Interest is reviving in the old shrub roses of our great-grandmothers gardens. To provide beauty with fragrance and nostalgic memories, no other flower has more distinction or appeal.

For all practical purposes, these roses are a necessary tonic for Midwest gardens. They thrive in spite of drought, below zero temperatures, weeds and hot winds. All grow without winter protection except those mentioned otherwise. Care is simplicity itself plant them as you would any other rose.

Feed each spring and water during periods of extreme drought. If blackspot or insects bother, use any good rose dust. Prune away only dead wood, as the new growth continually replenishes the plant. In this manner, the rose can live for 50 years or more.

There are types for all garden needs – tall shrubs for background or hedges, climbers and pillars for trellises, medium to low shrubs for foundation plantings, and ground creepers to hold soil on eroded banks.

These are the best-known groups with outstanding varieties of each: Rosa Centifolia (Cabbage rose) The original Provence rose is pale pink; Rose des Peintres has large deep rose flowers. ‘Vierge de Clery’ is white.

Rosa Centifolia Muscosa (Moss rose) – A mutation of Rosa centifolia. Peculiar moss-like glands cover the sepals, calyx, and stems. The heaviest mossed include white ‘Blanche Moreau,’ ‘Mme. Louis Leveque,’ salmon; ‘Mousseux Ancien,’ shaded pink, and old Red Moss.’

Rosa Gallica (French rose)-Rosa Mundi is a brilliant white striped with red. Cardinal de Richelieu is purple; Duchesse de Montebello and Empress ]osephine are blush pink and rose pink, respectively. Belle des-]ardins and Camaieux are both striped. R. gallica grandiflom has large red blossoms.

Rosa Damascna (Damask rose) – Sometimes blooms again in the fall. Mme. Hardy is a white hybrid, and Versicolor, better known as York and Lancaster, has some petals red, some white. Marie Louise and R. damascena are pink, and Kazanlik is a hardier variety having flowers of 30 petals.

Rosa Alba (Rose of York) – Single white with gray-green foliage. Alba plena is double white and the hybrids “Maiden’s Blush” and Celestial are double, intensely fragrant pink types.

Rosa Borboniana (Bourbon rose) – Tall hybrids; the original a cross between R. chinensis and R. damascena. In northern gardens, give Bourbons a sunny, sheltered location and hill up for the winter. The heavy, cupped blooms are beautifully shown by Coupe dHebe and Souvenir de la Malmaison,’ both light pinks. Mme. Ernest Calvert is rose, and Commandant Beaurepaire, pink splashed with deeper color. Outstanding as perhaps the most perfectly formed of all old calla roses is La Reine Victoria, rosy-pink shaded darker on the outer petals.

Shorter varieties are found in Rosa spinosissima, French, damask, alba and rugosa roses. They grow from three to five feet high, and could be placed in beds or the border foreground. They are tough fellows and can be used as foundation plants, also. The hybrid perpetuals and R. cbiaartsis are similar in foliage and type to the grandiflora class. They are neat, slim plants four to five feet high. Their use is in beds or in the perennial border.