312 ANNUAL EEPORT 



Do not hesitate to trim the bushes closely. It is a great temp- 

 tation I know to leave those long branches, but cutting them 

 back to twelve or eighteen inches will cause many more branches 

 to start out; and the blossoms are increased. Never allow them 

 to go to seed, as it is always at the expense of the blossoms. 

 It will be quite a little tax to watch them so closely, but they 

 will repay the time spent on them many fold. In the rose bed 

 hybrid perpetual and moss should be planted about three feet 

 apart. The teas or smaller growing varieties may be nearer 

 together. And here I will speak a word for the tree rose. No 

 handsomer ornament can be found for the lawn or garden, how- 

 ever small, than the tree rose. Standing three feet or more high 

 on its hardy stock, every individual bud and blossom can be 

 seen, and budded with hybrid perpetual roses it is a beautiful 

 object the season through. They seem to be exceptionally pro- 

 fuse bloomers, as many as two hundred and sixty blossoms 

 having been counted on a single bush. They are as easily 

 cared for as other roses, requiring in fact the same management. 

 During the summer keep the ground well stirred, not allowing 

 a weed to grow as the sunlight is fully as needful on the soil as 

 on the foliage of the plants. If the season is dry, water once a 

 week thoroughly at night and if possible shower them. 



The only enemy appearing on the scene, thus far with me, has 

 been a small, pale green worm, working on the underside of the 

 leaves. They appear very suddenly, between two days as it 

 were, and until last season they were very injurious to my 

 bushes. Notjbeing on the watch for them the dead or dying 

 leaves were ascribed to dry weather and it was a source of 

 much sorrow to look on the poor denuded branches. During 

 this period my rose bed was anything but a thing of beauty. In 

 a few weeks time however they were in full leaf and bloom again. 

 This season I resolved to be on the watch for them, and every 

 morning the underside of the leaves was closely scrutinized; just 

 as I had begun to congratulate myself that I would not be trou- 

 bled by them my watchfulness was one morning rewarded 

 by finding on the firet bush examined my dreaded enemy^ 

 very small in size, but alas! on almost every one of my one 

 hundred plants. We had a quantity of London purple on hand 

 and I determined to try its effect upon them, so with one part 

 of London purple and three parts of flour and in a tin pepper 

 box I sprinkled the undersides of the leaves in the early morn- 

 ing before the dew was off. I cannot say whether it killed them 



