“Wild roses are fairest, and nature a better gardener than art.”

“A garden should be natural-seeming, with wild sections, including a large area of bluebells.”

“The fairest things have fleetest end,Their scent survives their close:But the rose's scent is bitternessTo her who loved the rose.”

“Fair queen, at home there is none like thee,But over the mountains is Snow-white free,With seven little dwarfs, who are strange to see;A thousand times fairer than thou is she.Queen, thou art not the fairest now;Snow-white over the mountain's browA thousand times fairer is than thou.Queen, thou art the fairest here,But not when Snow-white is near;Over the mountains still is she,Fairer a thousand times than thee.”

“Must you know that yours will be the “better” picture before you pick up the brush and paint? Can it not simply be another picture? Another expression of beauty?Must a rose be “better” than an iris in order to justify it’s existence?I tell you this: you are all flowers in the Garden of the Gods.”

“Riding horseback along a country lane I saw wild roses in bloom, against an old stone wall. The expensive, improved varieties in my garden have lost something. Sophistication always does.”