MESSRS LAIRD & SON'S ROSES

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12941, 4 December 1909, Page 7

MESSRS LAIRD & SON'S ROSES

Messrs Laird's roses have become so well known, not only in Wanganui, but throughout the Dominion, that it seems superfluous to say any more about them. .However, each year brings forth a crop oi new varieties, and it is of these that we are referring mainly to now. Though Messrs Laird have grown roses in Wanganui for ovr«r 40 years, it is only about 12 years ago that the present members of the firm started seriously into this branch of their business and began, as it were, to specialise rose-growing. As that time they grew only some 500 plants annually ; last year their output was considerably over 60,000. We mention this merely to show the enormous increase in a line that they have made a special study of. It goes without saying that if they had not kept abreast of the times with now varieties, or had sent out secondgrade plants, they could not have achieved this success ; their aim has always been to send only first-grade plants in a perfectly healthy condition, and to keep up to date. A number of the newer ones they are now sending out are of great merit, and of these we may mention: — Avoca (1907), a crimson scarlet H.T., sweetly perfumed; Colonel R. S. Williamson (1907), satiny-white, with deep blush centre ; Dorothy Page Roberts (1907), coppery pink suffused apricot yellow, a gold medal N.R.S. ; Dr. O'Donel Browne (1908), carmine rose, beautifully shell-shaped, gold medal N.R.S. ; Elizabeth Barnes (1907), satiny salmon rose, suffused yellow, very fine ; Florence E. Coulthwaite (1908), deep cream, strippled with bright rose ; Geo. C. Wand (1908), orange vermillion, very beautiful, gold medal N.R.S. ; Gloire de Chedane Guinoisseau (1908), bright vermillion red, shaded violet, silver medal Angers; Grace Molyneaux (1908), creamy apricot, flesh in centre ; Harry Kirk (1907), deep sulphur yellow, shading to silver, gold medal N.R.S. ; Hector MacKenzie (1908), deep pink changing to silvery crimson; Lvon rose (1907), shrimp pink, shaded coral rose or salmon; Madame Constant Soupert (1907), deep yellow, shaded peach, very fine; Madnme Melanie Soupert (1907), salmon yellow, suffused carmine, very fine indeed ; Madame E. Sablayrolles (1907), clear yellow, shaded flesh centre : Mrs David Jardine (1908), bright rosy nink, shaded salmon ; Mrs Harold Brocklebank (1907), creamy white, centre buff, a superb variety ; Souvenir of Stella Gray (1907), deep orange, with splashes of yellow, small, but very nretty ; Hiawatha, brilliant scarlet, flowering in large clusters, most brilliant and effective, undoubtedly the finest in the Polyantha-Wichurian climbing section.

There are still a number of the newer ones to flower, and these will be noted in due course. Messrs Laird and Son's grounds are open throughout the week <"or visitors, and are just now one of the beauty spots of the district. The imniense bed of roses, some 60,000 plants, ;s; s now in fine bloom, and is a sight to be remembered.

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