Book  (1917)  Page(s) xiv.  
 
Introduction.   
The next change in garden lore concerns the matter of a rose.   We were at tea one day, and I was cajoling a kindly housewife to give me her recipe for dumpsideary jam (a marvellous compound of pear, apple, plum, lemon and cinnamon),  when a little sprig of bud and bloom was brought in bearing a label thus,  “Mrs. George Cran?”   Some compliments are  so graceful that one is stroked into glowing by their pure flattery.  I love roses.   It seemed unheard-of-glory that one of these lovely flowers should bear my name.   I found the pleasure very sweet;  and wrote to the master, who was away, to tell him of the dizzy peak to which his name had clomb.  Together we said grace to Mr. Arthur Bide,   the rose-grower, from whom the compliment had come, and waited for the new rose to make her debut at a show.   But then war broke out and Mrs. George Cran sank into obscurity with every other luxury.  
When I returned home this spring from nursing I went a-pruning one day, glad to sneak back for a moment to the memory of peaceful days.   Among the roses I found some unfamiliar bushes, and lo!  a label told me I had been hacking myself good and hearty.   With great good nature, Mr. Arthur Bide, to whom my flower self owes its being, had sent some plants in my absence, and I confess that when I knew what they were they came in for much cosseting.   When the golden lupin lamps were alight, the catmint a glory of blooth,  Mrs. George Cran spread her charms.   
She is a hearty piece, rather undistinguished, but generous of growth;  with strong young wood upholding clusters of great pink stiff-petalled single blooms.   She is a pink “Irish Elegance”, only more compact, and just as vigorous.   When her golden heart is wide to the sun she is a delicate pink, but in the bud, dark red.   That is because her petals are red at the back, and pink in front - a variation which makes her beautiful for table decoration.    I like her well with the blooms nipped off close, and floated in a big glass bowl set on a polished table.   But most of all I think I like her scent.   It is like the fresh fragrance of a wild rose intensified a hundredfold by culture.   She masses well in beds, being a grateful and willing grower, and she has two seasons of bloom.