210 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



hybrid blood enough in these roses to 

 make them inclined to rest in December 

 and January, but nine months in the 

 year they are invaluable. In June, July 

 and August we frequently have a diffi 

 culty in getting large, clean flowers. 

 Houses for this purpose should run north 

 and south, because they are the coolest. 

 The beds should be well drained, solid 

 beds affording plenty of head-room, for 

 these plants will be kept in the borders 

 for several years and will be a con 

 siderable size before outgrowing their 

 usefulness. You must begin in the early 

 spring with planting- and will cut a very 

 paying crop the following summer and 

 fall. 



In October all possible ventilation 

 should be given and less water and 

 syringing. With a lower temperature 

 growth will cease, and in December and 

 January if you just keep the house above 

 the freezing point it is enough. A few 

 degrees of frost will do no harm, but 

 don t forget your water pipes if you 

 let the frost in. 



Early in March or the middle of 

 February start them up again. As the 

 wood is firm and ripe and the roots in 

 active, these roses can be pruned hard 

 when starting them in spring, and will 

 bear a good heavy mulch of cow manure. 

 Don t start with too much heat at once, 

 but as the roots are undisturbed they 

 will break immediately and can soon be 

 given the usual rose house treatment. 



As all the varieties you would grow 

 for this purpose belong to the tea or 

 hybrid tea class, you can make the sea 

 son of rest still shorter and pick good 

 flowers up to the middle of November, 

 and merely lower the temperature down 

 to 35 or 40 degrees till the end of 



In our largest cities the summer rose 

 does not receive much attention, for 

 society is largely absent. In our 

 salubrious climate people stop here, 

 and besides that roses are wanted every 

 day in the year. 



My readers will know more about 

 the varieties of the tea roses to grow 

 than I can tell thbm, for they are 

 familiar to all. The American Beauty 

 stands first, if not in quantity most 

 assuredly in high quality, and there is 

 nothing in sight to depose it. Bride 

 for white, and Bridesmaid for a clear 

 pink, stand unrivalled, and their parent, 

 Catherine Mermet, is still a beautiful 

 pink. Meteor is the standard red or 

 crimson, but the beautiful Liberty is 

 likely to depose it. Since the above 

 was written we have Eichmond, which 

 gives promise of superseding all red 

 roses for winter blooming. If Liberty 

 proves to be a good winter bloomer the 

 fate of Meteor is sealed, for it is a far 

 better flower, a true Jacqueminot color, 

 bright and rich, and it does not have 

 the bad fault of Meteor in winter. 

 Perle des Jardins has no rival in yel 

 low. Sunset, its sport, is a fine orange 

 yellow. 



The above will cover ninety per cent of 

 all the roses grown for cut flowers, but 

 many fine varieties find favor in some 

 localities. Mme. Hoste, Mme. de Watte- 

 ville, Belle Siebrecht, Mrs. J. Pierpont 

 Morgan, Mme. C. Testout, Papa Gontier, 

 Mrs. E. Garrett, and others, are grown. 



In conclusion I will say that in my 

 humble opinion there would be no need 

 of grafting as a method of renewing our 

 rose stock if we were to treat our plants 

 more rationally. I am well aware it is 

 not a new and original idea with 



A Modern Range of Even-Span Connected Rose Houses. 



January, when you can lightly prune 

 and start growing again. 



For this purpose there is no finer 

 white than the grand Kaiserin Augusta 

 Victoria. Perle des Jardins is the best 

 yellow and comes fine in the warm 

 weather. President Carnot, the blush 

 white and pink, is splendid for the pur 

 pose, and for a red, Meteor delights 

 in the summer heat. Old La France 

 will flower to perfection with this treat 

 ment. 



me, but I have thought of it very much 

 of late and can recall a few instances 

 where circumstances would lead me to 

 believe that we are asking too much 

 of our tea roses. It can t be denied 

 that we keep our stock of roses up to 

 concert pitch the whole time, perhaps 

 for seven or eight years, or until some 

 new variety replaces an older one. 



A cutting, as before said in these 

 pages, is not a new individual; it is 

 merely the perpetuation of the old, and 



without a natural rest it must get ex 

 hausted. The tea rose is an evergreen, 

 or nearly so, and a continuous bloomer, 

 or we make it so, but its parent or par 

 ents had a period of rest at some time 

 of the year, that is sure. But we give 

 none. Our cuttings are taken off when 

 the plant is in most active growth, the 

 cutting is grown along as quickly as 

 possible and made into a vigorous young 

 plant, set out in June and forced along 

 in growth, and it continues to grow until 

 propagating time again. Not a day of 

 actual rest, and so the cycle revolves, 

 but no rest for the roses. Now, the 

 instance I remember was, first, a lot 

 of young stock coming from a nursery 

 firm in Pennsylvania which makes a spe 

 cialty of roses. They arrived in April; 

 the cuttings had been strong shoots 

 taken off the previous fall and the plants 

 had been wintered little if any above 

 freezing. They were what we would say 

 of a tramp, hard looking citizens, 

 having a scrubby looking appearance. 

 They were put into 3-inch pots and be 

 gan to grow immediately, and when 

 planted out at the end of June grew 

 most vigorously, far surpassing some 

 much better looking plants that had been 

 propagated that spring in the usual way. 

 Those plants had had a winter s rest. 



The other case was on my own place. 

 Some plants left over from planting 

 in July were knocking about the frames 

 the following fall and winter, and in 

 the spring stood under the wall of a 

 shed, and occasionally when it rained 

 stood with their pots full of water; in 

 fact, they were abused. Being short 

 of fifty plants when planting in June 

 or July we put in these runts and 

 they simply started off and grew pro 

 digiously, far outstripping the good 

 looking young plants by their side. 



I believe and feel sure that, were we 

 able to propagate in late spring or 

 early fall and winter the plants in a 

 very cold house, or in milder parts 

 in a coldframe, and bring them along 

 slowly to planting time, we should not 

 be obliged to have recourse to the fussy 

 job of grafting. 



One word as a final. When you want 

 to buy don t send to the man who raises 

 hundreds of thousands of young plants 

 for sale. Send to the good grower of 

 flowers who has a few thousand sur 

 plus of his own stock, and never study 

 the price of 2 cents on a plant. It is 

 the height of folly and extravagance 

 to buy poor stock. One single bud will 

 more than pay for the plant. One word 

 more in conclusion. The matter of 

 cleanliness in forcing tea roses under 

 glass is of the utmost importance. If 

 the man in charge is a real rose grower, 

 you may think he is fussy and spending 

 too much time in keeping the surface 

 of the beds free of decayed leaves, weeds 

 or minute vegetable growths. He is 

 not wasting any time. Cleanliness is of 

 the first importance, and cannot be too 

 thoroughly carried out, not only on the 

 plants and beds, but in the paths and 

 beneath the benches. 



Aphis, the common greenfly, is very 

 troublesome on the young shoots of tea 

 roses. Besides fumigating, there are 



