Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-07-01
HOW MAN. MADE
THE FRAGRANT ROSE
CAREFUL PLANS OF PROVIDENCE
LONG AGO ABANDONED.
NONE OF ToDAY's FINEST FLOW,
Frs KNOWN A CENTURY AGO.

shall hear the roses popping, be-
fore breakfast; and when we get
out in the garden we shall see some
OF the peauu1ul Duas open"
"Oh, call me-" said she; and after
that the father felt that in some
way or another he must make good
his wicked prediction.
There were no open roses in the
garden on June /, thanks TO the
cold rains; but he stopped in the
flower market on the way home that
evening and bought a double armtuI
of potted roses with blossoms al
ready open. These he planted IN
the dark of the night where the un-
timely death of other bushes had
left a blank in the garden.
LISTEN" he told the little girl
next morning, as she lay in bed
with her eyes just opening. Il think
the flowers are popping. You listen
while I go down and peek"
So the father went outdoors and
stood under the window. He had
some paper bags which the grocer
had given him and he filled one
with breath and exploded it againss
his hand. The little girl flew to the
window. There was a second a
third. and a fourth eXplosion-the
garden was red with jacqueminots!
"The flowers are QUIT" called the
father. Il think I heard them, said
the child. with wondering smile.
He wrapped her in a blanket and
took her out to see the roses and
explain the deception.
Let us play it on mother and the
baby" he said. So they repeated
the Joke. The mother pretended tc
he greatly surprised and uttered
cries Of delight ana wonder. Only
the baby showed no signs Of mysti-
fcation:
Don't again. daddy" she ex-
claimed the moment the father APP
peared.
Ecstasies Of Centuries.
June always sees an abundant crop
of roses. and articles about roses,
For centuries man has gone into &c
stasies over the month, and poets
have tried to explain why. To wri,e
further along that line, then would
be inexcusabIe. but perhaps were
one to promise not to quote poetry
or recount the story Of how Cleo
patra bought $500 worth Of rose-pet-
ais for Antony TO walk on, one might
be allowed to make few. remarks
suggested by the text, Dot again
daddy"
In that phrase lay a two-year-oid
chiIds conviction that her father
could make roses spring open at
command. On the face of it the
idea is somewhat grotesque. The
popular impression has it that Provi-
dence attends to all those things.
Yet in the case Of roses man has
long since stopped waiting for Provi-
dence to act and has gone ahead
and done things himself.
Among garden roses there are
still a few which grow as they did
once in q state of nature; but Of
all the superb modern garden roses
which come double and large and
Iong-Iived, evecy one is the work OF
man.
Probably the bestknown rose in
the world today is La France. It
was the first Of a new class of rOs-
es. the most important which exists
oday; and yet il is no older than
1857. Gen. JacQueminot was I'M
known before 1858; and garden
books published in the early part Of
the last century show that tea-roses
were just beginning to be known at
that time. Our forebears then, never
knew the rose as it exists in the
florists window today The best
they had were single and semi-dou-
bic flowers. Of small size. usually
growing in clusters like the Grim
son rambler OF today, and for the
most pat climbing plants, which
chung to the side of the house or
embraced a pillar.
Motif in Art and Legend.
Many Of these were exceedingly
beautiful. The rose has been a mo-
tif in art and legend since a thou
sand or two years before christ
Some of them were probably as dec
orative in the garden picture as any
thing we have today. But they are
not the superb modern rose.
. In hose days. the botanical cIassI-
fcation of the varieties practically
conceded with the garden classical
ton. Nowadays they hardly resem-
bic each other. The average bot
anist unless he happens to be a
garden-lover also knows next to no
thing about the garden varieties.
n 1914, according to French
writer there were only 1872 varieties.
BY the middle of the century the
number had increased to 5000. And
at the present time, Heaven only
knows how many varieties there are
10 nurseryman would undertake to
guess.
Everybody knows how people take
cuttings from rose bushes, stick
them in moist sand under a jelly
jar. and grow new bushes. This was
the method of propagation up to the
time when there ceased being 1872
varieties. 1t produced Of course,
young bushes exactly like the par
ents. Then the Dutch gardeners and