nd it will give you perfect flowers in great
quantities, season after season, and _then_ you will understand what
this plant can do when given an opportunity to do itself justice.

The Rose will live on indefinitely in almost any soil, and under almost
any conditions. I have frequently found it growing in old, deserted
gardens, almost choked out of existence by weeds and other aggressive
plants, but still holding to life with a persistency that seemed
wonderful in a plant of its kind. I have removed some of these plants to
my own garden, and given them good care, and time after time I have been
as surprised as delighted at the result. The poor little bushes, that
had held so tenaciously to life against great odds, seemed to have
stored up more vitality in their starved roots than any others in the
garden were possessors of, and as soon as they were given good soil and
proper care they sent up strong, rank shoots, and thanked me for my
kindness to them in wonderful crops of flowers, and really put the old
residents of the place to shame. All through the years of neglect they
had no doubt been yearning to bud and bloom, but were unable to do so
because of unfavorable conditions, but when the opportunity to assert
themselves came they made haste to take advantage of it in a way that
proves how responsive flowers are to the right kind of treatment.

The Rose will only do its best in a soil that is rather heavy with clay,
or a tenacious loam. It likes to feel the earth firm about its roots. In
light, loose soils it never does well, though it frequently makes a
vigorous growth of branches in them, but it is from a more compact soil
that we get the most and finest flowers.

[Illustration: HYBRID PERPETUAL ROSE]

Some varieties do well in a soil of clay containing considerable gravel.
Such a soil provides for the roots the firmness of which I have spoken,
while the gravel insures perfect drainage,--a matter of great importance
in Rose-culture. Success cannot be expected in a soil unduly retentive
of moisture. Very heavy soils can be lightened by the addition of
coarse, sharp sand, old mortar, and cinders. If the location chosen does
not furnish perfect drainage, naturally, artificial drainage must be
resorted to. Make an excavation at least a foot and a half in depth, and
fill in, at the bottom, with bits of broken brick, crockery, coarse
gravel, fine stone--anything that will not readily decay--and thus
secure a stratum of