304 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



Protection for the Roses 



Some of the hybrid-perpetual and hybrid-tea roses are 

 hardy enough to go through the ordinary winter without 

 protection, but it is best to mulch the whole rose bed. In a 

 severe climate, or where tender sorts are grown, the earth 

 should be drawn up round the canes in little hills before the 

 ground freezes. This not only gives extra protection, but 

 also insures better drainage. Before putting on the mulch 

 it is usually advisable to cut back the longer shoots by a 

 third or so. This applies especially to the taller, stronger- 

 growing rose bushes, as it not only makes them less in 

 the way, but lessens the danger of their being whipped and 

 beaten about by the winds. The regular pruning, of course, 

 is not given until spring. Tea and hybrid- tea roses, that 

 need more protection than the usual mulching affords, 

 may be put into winter quarters by running a strip of wire 

 round the bed, as already described, and filling this with 

 leaves to the depth of a foot or more. This method, with 

 evergreen boughs laid over the top, will carry through most 

 teas, even where the winters are severe. 



The shrubbery border should be mulched, especially 

 during the first winter or two after planting. For this 

 work it is better to use rough manure or leaves in preference 

 to straw, so the material can be worked into the surface 

 soil in the spring, making a drought-resisting summer cover- 

 ing. As the mulch for shrubs is to keep the soil from heav- 

 ing, rather than to protect the plants, the soil about each 

 shrub should be well covered; but the mulch should not be 

 crowded up round the stem or trunk of the plant, where it 

 may furnish protection to field mice or other rodents to 

 the injury or even loss of the shrub. This is an additional 

 reason why the mulch should not be applied before the 

 ground freezes, as by that time these marauders have made 

 their winter quarters elsewhere. 



Some of the native hardy lilies are safe without protection, 

 but most of the others, such as the hardy Japanese sorts, 



