236 



Gardening for Amateurs 



cutting saw, though not absolutely neces- 

 sary, is often decidedly useful in cutting off 

 thick shoots and branches which are diffi- 

 cult of access and can hardly be reached 

 either with the knife or the secateurs. This 

 is not uncommon in old bushes of strong 

 growth. 



When Growth Begins. Having pre- 

 pared our soil, and having planted our trees 

 and bushes, now comes a period chiefly of 

 waiting and watching ; nevertheless all the 

 plants should be sprayed with Bordeaux 

 mixture, sulphide of potassium, or one of 

 the proprietary fungicides, to destroy as 

 far as possible the spores of black spot, 

 red rust, mildew, etc., before growth com- 

 mences. 



Of course all the shoots cut off the Rose 

 trees and bushes at pruning should be care- 

 fully collected and as carefully burnt 

 immediately, not only to ged rid of dormant 

 fungus spores, chrysalides, and more or less 

 dormant insect pests, but to provide wood 

 ashes, which are excellent for adding to a 

 light soil, as they help to keep it moist. 

 Wood ashes are good also for a heavy soil 

 as manure, but it is not altogether advisable 

 to add them to a wet, waterlogged, heavy 

 soil, as they tend to make matters worse by 

 increasing its stickiness. 



This matter of burning the prunings 

 should be carefully attended to, even when 

 the trees and bushes have been well sprayed 

 in January or early February as they 

 should have been with sulphate of copper 

 or commercial formaldehyde ; the latter 

 is specially recommended by Dr. A. R. 

 Waddell, of the National Rose Society, for 

 this purpose. If this spraying was done 

 in midwinter, when the bushes and trees 

 were practically dormant, most of the spores 

 and other harmful germs, either on the 

 bushes or in the upper soil, will probably 

 have been killed or rendered practically 

 harmless. In addition to this spraying 

 very careful gardeners even remove the top 

 soil to the depth of one or two inches. If 

 this be done, it is better to burn the top soil, 

 replacing it with soil from another part of 

 the garden, the vegetable garden for choice, 

 but at any rate not from another rose-bed. 

 ^If it be a cold and frosty spring the little 

 hillocks or mounds of earth with which we 



covered the roots and lower parts of the 

 Tea Roses and the more weakly Hybrid Teas 

 and Noisettes at the beginning of winter 

 had better be left until the middle of March, 

 or, if the frost and cold continue, until 

 April ; but in the case of Hybrid Perpetuals, 

 if any of them have been covered (a really 

 unnecessary precaution as a rule), the 

 covering should be removed at the end of 

 February unless it be frosty at the time, in 

 which case it may remain a little longer. If 

 the covering of soil be kept on and the sun 

 gains power, there is a danger of the im- 

 portant basal buds starting to grow, a thing 

 to be avoided before the pruning, already 

 referred to, has taken place. When the 

 covering of soil is removed, or even earlier, 

 take away any bracken or straw that has 

 been placed about the Rose trees and bushes 

 as a protection against severe weather. 



Watering in Spring. In early April 

 the wind is invariably cold, although there 

 may be an abundance of sunshine. For a 

 time the Rose bushes, having just been 

 pruned, appear to be almost or quite dormant, 

 nevertheless the roots are getting to work, 

 and soon the rising sap will produce rapid 

 growth above ground. At this period it is 

 most important that the plants should have 

 moisture. Warm April showers, or cold 

 ones, which, alas ! are more probable, may 

 supply this in sufficient quantity, but at 

 times April is a particularly dry, cold, and 

 yet sunny month, and then Roses, newly 

 planted ones particularly, must have moisture 

 artificially supplied to them. Roses nearly 

 always do well when a large quantity of 

 rain falls at this time of the year. 



If, therefore, April is a period of drought, 

 rain-water, if obtainable, should be supplied 

 to the roses, or, failing rain-water, water 

 from a pond or ditch will do almost equally 

 well. If neither of these be to hand, water 

 drawn from the " main," which has been 

 allowed to stand in the open in a tank or 

 barrel or other receptacle, serves very well, 

 and in the last resort water taken from 

 the tap direct must be made to serve our 

 purpose. As water direct from the tap is 

 generally very cold, much colder than the 

 atmosphere or the soil, and often hard 

 as well, we think it best to make holes 

 5n the soil of the beds at some little 



