December, 1915. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Garden Roses* 



tT8 



I 



SO much has been written about 

 roses as to the soil, the planting 

 and their care as applicable to 

 our local requirements, that I wish to 

 deal more particularly here with the 

 selection of the roses for the garden, 

 for from the bewildering hundreds of 

 varieties of roses which are to be had 

 to-day it is extremely hard to choope 

 by the mere descriptions given in the 

 catalogue. Accurate as these descrip- 

 tions may be they are apt to describe 

 the more virtuous attributes of each 

 and leave the grower to discover their 

 other traits. 



There are not merely hundreds of 

 varieties of roses, but thousands, and 

 gleaning from this multitude the rose 

 growers of England and Ireland list in 

 their catalogues some 750 varieties 

 each, and yearly about fifty new cre- 

 ations make their debut with the great- 

 est of hopes of their originators behind 

 them. These great hopes are liber- 

 ally interwoven into the glowing 

 descriptions of their charms, and, 

 alas, at the same time many retire 

 into oblivion after a brief stay, 

 when time has proven that beau- 

 tiful as every rose may be there are 

 others much more entitled to be in- 

 cluded in the list of worthies. 



All rose gardens have a beginning, 

 and the realization of first hopes in- 

 stills that enthusiasm -yvhich is the 

 great essential of the future. The 

 proper roses must be secured to start 

 with. There were two determining in- 

 fluences in the selection of my own 

 first roses, my rose growing neighbors 

 who advised the planting of Richmond, 

 and the local nur.seryman who made 

 the statement that hybrid perpetuals 

 only should be attempted by the ama- 

 teur for outside planting, as teas and 

 hybrid teas were too delicate for this 

 climate. To Richmond, once my most 

 beloved rose, do I tender my thanks 

 for an enthusiasm which can never be 

 rquenched. 



Richmond bloomed that first year 

 'many, many times with no apparent ex- 

 haustion, and I well remember after 

 an absence from the garden of several 

 days how I found a most perfect scar- 

 let bloom, in the waning days of No- 

 vember, enca.sed in a sheathing of ice. 

 The lack of bloom on my hybrid per- 

 petuals that first year was a disap- 

 pointment, and that winter when the 

 first real rose list was evolved the 

 blooming quality of the hybrid teas 

 was predominant in my selection. T 

 am afraid that had I gained my first 



Percival H. Mitchell, Toronto, Ont. 



impressions of rose gardening with 

 the hybrid perpetuals I had bought 1 

 would have agreed with the prevailing 

 general opinion that the rose garden 

 was quite beyond the ordinary amateur 

 gardener, 



However, by the continual harassing 

 of my rose growing acquaintances, by 

 delving into many rose books written 

 by authoritative authors, and by con- 

 stantly poring over some English gar- 

 dening magazines, I eventually com- 

 piled a further list, including about a 

 hundred varieties, which were almost 

 from universal opinion considered to 

 be the best for garden growing. Prom 

 my associations with these during the 

 last few seasons I can say that their 

 suitability for English gardens is quite 

 duplicated for Ontario, and, further, 

 that in several cases the roses have 

 done better here than they are ex- 

 pected to do even in England. 



I wish to emphasize that practically 

 every garden rose can be grown in On- 

 tario, and with but a reasonable pro- 

 tection in winter. The cold of winter 

 does not seem to be a harmful element ; 

 to my mind it is the thawing and freez- 

 ing that works the harm, so that it is 

 possibly because of our steady winter 

 weather that rose growing in Ontario 

 is so much more successful than fur- 

 ther to the south of us. The protec- 

 tion usually given in winter to roses, 

 by hilling up, is more to keep the rose 

 from thawing until real spring arrives 

 than to keep the rose from freezing. 



There are three large classes of roses 



— teas, hybrid teas and hybrid per- 

 petuals. The lines between these fami- 

 lies are not so distinctly drawn as for- 

 merly, as the hybridizing has been pro- 

 ductive of many roses having the char- 

 acteristics of all the classes. Tea roses 

 are straight descendants of Rosa in- 

 dica, a native of China, and from this 

 source it derives its delicacy of form 

 and fragrance, as also its delicacy of 

 constitution. Most of the tea roses can 

 be readily grown here, the great ad- 

 vance in hybrid teas, however, have 

 seen the development of many which 

 readily duplicate most of the charac- 

 teristics of the teas, but include a vigor 

 which the tea rose lacks. Even in 

 England the tea rose demands attention 

 in cultivation and protection. 



The great modern class of roses is 

 formed of the hybrid teas. The hybrid 

 perpetual was the forerunner in popu- 

 larity and the rather meagre second 

 blooming of this class, quite sufficient 

 in its day of only June blooming roses 

 to justify its title of "perpetual," was 

 a great boon to the rosarian. The hy- 

 brid perpetual and the hybrid tea are 

 very closely related. The hybrid per- 

 petual was derived from the crossing 

 of the tea rose ancestors and Rosa gal* 

 lica, which is the parent of the cabbage 

 rose of our grandparents' day and the 

 mosses and damask roses, and is the 

 element which has produced the showi- 

 ness of the hybrid perpetual. The hy- 

 brid teas in turn have been produced 

 by the crossing of the teas and hybrid 

 perpetuals, and from these sources 



•Extract from paper read at the recent con- 

 vention In Toronto of the Ontario Horticul- 

 tural Association. 



I'aconles .such as the.se are helplnp to mnke this flower one of the mo.st popular grown In our 



Canadian g-ardens. This variety is the festiva maxima. The bush had 114 blooms. It was 



grown In the garden of Mr. A. H. Baker, Hamilton, Ont. 



