GENERAL CULTURE OF THE ROSE.
As before stated, the Rose was the theme of the earliest poets of
antiquity; and it was doubtless one of the first plants selected to
adorn the gardens which were laid out around the new habitations
constructed upon the exchange of the wandering for a civilized mode of
life.
The most ancient authors upon husbandry, whose works are extant, have
all treated of the culture of Roses: Theophrastus among the Greeks;
and among the Romans, Varro, Columella, Palladius, and Pliny. To Pliny
are we specially indebted for information on this subject, as the
entire fourth chapter of the twentieth book of his Natural History is
devoted to Roses; and they are also occasionally mentioned in other
parts of the work. But after all the information thus obtained, much
yet remains to be desired; and although we find in other ancient
authors some curious facts bearing upon other points in the history
of the Rose, they are mostly so general in their character as to give
us very little insight into the actual culture of the Rose at those
periods.
The profuseness with which they were used among the Greeks, the
Romans, the Egyptians, and other ancient nations in their religious
solemnities, their public ceremonies, and even in the ordinary customs
of private life, would lead us to suppose, and with some degree of
correctness, that roses were very abundantly cultivated by them all;
and we are inclined to think that their cultivation was then far
more general than at the present time, although the art of producing
them was in its infancy. However surprising in other respects may
have been the progress of the culture of roses within forty years,
particularly in France, Holland, and Belgium, there can be little
doubt that, although the Romans were acquainted with a much smaller
number of varieties than the moderns, yet flowers of those varieties
were far more abundant than the aggregate quantity of flowers of all
the varieties of roses cultivated at the present day. It cannot be
positively asserted that the Remontant Roses of the present time were
unknown at Rome, since the gardeners of that city practiced sowing the
seeds of the Rose, by which mode many of the most remarkable varieties
of that class have been obtained by modern cultivators. The Romans,
however, preferred to propagate by cuttings, which produced flowering
plants much sooner than those from the seed.
But, though the Romans may have had roses of the same species with
some of those which we now cultivate, it is scarcely probable that
these species could have continued until this period, and escaped
the devastation attendant on the revolutions of empire, or the
more desolating invasions of the Huns and Goths. Thus it is, that
those roses of Pæstum, to which allusion is so frequently made by
ancient writers, and which, according to Virgil and Pliny, bloomed
semi-annually, and were common in the gardens of that city, are
not now to be found. Jussieu and Loudresse, two French gentlemen,
successively visited Italy with the express object of finding this
twice-bearing Rose in Pæstum or its environs, yet, notwithstanding
their carefully prosecuted researches, they could find no traces of it
whatever.
Although the number of varieties known to the Romans was very limited,
they had discovered a method of making the blooming season continue
many months. According to Pliny, the roses of Carthage, in Spain, came
forward early and bloomed in winter; those of Campania bloomed next in
order; then those of Malta; and lastly those of Pæstum, which flowered
in the spring and autumn. It was probably the blooming of this last
species which the gardeners of Rome discovered (in Seneca's time) the
secret of retarding by a certain process, or of hastening by means of
their warm green-houses.
In the last part of this work, we have cited many passages from
ancient authors, which show to what an enormous extent the use of
roses was carried by the Romans on certain occasions. It is difficult
to credit, at this day, the relation of Nero's extravagance (which
is, however, attested by Suetonius), when it is told that in one
fête alone he expended in roses _only_, more than four millions of
sesterces, or one hundred thousand dollars. It would be no easy
matter, even at the present period of abundant cultivation of Roses,
to obtain from all the nurseries of England, France, and America
together, roses sufficient to amount to so large a sum.
The Romans derived the use of this flower from the Greeks. In Greece,
and throughout the East, roses were cultivated, not only for the
various purposes we have mentioned, but also for the extraction of
their perfumes. Among the many plans which they adopted for preserving
the flower was that of cutting off the top of a reed, splitting it
down a short distance, and enclosing in it a number of rose-buds,
which, being bound around with papyrus, prevented their fragrance from
escaping. The Greeks also deemed it a great addition to the fragrance
of the Rose to plant garlic near its roots. The island of Rhodes,
which has successively borne many names, was particularly indebted to
the culture of roses for that which it bears at this day. It was the
Isle of Roses, the Greek for Rose being Ροδον,--Rodon.
Medals of Rhodes, whose reverse impressions present a rose in bloom on
one side, and the sunflower on the other, are to be found even now in
cabinets of curiosities.
Extravagance in roses, among the Romans, kept pace with the increase
of their power, until they at length desired them at all seasons. At
first they procured their winter's supply from Egypt, but subsequently
attained themselves such skill in their culture as to produce them
in abundance, even at the coldest season of the year; and, according
to Seneca, by means of green-houses, heated by pipes filled with
hot water. During the reign of Domitian, the forcing of roses was
carried to such perfection, and flowers produced in winter in so great
abundance, that those brought from Egypt, as before mentioned, excited
only the contempt of the citizens of the world's metropolis.
This fact, as also handed down to us by the epigram of Martial, is
of great assistance in estimating the importance of rose-culture at
that period, and in showing how the art of cultivating this plant had
spread, and how it was already far advanced among the ancient Romans
and their contemporaries.
If the Egyptians cultivated roses for transportation to Rome during
the winter, they must have had very extensive plantations for the
purpose. The exportation could not have been of loose flowers, for
they would have been withered long before the termination of the
voyage; neither could it have been of rooted plants in a dormant
state, as nurserymen now send them to every part of the world, because
the Romans had at that time no means of causing them to vegetate and
bloom in the winter. On the contrary, the cultivators at Alexandria
and Memphis must, of necessity, have sent them away in the vases and
boxes in which they had planted them with that object, and when they
were just beginning to break from the bud, in order that they might
arrive at Rome at the moment they commenced expanding.
At that remote period, when navigation was far behind its present
state of perfection, the voyage from the mouth of the Nile to the
coast of Italy occupied more than twenty days. When this long voyage
is considered, and also the quantity of roses required by the Romans
to enwreath their crowns and garlands, to cover their tables and
couches, and the pavements of their festive halls, and to surround the
urns which contained the ashes of their dead, it is evident that the
Egyptians, who traded in roses, in order to satisfy the prodigality of
the Romans, would be compelled to keep in readiness a certain number
of vessels to be laden with boxes or vases of rose-plants, so prepared
as not to bloom before their delivery at Rome. The cost of roses thus
delivered in Rome must have been immense, but we do not find a single
passage in any of the ancient authors which can give any light on
this point; they only tell us that nothing for the gratification of
luxury was considered too costly by the wealthy Roman citizens. Nor
do they afford more positive information as to the species of Rose
cultivated on the borders of the Nile, to gratify this taste of the
Romans. According to Delile, there were found in Egypt, at the time
of the French expedition into that country, only the White Rose and
the Centifolia, or hundred-leaved--two species not very susceptible
of either a forcing or retarding culture. The only Rose known at that
time, which bloomed in the winter, was the Rose of Pæstum, referred to
by Virgil, as "_biferique rosaria Pæsti_," and which was probably the
same as our monthly Damask Rose, and which produced in Egypt and Rome
flowers at all seasons, as the Damask does now with us, under a proper
mode of culture.
The extent to which the culture and commerce of roses was carried
among the Romans is shown by the fact that, although they had
confounded the tree and its flowers under one name--that of
_Rosa_,--they nevertheless gave particular appellations to the gardens
or ground planted with rose-bushes. They were termed a _Rosarium_, or
a _Rosetum_. Ovid says, "_Quot amœna Rosaria flores._" The dealer in
roses was also designated by the distinctive appellation of _Rosarius_.
* * * * *
In the latter part of the decline of the Roman Empire, when paganism
still existed to a great degree, there arose a people who formed,
as it were, the connecting link between the ancient and modern
world--a people who acknowledged but one Supreme Ruler, and his sole
vicegerent, Mahomet; a people whose origin was among the wildest
tribes of Ishmael's descendants, who possessed in a great degree the
luxuries of civilized life, and among whom the arts, sciences, and
agriculture, were very flourishing for many ages. Among the Moors of
Spain, the culture of the Rose was pursued with as much scientific
and practical method as at the present day, but with somewhat less
happy results. When in Paris, some years since, we became acquainted
with M. Hardy, the chief director of the Luxembourg gardens, and who
is well known to rose growers, by the many beautiful varieties which
he has originated. His interest in this subject was very great, and
in 1828, he published in the _Journal des Jardins_ some interesting
observations which he had extracted from a manuscript of M. de la
Neuville. The latter having been employed as military superintendent
in Spain during the war of 1823, translated from a Spanish version
some parts of an Arabian work upon culture in general, in which
that of the Rose was mentioned, with some important particulars. It
stated that the Moors, who formerly conquered Spain, attached the
highest value to this most beautiful of their flowers, and cultivated
it with as much care as we do ourselves. "According to Abu-el-Jaïr,"
says the translation, "there are roses of many colors--carnation
white, fallow or yellow, lapis-lazuli, or sky-blue. Some are of this
last color on the outside, and yellow within. In the East they are
acquainted with roses which are variegated with yellow and sky-blue,
the inside of the corolla being of the one color, and the outside the
other. The yellow-heart is very common in Tripoli and Syria, and the
blue-heart is found on the coast of Alexandria." To us, at the present
day, this relation may with reason seem incredible, since amid the
numerous varieties now existing, and the skill of their cultivators,
we have in no instance been able to obtain a blue Rose. Abu-el-Jaïr
may have ventured to state it as a fact without proper authority,
for, according to M. de la Neuville, Abu-Abdallah-ebu-el-Fazel,
another nearly contemporaneous author, enumerated a variety of roses
without mentioning the blue. "There are," says this last author, "four
varieties of roses: the first is named the Double White; it has an
exquisite odor, and its cup unites more than a hundred petals: the
second is the Yellow, which is of a golden color, and bright as the
jonquil; then the Purple; and lastly the flesh-colored, which is the
most common of them all." Farther on the same author adds: "The number
of species is supposed to be large: the Mountain or Wild; the Double,
which is variegated with red and white shades; and the Chinese. The
Double, however, is the most beautiful, and is composed of forty to
fifty petals."
The Moors multiplied roses by all the various methods which are
employed at this day: by suckers from the root, by cuttings, by
budding, and by grafting. The pruning-knife was also freely used, in
order to form regular heads.
There is a farther translation of De la Neuville from a Spanish
version of the "Book of Agriculture," written by Ebu-Alwan, who lived
in the twelfth century, and who, in addition to his own experience,
quoted largely from some Chaldaic and Arabic writers. He states that
the Moors practiced two methods of sowing the seeds of the Rose. The
first was in earthen pans--a mode adapted to delicate plants; they
were watered immediately after being sown, and afterward twice a week
until autumn, when such care became unnecessary. The other method
was sowing broadcast as grain is sown, then covering the seed-beds
an inch deep with carefully sifted manure or fine mould, and giving
them the requisite watering. The plants from these seed-beds did not
produce flowers until the third year after their being thus prepared,
and until they had been transplanted into squares or borders; such
is still the case with nearly all our summer roses, the only kind
the Moors appear to have possessed. They also understood the art of
forcing roses. "If you wish," says Haj, another author, "the Rose tree
to bloom in autumn, you must choose one that has been accustomed to
periodical waterings; you must deprive it of water entirely during
the heat of summer until August, and then give it an abundance of
moisture; this will hasten its growth, and cause the expansion of its
flowers in great profusion, without impairing its ability to bloom the
ensuing spring, as usual." "Or else," adds the same author, "in the
month of October, burn the old branches to the level of the earth,
moisten the soil for eight consecutive days, and then suspend the
watering; alternate these periods of moisture and drought as many as
five times, and probably in about sixty days, or before the end of
autumn, the roots will have thrown out vigorous branches, which will
in due time be loaded with flowers, without destroying the ability of
the plant to bloom again the following spring." The climate in which
the Moors lived--that of Cordova, Grenada, and Seville, where the
winter is very much like our weather in mid-autumn--was very favorable
to the cultivation of the Rose. In this country the same results could
doubtless be obtained in the Carolinas, and the experiment would be
well worth trying, even in the latitude of New York. It would be
no small triumph to obtain an autumnal bloom of the many beautiful
varieties of French, Moss, or Provence Roses. Haj has also given the
method of keeping the Rose in bud, in order to prolong its period
of blooming. His process, however, is of so uncertain a character,
as scarcely to merit an insertion here. The manuscript of De la
Neuville also contains particular directions for propagating roses,
and for planting hedges of the Eglantine, to protect the vineyards and
gardens, and at the same time to serve as stocks for grafting. Nothing
is omitted in the Arabian treatise which pertains to the management
of this shrub; the manner of cultivating, weeding, transplanting,
watering, etc., are all particularly explained. Among a variety of
curious matters, it contains the process by which, for the purpose
of embellishing their gardens, they produced the appearance of trees
whose tops are loaded with roses. A hollow pipe, four feet long, or
more, if the top was to be large, was obtained, of a well-proportioned
diameter, set upright, to resemble the trunk of a tree, and filled
with earth or sand in a suitable state of moisture. In the top of this
pipe were planted several varieties of roses, of different colors,
which, rooting freely in the earth around them, soon formed a bushy
head, and represented a third-class tree, clothed with rich foliage
and beautiful flowers.
This plan could now be practiced with success; and we can scarcely
imagine more beautiful objects in a lawn than a number of these pipes,
of various heights, single, and in groups, some low, with the small
heads of the China or Tea Roses, others high, and with the large,
robust branches of the La Reine, and other Perpetuals, and others,
again, planted with some delicate climbing roses, whose branches,
falling down, would form a weeping tree of a most unique, graceful,
and showy character. The pipes could be made of earthenware, tin, or
wood, and be painted in imitation of the bark of a tree. Still better
would be the trunk of a small tree, hollowed out for the purpose,
which, with the bark on, would puzzle many a close observer, and which
could show a luxuriant head of leaves and flowers on the most sterile
soil that ever formed a lawn.
From what has been said on the culture of roses among the Moors
in Spain, there can be no doubt that they had made great progress
therein; and with the exception of a few statements, evidently
unfounded in fact, as the grafting of the Rose on the almond, the
apple, the jujube, and other trees, the little treatise translated
by De la Neuville certainly contains most excellent remarks upon the
culture of roses, whether we compare them with what the ancients have
left us, or even with those of the various writers on Rose culture in
Europe and America within the last half century.
As roses were so frequently propagated from the seed by the Moors,
they must have known quite a number of varieties, exclusive of all
those they had brought or obtained from the East. The Yellow Rose,
unknown to us until recently, was apparently familiar to them; and the
Blue Rose, of which their manuscripts speak, is now extinct, if it
indeed ever existed; for amid the infinite variety of roses, of every
color and shade, produced from seed in modern times, no one has yet
obtained a purely Blue Rose, and its former existence may well seem to
us incredible.
Besides the Moorish cultivation in Spain, the Rose has been an
object of culture to a great extent in other countries. It has
been cultivated principally for the beauty of its flowers, but in
many parts of Europe and Asia, and in the north of Africa, its
culture has been pursued for commercial purposes. Of its abundance
in Palestine, some conception may be formed from the statement of
travelers, that they have not only seen them wild and in great
profusion in the vicinity of Jerusalem, but have found them in hedges,
intermingled with pomegranate trees. Doubday states that, when the
Eastern Christians made one of their processions in the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, which continued some two hours,
many persons were present with sacks full of rose petals, which they
threw by handfuls on the people, and in such immense quantities, that
many were covered with them, and they were scattered all over the
pavement. In Syria and Persia it has been cultivated from a very early
period, and the ancient name of the former, _Suristan_, is said to
signify the land of roses. Damascus, Cashmere, Barbary, and Fayoum in
Egypt, all cultivated the Rose extensively for its distilled oil or
essence. Very little is extant respecting the culture of the Rose in
the middle ages, but that it was cultivated and valued is known by
its having been worn by knights at the tournament, as an emblem of
their devotion to grace and beauty. According to Loudon, "Ludovico
Verthema, who traveled in the East in 1503, observed that Tæssa was
particularly celebrated for roses, and that he saw a great quantity of
these flowers at Calicut." The Rose is to this day also extensively
cultivated in India, and for commercial purposes perhaps in greater
abundance than is now known in any other country. Bishop Heber states
that "Ghazepoor is celebrated throughout India for the wholesomeness
of its air and the beauty and extent of its rose gardens. The
rose-fields, which occupy many hundred acres in the neighborhood,
are described as, at the proper season, extremely beautiful. They
are cultivated for distillation and for making 'Attar of Roses.'"
He states also, that "many roses were growing in the garden of the
palace of Delhi, and the fountain pipes were carved with images of
roses." Another writer describes in glowing colors the beauty of
Ghazepoor, the Gul-istan (the rose beds,) of Bengal. "In the spring
of the year, an extent of miles around the town presents to the eye a
continual garden of roses, than which nothing can be more beautiful
and fragrant. The sight is perfectly dazzling; the plain, as far as
the eye can reach, extending in the same bespangled carpet of red
and green. The breezes, too, are loaded with the sweet odor which is
wafted far across the river Ganges."
These statements sufficiently evince that the Rose was not only
valued by the Hindoos as an article of commerce, but was intimately
associated with their ideas of pleasure and enjoyment.
Persia, however, was, above all other countries, preëminent for roses.
"Sir John Chardin, in 1686, found the gardens of the Persians without
parterres, labyrinths, and other ornaments of European gardens, but
filled with lilies, peach trees, and roses; and all modern travelers
bear testimony to the esteem in which this flower is held in the
East." Sir Wm. Ousley tells us, in his travels in Persia, in 1819,
that when he entered the flower garden belonging to the Governor of
the Castle, near Farso, he was overwhelmed with roses; and Jackson,
in his _Journey, etc._, says that the roses of the Sinan Nile, or
Garden of the Nile, are unequalled; and mattresses are made of their
leaves, for men of rank to recline upon. Buckingham speaks of the rose
plantations of Damascus as occupying an area of many acres, about
three miles from that city. Sir Robert Ker Porter, speaking of the
garden of one of the royal palaces of Persia, says: "I was struck
with the appearance of two rose trees, full fourteen feet high, laden
with thousands of flowers, in every degree of expansion, and of a
bloom and delicacy of scent that imbued the whole atmosphere with
exquisite perfume. Indeed, I believe that in no country in the world
does the rose grow in such perfection as in Persia; in no country is
it so cultivated and prized by the natives. Their gardens and courts
are crowded by its plants, their rooms ornamented with roses, filled
with its gathered branches, and every bath strewed with the full-blown
flowers, plucked with the ever-replenished stems. * * * But in this
delicious garden of Negaaristan, the eye and the smell are not the
only senses regaled by the presence of the Rose: the ear is enchanted
by the wild and beautiful notes of multitudes of nightingales,
whose warblings seem to increase in melody and softness, with the
unfolding of their favorite flowers. Here, indeed, the stranger is
more powerfully reminded, that he is in the genuine country of the
nightingale and the Rose." Rivers mentions that Sir John Malcolm told
him, that when in Persia he had once breakfasted on an immense heap,
or rather mount, of roses, which the Persians had raised in honor of
him. The rose of Cashmere has been long celebrated in the East, for
its brilliancy and delicacy of odor--
"Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,
With its Roses, the brightest that earth ever gave?"
Throughout the whole season during which the roses remained in bloom
in this beautiful valley, the Feast of Roses was kept with great
rejoicing, and an entire abandonment to pleasure. At this time, a
great number of tents were pitched, and multitudes of men, women,
boys, and girls, were dancing and singing to the music of their
various instruments.
All that has been handed down to us, and all we know at the present
time of the climate and productions of Persia, and the customs of its
inhabitants, prove that it was emphatically the land of roses; and all
that we can gather from its history or tradition evinces, that to the
inhabitants of the East, including the Hindoos and the Moors of Spain,
is this beautiful flower indebted for the most careful and abundant
cultivation, and for a due appreciation of its merits.
At the present time the Rose is cultivated throughout the civilized
world. Loudon speaks of hedges of mixed Provence Roses, in the garden
of Rosenstein, in Germany, and also of their profusion in the public
garden of Frankfort. They are found in the gardens of Valencia, in
Spain, and Sir John Carr, speaking of the seat of a Spanish gentleman
near Tarragona, says, "The doors of the dining room open into a small
garden, the walls of which are covered with myrtles, jasmines, and
roses." In the Botanic garden of Madrid, rose trees are used for
dividing hedges, and the flower is a favorite throughout Spain.
Among the Spanish ladies, the Rose is highly valued, and, with the
Orange flower, is a favorite ornament for the hair. We have frequently
been struck, while traveling in the Spanish West Indies, and in
some parts of South America, with the careful nurture and attention
bestowed on a single rose bush, and the delight exhibited at its
bloom, while all around in natural luxuriance were the most beautiful
and gorgeous plants and flowers which the tropics can produce. The
brilliant cactus, the beautiful oleander, the singular orchids, and
the delicate and fragrant flowers of the coffee and orange, seemed
cast into the shade by the ancient and well-known Rose.
I well recollect, that on returning one day from a ride into the
country, where I had been luxuriating in the gorgeous splendor of a
tropical forest, the fair daughter of my hostess wished to introduce
me to a flower, which, in her opinion, far surpassed all that I had
seen; she accompanied me to the top of the flat-roofed house, used at
the South as a place of evening resort, and there, in one corner, I
found a thrifty plant of the Tea Rose, which to her infinite delight,
was just showing above its glossy and delicate young leaves, a little
ruby-tipped bud. This little plant had been the object of long and
careful nursing, and her attention was now about to be rewarded by a
fine and perfect bloom.
In France, however, is the Rose a preëminent object of horticulture,
both in commercial establishments and in private gardens. The skill
of the French has originated many new and beautiful varieties, which
are to be found in several of the nurseries in the United States. The
French are constantly searching for improvements in horticultural
science and practice, with an enthusiasm rarely found in the more
cold Englishman, whose skill seems to consist less in the creation of
new varieties, than in growing perfectly those already known. None,
indeed, can surpass the English in the art of growing fine plants, but
we are chiefly indebted to the French for the finest new varieties of
the Rose.
In Great Britain, although comparatively little attention has been
paid to the obtaining of new varieties, the culture is more careful
and the nomenclature more correct. The competition excited by their
numerous horticultural exhibitions causes great attention to be given
to correct nomenclature and to symmetrical habit of growth. We can
imagine nothing more beautiful than some of the plants that we saw
at the exhibitions of the London Horticultural Society at Chiswick;
every plant was pruned, trained and grown, after an ideal, but perfect
model, with its close and luxuriant foliage, its thrifty, symmetrical
habit, and the thick, leathery petals of its well-cupped flower. This
high standard should be introduced into every Society, and if such
were the case in this country and the rule were carefully obeyed, the
character of our exhibitions would in a short time be very materially
changed.
T. Rivers is one of the most extensive rose cultivators in England,
and is also known as the author of a very excellent descriptive work
on the Rose. He has also been successful in hybridizing, and has
originated come very fine varieties. His attention was at one time
directed almost exclusively to the Rose, but it now includes many
other nursery articles, and on our visit to him, we found him much
interested with experiments in fruit culture. Lane, Wood, and Paul,
are esteemed very good cultivators, and generally correct in their
nomenclature. From these several establishments in England and France
have been imported most of the varieties now existing in this country.
Their trade with the United States is, however, comparatively limited,
from the great risk of loss by a sea voyage. We have frequently
lost in this way two-thirds or three-quarters of an importation,
to our great annoyance and expense, and it is only by repeated and
persevering importations that we have been able to obtain all the
desirable varieties.
In the United States the culture of the Rose has been very much
neglected, until within a few years. Tulips and dahlias have
successively been the rage, and although there has long existed
a great variety of roses, comparatively few of them have been
cultivated, even in the best gardens of the United States. Now the
tide is turning. Dahlias are going out of repute, and the Rose is
resuming its ancient empire in the queendom of Flora. The advent of
the Bourbon and the Remontant, or Perpetual classes, has no doubt
materially aided this change, but it is in a great part owing to the
easy culture of the plant, and the intrinsic merits and beauty of the
flower. The taste of the horticultural public being thus decidedly for
the Rose, a demand will exist for all the information respecting soil,
planting, cultivating, etc., and this information we shall endeavor to
supply in a simple and concise manner, avoiding, as far as possible,
all technicalities, and adapting it to the use of the cultivator of a
single plant in the crowded border of a city garden, or to the more
extended culture of a commercial establishment.
Each cultivator has his peculiar mode of doing things, and there may
be those who deem the mode laid down here inferior to their own. From
these we should be glad to hear, and to make any corrections they
may suggest, where such corrections appear to be founded upon true
principles. In order to make our work as perfect as possible, we
have not hesitated to add to our own experience all the information
derived from a personal inspection of French and English nurseries,
and to cull from foreign works and periodicals all that may interest
our readers. Such information, as far as it coincides with our own
experience, we shall gladly incorporate, with the hope that we may
be successful in presenting every fact of interest which may exist
respecting the cultivation of our favorite flower.