ROSE PLANTING AND CUTTING-BACK 139 



rooted, non-suckering, and furnish a continuous flow of sap, which 

 many stocks from winter climates fail to do. But we fear we are 

 really arguing a question which we decided not to do. Reference to 

 it must appear again later in connection with the training of standard 

 roses. 



PLANTING THE ROSE. 



Ground for planting roses should be most carefully prepared with 

 due observation of the best conditions of soil and tillage as described 

 in Chapters III and IV, and the hints on planting in Chapter XI, if 

 one is planting strong field-grown roses, which are a specialty of Cali- 

 fornia nurserymen and which gain development impossible elsewhere 

 because our growing season is so much longer. Many carloads of 

 these field-grown roses are produced each year in California for eastern 

 shipment. The little plants from small cuttings are grown under glass 

 and set in the field rows. It has been demonstrated that La France, 

 American Beauty, Mrs. John Laing, and other roses which are very 

 slow growing out doors at the East, and of which it is impossible to 

 grow very strong plants even in two seasons, will, in California, make 

 plants three feet or more in height in one season. Such sturdily grown 

 plants are as strong in transplanting as a deciduous fruit tree, but, 

 for all that they should be well planted in soil most thoroughly pre- 

 pared. Such a bush, however, is not so tender and can be planted 

 through a wider range of temperature than can the little semi- 

 herbaceous baby roses which come straight from eastern hot houses. 

 These little babies will do well, however, if carefully set during the 

 rainy season when the soil is amply moist and warm and in working 

 condition. They should never be put into cold mud or hot clods. 

 They should rather be potted and held for time in the frame or the 

 greenhouse until the soil and weather in the open are just right, and 

 if it is late in the rainy season or early in the dry, they should be 

 shaded until they take to making new leaves. 



Distances for planting roses will depend upon your available space 

 and the effect you desire to produce. If you want good shapely single 

 growths, either as bushes or standards, a distance of four feet each 

 way allows such development for a number of years, if proper pruning 

 is done. If you want to produce a mass-effect for a maximum of flowers 

 of fair size and are willing to prune constantly for new blooming 

 shoots, they will go for some time at two feet intervals. For a dense 

 hedge we prefer three feet between plants, while for trellises, fences, 

 arbors and pergolas, a distance of six feet seems none too much for 

 short-climbers, while for our freest running roses on arbors, etc., one 

 plant will soon cover five hundred square feet if the canes are properly 

 laid and fastened. For quick results plants can of course be set closer 



