CHAPTER XIV
Rose Gardens
One of the many ways in which the splendid enthusiasm for good gardening--an enthusiasm which only grows stronger as time goes on--is showing itself, is in the general desire to use beautiful Roses more worthily. We are growing impatient of the usual Rose garden, generally a sort of target of concentric rings of beds placed upon turf, often with no special aim at connected design with the portions of the garden immediately about it, and filled with plants without a thought of their colour effect or any other worthy intention.
Now that there is such good and wonderfully varied material to be had, it is all the more encouraging to make Rose gardens more beautiful, not with beds of Roses alone--many a Rose garden is already too extensive in its display of mere beds--but to consider the many different ways in which Roses not only consent to grow but in which they live most happily and look their best. Beds we have had, and arches and bowers, but very little as yet in the whole range of possible Rose garden beauty.
The Rose garden at its best admits of many more beauties than these alone. Of the Roses we have now to choose from some are actual species, and many of them so nearly related to species that their wild way of growth may well be taken into account and provided for. Thus the beautiful milk-white Rosa Brunoni of the Himalayas is at its best climbing into some thin growth of bush or small tree. Many of the numerous new rambling Roses, children of another Himalayan Rose, that have been hybridised with other species, and again crossed to gain variety of colour and shape, willingly lend themselves to the same treatment. Many Roses, even some of those that one thinks of as rather stiff bushes, the Scotch Briers, Rosa lucida and the like, only want the opportunity of being planted on some height, as on the upper edge of a retaining wall, to show that they are capable of exhibiting quite unexpected forms of growth and gracefulness, for they will fling themselves down the face of the wall and flower all the better for the greater freedom. The beautiful and fast-growing Rosa wichuriana, with its neat white bloom and polished foliage, will grow either up a support or down a steep bank, or festoon the face of a wall far below its roots, and to the adventurously minded amateur disclose whole ranges of delightful possibilities; while, stimulated by the increased demand, growers are every year producing new hybrids and clever crosses derived from this accommodating plant.
So the thought comes that the Rose garden ought to be far more beautiful and interesting than it has ever yet been. In the hope of leading others to do more justice to the lovely plants that are only waiting to be well used, I will describe and partly illustrate such a Rose garden as I think should be made. In this, as in so much other gardening, it is much to be desired that the formal and free ways should both be used. If the transition is not too abrupt the two are always best when brought into harmonious companionship. The beauty of the grand old gardens of the Italian Renaissance would be shorn of half their impressive dignity and of nearly all their poetry, were they deprived of the encircling forest-like thickets of Arbutus, Evergreen Oak, and other native growths. The English Rose garden that I delight to dream of is also embowered in native woodland, that shall approach it nearly enough to afford a passing shade in some of the sunny hours, though not so closely as to rob the Roses at the root.
My Rose garden follows the declivities of a tiny, shallow valley, or is formed in such a shape. It is approached through a short piece of near home woodland of 
dark-foliaged trees, for the most part evergreens; Yew, Holly, and Scotch Fir. The approach may come straight or at a right angle; a straight approach is shown in the plan. As it belongs to a house of classic design and of some importance, it will be treated, as to its midmost spaces, with the wrought stone steps and balustraded terraces, and such other accessories as will agree with those of the house itself.
The bottom of the little valley will be a sward of beautifully kept turf, only broken by broad flights of steps and dwarf walls where the natural descent makes a change of level necessary. The turf is some thirty feet wide; then on either side rises a retaining wall crowned by a balustrade. At the foot of this, on the further side, is a terrace whose whole width is about twenty-four feet. Then another and higher retaining wall rises to nearly the level of the wooded land above. This has no parapet or balustrade. The top edge of the wall is protected by bushy and free-growing Roses, and a walk runs parallel with it, bounded by rambling Roses on both sides. On the wooded side many of the Roses run up into the trees, while below Sweet-brier makes scented brakes and tangles.
The lawn level has a narrow border at the foot of the wall where on the sunnier side are Roses that are somewhat tender and not very large in growth. On the terraces there are Roses again, both on the side of the balustrade and on that of the retaining wall. The balustrade is not covered up or smothered with flowery growths, but here and there a Rose from above comes foaming up over its edge and falls over, folding it in a glorious mantle of flower and foliage. It is well where this occurs that the same Rose should be planted below and a little farther along, so that at one point the two join hands and grow together.
So there would be the quiet lawn spaces below, whose cool green prepares the eye by natural laws for the more complete enjoyment of the tinting of the flowers whether strong or tender, and there is the same cool green woodland carried far upward for the outer framing of the picture. In no other way that I can think of would beautiful groupings of Roses be so enjoyably seen, while the whole thing, if thoroughly well designed and proportioned, would be one complete picture of beauty and delight.
In a place that binds the designer to a greater degree of formality the upper terrace might be more rigidly treated, and the woodland, formed of Yew or Cypress, more symmetrically placed. On the other hand there is nothing to prevent the whole scheme being simplified and worked out roughly, with undressed stones for the steps and dry walling for the retaining walls, so as to be in keeping with the other portions of the grounds of any modest dwelling.
If a Rose garden is to be made on a level space where any artificial alteration of the ground is inexpedient, it will be found a great enhancement to the beauty of the Roses and to the whole effect of the garden if it is so planned that dark shrubs and 
trees bound it on all sides. The plan shows a simple scheme where this is arranged. A central space of turf has Rose borders in the form shown. Outside is a wide grass
walk, and beyond that dark shrubs. On the four sides grassy ways pass into the garden; while the whole outer edge of the Rose beds is set with posts connected by chains on which are pillar and free-growing cluster Roses placed alternately.
At each outer and inner angle of the design will be a free-growing Ayrshire or one of the now numerous Rambler group. Each of these will furnish the length of chain on its right and left, while Pillar Roses will clothe the posts between.
The background of dark trees is so important that I venture to dwell upon it with some degree of persistence. Any one who has seen an Ayrshire Rose running wild into a Yew will recognise the value of the dark foliage as a ground for the tender blush white of the Rose; and so it is with the Rose garden as a whole.
The wisdom of this treatment is well known in all other kinds of gardening, but with the tender colourings of so many Roses it has a special value. It should be remembered that a Rose garden can never be called gorgeous; the term is quite unfitting. Even in high Rose tide, when fullest of bloom, what is most clearly felt is the lovable charm of Rose beauty, whether of the whole scene, or of some delightful detail or incident or even individual bloom.
The gorgeousness of brilliant bloom, fitly arranged, is for other plants and other portions of the garden here we do not want the mind disturbed or distracted from the beauty and delightfulness of the Rose. From many of the Rose gardens of the usual unsatisfactory type other kinds of gardening are seen, or perhaps a distant view, or a carriage road, or there is some one or other distracting influence that robs the Roses of the full exercise of their charm. Even in a walled space, unless this is darkly wooded round, it is better not to have Roses on the walls themselves, but rather to have the walls clothed with dark greenery.
The beneficent effect of neighbouring dark trees may be seen in the picture of the Rose arches. Any trees of dark or dusky foliage serve well as Rose backgrounds, 
whether of the greyish tone of the common juniper or the richer greens of Thuya or Cypress, Yew or Holly.
In the few instances that can be given in a book it is impossible to consider a hundredth part of the many varying circumstances of different gardens. Each place has its own character, and the choice of site for the Rose garden will necessarily be governed by the natural conditions of the place.
One illustration shows a Rose border made just under a terrace wall. The ground to the right slopes too sharply to allow of a broader grass walk without having another retaining wall below; had it not been for this, a space of turf as wide again, between the border and the Rose hedge, would have been better. Here also is plainly seen the value of the dark evergreen trees above.
