In the April of each year, cut out all weak sappy growths, and, in the case of hybrid perpetuals, cut back to about eight inches from the surface of the ground the strong shoots which remain. Teas, if required for garden decoration, need only be thinned out, any dead wood being removed at the same time, and similar treatment is applicable to most of the summer roses.
It is difficult to select a few varieties as specially worthy of cultivation where so many are excellent. The old Provence, Gallic and Moss Roses bloom only in June and July, but are well worth growing for their fragrance, beauty and associations, as are also such summer bloomers as that vigorous hybrid China known as Blairii No. 2, and the very floriferous white Madame Plantier. The hybrid sweet briars, notably Lady Penzance and Anne of Geierstein, are of the easiest culture, but a warm sheltered situation is required by the beautiful Austrian copper briar, which is not everyone's rose.
Easiest of all roses to grow are the Climbing Evergreen and Ayrshire varieties, of which Bennett's Seedling bears white flowers, most of the other kinds producing flowers of sundry shades of pink. The Japanese roses (R. Rugosa) are almost equally vigorous and rampant, and are specially valuable for their scarlet fruits which help to brighten the garden in late autumn.
But, after all, it is the so-called perpetual bloomers on which most gardeners will place the highest value, and here the choice of good varieties is very great. There are seven principal classes of perpetual or autumnal roses, known respectively as Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas, Hybrid Teas, China Roses, Bourbons, Noisettes and Hybrid Moss Roses. From these classes, if I were asked to select eight varieties for a beginner to "learn on," I should name Madame Berard (Tea), Marie van Houtte (Tea), Blanche Moreau (Moss), Celine Forestier (Noisette), Souvenir de la Malmaison (Bourbon), Ducher (China), Prince Camille de Rohan (Hybrid Perpetual) and Viscountess Folkestone (Hybrid Tea).
A few more names of good roses are these—Among Hybrid Perpetuals: Fisher Holmes, Ulrich Brunner and Mrs John Laing; among Hybrid Teas: Mrs W. J. Grant, Bardou Job, La France and Kaiserin Aug. Victoria; among Teas: Marechal Niel, Hon. Edith Gifford, Niphetos, Madame Lambard, Belle Lyonnaise, Madame Hoste, Madame Falcot and Souvenir de S. A. Prince; and, among Noisettes: William Allen Richardson, Aimée Vibert, Madame Alfred Carrière and l'Idéal. To mention Gloire de Dijon is, of course, superfluous, though I am inclined to regard its general utility as somewhat overrated.
[THE GARDEN IN JULY]
A flower with a history, with a name long honoured, full of that blue blood which a genealogical tree is supposed to imply, the Carnation needs no apology or recommendation. It was among the most admired of the flowers used by the Greeks and Romans in the making of chaplets, and hence derived its name of Coronation by which Spenser and other early writers knew it. Its generic name, Dianthus, or Flower of Jupiter, equally points to the high honour in which it was held by the Latins. It was formerly much used both medicinally, "wonderfully above measure comforting the heart," and for the flavouring of liquors—whence it obtained its name of Sops-in-wine:—