September 9, 1916 



HOETICULTUBB 



ROSE GROWING UNDER GLASS 



, CONDUCTED BY 



Qaestions by our readers In line with any of the topic* presented on this page will be cordially received and promptly aniweittd i' 

 by Mr. Euzlcka. Such eommnnlcatloni ihonld InTariably be addressed to the office of HORTICULTURB. 



Depth of Soil 



Mr. ARTHrR Ruzick.^, 



Dear Sir: In your excellent article in last week's 

 HoRTicri.TURE, you stated that four inches of soil is suffi- 

 cient for any rose. Does this apply to grafted roses? Per- 

 sonally, I can never get my grafted roses deep enough in 

 the ordinary bench. Further. I am now in charge of a 

 range of glass which I have recently rented already 

 planted. The previous owner had his benches ten inches 

 deep for sweet peas. He planted grafted roses, varieties 

 Ophelia, Hoosier Beauty, Aaron Ward, Shawyer and Kil- 

 larneys. At the present time they are in excellent condi- 

 tion but I am anxious to see if the good work will continue 

 in the dull days of the winter. The house is running 

 north and south instead of east and west. The man told 

 me he always grew grafted roses and that the ordinary 

 bench was useless. Will you kindly advise me how to 

 handle them from now on because they require but very 

 little water, a condition that to me is a sign of alarm, al- 

 though, as I have stated, they are in fine form at present. 



Thanking you in advance. 



Yours truly. 



J. K. 



Yes, we figure on using only four inches of soil for 

 all roses, grafted stock included, and we have at present 

 several houses of grafted stock growing in four inches 

 of soil, and the roses that are out are ver}- nice and 

 there are plenty of them too. It requires care when 

 planting to get the ball well into the soil but we would 

 never use more soil if we can help it. Regarding your 

 plants there is little you can do, outside of giving them 

 good cailture. It will also be well to let them get 

 fairly dry before they are watered so as to make sui'e 

 they will have plenty of root. Should the drainage ap- 

 pear poor it would be advisable to let the plants get 

 quite dry, and then fairly flood them. If this is done 

 once or twice, perhaps even three times on stubborn 

 soils, the drainage will be forced. Care should be taken 

 not to dry them off too much, for they would likely 

 suffer a severe check and might lose some of their leaves. 

 Light soils especially require careful judgment as they 

 often appear wet or moist when in reality they are 

 quite dry. Do not apply any mulch to the plants, until 

 after you are sure of their behavior. You can feed 

 liquid manure and dry manures and fertilizers. If you 

 are in the business commercially, and ship to the whole- 

 sale market, we would advi.sc you to cut the list of varie- 

 ties to two in number, more so if the house you have to 

 grow them in is not a very large one. You wiU find 

 that you will do better that way than with too many 

 varieties. It will be well to keep your plants sprayed 

 with copper and to use lime freely, applying it with 

 bellows as often recommended here, so that there will 

 be little danger from spot, of which I would be afraid 

 if I were in your place, for if it once gets in among 

 the plants it Avill be an awful job to get rid of it. The 

 way you write you are taking care of the plants jjer- 



sonally, which will be a big help to you, and with good 

 culture you ought to come out all right and then next 



season you can plant to suit yourself. 



Shaking the Plants After Syringing 



In the early-planted houses, and more so with Beau- 

 ties, it will be necessar}' to shake the plants a little after 

 syringing so that they will be sure to dry off properly 

 before night comes. It will be best to start syringing 

 early in the morning when the weather promises to be 

 good, so as to finish up by eleven o'clock or at noon 

 at the very latest. This will give the plants a good 

 cliance to dry off by night and if a nice dose of lime is 

 blown under them at night there will be little danger 

 from spot and mildew. When done the right way the 

 shaking will not take ver)' much time and can usually 

 be done by a boy employed for just such jobs. 



Drainage Under the Benches 



With winter coming ou it will be well to see that 

 there are no water holes under the benches, and if there 

 are see that they are drained. Houses built on filled-in 

 ground with gravel used as fill, will be much healthier 

 houses for roses than those built over a heavy clay soil. 

 The latter should be sloped so as to allow all surplus 

 water to run right off, through some drain provided for 

 the purpose. If the w^ater is allowed to soak into the 

 ground slowly it will make the house very damp and it 

 will be dangerous, especially now when it is too warm 

 to keep a fire, and then occasionally a real cold morn- 

 ing comes along. Drains can be provided at very little 

 expense and the dollars thus invested will bear good 

 interest. 



Weeds 



It is not too late to cut all the weeds that may be 

 o-rowing around the greenhouses and as soon as they are 

 fairly drv, burning them. As a rule we do not believe 

 in burning anything that could be plowed into the soil 

 as humus Imt in this case there will be too many weed 

 seeds to make it safe to plow the weeds in. If it were 

 early in the season, so that the weeds would still be 

 green it would be a ditferent thing, but now tliere are 

 sure to be some weeds that have already gone to seed 

 and it will be much better to bum them and be rid of 

 them once and for all. While this is being done it will 

 be well to see about the drains between the houses so 

 that when they are needed later on. they will be open 

 and ready to do the work. The ends of pipes should 

 be screened so that rabbits muskrats, etc., cannot get 

 in to make a nest and block the pipes. All ditches 

 should be cleaned out clean and stoned if time Avill 

 permit. 



