EVERY GARDEN SHOULD HAVE ROSES. 



■J HAVE^ often asked the question 

 "Why 'have you no roses?" "Oh, 

 my soil is far too light and 'all rose 

 growers, when writing, say the soil 

 must be a strong clay loam." True, 

 roses do best in such soil if well drained. 

 A few years ago some friends from 

 London happened to call on me at 

 Delaware one fine morning when I had 

 about seventy rose bushes in full bloom, 

 the first word spoken was, " We did not 

 know it was possible to grow such 

 roses on soil so sandy and poor as we 

 know yours was ; how do you manage 

 to get such roses?" By applying 

 every fall a good coating of cow manure 

 leaving it on the surface till the spring, 

 then dig it in with a fork, and before 

 raking the ground apply bone-dust ti[i 

 the ground is fairly white all around the 

 bushes, prune the bushes as soon as 

 the buds begin to open, by doing this 

 every year I find my bushes growing 

 stronger and giving me plenty of fine 

 roses, but no one can have good roses 

 without manure, and a rigid system of 



pruning ; also care must be atken to 

 allow no insect pests to get the upper 

 hand, for if the foliga is destroyed the 

 whole plant receives a very severe 

 shock. A few words about small roses 

 or "bantlings," as your friend Mr.O.G. 

 Johnstone calls them, he also states 

 " One honest two-year old pot-grown 

 rose is worth fifty of the baby roses sent 

 out by mail." He must not forget roses 

 arelike men, in that both must be babies 

 at the starting point. Now, I know that 

 many persons, when reading a catalogue 

 they see a lovely picture of roses, and 

 they see two year old plants quoted at 

 $4.50 per dozen, " Oh, I would like a 

 dozen, but I cannot afford it," and so 

 on year after year, and no roses. 

 During the last twenty-five years I 

 have grown many roses, and as a rule 

 always buy small plants My plan is to 

 buy say one dozen plants for which I pay 

 $1.00. I get them in May, and plant 

 them in a bed in the kitchen garden 

 where I know the ground is rich, about 

 twenty-inches apart each way, keep the 

 ground free from weeds and loose till 

 November. As soon as you see any 

 buds forming, take your knife and cut 

 the branch off about three inches below 

 the bud, by so doing you will find you 

 have by November a fine lot of stocky 

 bushes. 



In the spring as soon as the ground 

 is fit to work, dig your holes in your 

 flower border and take up each bush 

 with a shovel with as much earth as will 

 remain on the roots, and see that the 

 earth is made solid round the roots, then 

 with a sharp knife cut back all growth 

 to within six or eight inches, and if your 

 soil is good, you may be sure of good 

 roses. Last May I planted out four doz. 

 Baby roses, and every one grew, and I 

 feel confident that they will out grow 



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