The Rose Garden 299 



side the sod and best soil below it, removing the subsoil, if it be 

 poor, to the depth of three feet, and loosening the floor of the bed 

 with a pick. Mix about equal parts of good soil and thoroughly 

 decomposed cow manure for a deep layer that is spread over the 

 bottom of the bed, then the sod well broken, the top soil and more 

 old manure thoroughly intermixed, and finally a top dressing of 

 good garden soil, unenriched. All the fertiliser should be incor 

 porated with the soil in the lower two-thirds of the bed. No rose, 

 newly set out, should have its roots within striking distance of 

 manure, however old it may be. After the plant begins to grow 

 in its new home it draws the rich moisture from below and appro 

 priates it readily enough as the need arises. Beds that are piled 

 a little higher than the surrounding land in autumn when they are 

 made have usually settled by spring to the desired level about 

 an inch below the surrounding surface, which enables them to 

 retain rainfall. They should never be so high as to dry out. 

 Different roses like different soils: the hybrid perpetuals prefer 

 heavy loam containing some clay and the humus furnished by well- 

 rotted sod; hybrid teas, noisettes, Bourbons and ramblers a 

 lighter, warmer soil, with sand and leaf-mould intermixed and 

 added to the original compost in the proportion of one to four. 



For practical as well as aesthetic reasons it is best to grow 

 each kind of rose in a bed to itself some rosarians separate 

 types, others give each colour a plot of its own. For hybrid 

 perpetuals a bed four feet wide suffices, as a double row of 

 roses can be set out in it, the plants not directly but diagonally 

 opposite one another, two and a half feet apart, where they will 

 not interfere with the air and light of their companions. Almost 

 all hybrid teas may be grown in beds three feet wide inside the 

 boxwood or sod borders, the plants set out eight inches from the 



