ROSE GROWING IN OREGON. 177 



grove and forest of Oregon supplies it. It is worth more than all the 

 trouble to get it. Farther from the roots, above and below them, I 

 use small quantities of bone-dust, which gives strength to the bush, as 

 animal food gives strength to man. 



I do not have the beds dug until the weeds in the manure covering 

 have begun to grow. Then I have a skilful professional gardener dig 

 carefully and deep, preferably with a garden fork so as not to injure 

 the new roots. Then I am rarely troubled with weeds in the summer. 



FIRST BLOOMING SEASON. 



Koses usually begin to bloom in Oregon in May. This year the 

 first roses bloomed the last week of April. I have known them to begin 

 to bloom as early as the first week in .April. Ordinarily our rose season 

 begins about a month later than in the vicinity of San Francisco. The 

 first blooming rose season lasts about two months, reaching its perfec- 

 tion in June, but often producing roses into July. 



AUTUMN BLOOMING SEASON. 



After the great June blooming I let my roses rest without irriga- 

 tion until about the middle of August. Then I soak the ground re- 

 peatedly with water. If I wish the best results I also prune my bushes 

 just before I soak the ground. I start a new growth on a plan similar 

 to that the florists use to force roses in a conservatory. In September 

 and October I have a wealth of roses that gladdens the heart of a 

 rose-lover. 



All varieties do not bloom equally well in the fall. Papa Gontier 

 is rather gross and unattractive in the spring, but in the fall its shell- 

 like beauty is wonderful. Souvenir de la Malmaison rarely blooms well 

 in the spring, but in the fall the blushes of sweet sixteen must be very 

 beautiful, indeed, to rival it. Mama Cochet and White Hainan Cochet 

 are beautiful roses at any time, even if their stems are rather long and 

 somewhat weak, but in the fall the delicate pink shade of the one and 

 the pale yellow of the other have a beauty and an exquisite contrast 

 which are hardly excelled. Mme. Caroline Testout is the most beautiful 

 of pink roses in October. The finest bouquet of Safranos I ever saw 

 I gathered in my garden one Thanksgiving day. In Oregon we fre- 

 quently have roses in our gardens at Christmas. They are not the 

 fine roses of the early fall, but they bloom because of the mildness of 

 the weather. 



Most tea and hybrid tea roses and many hybrid remontant roses in 

 Oregon are as beautiful, in many instances more beautiful, in the 

 autumn than they are in the spring, although they are not equally 

 abundant. That is, when they have a period of rest in mid-summer, 



