ROSES IN BOTANICAL GARDENS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 17, 21 January 1916, Page 2

ROSES IN BOTANICAL GARDENS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l have read the article in the issue of the Evening Post of the 13th. i.nst.,. headed "A Blaze of Glory." No doubt the beds of antirrhinums and pentstemons referred to in the article look very well, but they are flowers that usually do well, and are 'found in any flower garden. The flowers that one generally delights to see, however —roses and carnations—and which are properly expected to be seenin any pnWio gardens, are, so far as our -Botanical Gardens are concerned, a negligible quantity There is a bed of • roses, but unfortunately the public do not have adequate access to it, and, in any case, the roses contained in it are quite out of date, anything, 1. should say, from five to ten years behind the times. Then, again', they are a mass of mildew and an eyesore to anyone taking an interest in roses. Surely, like all other public gardens, we should have a bed of roses that will 'stand inspection. The" absence in public places in Wellington of ? few decent roses was' so palpable that during last planting season the Cose- and Carnation. Club took the matter up with the City Council authorities, with the result that at the Zoo about 200 rose trees and the- same number of carnations were planted. Incidentally, it is worth mentioning that the public is indebted to the club in ' this connection, for I understand it. to be the fact that the whole of these roses and carnations were procured entirely at the expense of the Rose and Carnation Club, and that the planting was dono by members of the club, who have also undertaken to do the work of pruning the trees at the proper time. However, reverting to the Botanical Gardens, I should very much like to see the whole of the rose trees there at the ■present time, rooted out and a new and up-to-date lot substituted. Carnations also deserve and should receive attention.—l am, etc.,

INTERESTED. Wellington, 15th January. >.