A SIMPLE ROSE GARDEN 125 



All roses, even the sturdy, old-fashioned damasks, 

 Madame Plantier, and the like, should have some cov- 

 ering in winter, such as stable litter of coarse manure 

 with the straw left in. Hybrid perpetuals I hill up 

 well with earth after the manner of celery banked for 

 bleaching, the trenches between making good water 

 courses for snow water, while in spring cow manure 

 and nitrate of soda is scattered in these ruts before 

 the soil is restored to its level by forking. 



The hybrid teas, of which La France is the best ex- 

 ponent, should be hilled up and then filled in between 

 with evergreen branches, upland sedge grass, straw or 

 corn stalks, and if you have the wherewithal, they 

 may be capped with straw. 



I do not care for leaves as a covering, unless some- 

 thing coarse underlies them, for in wet seasons they form 

 a cold and discouraging poultice to everything but the 

 bob-tailed meadow mice, who love to bed and burrow 

 under them. Such tea roses as it is possible to winter 

 in the north should be treated in the same way, but there 

 is something else to be suggested about their culture in 

 another place. 



The climbing roses of arbours, if in very exposed situ- 

 ations, in addition to the mulch of straw and manure, 

 may have corn stalks stacked against the slats, which 



