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hendkkson's handbook of plants 



KOS 



teurs to take their " standards " from nursery 

 rows and keep them out of the ground for 

 nearly two months, as is the case with us, 

 and then give them but indifferent treatment, 

 we doubt if their favorable climate would give 

 them a Rose that would be recognized by 

 those who have only grown them properly. 

 R. rugosa, a Japanese species, first sent to 

 this country by Commodore Perry, in 1855, is 

 one of the handsomest hardy shrubs in culti- 

 vation. It forms a sturdy bush from four to 

 five feet high, covered with large, dark green, 

 pinnate, glossy foliage, and producing ter- 

 minal clusters of ten to twenty flowers, three 

 inches in diameter, of a bright rosy crimson 

 color, and very fragrant. It continues in 

 flower the whole summer, making a very at- 

 tractive object. If it never produced a flower 

 it would still be entitled to a prominent place 

 on the lawn for the beauty of its foliage, which 

 scarcely resembles that of the Eose, but is 

 very heavy, rich, and shining, remaining on 

 until late in Autumn. It is now well-known ; 

 both its rosy crimson and white varieties are 

 found in all good collections; and its large 

 handsome fruit is most showy during the 

 autumn months. 



CULTURE OF THE ROSE. 



Winter Forcing. — The intense interest 

 now so generally taken in the culture of the 

 Rose, not only for outside decoration, but for 

 the production of Eose buds in winter, in- 

 duces us to depart from the general rule 

 adopted in this work, and give a full and 

 detailed account of the methods of cultivation 

 practiced in the vicinity of New York City, 

 which is believed to be unequalled in any 

 other part of the world, particularly in the 

 methods in use for the winter forcing of the 

 Rose. For this purpose, strong, healthy cut- 

 tings are put in to root anytime from Septem- 

 ber to February. We keep the sand in our 

 cutting benches about 65" or 70°, with the 

 temperature of the house 10° less. Eose cut- 

 tings, under these conditions, will root in 

 from twenty to twenty-five days, and are then 

 potted in any good soil in two and a half inch 

 pots, and placed in a green-house having 

 a night temperature of about 50", with 10" to 

 15° more in the daytime. The young Roses are 

 regularly shifted into larger pots as soon as 

 the "ball," gets filled with roots, great care 

 being taken that the plants at no time get 

 pot-bound. Syringing is done once a day to 

 keep down red spider, and fumigating by 

 burning tobacco stems to kill the Aphis or 

 Green Fly must be done twice a week. With 

 such attention, plants which were put in as 

 cuttings at the season named above, by the 

 middle of July will be from one and a half to 

 two feet in height, with roots enough to fill a 

 six-inch pot. Now, if intended to be grown in 

 pots, the shifting into larger pots should be 

 continued whenever the ball gets filled with 

 roots (which is usually in about five or six 

 weeks after every shift), until the 1st of 

 October, when they will have reached a size 

 requiring a pot of eight or nine inches in 

 diameter. They are then in condition for 

 winter forcing, no further shifting being 

 required. But if they are wanted to be plan- 

 ted out on benches, or in solid beds of soil, 

 the planting should be made from the pots 

 from the 15th of May to the 15th of August. 



EOS 



There is quite a difference of opinion as to 

 whether the Eoses can be best grown in solid 

 beds or raised benches. We believe that it 

 really makes but little difference, as we find 

 them grown with nearly equal success by both 

 methods where the drainage is perfect, al- 

 though the method mainly in use in the 

 vicinity of New York (where, at present writ- 

 ing, Eoses are probably grown better than 

 anywhere else in the country) is the raised 

 bench system. The green-houses used are 

 about twenty feet wide, and are what is known 

 as three-quarter span : that is, three-quarters 

 of the glass roof slopes to the south at an 

 angle of about thirty degrees, while the other 

 quarter slopes north at an angle of twenty 

 degrees, giving a base space for the benches 

 on which the Eoses are to be planted, taking 

 out the walks, of about fifteen feet. The 

 benches may be either a level platform, or 

 divided into four or five platforms about three 

 feet wide, or so as to be about equal distances 

 from the glass ; the bottom of the benches 

 may be from three to five feet from the glass, 

 as desired. There is no necessity for bottom 

 heat for Eoses, so that it is best to have the 

 pipes for heating run under the front and 

 back benches of the Eose house, with none 

 under the middle benches. The soil in which 

 the Eoses are to be grown should not be more 

 than four to five inches deep, the boards so 

 arranged as to allow free drainage for the 

 water ; we use boards three inches wide. The 

 soil is that made from sods cut three or four 

 inches deep from any good, loamy, pasture 

 land, well chopped up, to which is added one- 

 fourth of well-rotted cow manure, together 

 with about one-thirtieth of this bulk of pure 

 broken bones and bone dust. It is perhaps 

 best to let the sod be well rotted before being 

 used, although, if not convenient, it will do 

 fresh, if well chopped up. The distance for 

 Roses such as we describe (those that have 

 been grown in six-inch pots, and average 

 twenty inches high) should be one foot each 

 way, so as to get the full benefit of a crop. It 

 is true that, if planted twice that distance, 

 they would be thick enough before spring; 

 but they would not fill up sufficiently until 

 the middle of January if planted much wider 

 than one foot. The temperature at which 

 Roses are grown in winter is an average of 

 50° to 55« at night, with 10" to 15° higher 

 during the day. Watering is a matter of the 

 first importance, and requires some experi- 

 ence to know what is the proper condition. 

 As a guide, whenever the soil shows indica- 

 tions of being dry on the top, a thorough 

 watering should be given, sufficient to com- 

 pletely saturate the soil. Such a watering 

 will not usually be required more than once in 

 two weeks. Syringing in clear weather should 

 be done once a day, sufficient only to moisten 

 the foliage. If done heavily it would keep 

 the soil too wet. Fumigating with tobacco 

 for the suppression of the Aphis (Green Fly) 

 should be done twice a week, but in winter, 

 while the flowers are being cut, strew tobacco 

 stems on the pathways, or place them in the 

 evaporating pans on the pipes to keep up a 

 flavor of tobacco in the house, which acts as 

 a preventative. The varieties grown are 

 changing every season, and no list we can 

 give to-day is likely to remain as the best ten 

 years hence. The favorite Tea Eoses now 



