-^ T'?£ (STcMclcij ai;d Ldlei). 



PROTECTION OF ROSES IN WINTER. 



jPHE article in the January No. Canadian Horticulturist, on " The 

 Protection of Roses," copied from the American Agriculturist, gives 

 but little encouragement to those who are thinking of growing hybrid 

 roses in Central Ontario, because of the plan described for winter 

 protection being too complicated, too troublesome and too expen- 

 sive. It may be, and no doubt is, necessary to use much greater 

 care in protecting hybrid roses in Southern New York, Pennsylvania 

 or Ohio, where the winters are open and unsteady, and, therefore, more severe on 

 partially tender shrubs, than with us, where simple and less expensive plans 

 answer every purpose ; because of our winter weather being more even in its 

 severity, and every thing near the ground is covered with snow the whole winter 

 long. 



For the encouragement of those who are growing, or purpose growing, 

 hybrid roses in Central Ontario, I would recommend the plan for winter protec- 

 tion which we adopted twenty-five years ago, and which we continue to practice 

 to the present, viz.: Lay a block of wood close to the bush, then bend the bush 

 over the block to the ground and keep it there by laying one or more such 

 pieces of wood on the branches ; place a little pea straw on this, and then throw 

 two or three branches of evergreen on top to prevent the straw being displaced 

 by the wind before the snow falls. 



We have now between twenty and thirty varieties of fine healthy rose bushes 

 that have always been treated in this way, and have never lost a healthy bush. 

 Lindsay. Thos Beall. 



PRUNING ROSE BUSHES. 



Sir, — I have been experimenting for four years past in the management of 

 my rose bushes, and the plan which I have found the most successful is as fol- 

 lows : — As soon as the spring bloom is over, I cut the blooming wood entirely 

 out, which gives the roots a rest. They then soon throw out vigorous young 

 shoots which bloom at intervals during the summer and fall, and by this practice 

 I find them very much more easily packed down for winter protection. Instead 

 of using any kind of litter, I find soil the best cover, as it does not harbor ver- 

 min as many kinds of mulch do. Ten years ago I bought half a dozen hybrid 

 perpetual roses. One of these always made a poor growth as if stunted, until 

 it received the above treatment, when it threw up half a dozen vigorous shoots. 

 These I let grow about ten feet long when I cut them back one foot. They 

 then threw out side shoots, which, the following year, had from seventeen to 

 twenty blooms on each shoot, counting up to eight hundred and forty. 



Parkhill. M \m Wade. 



3 (IOI) 



