That Queen--The Rose
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
--_Herrick._
EVERY one longs for roses, the most highly prized of all the flowers;
and roses today can be grown almost anywhere.
Rose growers have finally succeeded in budding the tender tea rose on to
the hardy briar and also on to the more recent Manetti stock, and in
crossing the teas with the hybrid perpetuals,--developed from the old
June favorites. The result is ideal roses, that are hardy and bloom all
season, with the desired lovely coloring and fragrance.
Many of the so-called June roses also have been coaxed to bloom all
season, while all those that I draw to your attention are among the
loveliest and most easily grown. With even three or four, well taken
care of, you should be able,--as far north as New York,--to cut a bud
any time you wish from May to November.
These hybrid teas and hybrid perpetuals are the most satisfactory for
growing in this climate. Field-grown stock, in dormant condition, is
brought here from Holland every spring early in March, and good plants
can be bought as low as fifteen or twenty cents apiece. The weather is
usually fit for them to be set out by the 25th of March, and they will
produce more and better roses than the costlier potted plants procurable
later. The American grown roses, however, are really the best, as they
are adapted to our soil and climatic conditions, and produce both more
and better flowers.
Of these potted plants, though, just a word. The Richmond, a deep, rich
red, and the single white Killarney, I have found exceptionally good,
free bloomers; and with little winter covering they should, on account
of a season's rest, be better the second year. The 6-inch or "bench
plants," as they are termed, sell for only 25 cents each. These can be
set out from April on all summer.
As soon as a rose bush comes into your hand, whether from a dealer or a
friend, get it into the ground as quickly as possible. If its permanent
home is not ready, dig a little trench and cover it entirely with the
moist earth for a few days. But never, oh, never! allow the roots to dry
out.
While a few specimen roses may be set out anywhere (as long as they do
not cut up the lawn and so violate the landscape rule, "Preserve open
lawn centers"), a number of rose bushes are usually preferred set
together in a bed, from 3 to 4 ft. wide.
MAKING A ROSE BED
Have your rose bed with a south or east exposure if possible, as many
roses so planted will not "winter kill," and others need but little
protection. Dig a trench about 2-1/2 ft. deep, and put in the bottom a
layer of cow manure, as this will be lasting. Over this put a layer of
good top soil for the plants to rest on, so that they do not directly
touch the fertilizer. Then hold your rose with your left hand while you
straighten out the roots, and sprinkle enough fine soil to hold it in
position while you set the next bush. Be sure that your budding point is
3 inches below the level of the ground,--and Baily says even 4! When all
are in place, fill the trench half full of soil, and then nearly to the
top with water. After this has sunk in, add the rest of your rich top
soil, and pack down hard with your foot, so as to shut out the air from
the roots, leaving the packed earth at least an inch below the
surrounding surface to catch and hold the moisture.
Potted roses, however, should be sunk with as little disturbance to the
roots as possible.
Then over the smoothly raked surface of the bed spread leaves, litter or
grass clippings, to keep the sun from drying out the earth. Some
gardeners for this purpose cover the bed with pansies, English daisies,
and similar low flowers, though many like better to see nicely
cultivated soil.
To have splendid roses, however, you must supply plenty of food and
drink! When the buds start, dig in around the roots every two weeks, two
tablespoonfuls of bonemeal, and wet thoroughly. Manure from the chicken
house is especially good as the chickens are meat eaters, and it is,
therefore, better adapted to the needs of the roses and easily absorbed
by the rootlets. But use carefully--not more than a small trowelful at a
time, and that well mixed with the soil. One of the very best foods is
cheaply made as follows:
ROSE FERTILIZER
10 lbs. sheep manure,
5 lbs. bonemeal,
1 lb. Scotch soot.
Mix well. Give a level trowelful to roots of each
rosebush every two weeks, after buds start, and wet
down thoroughly.
Being hearty feeders, roses need a rich, light soil, and they do best in
an open, sunny spot, away from the roots of trees and shrubs that would
steal their food.
And while they do not thrive in low, damp ground, neither do they stand
being set "high and dry." Too damp beds should be drained with a first
layer of small stones or gravel.
Cultivate your roses every week or ten days, and keep the ground covered
with grass clippings unless it is protected from the sun by the shade of
other plants. Cut off close to the parent stem any wild shoots or
"suckers,"--generally recognizable by their briary stems,--as they will
cause the budded part to die.
FALL PROTECTION
Late in the fall mound up the earth well around the roots of all your
roses, and give them a good covering of coarse manure or leaves. The
more tender kinds can be laid over and protected with litter or boughs.
SPRING PRUNING
Then early in the spring, before the first of April, cut back the hardy
roses, keeping only the strong canes, which, however, should be
shortened to about 10 inches. The middle of April prune the more tender
varieties. But remove from both all shoots growing in toward the center,
and cut all weak plants back to the third or fourth eye, to promote
stronger growth and larger flowers. Climbing roses need only the weak
branches and tips removed.
Date new climbing canes with wired wooden tags each spring, and cut out
all over three years old. This renews the stock, restrains ambitious
climbing, and produces better flowers.
SPRAYING
About this time a spraying first of Bordeaux mixture to prevent disease,
and a little later a spraying of whale-oil soapsuds as warning to the
great army of bugs, slugs, etc., will give your roses a good start
toward a successful season of bloom.
Watch for that robber, the rose bug! Talk about salt on a bird's tail!
The surest way to end His Majesty is to take a stick and knock him into
a cup of kerosene. Slow process? Yes, but sure. The leaf-roller, too, is
most effectively disposed of by physical force,--pressure of thumb and
forefinger. Clear, cold water, twice a day through a hose, comes with
force enough to wash off many of the rose's foes; but if they get a
start, fall back on strong soapsuds, pulverized tobacco, or some other
popular remedy.
The Garden Club of Philadelphia is said to recommend the following:
EFFECTIVE SPRAY FOR ROSE BUGS
3 pts. sweet milk.
3 pts. kerosene.
1 qt. water.
Shake well in a jug, then put one-half pint of the fluid to one gallon
of water. Stir well and both spray the bushes thoroughly and wet the
ground around the roots. Repeat every ten days from May 1st to June
15th, by which time the pests seem to get discouraged and give up the
fight!
And the reward for all this care and attention? "A devoted cottager,"
says Neltje Blanchan, "may easily have more beautiful roses than the
indifferent millionaire."
The following lists comprise a few of the best of the different classes
mentioned. I wish you success in your choice.
ROSES
A FEW OF THE BEST OF EACH KIND
=Teas.= (Tenderest of roses, needing winter protection.
Noted for delicate shades and fragrance.)
Maman Cochet, free bloomer, hardiest of the teas; rose-pink.
Marie Van Houtte, also a free bloomer and quite hardy; canary
yellow.
Souvenir de Catherine Guillot, a rose of excellence;
copper-carmine.
White Maman Cochet, a strong grower, like the pink; white.
=Hybrid Teas.= (Best for the garden, as they combine the best
qualities of the teas and the hybrid perpetuals,--color, hardiness,
and steady bloom.)
Caroline Testout, one of the most popular, slightly fragrant;
rose pink.
Etoile de France, continuous bloomer and fragrant; crimson.
Gruss an Teplitz, the best dark rose, and fragrant; velvety
crimson.
Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, blooms of lovely shape, on long
stems; pearly white.
Killarney, very popular and one of the best of its color; lovely
pink.
Killarney, a "sport," same as the pink; white.
La France, especially good form, fragrant; bluish-pink.
Mrs. Aaron Ward, a vigorous plant, of compact growth, very
popular; pinkish-yellow.
Richmond, a steady bloomer all summer, with a beautiful bud;
rich deep red.
=Hybrid Perpetuals.= (Commonly known as June roses, and hardy.
The following will bloom most of the summer.)
Anna de Diesbach (_Gloire de Paris_), splendid in the garden and
fragrant; rich carmine.
American Beauty, successful in most localities; rose-carmine.
Frau Karl Druschki, very large and fragrant; snowy white.
General Jacqueminot, a favorite that does well everywhere;
crimson.
Louis van Houtte, very desirable and fragrant; deep red.
Mrs. John Laing, late blooming and hardy, fragrant; lovely pink.
Mrs. R. G. Sharman-Crawford, a splendid bloomer; rose-pink.
Ulrich Brunner, large, fragrant, with well-formed flowers;
cherry red.
=Moss.= (Loved for the beautiful fragrant buds with their mossy
covering.)
Blanche Moreau, flowers in clusters; white.
Countess de Murinais, one of the best; white.
Crested Moss, finely crested; rose pink.
Henry Martin, very vigorous; crimson.
Luxembourg, exceptionally good; crimson.
=Climbing and Rambler.= (Used over walls, fences, pillars,
arbors and trellises.)
Baby ramblers, 18 in. to 24 in. high, are good for hedges, beds,
or carpeting, and can be bought in white, pink, salmon pink, red
and yellow.
Climbing American Beauty, well worth growing; rose-pink.
Dorothy Perkins, a profuse bloomer and rapid grower; shell-pink.
Crimson Rambler, first of the ramblers, but disliked by many
gardeners today; crimson.
Dr. Van Fleet, one of the best, resisting mildew and insects,--a
gem; flesh-pink.
Excelsa, an improvement on the formerly popular crimson rambler;
crimson.
Hiawatha, most brilliant of all, between 40 and 50 roses to the
spray; carmine.
Tausendschoen, roses 3 in. across, graceful in form, and 10 or
15 to the truss; pink.
White Dorothy, like satisfactory Dorothy Perkins, except for
color; white.
Yellow Rambler, new variety called "Aviator Bleriot," the first
hardy yellow; yellow.
=Briar, Austrian and Hybrids.= (Loved by our grandmothers, and
some known here in this country as far back as 1596. They must
not be crowded.)
Austrian Copper, beautiful single reddish-copper and one of the
oldest; copper.
Austrian Yellow, lovely single flowers (introduced late in
1500); deep yellow.
English Sweet Briar, or Eglantine, loved for its fragrance, also
single; pink.
Anne of Gerstein, very graceful; dark crimson.
Brenda, very dainty; peach.
Refulgence, fragrant foliage,--deepens in color on developing;
scarlet to crimson.
AMERICAN GROWN ROSES
The American grown rose, however, I find is considered by many people to
be by far the best. While its slender brown stems are not as attractive
to the ignorant gardener as the thick, green of the imported, it is much
more adapted to our soil and climatic conditions. It is cheaper, too,
and splendid varieties, in 2-1/2-in. and 3-in. pots, can be bought as low
as $5.00 or $6.00 a hundred from expert growers, by the person willing
to start a rose garden and then wait a year for really fine results.
In lots of fifteen, however, many of these fine varieties of
one-year-old plants can be bought for $1.00, with the growers' guarantee
that "they will bloom the first and each succeeding year, from early
spring until severe frost." The plants are small, of course, but who
could ask for more at that price!
The (probably) best informed man in the Eastern United States recommends
the following list of Teas and Hybrid Teas,--and it has been adopted by
a number of firms as suggestions for planting. Don't go looking for
these plants at the 5- and 10-cent stores, for they never carry such
specialties. They are cheap, though, and well known throughout this
section, but they should be procured from people WHO MAKE A BUSINESS OF
GROWING ROSES!
A SPECIALIST'S LIST OF TEAS AND HYBRID TEAS
White
Grossherzogin Alexandra
Kaiserin Augusta Victoria
Marie Guillot
White Bougere
Yellow
Blumenschmidt
Etoile de Lyon
Lady Hillingdon
Sunburst
Light Pink
Col. R. S. Williamson
Helen Good
Mrs. Foley Hobbs
Souvenir du President Carnot
Wm. R. Smith
Yvonne Vacherot
Dark Pink
Aurora
F. R. Patger
Jonkheer J. L. Mock
Lady Alice Stanley
Maman Cochet
Mme. Jules Grolez
Mrs. George Shawyer
Radiance
Red
Crimson Queen
Etoile de France
Mme. Eugene Marlitt
General McArthur
Helen Gould
Laurent Carle
Rhea Reid