Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-30

! to the point when he wants roses.
Usually he wants plenty of roses Not
mere dozen bushes for him! He wants
a hundred bushes, usually of as many
different varieties And right there is
where his troubles begin. Every one Of
his two dozen varieties, or his so va
rieties, or his 100 bushes. will be a prob
lem in itself. Unless he possesses the
real love of gardening which will en-
able him to go ahead with them, no
matter what happens, he had better
hesitate long before he begins.
For the path of rose growing never
ran smooth, we don't care how many
bright and breezy articles some one OF
other writes telling you just how terri
bly, easy it is to grow just such roses as
you see in the florists window-those
great, glorious flowers which sell at So
a dozen, and are well worth it if an
orchid is worth SIS a blossom.
Roses, in the first place, have an I'M
accountable habit of doing good one
year, poorly the next. Nor will they
run true to each other in a neighbor-
hood, more than in a single garden
Ones neighbours bushes may be in tip
top condition without particular care
whereas ones own, with time and money
lavished upon them, may suffer from
everything from blackspot to the rose
bug.
A perfect rose is toss-up. You pay
your money and take your choice, and
often the choice doesn't turn out at all
and there is not much that can be done
about it, for it Is a part of the game
and the game runs perfectly only In
the minds of some optimistic person
who has grown a few Radiances and
who thinks that because he got per-
feet results with them he has mas
tered the art of rose growing.
Well, maybe, maybe.
n X
Let nothing that is set down here
discourage the amateur rosarian. The
queen of f1owers"-and truly it is
thst-offers too much perfection for II
to be neglected All that we are try
ing to do is to prevent any one from
getting the idea that the amateurs rose
bed will be the proverbial bed OF
roses"
There will be many an hour and day,
and perhaps even week and month,
when he will wish he had stuck to
petunias. But If the rose has won him
for her own, little habit of hers, he
will persist in the face of difficulties.
Only he will make snorting noises. in
all likelihood, when he reads some
bright, breezy fellow to the effect that
really there has been too much pother
mace ABOUT Jne QlIncQltleS OF rose
growing. He will make strange gurgling
sounds in his throat when he reads
that roses are just about as easy to
grow as weeds, and that all they need
is handful of bone meal "once a
year!" Yes, we read that bit of adj
vice recently in one of New York s
great dailies, and If it isn't wrong we
will be able to eat the entire paper
page by page.
1t is one thing to overdo the difficult
ties of rose culture and quite another
to pretend that there is nothing. after
all, to the art of Horticulture. Even Pc
tunias and Zinnias require some care.
One may grow fine blossoms without
bother, but very much larger and more
beautiful ones with proper cultivation
and care.
The same thing, only a hundredfold
more, applies to the rose, that strange.
fascinating flower which has intrigued
the fancy of flower lovers of all ma
tons since the days of the Greeks and
Romans. Despite the fact that it is
essentially a shrub, its cultivation at
the hands of civilization has ended in
making it tender, tickle and unreliable.
Like proud beauty who is used to
winning the hearts of men, the rose
VIII not unruri her charms ror every
one. She wants a little real devotion.
and If she doesn't get it she won't play,
and we don't care what any New York
writer says.