THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



J93 



them, and by midsummer you will have 

 five or six strong, long growths. Other 

 growths should be rubbed off. If you 

 have too many caues you will get a 

 weaker growth. Put them out of doors 

 in July and by end of August try and 

 shorten up on water and the wood will 

 ripen. As cold weather comes they 

 will want little water and will lose 

 their foliage. 



These plants can be forced at any 

 time, and although the canes are not 

 quite as strong as the field grown 

 ones, every eye gives us a cluster of 

 bloom. After a few frosts we lay the 

 plants down in a cold-frame and cover 

 with boards, and a little hay or straw 

 on the plants, where they can remain 

 till you want to bring them in. 



All the Ramblers we get are budded 

 on the briar, hence their wonderful 

 vigorous growth. And as long as we 

 can buy of our nurserymen fine plants 

 at such a low cost it would never pay 

 us to bother about either budding them 

 or propagating from cuttings. 



Tea Roses. 



This is far and away the most im- 

 portant section to the commercial 

 florist. They are everything to him. 

 They are used on all and every occa- 

 sion and every day in the year. And 

 what an improvement in them in 25 

 years! And the method of growing 

 them has kept pace with the improved 

 varieties. It is to the Frenchmen we 

 are mostly indebted for the finest Tea 

 Roses. Perhaps that will not always 

 be so. Our American nurserymen and 

 florists are doing a great deal in hy- 

 bridizing and raising seedlings. Mr. 

 E. G. Hill told me this summer that 

 he had, I am afraid to say how many 

 thousand, but I am sure it was 5,000, 

 young seedlings of every conceivable 

 cross. Surely we shall have some 

 young Hoosiers that will startle the 

 rose world. Let them come! We can 

 stand several more shades. 



Is it not remarkable that with the 

 hundreds of fine Teas our demand 

 seems filled with so limited a number 

 of varieties? It is almost, or perhaps 

 quite, correct to say that of all the 

 millions of roses cut and sold, four 

 varieties would cover 75 per cent of 

 them, and one of them is not a Tea, 

 the American Beauty. The remaining 

 three are the two glorious sports of 

 Catherine Mermet, Bridesmaid and the 

 Bride, and the crimson Meteor. New 

 varieties come and go, their advent 

 heralded with shouts of praise and 

 loud advertising, and their exit is a 

 quiet retreat. They have answered 

 two purposes: they have made money 

 for the raiser and introducer and given 

 us a little more experience. What a 

 lot of experience we do get as we pass 

 along. 



A good place to begin with the Tea 

 roses will be at the propagation. They 

 root most easily anywhere from No- 

 vember till April, and both earlier and 

 later, but slower and not so surely. 

 We feel as much certainty that the 

 rose cuttings will root as we do when 

 we put in a batch of salvia. With the 



sand at 65 degrees and the house from 

 50 to 55 degrees you cannot fail if you 

 keep the sand moist. I never owned a 

 north side propagating bench, and 

 . there is no need of it. Any bench will 

 do if shade is supplied for the first few 

 days. 



Pot off as soon as the roots are 

 started and shade again till the plants 

 have started to grow, and then they 

 want the full iight, as they do every 

 minute for the remainder of their ex- 

 istence. 



The usual time to propagate, and the 

 best time, is in January and February. 

 Then you have time to get the young 

 plants into a 3-inch pot for a couple of 

 months before planting time. One au- 

 thor says the cutting should be of 

 only one eye and another says it should 

 be from only flowering wood. I would 

 much rather have the cutting of two 

 eyes, one below and one above the 

 surface of the sand, leaving a leaf or 

 part of the leaf on the upper eye. If 

 the wood is of any size, not too spind- 

 ling and weak, it makes no difference 

 to the future plant whether it is blind 

 or flowering. That I have proved, and 

 although I am by no means an exten- 

 sive rose grower, the most, vigorous 

 young plants I ever grew were from 

 cuttings of blind wood, and rather 

 small and hard at that. 



Large rose growers can't plant all 

 their houses in a week, so they begin 

 end of May and keep on till July. 

 Those planted end of June should be 

 in good bearing by middle of October, 

 and many buds could have been cut 

 before that if it were wise to let them 

 no\vcr, which it is not On raised 

 benches four inches of soil is consid- 

 ered ample, and some growers plant 

 in three inches, allowing for future 

 mulching to add another half or three- 

 quarters of an inch. The rows on the 

 bench fifteen inches apart and the 

 plants one foot apart, is as close as you 

 can plant them. 



The bottom of the benches should be 

 of 2x4 scantling, or not wider than 2x6, 

 and between such board or scantling 

 leave a space of three-fourths of an 

 inch when building. When the boards 

 swell with the wet soil they will only 

 be half an inch apart. Perfect drainage 

 is of the utmost importance. Unless 

 the superfluous water passes freely 

 through you will have no success. 

 When the soil gets into that condition 

 that the bed does not want water in a 

 month there is something wrong, and 

 most likely your rose leaves will be 

 largely off by that time. 



The soil of the bed should be quite 

 firm, not beaten down as you would 

 a mushroom bed, but good and solid. 

 Plant very little below the surface, 

 and firm the soil around the ball; un- 

 less the soil of the bed is very dry 

 only water at the plant. In a few days, 

 when the plants want it again, the 

 whole bed can be watered. 



If there is any excuse for shading it 

 is just now in the hottest days, for the 

 sake of the men who have to work in 

 120 degrees or more and the young 

 plants that may have had their roots 



FIELD -GROWN 



..ROSES.. 



Two years old 

 On their own roots 

 Northern-grown 

 Bench-rooted 

 Full Assortment, 



We are 

 Headquarters 

 for them. 



JACKSON & PERKINS CO. 



(Wholesale only ) 



NEWARK, NEW YORK. 



USE 

 LUCAS 



USE 

 LUCAS 



PAINT 

 GLASS 

 PUTTY 



JOHN LUCAS & CO., 



New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, 



Send for Sample Cards and Prices. 



J. L. DILLON 



Makes a Specialty of 



ForcingRoses 



Grafted and on Their Own Roots. 

 SEND FOR CIRCULAR. BLOOMSBtRG, PA. 



Hardy Roses 



If in need of strong, two-year field grown 

 Hardy Roses, please bear in mind that we 

 are the largest growers of this class in 

 America. Write us for prices. 



THE STORRS & HARRISON CO, 



PAINESVILLE, OHIO. 



AMERICAN ROSE CO. 



We Test New Forcing 

 Roses. 



WASHINGTON. D. C. 

 ROSES AND ROSES 



Small Roses by the thousand and hundred thousand, 

 also large size two-year-old Roses in season. 



Catalogue men will do well to figure with us before 

 placing their orders. We grow all the best standard 

 and the best of the new kinds. We make a specialty 

 of large contract orders. We grow Geraniums and Chrys- 

 anthemums and the usual line and varieties of other 



eenhouse plants. We will be glad to hear from you. 

 indly state your wants when you write. Address 

 THE C. A. REESER CO., URBAN A. Ohio. 



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