WINTER PROTECTION 



Over this fill up from the bottom of the bed to a depth of 10 to 

 12 inches with nice, dry leaves, and with some hght material 

 on top to keep them in place. A 12-inch fence of poultry-wire 

 staked round the bed will help keep the leaves in place. The 

 boughs of fir or pine trees, hay, straw, or corn-fodder, or other 

 material that will break the force of cold, biting winds, will 

 serve in place of leaves, and where most careful protection is 

 required, boards may be arranged, roof-fashion, to turn off 

 the rains. This will also protect your roses from exposure to 

 direct sunshine when nights are freezing cold, and prevent alter- 

 nate thawing and freezing, which is dangerous, and in early 

 spring prevent the premature excitation of pIant-gro^^'th and 

 tender buds. For this reason, too, remove protection in spring 

 gradually, and not all at one time (see calendar, page 164). 



The Municipal Rose-Garden in Luna Park, Minneapolis (see 

 page 165), is good evidence of how successfully 

 roses may be carried through the most severe 

 winters. The accompanying pictures tell the 

 story of the methods followed. Theodore 

 Wirth, the able superintendent of that 

 splendid park system, who kindly furnished 

 the photographs here reproduced, calls atten- 

 tion to certain important points in preparing 

 for proper winter protection. 



"We took special pains to ripen the wood. 

 We stopped watering and cultivation in 

 September and discouraged late growth. 

 The last week in October we gave the beds 

 a very thorough soaking, and a few days 

 after we tied the shoots close together and 

 piled the soil around the plants as high as 

 we could with material taken from between 

 the plants, so covering from four to six of 

 the lower eyes. The garden was then left 

 in this condition until there were 3 to 4 

 inches of frost in the ground. We then 

 filled in with dry leaves, gathered from 

 the near-by woods. The leaves were 

 thrown in loose and not packed down, and i. Tied and mounded up 



