Even in a small garden there should be one or two Roses, and as you may have to choose yours from a long bewildering catalogue, we will begin by telling you a little about the various kinds suitable for a child’s garden.

Hybrid Perpetuals.

There are some splendid and celebrated Roses in this class, but they have a shorter blooming season than Roses that do not call themselves perpetual. If, however, you live in the North, you may find that you can grow the H.P.’s, as Rose-growers call them, better than the more delicate Tea Roses. Ulrich Brunner and Charles Lefebvre are good old crimson ones, both fragrant. Duke of Connaught and Duke of Edinburgh are two of the best reds. Frau Karl Druschki is a splendid white Rose, but it has no scent. General Jacqueminot is another large crimson, so are Charles Darwin and Alfred Colomb. Mrs. John Laing is a soft pink. You must understand that we are only giving you a few names in each class, in case you are left to struggle unassisted with a catalogue containing hundreds of names. If you grow those we tell you of, you will have some beautiful Roses; but so you will if anyone who understands Roses chooses a different list for you.

Tea Roses and Hybrid Teas.

If you live in a mild climate and have a sheltered corner for your garden, you should certainly grow the Tea Roses and their Hybrids, as they last in flower longer than the H.P.’s. Their season is said to be from May till October, but in a West of England garden we have gathered perfect specimens on a south wall at Christmas. Perhaps the best-known Tea Rose is the Gloire de Dijon, an apricot yellow that can be grown either as a bush rose or as a climber. Corallina is a lovely bright pink; Madame Lambard is bright rose; MarÉchal Niel is the well-known golden-yellow Rose grown so often under glass. We should say that he and Niphetos, a beautiful white Rose, are what some gardeners call ‘miffy doers.’ If you don’t give them just exactly what they like, they either die or look so ill and reproachful that you cast them away. But if you can please them, they are very beautiful. So are Georges Nabonnand, a rosy white, shaded with yellow, and Catherine Mermet, a light flesh-coloured Rose of a globular shape.

Hybrid Teas are a cross between Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals, and are considered stronger than pure Teas. The best known of all is La France, and we cannot think why any catalogue should describe it as lilac. It is a rich pink, a lovely globular shape, fragrant, and one of those friendly Roses that flower from early summer till the frosts come. Madame Abel Chatenay is another Rose we recommend strongly. It is carmine, with shades of salmon. La Tosca is pink. Viscountess Folkestone is pale salmon, globular, and fragrant. Boule de Neige is pure white. Caroline Testout must not be omitted even from such a small list as this. It is pinky-salmon, large, globular, and fragrant.

Climbing Roses.

There are many varieties that will climb, and we can only give you a few names of the most vigorous and beautiful. The old-fashioned AimÉe Vibert is a white cluster Rose, very hardy and free-flowering. It is a Noisette, a scented cluster Rose; so is the William Allen Richardson, a popular apricot-yellow Rose that we should not choose, because its buds lose colour as they open. Dorothy Perkins is a pink cluster Rose, a Wichuriana; Lady Gay is a cherry-pink rambler; and the Crimson Rambler itself is one of the best climbers there is. The Waltham Rambler is a delicate pink, a most lovely cluster Rose. Alberic Barbier and Elisa Robichon are both Wichurianas—little climbing Roses, with dark, small, glossy leaves.

We think that you will only have room for two or three Roses in your little garden, and that you had better have either those we have already told you of or some of the China Roses, also called Bengal or Monthly. Even in the North of England we have seen them in full flower at the end of November. One of the best is Cramoisie SupÉrieure, and you can have it either as a bush Rose or as a climber. Another good one is the common Blush, a pink Rose that may be grown either as a dwarf or a climber. Little Pet is a white cluster Rose, and very dwarf. Mrs. Bosanquet is a pale flesh-coloured cluster Rose.

In 1840 Mrs. Loudon said that there were nearly 2,000 species and varieties of Roses. Even the well-known garden Roses are divided into so many groups that we cannot give you a complete list of them. Where people have plenty of room they grow the Penzance Briars, beautiful hybrids raised by Lord Penzance. Their foliage is as fragrant as Sweetbriar, and they have single or semi-double flowers. A wild Japanese Rose, Rosa Rugosa, makes a great bush that has glowing orange and red berries, but it is not suitable for a small garden. Then there are Moss Roses (very sweet-scented), Cabbage or Provence Roses (you find them in old-fashioned gardens), Scotch Briars (small flowers and such thorns! but very pretty), Austrian Briars, Banksia Roses, Damask Roses, Gallica or Provins Roses (from Provins, a small French town, and not to be confounded with Provence), Multiflora or Polyantha Roses (very small fairy Roses, that are having a vogue just now). These are a few you will often hear named, but you will find many more in any good Rose-grower’s catalogue.

If you live in or near London, you will see a great many Roses grown on standards. You must decide for yourself whether you like them. We prefer a Rose climbing, or as part of a hedge or as a bush; but standard Roses are very popular with some gardeners, and when they are healthy they certainly carry a great many flowers.

Roses like a good firm, rich soil, what gardeners call ‘unctuous loam.’ It feels almost greasy between the fingers, and many plants love it. If your soil is light and dry, you must dig in some farm manure and, if you can get it, some clay before you plant Roses. If it is a heavy, cold clay, you should add lime, sand, and leaf-mould. In October the places for your Roses should be well dug and dressed, as November is the best month to plant. If you live where there is danger of autumn frosts, you should plant in the middle of October, or as early in November as possible. We are giving you the general rule about Roses, but some gardeners like to plant in March, when the frosts are over. If you buy Roses in pots, you can put them out at any time except during a frost. In hot summer weather you would naturally watch them at first, and give them shade if they seemed to flag. When you put a plant out of a pot, you must be careful not to disturb its roots and to give it plenty of water. If necessary, break the pot, as that would disturb the Rose less than shaking and shoving it. Go to a good firm for your Roses, and, if possible, one that will sell you Roses on their own roots. We are not going to tell you about various grafted Roses, because we think that while you are a child you will find them troublesome, as they often send up shoots from the wild briars on which the Rose you want has been grafted; but we warn you that you will not get Roses on their own roots unless you go to one of the great Rose-growers.

When your Roses arrive, do not leave their roots exposed to the air a moment. Cover them with a sack or matting, and take a pail of water with you in which to dip each Rose as you plant it. Then make a hole about a foot wide each way, and just deep enough to allow you to spread the fibrous roots out to left and right of the stem. Hold the Rose in its place, and work a quantity of fine earth amongst its roots; and put the collar, the point at which the garden rose is budded on to the briar, from one to three inches below the surface. When you have put enough earth, tread it firmly down, and tie the Rose to a strong stake, so that the wind cannot shake it and worry its roots while they are trying to take hold of the soil. The best modern growers do not approve of manure as a mulch in winter. They say it does little or no good, and they prefer a loose soil surface. Soot dusted over the beds is beneficial, and so is a dressing of basic slag in the autumn.

It is no use to try to grow Roses in complete shade or where they will be choked by other plants. The Queen of Flowers will have light and air and some sun. She will let you set a few dwarf Alpines, Violas, or Forget-me-nots at her feet; but she will not be shouldered by high, coarse-growing herbaceous plants, or by greedy shrubs. If your garden is not backed by a wall where you could have a climbing Rose, you might have an arch over your path. The ready-made wire ones sold by ironmongers will make all your fastidious friends shiver, and call you a Philistine; but you will forget that when summer comes, and it is hidden by flowers. Of course, if you are a country child, and can get the village carpenter to make you a wooden arch of small straight Larches or other young tree-trunks, you will prefer it to any wire construction. The uprights must be set at least two feet deep in the earth, and firmly bedded in with stones. The horizontal piece must be secured firmly to the uprights. You would have a lovely arch if on one side you put Dorothy Perkins, the pink cluster Rose, with the white Clematis, Montana; while on the other side you might set a vigorous white cluster Rose called FÉlicitÉ PerpÉtuÉ, or Maids of the Village, with the well-known purple Clematis, Jackmanni. The four would twine and mix with each other on the arch, and you would have flowers there from May till September.

When you wish to gather your Roses—or, indeed, any of your flowers—do it with scissors or a sharp knife. It is most distressing to see people violently tear off their flowers, and in doing so probably disturb the plant’s roots. A Rose should be cut so as to leave the flowering shoot you will find just below it; otherwise you cannot expect a succession of blooms. Always pick off dead and faded flowers, and be on the look-out for curled-up leaves that have a little web of fluff in the centre. Underneath the fluff there is or will be a caterpillar, who will live on the foliage of your Roses if you do not destroy him. You must also wage war on aphides, which suck all the life out of the young shoots, mildew, and red-rust.

You often find that there is some confusion between spraying and syringeing plants, but you ought to understand that the two processes are different. A syringe can be bought for two or three shillings, and if you cannot afford a proper spray, you must use a syringe with your insecticides. It distributes the water either through a rose in tiny streams or in a single jet, and is meant for washing plants. A good spraying machine, such as the Abol, costs from eight shillings upwards, and sends the liquid over the plants in a vapour that does not run off.

Aphides, or green fly, can be kept down if you spray them with tepid water in which you have mixed a little soft-soap; but when you have killed your aphides, you must syringe well with clear water, as the soap would not be good for your Roses. Another way is to boil an ounce of quassia chips in a pint of water, and when cold to add two gallons of rain-water; then spray. Many people clean their Roses with a double brush sold for the purpose, and called an ‘aphis brush,’ but they have to be most careful in using it not to injure the delicate young leaves the green fly always chooses.

If mildew appears, it may mean that your soil is badly drained or too wet for Rose-trees. It looks like little white spots on the leaves. You had better syringe or water your Roses, and while they are wet dust with soot or flowers of sulphur. In dry weather this dressing must be washed off when it has been on the leaves a day or two.

Red-rust is a common disease that turns Rose-leaves yellow before their time. Then they shrivel and drop off, and when this goes on to any great extent, it is both unsightly and weakening to the tree. None of the paraffin mixtures that used to be recommended for this and other pests are now considered good for roses. If you can have an Abol Spray you can get a mixture called ‘Abol, White’s Superior,’ which is recommended by Miss Rose Kingsley in her book ‘Roses and Rose-Growing.’ It is easy to use, and efficacious against Green Fly and other pests. If you have neither spray nor syringe, dust a little flowers of sulphur on the leaves.

In summer an occasional dose of manure water is a great help to Roses, but it must never be given in dry weather unless a good soak of fresh water is given first; otherwise the thirsty plants would suck up the strong manure water too greedily, and make themselves ill. We tell you of this way to encourage your Roses in hot weather, in case you belong to a garden where you can get some manure water given. Otherwise you had better use a little Clay’s Fertilizer or some other artificial manure.

Except in very cold districts, Roses should be pruned early in March. Tea Roses, however, should wait till the first week in April. The object of pruning is to induce the plant to make new wood, but the amount to be done varies greatly with the size and age of the Rose. Climbing Roses need not be pruned at all, but in the autumn any dead wood you see should be cut out. On strong-growing bush Roses you may leave six eyes on a stem; on weaker growths three or four eyes. If you look at a Rose-tree you will see what we mean by ‘eyes’ are the little knots or buds on the stalks. With a sharp knife you should slice off the upper part of the stalk at a bud that faces outwards, because then the new shoot will grow outwards, and make a better-shaped tree. All brown, dead wood should be cut away. There will be a great deal more for you to learn about pruning when you are older, either from books or from gardeners. We have only told you one or two of the simplest rules, so that in case you have no gardener or gardening friend to help you, you should not let your bush Roses grow quite wild.

If your Roses have been given you, they may be on various stocks, and not on their own roots, so we think we must tell you how to know when it is the stock, and not the Rose, that is sending up its tiresome wild shoots. Most Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas, and Hybrid Teas have five leaves, but most ‘stocks’ have seven or nine leaves. When you see these wild shoots coming up out of the ground, you must cut them away, as they are using food that should go to your Roses. But never cut the shoots that come out of the base of the Polyantha or the Rambler Roses. These look very like suckers, but are the flowering shoots of the following year.

You may just as well try to take a few cuttings from your own Roses, and, if they will let you, from other people’s, as if you could succeed you would soon raise a stock ‘on their own roots,’ and have no trouble with briars. August is the proper month for this operation, and what you will want is some silver sand, a sheltered corner, and a sharp knife. A cutting should be nine inches long, this year’s growth, hard and woody, but not succulent. It should either be cut straight across just below a joint, or torn away with a little tag or heel. Try both ways. All the leaves, as well as the tips, must be snipped off. Then make a little trench, fill with silver sand, and press your cuttings firmly in, letting them lie sideways rather than stand bolt upright. If you have a hand-light for them, so much the better, but they should strike without that provided you do not let the soil about them get dry or loose. The following year you will be able to transplant them, but while they are young it is advisable to pinch off their flowers.