the wild roses of the world, had we no other plants, would alone make beautiful wild gardens. the unequalled grace of the wild rose is as remarkable as the beauty of bloom for which the rose is grown in gardens. the culture is mostly of a kind which tends to conceal or suppress the grace of shoot and foliage of the rose. therefore the wild garden may do good work in bringing before the many who love gardens, but have fewer chances of seeing the roses in their native haunts, the native grace of the well–loved rose, which even in its obesity, and trained into the form of a mop, still charms us. the rev. h. n. ellacombe writes:—
i have here a very large and thick box bush, in the centre of which there has been for many years an ayrshire rose. the long branches covered with flowers, and resting on the deep green cushion, have a very beautiful effect. other roses may be used in the same way. the musk rose of shakespeare and bacon would be particularly well suited for this, and would climb up to a great height. rosa scandens or sempervirens, rosa multiflora, and perhaps some others, might be grown in the same way; and it would be worth while to experiment with other garden forms, such as aimée vibert, purple boursault, etc. if grown against a tree of thin foliage, such as a[82] robinia, they would grow quicker and flower sooner; but this is not necessary, for even if grown near a thick–foliaged tree they will soon bring their branches to the outside for the light. but besides climbing roses, there is another way in which roses may be combined with trees to great advantage, viz. by planting some of the taller–growing bushes in rough grassy places. these would grow from 6 feet to 10 feet high, and would flower well in such a position. for such a purpose the old dutch apple rose (rosa villosa var. pomifera) would be very suitable, and so would r. cinnamomea, r. fraxinifolia, r. gallica, r. rubifolia, and the common monthly china. and if growers would rear the perpetual and other roses by autumnal cuttings instead of by budding, they might have hundreds and thousands of fine roses which would do well planted in the woods and plantations.
another correspondent, mr. greenwood pim, writes referring to the preceding note:—
i have two large exotic hawthorns—round–headed standards, growing close together, so that their edges touch, forming, as it were, two gentle hills with a valley between, and sloping down to within about 6 ft. of the lawn. of these one is cratægus crus–galli; the other c. tanacetifolia. behind, and partly through these, climbs a very old noisette rose—all that now remains of an arched trellis—producing a vast number of bunches of white flowers, six or eight together, and about 1½ in. or 2 in. across. the old gnarled stem of the rose is scarcely noticeable amongst those of the thorns till it reaches the top of them, whence it descends between the trees in a regular torrent of blossom, in addition to occupying the topmost boughs of the cockspur thorn. the general effect is almost that of a large patch of snow between two bright green hills—a combination very common in the higher districts of switzerland. a smaller plant of the same rose has recently been trained up a large arbor–vitæ which, from moving, has lost its lower branches for some 4 ft. or 5 ft., and has its stem clothed with ivy. it is now festooned with snowy flowers hanging down from and against the dark green of the arbor–vitæ and ivy, forming a charming contrast. it seems a great pity that we do not oftener thus wed one tree to another—a stout and strong to a slender and clinging one, as virgil in the “georgics” talks of wedding the vine to the elm, as is, i believe, done to this day in italy.
“we have,” says a correspondent, “a pretty extensive collection of roses, but one of the most attractive specimens on the place is an old double white ayrshire rose, growing in a group of common laurel in the shrubberies. we cannot tell how old the plant may be, but it has probably been in its present situation for thirty years, struggling the best way it could to keep its place among[84] the tall–growing laurels, sometimes sending out a shoot of white flowers on this side and sometimes on that side of the clump of bushes, and sometimes scrambling up to the tops of the tallest limbs and draping them with its blossoms throughout june and july. nearly three years ago we had the laurels headed down to within six feet of the ground, leaving the straggling limbs of the rose which were found amongst them, and since then it has grown and thriven amazingly, and now fairly threatens to gain the mastery. we had the curiosity to measure the plant the other day, and found it rather over seventy feet in circumference. within this space the plant forms an irregular undulating mound, nearly in all parts so densely covered with roses that not so much as a hand’s breadth is left vacant anywhere, and the laurel branches are quite hidden, and in fact are now dying, smothered by the rose. a finer example of luxuriant development we never saw. the plant has been a perfect sheet of bloom for a month or more, and there are thousands of buds yet to expand, and hundreds of bunches of buds have been cut just at the opening stage—when they are neater and whiter than a gardenia—to send away. the tree has never received the least attention or assistance with the exception of the removal of the laurel tops before mentioned, to let the light into it. it is growing in a tolerably deep and strong dry loam, and this, together with head room, seems to be all it requires. we record this example simply to show of what the rose is capable without much cultural assistance. no doubt, in order to produce fine individual blooms certain restricted culture is necessary; but almost any variety of rose will make a good–sized natural bush of itself, and as for the climbing or pillar roses, the less they are touched the better. of course we are not alluding to the rosery proper, but of roses in their more natural aspect, as when planted to hide fences, cover rockeries, or as striking objects on lawns. except against walls, and in similar situations, there is no occasion to prune climbing roses. left to themselves, they make by far the grandest display, and to insure this it is only necessary to provide them with a good, deep, strong soil at the beginning, and to let them have a fair amount of light on all sides. whether planting be carried out with the object above described, or for the purpose of covering naked tree stumps or limbs, or for draping any unsightly object whatever, liberal treatment in the first instance is the main thing. a good soil makes all the difference in time and in the permanent vigour of the tree, and were we desirous of having a great rose tree (whether it be a common ayrshire or a gloire de dijon, that we expected to produce thousands of blooms in a few years), we should, if the soil were not naturally strong and deep, provide a well–drained pit and fill it with two or three good cartloads of sound loam and manure; thus treated, the result is certain, provided an unrestricted growth be permitted.”
roses on grass are a pleasant feature of the wild garden. no matter what the habit of the rose, provided it be free and hardy, and growing on its own roots, planting on the grass will suit it well. so treated, the more vigorous climbers would form thickets of flowers, and graceful vigorous shoots. they will do on level grass, and be still more picturesque on banks or slopes.
the following description, by mr. e. andre, of roses in[86] the riviera is suggestive of what we may obtain in our own climate later, by using the free kinds on their own roots, or on stocks equally hardy and not less vigorous, as in the case of the banksian roses mentioned below:—
on my last excursion from marseilles to genoa, i was greatly struck, as any one seeing them for the first time would be, with the magnificence of the roses all along the mediterranean shores. the rose hedges, and the espalier roses, especially, offer an indescribably gorgeous sight. under the genial influence of the warm sun of provence, from the corniche to the extremity of the riviera di ponente, that is as far as the gulf of genoa, and protected to the north by the mountains, which gradually slope down to the sea–coast, roses attain the size of pæonies, and develop a depth and brilliancy of colour and fragrance of unusual intensity. but this is in part due to another cause, or rather two other causes, which lead to the same result, the main point being the choice of suitable subjects for stocks to graft upon. these stocks are, rosa banksiæ and rosa indica major. the banksian rose presents three varieties, namely, white banksian, producing a profusion of small white flowers, scarcely so large as those of the double–flowered cherry, and of a most delicious fragrance; yellow banksian, with still larger clusters of small nankeen–yellow scentless flowers; chinese thorny banksian, flowers less numerous and about three times as large as in the two preceding, and of the most grateful odour. these three forms attain an unsurpassable vigour in this region. in two years one plant will cover an immense wall, the gable of a house, or climb to the top of a tall tree, from which its branches hang like flowery cascades, embalming the air around with a rich perfume during the months of april and may. now, if these be taken for stocks upon which to bud some of the choicer teas, noisettes, and bourbons, the growth of the latter will be prodigious. the stock should be two years old, having well ripened, though still smooth, wood. in this way such varieties as gloire de dijon, maréchal niel, lamarque, safrano, chromatella, aimée vibert, le pactole, and all the teas, attain such dimensions as to be no longer recognisable.
rosa indica major is almost naturalised throughout the whole of this region. it possesses the additional claim to favour of flowering nearly all the winter, forming beautiful hedges of dark green shining foliage, from which thousands of clusters of lovely flowers rise, of a[87] tender delicate transparent pink, or almost pure white, with a brighter tinge in the centre and at the tips of the petals. this rose is an evergreen, and makes an excellent stock for grafting or budding. it is either planted in nursery beds, where it quickly throws up a stem suitable for standards in the same way as we employ the dog rose, or in hedges, and left to its naturally luxuriant growth to produce its own charming flowers in rich profusion, or rows of cuttings are put in where it is intended to leave them, and subsequently budded with some of the varieties of the diverse tribes we have named.
