204 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



out of doors in July and by the end 

 of August try to shorten up on water 

 and the wood will ripen. As cold 

 weather comes they will want little water 

 and will lose their foliage. 



These plants can be forced at any 

 time and, although the canes are not 

 quite so strong as the field-grown ones, 

 every eye gives us a cluster of bloom. 

 After a few frosts we lay the plants 

 down in a coldframe and cover with 

 boards, and a little hay or straw on the 

 plants, where they can remain till you 

 want to bring them in. 



This plan of growing them the previous 

 summer in pots assures free-flowering 

 plants and no excuse for failure, yet we 

 must admit that the trusses and florets 

 are not so large, or the leaves so deep a 

 green, as on the plants dug from the 

 ground in the fall, because they have 

 been growing so long in the same pot 

 that the soil is somewhat exhausted. This 

 can be helped by a heavy mulching of 

 almost fresh cow manure soon after you 

 commence to force, or frequent feedings 

 with liquid manure. Nitrate of soda, 

 one pound in thirty-six gallons of water, 



will have the vigor and freshness of the 

 field-grown. 



Mildew often attacks the summer 

 grown ramblers in the month of June, 

 when making their fastest growth, and 

 is nearly always caused by a severe dry 

 ing of the roots. Avoid that if you want 

 best results. Extremes of heat or cold, 

 dryness or wetness, will quickly invite 

 mildew, although on tea roses a cold 

 draught is the most common forerunner 

 of mildew. 



We have tried many times to force 

 the plants lifted from the field in No 

 vember, but have not yet acquired the 

 secret; still it can be done, for the 

 Philadelphia growers are very success 

 ful that way. We once succeeded with 

 a few very fine plants. It must have 

 been an accident, but growing them the 

 previous summer in pots leaves scarcely 

 a chance for failure and they occupy lit 

 tle valuable space in the houses. 



All the ramblers we get are budded 

 on the briar; hence their wonderful, 

 vigorous growth. And as long as we can 

 buy of our nurserymen fine plants at 

 such a low cost it would never pay us 



Rose Bridesmaid. 



is excellent for intensifying color in both 

 flower and foliage. 



Another plan, still better, is used when 

 you procure the dormant plants in the 

 spring. One-year-old are strong enough. 

 Try to start them in 5-inch pots, for with 

 good care and feeding strong canes can 

 be produced in a 5-inch. This admits of 

 a liberal shift into a 7-inch at time of 

 starting to force, and your plants then 



to bother about either budding them 

 or propagating from cuttings. 



Tea Roses. 



This is far and away the most im 

 portant section to the commercial florist. 

 They are everything to him. They are 

 used on each and every occasion and every 

 day in the year. And what an improve 



ment in them in twenty-five years! And 

 the method of growing them has kept 

 pace with the improved varieties. It is 

 to the Frenchmen we are mostly in 

 debted for the finest tea roses. Perhaps 

 that will not always be so. Our Ameri 

 can nurserymen and florists are doing a 

 great deal in hybridizing and raising 

 seedlings. E. G. Hill told me this sum 

 mer that he had, I am afraid to say how 

 many thousand, but I am sure it was 

 5,000 young seedlings of every conceiva 

 ble cross. Surely we shall have some 

 young Hoosiers that will startle the rose 

 world. Let them come! We can stand 

 several more shades. 



The above paragraph was written 

 seven years ago and sounds prophetic, 

 for Eichmond and other offspring of Mr. 

 Hill s genius and industry have become 

 great acquisitions to the commercial 

 florist and more are to come to gladden 

 the eye and fatten the pocketbook. I 

 don t mean Mr. Hill s pocketbook in 

 particular, but those of all up-to-date 

 rose growers.. 



Is it not remarkable that with the 

 hundreds of fine teas our demand seems 

 filled with so limited a number of varie 

 ties? It is almost, or perhaps quite, 

 correct to say that of all the millions of 

 roses cut and sold, four varieties would 

 cover seventy-five per cent of them, and 

 one of them is not a tea, the American 

 Beauty. The remaining three are the 

 two glorious sports of Catherine Merniet, 

 Bridesmaid and The Bride, and the 

 hybrid tea, the crimson Meteor. New 

 varieties come and go, their advent her 

 alded with shouts of praise and loud 

 advertising, and their exit is a quiet re 

 treat. They have answered two pur 

 poses they have made money for the 

 raiser and introducer and given us a 

 little more experience. What a lot of ex 

 perience we do get as we pass along! 



A good place to begin with the tea 

 roses will be at the propagation. They 

 root most easily anywhere from Novem 

 ber till April and both earlier and later, 

 but slower and not so surely. We feel 

 as much certainty that the rose cuttings 

 will root as we do when we put in a 

 batch of salvia. With the sand at 65 

 degrees and the house from 50 to 55 

 degrees you cannot fail if you keep the 

 sand moist. I never owned a north side 

 propagating bench, and there is no need 

 of it. Any bench will do if shade is 

 supplied for the first few days. 



Pot off as soon as the roots are 

 started and shade again till the plants 

 have started to grow, and then they 

 want the full light, as they do every 

 minute for the remainder of their ex 

 istence. 



The usual time to propagate, and the 

 best time, is in January anu February. 

 Then you have time to get the young 

 plants into 3-inch pots for a couple of 

 months before planting time. One au 

 thor says the cutting should be of 

 only one eye and another says it should 

 be from only flowering wood. Some 

 years ago there was a lively discussion 

 in the trade papers on &quot;flowering wood 

 versus blind wood. I recently heard 

 a remark by an expert rose grower which 



