Smyrna times., 1886-06-16
The Flower of Love,

We now have roses all the year, and
the annual bursting forth of the mass
OF hOwers in June can not make on us
the impression made upon those who
saw them only during the time of
one brief season. The Romans had
them in the Winter time, forced
into bloom with hot water pipes, and
some of the luxurious EmperOrs spent
great sums in their cultivation under
glass, but it is safe to say that thev
never dreamed of anything so lovely as
we now can buy for the veriest trihe.
IL Is not known just what the classic
roses were like, but they were probably
not very double nor of any great size.
lhey may have had all the various
shades of the color we know bv the
name OF rose, but in perfume thew
| PROBABLY were equal to any that we
| now possess. When the Roman green
houses were destroyed with all the rest
OF Roman civilization and barbaritv
Ihe roses i'll them reverted, as the gar
deners say, to their natural condition
and though the flower of love was
celebrated all through the dark ages bv
poets and singers, and later by the re-
VlVed classicists, it was not till ouite a
recent period that its systematic Guilt
walton and Improvement were under
taken.
1t is to the small rose of China that
we owe the most marked advance to-
ward the modern standard. The tea
rose had the habit of blooming. not an
nually alone, as did all known in Eu-
rope before its introduction, but con-
unuOusly, or at least in monthly crops
MS habit of the China rose was taken
advantage of and it was artifcialIv
hyDndlzed with other larger growing
sorts, with damask and Provence
roses, old favorilcs of the garden with
the single yellow and the Persian roses
and from the progeny thus obtained.
win INFINITE ingenuity and pains, have
come such trlumphs Of the gardeners
art as Marechal Mel, La France and |
Catharlne Mermet. All of these have |
some OF the properties of the tea rose
they have also some of the marks of |
the various quarterings of their pedi- |
gree, and one may say that for their |
production strains have been intro
duced from every quarter of the north.
ern hemisphere.
But these are not the roses on which
the garden depends for its glory in the
month OF June. The true glory of the
rose garden lies in the magnificent old
fashioned sorts that our mothers de-
llghted in and which are going raDidIv
out OF fashion. They bloom but once
to be sure, but that is as often as anv
other shrubs will bloom. and while
that bloom lasts no other bush can
compare with the Damask rose. the
provence rose and the old Centifolia
rose OF hundred leaves. the sweetest
OF them all-the rose which we some-
now think Of at present in novels and
stories OF olden time. We hardly ever
see moss rose now; but nothing is
easier to grow than it; not the So
called perpetual moss" which the
florists try to sell as the genuine thing,
put simple white or pink moss rose
Whlch, II any one will buy and nut
where 1t can have good strong nour-
llshment and genial sunshine. will
i've score of years and give an an
nual crop of most lovely buds and
crooked flowers, for the moss rose is a
reminder of the way in which
4 canker all unseen in Youths oov
prime crooks and distorts the flower of
lie, the lovely buds are bitten bv an
ugly worm and the blossom GROVE
lWry.-l ORkers Statesman.