SELECTION OF VARIETIES

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Even if one should choose to have a whole area devoted only to roses, there is usually at least one side of it that is too shaded for roses to give of their best. The shade is most often thrown by an unsightly fence or a brick wall. Climbing roses will never do well in such a position, and one should not plant trees or shrubs that will send long roots out into nearby beds of roses. Rhododendrons, camellias, and azaleas are ideal for these places. By being evergreen they hide the fence or wall constantly; their small root-spread leaves the roses without interference; they add very little to the work in the garden, and camellias, in particular, provide blooms when roses are most scarce.

Most people commence flower-growing with a mixed garden and almost all include a few roses in the original scheme. The varieties are chosen in any one of many ways-sometimes from knowledge of roses in other gardens, sometimes from catalogues, sometimes by a friend who knows roses better than they do themselves, and sometimes it is left to the nurseryman, who may or may not be a man who knows very much about roses. These methods are all rather haphazard, and nearly always lead to at least one or two definitely disappointing varieties. They may all be good roses from some point of view, but at this stage of our rose-growing we want roses that bloom freely, are colourful and, probably, are more or less conventional in form-what may be called good garden roses.

As time goes on we shall get to know our likes and dislikes more precisely. We shall aim at roses suited for a chosen purpose and of the colours and types we like best. We may lean towards garden display and home decoration; quite a few growers will endeavour to produce blooms of outstanding quality and will eventually take to exhibiting at shows. Accordingly the choice of varieties may change as one develops a particular objective.

Very seldom will any two growers choose exactly the same roses to plant. Probably this is due to different conditions of soil and climate as much as to differences in the growers' valuations of the types and varieties. Even adjacent gardens will give different results with the same variety. Perhaps this is due to another type of drainage or of treatment by the grower. Crimson Glory and Rouge Mallerin seldom grew vigorously in my former garden, yet less than half a mile away they produced large blooms on stems two feet or more in length. This type of variation in behaviour is quite common, and so it is impossible to be dogmatic in recommending a list of roses for all gardens. One can only submit lists from which each grower must choose. Each should make his choice of a limited number of the type in which he is interested, try them, discard those that do not come up to expectations, and replace them with others.

In many instances, varieties are suitable for more than one purpose. In other cases they are advised for only one use, whether it be for the show bench, decoration of home and garden, covering fences, hedge-making, borders, specimen shrubs, or any of the multitude of ways in which roses can be used.

Their form is not confined to that of the conventional specimen bloom or even the slightly looser type that, for the want of a more apt term, we call a decorative rose. All roses are decorative, and good form adds to, rather than detracts from, their decorative value. There are the single types, the Hybrid Polyanthas or Floribundas in great variation of form and colour, the older polyantha form as typified by Rose Orleans (Plate 15), and others less well known. The words Polyantha, Multiflora, and Floribunda are identical in their literal meaning (many flowered), but each has come to be reserved for a particular type of rose. The Wichuraiana hybrids produce their panicles of florets in much the same manner as these three groups, but, of course, the name bears no reference to this characteristic.