George Orwell
As I Please
Tribune, 21 January 1944 A
correspondent reproaches me with being negative and always attacking
things. The fact is that we live in a time when causes for rejoicing are not
numerous. But I like praising things, when there is anything to praise, and I would like
here to write a few lines they have to be retrospective, unfortunately in
praise of the Woolworths
Rose.
In the good days when nothing in Woolworths cost over
sixpence, one of their best lines was their rose bushes. They were always very young
plants, but they came into bloom in their second year, and I dont think I ever had
one die on me. Their chief interest was that they were never, or very seldom, what they
claimed to be on their labels. One that I bought for a Dorothy Perkins turned out to be a
beautiful little white rose with a yellow heart, one of the finest ramblers I have ever
seen. A polyantha rose labelled yellow turned out to be deep red. Another, bought for an
Abertine, was like an Abertine, but more double, and gave astonishing masses of blossom.
These roses had all the interest of a surprise packet, and there was always the chance
that you might happen upon a new variety which you would have the right to name John Smith
or something of that kind.
Last summer I passed the cottage where I used to live before the
war. The little white rose, no bigger than a boys catapult when I put it in, had
grown into a huge vigorous bush, the Abertine or near-Abertine was smothering half the
fence in a cloud of pink blossom. I had planted both of those in 1936. And I thought,
All that for sixpence! I do not know how long a rose bush lives; I suppose ten
years might be an average life. And throughout that time a rambler will be in full bloom
for a month or six weeks each year, while a bush rose will be blooming, on and off, for at
least four months. All that for sixpence the price, before the war, of ten Players,
or a pint and a half of mild, or a weeks subscription to the Daily Mail, or
about twenty minutes of twice-breathed air in the movies! |