Preface

About forty years ago I took possession of my first garden and was able to gratify a wish to grow roses. The garden was a tiny one, half over-shadowed by an enormous black Italian poplar, and composed of the most unpromising material in which anyone could attempt to grow roses.

In those days the Hybrid Perpetuals were still being grown, the Hybrid Teas having been in commerce only a matter of a few years, and it was from the former class that I made my choice.

The year following planting I had my first blooms, poor things no doubt, but still there they were. Fired with enthusiasm I absorbed all the written matter on roses that I could find, and listened eagerly to anyone who could impart information on the subject. It is not surprising that in a comparatively short time I had learnt nearly all there was to know about rose growing. Since that time, until the present, there has been a constant process of unlearning and even now there are many problems to be solved, and perhaps many that I think I have mastered, although time may prove otherwise.

However, having achieved a modicum of success in the growing and exhibiting of roses, it is my endeavor to impart what information I have to give, in the simplest form possible. I have in mind also those whose gardening time is limited, to a great extent, to week-ends and the longer evenings during the summer.

For those who may be under the impression that growing roses is only possible for those who have a large garden and considerable cash resources and able to employ much labor, I should like to state that I have neither of the first two nor have I any assistance, hired or otherwise, and yet in addition to growing between two and three thousand roses, I also find time for most of the usual garden subjects, such as chrysanthemums, dahlias, sweet peas, herbaceous plants, shrubs, etc. All this entails a lot of work, but I find that by method and the use of the right tools, much that might be irksome and laborious can be pleasant.

Great advances have been made recently in the production of new varieties of roses. This is most marked in the Floribunda classes.

I use the plural term for there is much controversy as to whether another new name is required to define those roses that, while still retaining the bunch flowered habit, have individual blooms that approximate more to those of the Hybrid Teas.

This new type of rose, of which Queen Elizabeth was the first, has been termed 'Grandiflora' by the American raisers, and it is quite possible that in spite of the objections by a few in this country it will be adopted in the same way as the term Floribunda, which also experienced a certain amount of hostility.

Quite apart from the name that will be settled on these roses there is no question as to their value both as garden roses, and as cut flowers for exhibition and floral decorative uses.

The infusion of new blood into the Hybrid Teas is of the greatest importance, giving, as it does, greater hardiness, stronger growth and freedom of flowering.

Advances, too, have been made with Shrub roses and Climbers. There are now a number of each type that can truly be said to be repeat flowering.

Normandy, Surrey

A. NORMAN

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