Evening star., 1933-06-07
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TR4CEFELL.

Dear Sir: AS a reader Of your
column. may ask about the following
You have had several articles in the
past year deploring the difficulty OF
raising good roses i'll the average home
/ garden, yet I noticed the ether day
! on passing your place. that you hac
some of the incest roses l have seen
Permit me to inquire. i'll the vernacu-
! lar, how come? Sincerely,
The best answer to that is the easiest
one that good roses are always worth
! the trouble they cause. Only the honest
| raiser of roses is willing to admit their
/ difficulty Even the catalogues have
reached the point, in this year Of 1888,
/ when they realize that discrimination Is
/ essential; there are roses and roses, and
many OF them have no place in the
| small home garden.
! II any one sees good roses in gar
| den. he will know that the grower
/ thereof had enough common sense to
/ select easily cultured plants. in the first
| place, and then TO let them alone as far
/ as possible. There are simple rules but
| like most simple things, need interpre-
| tation, not only by some one, but by
every one. That is, plain rules for good
rose growing may be laid down by any
one, but each perc0n who attempts to
/ follow them must make his own inter-
pretations of them as he goes along
| Nothing will take the place Of common
sense in rose growing.
X X
There are now hundreds Of varieties
OF roses of the bush type, together with
more hundreds of varieties Of climbers.
The number of these which are suited
| for growing in the average home garden
Is wonderfully small. This does not
mean for second that the remainder
are not good roses, but 1t does mean
that they probably will not be good for
you
Intelligent choice, therefore, must re-
main the cardinal rule for happy rose
growing in the home garden. We wish
we could accent that word happy
One may put bushes into the ground,
and get flowers, without in any sense
achieving happiness. either for ones
self or for the bushes.
The truth is that the rose is not an
easy flower to grow to perfection-and
unhappily perhaps, perfection is just
I what every one wants, even the new
conner to the field. With other flow
ers the amateur may be satisfied with
mediocre results but with the rose 1t
is different. A bush which does not
develop right soon informs even the
most unObServant grower of the fact.
A few bloSso omS of fair quality, on
stalks which somehow impress the in
experienced-and rightly-with their
ragged quality, will never satisfy. Truly
one does not have to be an expert
in any sense, TO know mediocre rose
growing when he sees it, even when he
sees 1t III his own yard.
The catalogue. we are convinced, is
the last place to go to select roses, un-
less one is really experienced.
Where one should select them, in
deed. is out In the ground, in some
average garden where they are grow
ing. and where one can see them as
they are, under average conditions.
No one can blame the catalogues for
detailing the merits of each specimen
Properly grown, each one perhaps lives
up to the description. Then, too, those
who deal in such things are no differ
ent from the rest OF us: novelty in
trigues them as well as us.
The old stand-bys. however, the roses
which average citizens have found sat-
iSfactory, ought to be the ones chosen
for the average yard.
Yet every one has had the expert
ence OF hearing the mereSt amateurs
openly disparage such sterling old
things as Radiance and Red Radiance.
They prefer, they say, certain newer
roses, immense specimens OF which may
be seen in the florists window. Point
| out to them, even gently, that per-
| haps one might not be able to dupli-