CHAPTER V 



PREPARING TO GROW ROSES, OR LAYING THE 

 FOUNDATION 



"The rose is sweetest washed with moryiing dew." 



— Sir Walter Scott 



HAVING chosen the location and decided upon the size 

 and shape of your beds, you are next ready to prepare 

 the soil. Rev. F. Page-Roberts, an ex-president of the 

 National Rose Society of England, has said: "After years of 

 rose-growing in places far apart, I think it is not so much the 

 soil and the chmate, as the care and skill of the cultivator that 

 wins success." 



A very successful grower of roses in New York state once 

 remarked to a meeting of his rose society: **I would rather 

 plant a 15-cent rose in a 50-cent hole than plant a 30-cent rose 

 in a 15-cent hole." He was wise. The author recalls visiting a 

 successful private rose-garden in New England one day when 

 the roses in one bed were being moved. Those roses had well- 

 developed roots 3 feet long, because the bed in which they 

 were growing had been prepared to that depth, and the top- 

 growth and bloom had been hixuriantly magnificent, testifying 

 to the value of deep and thorough soil-preparation. 



When Noah laid the keel for the ark, the placing of those 

 foundation timbers was relatively not more important than is 

 laying the foundation for future years of rose-growing, for those 

 periods — not only of flood but also of drought — through which 

 your roses must pass and later come up smiling. 



Now ample drainage is one thing that must be provided, if 

 you are to court success. "Wet feet" are no more conducive 

 to health and happiness for roses than for children. Examine 

 your soil; if there seems a need, provide drainage. Remove 

 the soil from your bed to the very bottom. Place there a layer 

 from 4 to 6 inches deep of stones not larger than your fist, 

 broken bricks, cHnkers, or other suitable material that will 

 readily "take" the water from above. The soil is seldom so 

 retentive as to require tihng to take the water away and, indeed, 

 nine times out of ten no artificial drainage at all will be needed. 



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