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THE BOOK OF ROSES

By Francis Parkman

Boston

J. E. Tilton And Company.

1871.




INTRODUCTION

|IT IS needless to eulogize the Rose. Poets from Anacreon and Sappho,
and earlier than they, down to our own times, have sung its praises; and
yet the rose of Grecian and of Persian song, the rose of troubadours
and minstrels, had no beauties so resplendent as those with which its
offspring of the present day embellish our gardens. The "thirty sorts
of rose," of which John Parkinson speaks in 1629, have multiplied to
thousands. New races have been introduced from China, Persia, Hindostan,
and our own country; and these, amalgamated with the older families by
the art of the hybridist, have produced still other forms of surpassing
variety and beauty. This multiplication and improvement are still
in progress. The last two or three years have been prolific beyond
precedent in new roses; and, with all regard for old favorites, it
cannot be denied, that, while a few of the roses of our forefathers
still hold their ground, the greater part are cast into the shade by the
brilliant products of this generation.

In the production of new roses, France takes the lead. A host of
cultivators great and small--Laffay, Vibert, Verdier, Margottin,
Trouillard, Portemer, and numberless others--have devoted themselves to
the pleasant art of intermarrying the various families and individual
varieties of the rose, and raising from them seedlings whose numbers
every year may be counted by hundreds of thousands. Of these, a very few
only are held worthy of preservation; and all the rest are consigned to
the rubbish heap. The English, too, have of late done much in raising
new varieties; though their climate is less favorable than that of
France, and their cultivators less active and zealous in the work. Some
excellent roses, too, have been produced in America. Our climate is
very favorable to the raising of seedlings, and far more might easily be
accomplished here.

In France and England, the present rage for roses is intense. It
is stimulated by exhibitions, where nurserymen, gardeners, landed
gentlemen, and reverend clergymen of the Established Church, meet in
friendly competition for the prize. While the French excel all others
in the production of new varieties, the English are unsurpassed in
the cultivation of varieties already known; and nothing can exceed
the beauty and perfection of some of the specimens exhibited at
their innumerable rose-shows. If the severity of our climate has its
disadvantages, the clearness of our air and the warmth of our summer
sun more than counterbalance them; and it is certain that roses can be
raised here in as high perfection, to say the very least, as in any part
of Europe.

The object of this book is to convey information. The earlier
portion will describe the various processes of culture, training, and
propagation, both in the open ground and in pots; and this will be
followed by an account of the various families and groups of the rose,
with descriptions of the best varieties belonging to each. A descriptive
list will be added of all the varieties, both of old roses and those
most recently introduced, which are held in esteem by the experienced
cultivators of the present day. The chapter relating to the
classification of roses, their family relations, and the manner in
which new races have arisen by combinations of two or more old ones, was
suggested by the difficulties of the writer himself at an early
period of his rose studies. The want of such explanations, in previous
treatises, has left their readers in a state of lamentable perplexity on
a subject which might easily have been made sufficiently clear.

Books on the rose, written for the climates of France or England,
will, in general, greatly mislead the cultivators here. Extracts will,
however, be given from the writings of the best foreign cultivators, in
cases where experience has shown that their directions are applicable
to the climate of the Northern and Middle States. The writer having been
for many years a cultivator of the rose, and having carefully put in
practice the methods found successful abroad, is enabled to judge with
some confidence of the extent to which they are applicable here, and
to point out exceptions and modifications demanded by the nature of our
climate.

Among English writers on the rose, the best are