Chapter 5 (extract 2) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Miss Jekyll describes the Victorian system of balloon-training roses.
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Illustration: Bennett's seedling balloon trained
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Another form of pillar is of greater width, when either three or four posts are planted in group, or a wider iron frame is placed to make a thicker block of upright Roses. Another is wider still, and the Roses are trained either up or round it outside, or up a central support and then out at the top, from whence they fall over and cover the sides. This is an excellent way of growing that beautiful old Rose Blairii No. 2. For full fifty years this fine thing has been with us, and in its own way there is as yet nothing better. Its origin is not clearly known, but it seems to be related to the China Roses. Its dainty pink colouring, deepening to the centre, gives it a rare charm, and recalls the loveliness of a looser Rose, the Blush Boursault, that, alas so seldom gives well-formed blooms. Another way of forming the thick pillar or balloon is to have a stout wooden central post and three intersecting iron arches each six feet wide, forming six outer standards that arch over to the central post, and lateral wires girthing the whole about eighteen inches apart. The post should be five to six inches thick, the iron arches three-eighths of an inch, and the lateral wires one quarter inch. In the case of a structure of this size six plants of the same kind of Rose are used, one to each upright, and all are trained upwards.
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