320 



Gardening for Amateurs 



up fairly straight, and is tied to a cane 

 or other support. Roots are soon thrown 

 out, thus forming a new plant, which can 

 be detached from the parent in autumn 

 and planted out permanently. 



Roses from Cuttings. Many Roses can 

 be grown on their own roots quite easily if 

 cuttings are inserted in the open garden in 

 the autumn. When scant care is taken of 

 such cuttings and they are left to their own 

 devices, they seem often to do best. It is 

 generally considered advisable to have 

 " heels " of old wood on the growths planted 

 out, but simple cuttings will root without 

 this ; the cut in such cases should be just 

 below a joint or eye. As a rule, cuttings are 

 from 6 inches to a foot or so in length. 

 Firm, well-ripened wood is best for this pur- 

 pose, and three-fourths of the cuttings should 

 be under the soil. The tips and all leaves, 

 save three or four at the top of each shoot, 

 should be cut off. Some people cut even 

 these few leaves in half, but I do not find 

 that this is necessary. The cuttings are 

 planted in a trench which has a layer of sand 

 silver sand for choice at the bottom, and 

 the bases of the cuttings should rest on this. 

 The cuttings must be planted firmly, that 

 is to say, the soil should be well trodden 

 around them. After severe weather this 

 treading in should be repeated, as hard frost 

 is liable to raise the cuttings in the soil. 

 The use of bell-glasses or cloches helps the 

 cuttings to root rapidly. 



Spring-planted Cuttings seldom do well 

 unless grown in heat, though they some- 

 times succeed in the, open, but autumn, 

 almost late autumn, is, beyond all question, 

 the best time to plant them. 



The fact that professional growers never 

 push the sale of " own-root " Roses, and 

 seldom or never advertise such Roses for 

 sale, may be taken as proof positive that 

 such plants are not so easily, quickly, and 

 cheaply raised as budded plants. An addi- 

 tional reason may be that by no means all 

 Roses do well on their own roots. None the 

 less, I feel some surprise that climbing Roses 

 are not more generally sold in this form, as 

 most of them do particularly well on their 

 own roots, and their owner is never worried 

 by "suckers," all growth being true Rose 

 growth. Then, if by any mischance the 



plant should be severely injured or even 

 killed down to the ground level by severe 

 frosts, new growth springs up with marvellous 

 rapidity and the damage is soon made good. 



NOTES AND NOTIONS 



Planting in heavy, wet clay in bleak 

 districts is better deferred until spring, as 

 the Roses, if planted in autumn, have 

 little chance of getting well rooted, and so 

 are likely to be killed by severe weather 

 and the effect of constant rain. In spring 

 the plants have got safely past the worst 

 dangers, whilst rooted in the nursery, and 

 have only better and better weather to look 

 forward to. 







Don't fill gaps late in autumn amongst 

 Roses planted in heavy, wet land. If the 

 work must be done then, better take up 

 all the Roses in the bed, dig the whole bed 

 over, plant new and replant old bushes at 

 the same time. If holes be made in such 

 land here and there, and Roses be planted 

 in them, such holes are little better than 

 death traps, as they hold the wet like minia- 

 ture ponds, and the wretched Roses have a 

 most unhappy time. 







When pruning Roses, if the pith looks 

 brown or discoloured, keep on cutting, a 

 little at a time, until the wood is not dis- 

 coloured in the centre. The discoloration 

 of the pith is usually the result of frost on 

 unripened growth, and if such wood be left 

 it will be useless and will eventually die back. 

 



If a brown patch appears on the bark of 

 climbing or other Roses, and if this patch 

 make a complete ring round the stem, shoot, 

 or branch, the wood above this will be of no 

 use, although for a while buds may break 

 and leaves spring out above this mark. In 

 the end the growth will die back to this dis- 

 coloured ring, so all the wood from a little 

 below the mark should be cut away at once, 

 right down to healthy pith. 

 



Tonks' manure is a most useful manure 

 which is best applied to the soil in February. 

 This manure was discovered by a Mr. Tonks 

 in a simple but distinctly ingenious way, 

 which consisted in burning Rose bushes, and 



