(1931)  Page(s) 108.  
 
...in the centre are tall bushes of the wonderful Austrian Briar with its single flowers of marvellous far-reaching flame colour, the colour indeed of nasturtiums; the rest of the bed, which is a large one, is planted out with the new rose Juliet, a cross between 'Captain Hayward' and the rich coloured 'Soliel d'Or'. Juliet has a particular individual perfume, strong and invigorating. The flowers are very large, of a strange yellow pink, a colour once seen never forgotten--a kind of exaggerated salmon apricot, the most curious hybrid, I should say, of modern years. The growth is rather straggly and briar-like. 'Juliet' is the extraordinary product of a most unnatural union. I sigh with sympathy when I think of poor 'Captain Hayward', the shapely tidy-living nicely bred gentleman that he is, wedded to that wild gipsy 'Soliel d'Or' with her unmistakable briar habit and straggling impossible growth. It must be a most uncomfortable, not to say discordant ménage! I grow 'Juliet' more, I believe, from an amazed interest than any other motive. I see the distinct features of either parent so strongly marked, so crudely united in their wayward beautiful bizarre daughter...

(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.     

 

(1931)  Page(s) 102-3.  
 
One great favourite is Robert Craig, and somehow or other I have never seen it in any other private garden but mine. It is an exceedingly vigorous climber with extraordinary foliage of reddish-brown in the new shoots, and glossy as if each leaf had been varnished or richly glazed. It blooms with a very pretty habit, so that one can cut long sprays for indoors; and so profuse is it that I can fill the parlour, and the tree looks none the poorer for the cutting. The buds are of fine copper yellow like 'William Allan Richardson'; as the flowers open they turn creamier and sometimes end up snow white, so that the varying shades on one spray are exceedingly beautiful. The flower, not the leaf, has a very sweet scent like the strongest sweetbriar.