208 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



sudden drop at night from, say 56 

 degrees their usual temperature to 46 

 degrees or less, will produce mildew, 

 and all these causes must be guarded 

 against. 



Sulphur is the great antidote for mil 

 dew, and while painting the heating 

 pipes with a mixture of sulphur and 

 linseed oil, or sulphide of potassium dis 

 solved and mixed with clay, will kill 

 the mildew, if applied too strong it will 

 take the leaves off the rose plants; that 

 we have proved to our cost. As a pre 

 ventive of mildew or to destroy it when 

 it first appears we much prefer to dust the 

 plants with flour of sulphur and syringe 

 it off the first bright day. 



For aphis smoking is not advisable. 

 I am certain I have seen its ill effects. 

 Vaporizing, as described in the chapter 

 on Insecticides, is best, -and the plan of 

 putting a hot, but not red hot, piece 

 of iron into an iron vessel containing 

 diluted nicotine extract will do first- 

 rate. See that the dish or iron pan is 

 deep enough so that the liquid does 

 not boil over and waste when the iron 

 is dropped into it. 



Those whose water supply comes 

 from river, lake or reservoir should 

 have some means of warming it in 

 winter and early spring. When steam 

 is used this is easily done by letting 

 a % -inch or, perhaps, a 1-inch water pipe 

 run through a larger steam pipe, but 

 when hot water is used there is no 

 chance to do this, and it is better to 

 have large barrels elevated in your shed 

 that can be filled a day ahead, and 

 when used the water is about the same 

 temperature as your shed. Those who 

 are away from the cities and towns 

 usually have their water tanks under 

 cover of their sheds, with the means 

 of warming the water with a steam or 

 hot water pipe. 



The water does not need to be warm, 

 but when it comes out of our city 

 mains it is little over freezing, and 

 to water a rose bed with water at that 

 temperature in January can t be good. 

 If you can raise the water to 50 de 

 grees, that would be much better and 

 high enough. We don t think that 

 spraying or syringing the roses with 

 water near the freezing point would do 

 any harm, for the scattered and small 

 bulk of it would almost at once become 

 the temperature of the house; but satu 

 rating the soil with ice water is quite 

 different and must be deleterious. 



Soils of different textures grow good 

 roses. William Paul & Son some years 

 ago in an advertisement and descrip 

 tion of their place said: &quot;At one nurs 

 ery we have a clay suitable for the 

 hybrid perpetuals, and at another a 

 light loam suitable for the tea roses.&quot; 

 Those were not just the words, but 

 near enough. We have observed roses 

 growing finely in many different kinds 

 and textures of soil, but I must say 

 that the tallest, strongest and most 

 vigorous Brides and Mermets I have 

 ever seen were in five inches of clay 

 that needed a hammer to break it up, 

 and that was at the end of December 

 and under the care of a man who had 



never tried his hand at the business 

 till that year. 



It is useless to comment on the dif 

 ferent soils that have grown good roses. 

 What we want to know is which is the 

 best when it can be obtained. Then I 

 would prefer above all the top three, 

 or perhaps four, inches of a rather 

 heavy loam pasture. Not the pasture 

 from an orchard that had been laid 

 down forty years and was moss-grown 

 and the surface containing the deposit 

 of rotten leaves, but a good fresh pas 

 ture that the cows had been grazing 

 on for a few years. If it s still more 

 on the heavy side, no harm. The poor 

 est soil of all would be a fiberless 

 sand. 



Soil is such an important considera 

 tion in rose growing that it deserves 

 some further comments. A clever rose 

 grower remarked to the writer recently: 

 &quot;Oh, you make the soil,&quot; meaning that 

 with manure and chemical ingredients 

 you could restore the qualities that 

 Nature had left out. Perhaps so, yet 

 I doubt it. I often think the average 

 florist is short-sighted in procuring his 

 soil, both for his pot plants and his 

 crops that are planted out. He will 

 cheerfully pay $10 for a load of coal, 

 because he has no choice, but he would 

 see nothing but bankruptcy if asked 

 to pay one-half of that for a good 

 sod, and the soil is the very founda 

 tion of his business. It is worth going 

 miles for, and the rose grower who has 

 or can procure a clay loam sod has 

 a big start toward success. Quantity 

 you may get in a manufactured soil, 

 but quality will not be there. And it 

 is most advisable to make your com 

 post pile in the fall. You have much 

 more time to spare, the manure gets 

 more evenly distributed, and there are 

 other advantages. Make up your com 

 post pile in the month of October 

 spring brings its own many chores. 



On asking one very large and suc 

 cessful rose grower what manure he 

 used he replied &quot;any he could get,&quot; 

 and a mixture of animal manures is 

 more likely to supply what is needed 

 for the rose than the use of one would 

 be. But pure sheep manure must be 

 used cautiously, and a proportion of 

 one to twenty of soil is enough. Soil 

 is often mixed haphazard, one portion 

 getting moro manure or bone meal than 

 another. 



A prudent grower cuts his soil in 

 October or November and piles it up 

 under an open shed, and a long shed 

 it is. It is not put under the shed to 

 keep the rain from it, but, being dry, 

 it can be worked over earlier in the 

 spring, and the men can work at it rain 

 or shine. This is a valuable point. 

 He has a frame made without bottom, 

 with handles extending at both ends. 

 The frame is nine feet long by three 

 feet wide and one foot deep. That is 

 just one cubic yard. As the soil is 

 chopped down it is thrown into this 

 box, and when it is even-full a certain 

 portion of manure is thrown on top, 

 and then a portion of bone dust, spread 

 ing manure and bone dust over the sur 

 face. The frame is then lifted up and 



that lot is shoveled away into a pile. 

 By this means there is no guesswork; 

 all parts of the bench have the same 

 quality. 



The quantity of manure (cow ma 

 nure is most often used) is a matter 

 of opinion. One-sixth the bulk of the 

 soil is quite enough. Although a greater 

 proportion of manure is often used, we 

 believe a good, strong sod chopped up 

 would need less manure than a fibrous 

 loam or clay, and in quantity of ma 

 nure you must be guided by quality 

 and texture of soil. There is one point. 

 In mixing cow manure with your sod 

 in the fall don t take that which is 

 rotten or half rotten; let it be per 

 fectly fresh, and then you will get all 

 there is in it. And one peck of bone 

 dust to one yard will be a good but 

 safe allowance. Don t get the bone 

 dust or meal too coarse, or it will be 

 thrown out before you get the benefit 

 of it. In placing the soil on the bench 

 I have heard it asked, &quot;How do you 

 keep the soil from running through the 

 crack between the boards?&quot; There 

 should always be coarse pieces enough 

 of the soil to place over the spaces. 

 If not, some well rotted stable manure 

 will answer the purpose. 



In shallow beds, such as all roses 

 are mostly grown in, they want sev 

 eral mulchings. If they have grown 

 fast and vigorous they will need the 

 mulching all the more. If planted in 

 June they can be mulched in August 

 and again in October. It is better to 

 mulch lightly and often. A good mulch 

 would be well rotted cow manure, to 

 which add one quart of bone meal to 

 a bushel of the manure and one-third 

 of loam, and put on only half an inch 

 each time. About the first of February 

 mulch again, and again in April. This 

 last mulch will be not only for manur 

 ing the plants, but will prevent their 

 drying out so fast, and can be a little 

 heavier than the others. 



I have had no experience with liquid 

 manure except in applying it by water 

 ing can, which is too laborious a job 

 for a rose or carnation house. Where 

 it can be pumped through the pipes or 

 run through by gravitation its appli 

 cation must be very beneficial, par 

 ticularly when the bed is full of roots. 

 Be sure not to overdo it in strength. 

 A liquid made from animal manures 

 would be the safest. Here is a chemi 

 cal formula, published some time ago, 

 said to be excellent for roses, car 

 nations or chrysanthemums. It is a 

 formula published by Prof. Paul Wag 

 ner, of Darmstadt, and republished 

 here by Prof. W. E. Britton. Quanti 

 ties can of course be increased to any 

 dimensions. 



Phosphate of ammonia oz. 1 



Nitrate of soda oz. 1% 



Nitrate of potash oz. 1% 



Sulphate of ammonia oz. 1% 



Water ga l. 50 



Although the American Beauty is a 

 widely different rose from the tea sec 

 tion, yet its growing for winter flowers 

 is the same, and I will say that in 

 propagating it I have never found the 

 slightest difficulty at any time from 



