d collection can be had for a small amount of
money.

Those who have a liking for special colors will do well to make their
selections from the named varieties listed in the catalogues. You can
depend on getting just the color you want, if you order in this way. But
in no other way. Mixed collection will give you some of all colors, but
there is no way of telling "which is which" until they come into bloom.

But in mixed collections you will get just as fine bulbs and just as
fine colors as you will if you select from the list of named varieties.
Only--you won't know what you are getting. Named sorts will cost
considerable more than the mixtures.

THE ROSE: ITS GENERAL CARE AND CULTURE

The owner of every garden tries to grow roses in it, but where one
succeeds, ten fail. Perhaps I would be safe in saying that ninety-nine
out of every hundred fail, for a few inferior blossoms from a plant,
each season, do not constitute success, but that is what the majority of
amateur Rose-growers have to be satisfied with, the country over, and so
great is their admiration for this most beautiful of all flowers that
these few blossoms encourage them to keep on, season after season,
hoping for better things, and consoling themselves with the thought
that, though results fall short of expectation, they are doing about as
well as their neighbors in this particular phase of gardening.

One does not have to seek far for the causes of failure. The Rose, while
it is common everywhere, and has been in cultivation for centuries, is
not understood by the rank and file of those who attempt to grow it,
therefore it is not given the treatment it deserves, _and which it must
have,_ in order to achieve success in its culture. When we come to know
its requirements, and give it proper care, we can grow fine Roses, but
not till then. Those who form an opinion of the possibilities of the
plant from the specimens which they see growing in the average garden
have yet to find out what a really fine Rose is.

The Rose is the flower of romance and sentiment throughout the lands in
which it grows, but, for all that, it is not a sentimental flower in
many respects. It is a vegetable epicure. It likes rich food, and great
quantities of it. Unless it can be gratified in this respect it will
refuse to give you the large, fine flowers which every Rose-grower,
professional or amateur, is constantly striving after. But feed it
according to its liking a