168 THE ROSE BOOK 



It is waste of money to plant roses in a gravelly soil, 

 unless one is prepared to go to a little expense to provide 

 them with better soil underneath. It is lamentable to 

 think how many roses have been sacrificed because 

 of a hard subsoil that has never been broken up by 

 spade or fork. Ground for roses ought to be dug at 

 least two feet deep, and if the subsoil is very gravelly 

 this should be replaced by the best soil available. 



Tea roses do remarkably well in a gravelly soil, if 

 plenty of manure is placed in the lower spit to provide 

 nourishment for the roses and to keep the soil moist. 

 A deep, gravelly soil is advantageous in that one may 

 water the roses very freely in summer with liquid manure. 



Chalk is excellent to mix with ordinary soil, but it 

 makes a poor medium itself for rose growing. Where 

 it abounds, chalk should be dug out and replaced with 

 turfy loam. 



A sandy soil is the worst of all for roses, yet it may 

 be so enriched with manure as to be rendered fit for their 

 cultivation. All light, porous soils should be mulched 

 from May onwards. Spent hops make an excellent soil 

 covering, and if applied two or three inches thick, and 

 the rose beds saturated with liquid manure once a week 

 in summer, fine roses may be grown. A " mulch " is 

 simply a soil covering to prevent the rapid evaporation 

 of moisture. Dry soil or dust makes an excellent mulch. 

 If, after watering, one could cover one's rose beds with 

 an inch or two of dry soil, the moisture would not only 

 be preserved for a longer period, but the ground would 

 be prevented from cracking. 



