment of Roses.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 August 1910, Page 4

Notes on the Arrangement of Roses.

(From the London Times.) The proper treatment of roses is one of the must difficult problems m gardening. We are not speaking now of their culture, though that ] of course is part of the problem, since, a badly-grown rase is always | ugly, but of their treatment as garden plants. Nor are we speaking of the climbing roses. . .It is not difficult to make good "garden plants oi them, since, when once they are well grown, they can he sumounded watih other plants. The problem iu»b with dwarf roses. How are they to he arranged so that their general effect may bo beautiful in the garden? We assume that special beds must be made for them; and, this being so, a groat deal depends upjn the placing and surroundings ol snob beds. A mass of roses needs some kind of frame both for their flowers and for their foliage. If possible, they should have a background of some DARK LEAKAGE. such as a yew or box iliedge, or a bank of cotoncaster. In any cate they should have a foil, and this may be safely provided by low-growing shrubs of a very different habit of growth and colour of leafage. A rose bed may be borderer! and backed with lavender or rosemary planted at regular intervals without ;n----jury to tlie roses, especially if these plants are kept well clipped; and ji> front of it may be planted catmint (Nepeta Mussinii), the (lowers of which, like the flower of lavender, make a beautiful contrast with all kinds of roses. As for the roses themselves, they should be planted as close together as possible, and in a bod well prepared and well fed fchoy may be planted very close. If t.ne> are carefully chosen, they need be scarcely more than two feet aparr.. By this means the gardener will »f. able to have rose beds well filled both with bloom and leafage; and even at the .height of their hloom tin lavender or rosemary, acting as a foil, will prevent the beds from looking like mere masses of blossom stuck in the soil. In the blending of colours in the rose bed there are two systems, al- - all blending of colours. The safest plan is to fill the bed' with two oi three varieties wihose colours mak< a good harmony or contrast, as (oi instance with the pink Killarnev ai.cJ the white Souvenir de S. A. Priticc. The other plan far more difficult, but also MOR B RRTLLTANT and delightful when successful, is to mix many shades together, as in :.n old-fashioned nosegay. Such a mixture looks a happy chance, but it can seldom be accomplished l,y chance. The gardener must know the habit of his roses as well vs their colours, so that he may contrast the stiffer hybrid perpetual with the more prostrate teas, and so that he may have the right proportion of light and dark shades. It is this proportion that makes the success of a mixed scheme of colours m a flower bed, as in a picture; aud one cannot lay down rules for it in the one case any more than in the other. The fact remains, however, that colour is far finer where there is a range ifrom the darkest clrimson to white than where there is a simple contrast of two light colours iii of one light and one dark. Agaio, roses always look their best whei'C thev are weli contrasted in habit, and the contrast of habit usually lmpies a variety of colours. Hvbrid perpetnals are apt to look stiff i! grown by themselves. They sliouni be carefully mixed with tens' and hybrid teas, whose colours are more delicate as their growth is looser. Rut perhaps the finest effect of al! in the rose garden are produced r,\ more vigorous perpetual FLOWERING RUSH nOSES that need little pruning and can tlten be pegged, down so as to covei a considerable space. Among such roses are; Frau Ivarl Drusehki, Griiss an Teplitz, Madame Jules Graver- : eaux, the beautiful single Iri.sh Brightness, Hugh Dickson, La Tosca, Zeohyrine WrouOiin, J. B. Clark, and Blanche de Coubert, the double white Rngosa. Some of these nun be called half-climbers, but they can always be kept in bounds by a lit+'t pruning, and are the better for it. All should 1 .'. e t-he old wood freely cut away U;ti: in spring and aftei their first bu;s! of bloom, and all, ..I course, s-'..> :l." have the best of culture. 'I :.(»y must not he nejr'ecd nl beca :s; ti.c.v are vigorous; for if tlioy are f'liey lose tl.eir beauty ; i once. 11 t, when well trrown ahi we!: mixe i in a lonn bed and w!i?n i-->| ( ; (nvu ,[f their habit allows they are magnificent; and thui A'th covers so much sgace abu-'i i-:.;-'r ( io-its that other plants, if dis creotiy chosen .may be grown amotii; t'l'.ein. The best of these are spring bulbs, such as daffodils or the May t-.ilips, which look their best plante;. in masses of 25 or 50 on the edge, of a large rose tree, and which <Ju down so early that they do not interfere with l the later culutre of tin rose. There remains the difficult problem of standards. THE STANDARD ROSE is often uglv, even when well grown, because it is wrongly placed, or lie cause it is of a variety not well suited in growth to standard treatment. This is the most importaui point; for roses of stiff growth, h< many hybrid perpetnals, never look well as standards. Their branches crowd together, and all grow up wards like the twigs of a besom. On-\ roses of a spreading habit should be. treated as standards, and they ne not worth growing even then unless tliey make plenty of growth even year, so that the long stem is balanced by a large -head of leafage II standards are grown among dwar! roses it /is better to place them id", together in tlie middle of a square bed, with the more vigorous dwarf roses round U em and the less vigor ous at tho e '. n e, to plant tiiem at regular intervals in a long bed. where t 1 will seem to he no reason h" + hr elevation. But wellgrown st.;:..lards look well at -regular intenv's in a long bed of 'o.vgrowinT j 'p.nlo of other kinds, sncn as (i • violas or penstemons ci ivy-leave ' gemr'uins. especially if there ba;] -;;roui'! -f dark leafage bo!:;" 1 the i, s.:Ji as a ye>; hedge. T -> any ,;ise only a few welltijic.l vaiitLies 'diould be grown. There no sitr'i-t more dismal than a vof ii'-assorted, ill-grown standard ro-os placed where there is no reason Inr their existence; and unfortui: itely it is still a sight ver> j commcn in our gardens.