196 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



too much on. Flour of sulphur thrown 

 on the plants does not do much good, 

 as it is not the sulphur itself but the 

 fumes you want. Sulphur put in shal- 

 low pans or on bricks and placed 

 where the sun will strike them will 

 emit quite a little of the fumes. All 

 of these can be used as preventives or 

 as cures. 



For aphis smoking is not. advisable. 

 I am certain I have seen its ill effects. 

 Vaporizing, as described in chapter on 

 Insecticides, is best, and the plan of 

 putting a hot (but not red hot) piece 

 of iron into an iron vessel containing 

 either the Rose Leaf extract, diluted 

 ten to one, or the Nikoteen, reduced 

 twenty to one, will do first rate. See 

 that the dish or iron pan is deep 

 enough so that the liquid does not boil 

 over and waste when the iron is drop- 

 ped into it. 



Those whose water supply comes 

 from river, lake or reservoir should 

 have some means of warming it in 

 winter and early spring. When steam 

 is used this is easily done by letting 

 the three-quarter or 1-inch water pipe 

 run through a larger steam pipe, but 

 when hot water is used there is no 

 chance to do this, and it is better to 

 have large barrels elevated in your 

 shed that can be filled a day ahead, 

 and when used the water is about the 

 same temperature as your shed. Those 

 who are away from the cities and 

 towns have usually their water tanks 

 under cover of their sheds with the 

 means of warming the water with a 

 steam or hot water pipe. 



The water does not need to be warm, 

 but when it comes out of our city 

 mains it is little over freezing, and 

 to water a rose bed with water at that 

 temperature in January can't be good. 

 If you can raise the water to 50 de- 

 grees that would be much better and 

 high enough. 



Soils of different textures grow good 

 roses. Wm. Paul & Son, some years 

 ago in an advertisement and descrip- 

 tion of their place, said: "At one nur- 

 sery we have a clay suitable for the 

 Hybrid Perpetuals, and at another a 

 light loam suitable for the Tea Roses." 

 Those were not just the words, but 

 near enough. We have observed roses 

 growing finely in many different kinds 

 and textures of soil, but I must say 

 that the tallest, strongest and most 

 vigorous Brides and Mermets I have 

 ever seen were in five inches of clay 

 that needed a hammer to break it up, 

 and that was at the end of December 

 and under the care of a man who had 

 never tried his hand at the business 

 till that year. 



It is useless to comment on the dif- 

 ferent soils that have grown good 

 roses. What we want to know is 

 which is the best when it can be had. 

 Then I would prefer above all the 

 top three, or perhaps four, inches of 

 a rather heavy loam pasture. Not the 

 pasture from an orchard that had been 

 laid down forty years and was moss 

 grown and the surface containing the 

 deposit of rotten leaves, but a good 

 fresh pasture that the cows had been 



grazing on for a few years. If it's still 

 more on the heavy side, no harm. The 

 poorest soil of all would be a fiberless 

 sand. 



On asking one very large and suc- 

 cessful rose grower what manure he 

 used, he replied "any he could get," 

 and a mixture of animal manures is 

 more likely to supply what is needed 

 for the rose than the use of one would 

 be. But pure sheep manure must be 

 used cautiously, and a proportion of 

 one to twenty of soil is enough. Soil 

 is often mixed haphazard, one por- 

 tion getting more manure or bone meal 

 than another. 



Pillar Rose. 



A prudent grower cuts his soil in 

 October or November and piles it up 

 under an open shed, and a long shed 

 it is. It is not put under the shed to 

 keep the rain from it, but being dry 

 it can be worked over earlier in the 

 spring, and the men can work at it 

 rain or shine. This is a valuable point. 

 He has a frame made without bottom, 

 with handles extending at both ends. 

 The frame is nine feet long by three 

 feet wide and one foot deep. That is 

 just one cubic yard. As the soil is 

 chopped down it is thrown into this 

 box and when it is even full a certain 

 portion of manure is thrown on top, 

 and then a portion of bone dust, 

 spreading manure and bone dust over 



the surface. The frame is then lifted 

 up and that lot is shoveled away into 

 a pile. By this means there is no 

 guess work, all parts of the bench 

 have the same quality. 



The quantity of manure (cow ma- 

 nure is most often used) is a matter 

 of opinion. One-sixth the bulk of the 

 soil is quite enough, and one peck of 

 bone dust to one yard will be a good 

 but safe allowance. Don't get the bone 

 dust or meal too coarse, or it will be 

 thrown out before you get the benefit 

 of it. In placing the soil on the bench 

 I have heard it asked, How do you 

 keep the soil from running through the 

 crack between the boards? There 

 should always be coarse pieces enough 

 of the soil to place over the spaces. 

 If not, some well rotted stable manure 

 will answer the purpose. 



In shallow beds, such as all roses 

 are mostly grown in, they want sev- 

 eral mulchings. If they have grown 

 fast and vigorous they will need the 

 mulching all the more. If planted in 

 June they can be mulched in August 

 and again in October. It is better to 

 mulch lightly and often. A good mulch 

 would be well rotted cow manure, to 

 which add one quart of bone meal to 

 a bushel of the manure and one-third 

 of loam, and put on only half an inch 

 each time. About first of February 

 mulch again and again in April. This 

 last mulch will be not only for manur- 

 ing the plants but will prevent their 

 drying out so fast and can be a little 

 heavier than the others. 



I have had no experience with liquid 

 manure except in applying it by water- 

 ing can, which is too laborious a job 

 for a rose or carnation house. Where it 

 can be pumped through the pipes or 

 run through by gravitation its appli- 

 cation must be very beneficial, par- 

 ticularly when the bed is full of roots. 

 Be sure not to overdo it in strength. 

 A liquid made from animal manures 

 would be the safest. Here is a chemi- 

 cal liquid, published some time ago 

 and said to be excellent for roses, car- 

 nations or chrysanthemums. It is a 

 formula published by Prof. Paul Wag- 

 ner, of Darmstadt, and republished 

 here by Prof. W. E. Britton. Quanti- 

 ties can of course be increased to any 

 dimensions: 



Phosphate of ammonia oz. 1 



Nitrate of soda oz. 1% 



Citrate of potash oz. 1% 



Sulphate of ammonia oz. 1% 



Water . . gal. 50 



Although the American Beauty is a 

 widely different rose from the Tea sec- 

 tion, yet its growing for winter flow- 

 ers is the same, and I will say that in 

 propagating it I have never found the 

 slightest difficulty at any time from 

 November to April, or even May. 

 Choose wood that is medium in 

 strength, and don't use either the 

 green top or the hard base. When pot- 

 ting them off I have lost quite a num- 

 ber by their being left exposed to a 

 bright sun. Be careful to shade and 

 keep moist for a few days. Let there 

 be always two eyes to the cutting. 



