Rose arches and arbours

Chapter 9 (extract) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Miss Jekyll gives examples of the use of rose arches in the garden.

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Illustration: Crimson Rambler over a hand gate

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CHAPTER IX

ROSE ARCHES AND ARBOURS

Many are the ways in which an arch of Roses may be beautiful in the garden, whether it be a garden of some distinctly set design or one that is quite informal.

Where two ways meet or cross at a right angle there is always an opportunity for the placing of an arch of Roses, or where flower garden passes into kitchen garden, whether it be walled or not. A Rose arch is none the less a Rose arch because there is a brick arch behind it, although what is generally understood as a Rose arch is one that stands free or is in connection with a bounding hedge, the Rose itself forming the arch, only supported by a framework of wood or iron.

But often in a modest garden there are other uses for a Rose arch, such as the garden will itself suggest. For instance, where a double flower border is made in a kitchen garden, and it is desirable to take up as little space as may be, a whole Rose scheme may be conveniently combined with borders of useful flowers for cutting or for contemplation. A four-foot grass or gravel path would have on each side borders of five feet wide. At intervals of twenty-live feet, Rose arches, the foot of the arches planted in the back of the borders, span the whole. At the back of both borders is a hedge of Roses that will grow about three feet high. If the space is divided into four, points will be found for three pillar Roses rising from the hedge and in a line with it; those will therefore stand about eight feet apart.

The illustration shows a Crimson Rambler trained over a wire support in a free hedge of Rhododendrons in a place where a path from one division of a garden leads into another.

An incident in this picture that is not at all of unfrequent occurrence is worthy of notice. It is the carefully made rabbit-proof iron fencing, with two wires out in the lower part of the gate, leaving a space which seems to invite the entrance of any small animal. When it is desired to keep out rabbits, and an expensive fence is put up for the purpose, one such oversight makes the whole thing useless. Gates of this slight construction, which are in themselves perhaps the least distressing to the eye of all their unsightly class, are especially liable to injury from an accidental kick, or a blow from a barrow wheel.

Wrought iron gates, with richly designed ornament of the best kind that are made for the place itself, of perfect proportion and suitable enrichment, may well lead into and out of the Rose garden, or indeed any other garden division, and Roses may clamber near them, but it is more fitting that they should not climb over or into gates or screens of this class. Two such richly decorated objects as the artist-craftsman's work in enduring metal and the clusters of living Rose had better be seen and enjoyed separately. But in the case of a simple arch in a brick garden wall and a wrought-iron gate of very simple design, such as the one in the illustration, the Rose is a welcome and rightly placed addition to the garden picture.

The simple old Rose arbour, by no means so often seen as it might well be, should be in every modest garden. A Dundee Rambler on one side to cover the top, and an Aimee Vibert, or an alba kept to pillar height, to clothe the other side, will be an ample furnishing, though there is a sense of additional comfort if the back wall, unless the arbour is actually against a wall of brick or stone, were of some solid greenery, such as yew or box. An arbour may be anything between this and a more important structure, but in any case some free Roses at its opening offer a charming invitation to enter and rest in grateful shade in the June and July days of their blooming season.

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See also: The rose pergola