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THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



all-important pruning. Sometimes the 

 first two or three eyes from the base of 

 the plant would make a leaf growth, but 

 no flower. Then again if you cut the 

 stems a foot high from the pots you 

 would have bare stems, which are very 

 unsightly in a pot rose, so it is im 

 possible to make an arbitrary rule. You 

 must have two ffr three eyes that you are 

 pretty sure will give you flowering 

 shoots, and each individual plant will 

 differ. Here is where no written in 

 structions can teach, but experience and 

 good gardening sense comes in. An 

 average of six inches will be found a 

 satisfactory length to leave a fairly 

 strong cane or growth. 



Like any plant that is suddenly 

 brought from dormancy into a growing 

 temperature, the start must be slow; 

 40 degrees at night will be high enough 

 for the first two weeks, then the eyes 

 will swell and prepare to burst into leaf, 

 and 5 degrees higher will be needed. 

 Slowly you will reach the flowering 

 temperature, and as remarked above, 55 

 degrees at night will leave the growth 

 strong and the blossoms at their best. 

 From their start indoors till they are 

 in full bloom they should be sprayed 

 daily, and during the period when the 

 eyes are swelling, a light syringing two 

 or three times a day will be of great 

 benefit. When in full leaf the daily 

 syringing will keep down red spider, and 

 the common aphis is all that will trouble 

 you; you know how to destroy that. 



I may observe that there are few 

 plants that will sell as easily as 

 a well-flowered rose, or are in more 

 demand than a nice well flowered 

 rose. There are many more gay and 

 showy plants than the rose, but young 

 and old, rich and poor, have the in 

 herent love of the rose. Yet how seldom 

 you see them in decent shape. Mostly 

 long, bare stems with a few short- 

 stemmed flowers, or overforced plants 

 with the flowers hanging their heads in 

 shame that they have been so misunder 

 stood. 



We have seen and read much of the 

 grand bushes of these roses that are 

 grown in Europe, and flowered as early 

 as New Year s. To accomplish this 

 would be impossible with a plant lifted 

 from the open ground only a few weeks, 

 and plants that can be forced this early 

 must have been established in pots the 

 previous summer. I shall go but very 

 briefly into the methods followed with 

 these plants, because it would not pay 

 here, and is not likely to become com 

 mercially popular. Plants for this pur 

 pose could have the same treatment as 

 our Easter roses, but instead of a flower 

 a strong growth would be the object, 

 and during summer one or two shiftings 

 and feeding, solely to produce fine strong 

 growths. In early fall they would be 

 prematurely rested to ripen the wood 

 and the pots being filled with roots, they 

 could be started again in growth in 

 October. One whole year is occupied in 

 producing growth that will flower the 

 succeeding year, therefore however 

 charming a rose bush may be at Christ 

 mas, it is too expensive to be popular 

 or profitable in our expensive country. 



Forcing Hybrid Roses on a Bench. 



Jacqueminot, Brunner and other hy 

 brid perpetuals that are planted on a 

 bench are put in four or five inches of 

 soil in March or April. They should 

 be good, strong plants when first 

 benched. If budded plants, they should 

 be cut down to a few eyes. If plants 

 propagated that spring, they will need 

 one stopping. They must be encour 

 aged to make a strong growth that sum 

 mer, and in September be gradually 

 dried off to ripen their growth. This 

 is the most particular period of their 

 time, and they must not be dried off too 

 quickly. Let in all the cold air you can, 

 and if some frost is inside, so much the 

 better. It is much better to ripen the 

 wood by air and cold than by drying at 

 the root. 



The time of starting will depend on 

 the time you want the flowers, and the 

 earlier you want them the longer time 

 you must give. Cut them close if you 

 expect fine flowers. Mulch the bed and 

 begin firing slowly, .with plenty of 

 syringing. If you get over the first few 

 weeks without losing any plants, you 

 are all right. The process from now 

 on is plenty of water and syringing, with 

 a gradual rise of temperature till flower 

 ing time. 



These forcing hybrids are sometimes 

 planted out in solid beds and forced 

 year after year. It is precisely the same 

 process. A growth in summer, a ripen 

 ing in fall and pruning back and start 

 ing with heat again at whatever time 

 you want your crop. 



Since the advent of the American 

 Beauty, which deserves the name of hy 

 brid perpetual, and the immense quan 

 tity of them grown, much fewer flowers 

 of the beautiful Brunner and Jacque 

 minot are forced. 



I intended to remark at the opening 

 of these notes on the so-called hybrid 

 perpetual roses that the term is high 

 ly misleading. They are not perpetual 

 at all. Perhaps with a cool, wet sum 

 mer you may get a few scattering flow 

 ers, and we usually do get an odd one 

 here and there in September or 

 October, but beautiful as is this most 

 important class of roses in color, form 

 and fragrance, it is all wrong to call 

 them perpetual. So you see that a man 

 who devotes nearly a year, and in 

 case of solid beds, the whole year, to 

 one crop of flowers, must not only be 

 sure of success, but must realize a high 

 price from his blooms or he is a loser. 



The American Beauty is a true hy 

 brid perpetual, for with proper man 

 agement it blooms from August till 

 the following May; not profusely, or 

 they would not command the high win 

 ter price they do; still they keep sending 

 up flowering shoots. In another place 

 I intend to say something about this 

 wonderful variety as grown for cut 

 flowers, but here I wish to say that al 

 though I have never seen it satisfactory 

 when planted out of doors, it has been 

 to me the most profitable of pot roses. 



Some ten or twelve years ago a gleam 

 of inspiration fell on us or around us. 

 The word inspiration is often abused 

 or misplaced. .We don t by any means 



believe many things which we are sup 

 posed to accept as inspired. For in 

 stance, we scarcely believe the narrative 

 of Jonah and the whale was inspired, 

 although the old Scotch woman said she 

 would believe Jonah swallowed the whale 

 if she found it in the inspired Word. 

 Yet we believe that even in weak and 

 ordinary mortals there are times when 

 a bright and abnormal light or thought 

 comes to them. In less pretentious, 

 language you hear people say, A bright 

 idea struck me, and depend on it when 

 you do get such a visit you should carry 

 it into effect at once and not let it dissi 

 pate itself. That kind of inspiration I 

 do believe in. It occurs with the orator 

 in some bright peroration, and many a 

 commonplace poem is saved by one 

 bright stanza which is a gem. They 

 slipped from the tongue of a Henry 

 Clay or the pen of a Robert Burns all 

 unconsciously and without effort. That 

 is truly inspiration. 



My little inspiration was of the earth, 

 earthy. It struck me that the Ameri 

 can Beauty rose would make a good 

 pot rose. I went immediately at it, and 

 it was a phenomenal success. Now as; 

 it was done once it can be done again. 

 1 will admit that several attempts since 

 have never equalled the first, but a cause 

 for this result could always be discovered. 

 If I describe just what was done the 

 successful year it would be safer than 

 telling you how to do it, and some of 

 the conditions might be improved on. 

 That year when inspiration visited these 

 parts I had successfully rooted in mid 

 winter about a thousand American 

 Beauties. In March they were in 4-inch 

 pots and doing fine. I also had a middle- 

 bench in a house running north and 

 south, about 7x100, which the previous 

 summer had grown a crop of chrysan 

 themums. The soil was not removed 

 and during winter and up to Easter 

 it was occupied by lilies in 6-inch pots. 

 Beneath each pot was a small square 

 of tar paper that kept the common 

 worms from entering the pots, and with 

 a little care in watering, the soil never 

 became sticky or pasty, so that it was 

 in good physical condition when the sale 

 of the lilies left it vacant. 



One important fact was that Easter 

 Sunday was March 25 (very early). 

 One warm, sunny day dried out the 

 bench and it was in excellent condition 

 to fork over, which was done. Then 

 a heavy coat of bone dust covered the 

 surface of the soil. I can t say what 

 the quantity in proportion to soil was, 

 but it was at least a 5-ineh pot to a 

 bushel of soil. This was lightly forked 

 in and then on April 1, the young 

 Beauties were planted. They seemed to 

 start and grew at once, and as the lead 

 ing shoot terminated with a flower bud 

 that was picked off, the lateral growth 

 and growths from the base of the plant 

 sent up flowering shoots that produced 

 flowers worth cutting. The first flowers 

 were cut and sold on June 15, and one 

 fine Sunday morning about- the middle 

 of July was chosen for a photograph. 

 At 5 a. m. the camera had done its 

 work and I began to cut. They numbered 

 145 for that morning, and retailed in 



