Rose in a garden of weeds, A

AKA Just a rose in a garden of weeds
First Published 1925
Writer/composer R.B. Saxe & Reed Stampa Roud RN13303

Music Hall Performers
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Poacher, Cyril; England: Suffolk; 1974

From Sheet Music published by Worton David Ltd
A Rose in a Garden of Weeds
by R.B. Saxe & Reed Stampa

Down in the devil's own garden,
‘Midst all the weeds on the ground,
‘Twas there in the gloom, 
I found a sweet bloom,
That was shedding it's perfume all around.

Just a rose in a garden of weeds, 
No-one knows why they planted you there,
Although you're alone, 
How sweet you have grown,
With no-one to tend you or care.
Never mind little rose, never mind,
Though you're lonely and nobody heeds,
When the night sheds its dew, 
It's a tear shed for you,
Just a rose in a garden of weeds.

Sleep little rose till tomorrow. 
Though night seems dreary to you
When the day brings the dawn
You'll wake with the morn
To find a new sun smiling through.


A ballad written in the mid-1920s, later sung by Vera Lynn and many others. I wouldn’t really classify it as a music hall song – it was first marketed as a song to be sung in the pantomimes in the 1925/26 season, described “an ideal Fairy Queen song”.It was later arranged for dance bands as a waltz.

It featured in the repertoire of Cyril Poacher, one of the famed traditional pub singers of Suffolk. He was recorded singing it in 1974 at The Ship Inn in Blaxhall

Cyril Poacher sings it, downloaded from VWML

Sources: