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Afbil 6, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists'' Review* 



U27 



MISCELUNEOUS 

 SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Vj.'-Ji'-K •"■;?J. 



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Rambler Roses for Forcing:. 



riorists have to think a great ways 

 ahead and he who does this is usually 

 best off when the market is at hand. We 

 have seen some beautiful specimens of 

 Bambler roses of late, which were ex- 

 hibited at the Boston rose show. For 

 those who can and do lift these Bam- 

 blers from, the ground in November and 

 force for the following Easter, we have 

 nothing to say, but the average florist is 

 not successful with that method and there 

 is a surer way of getting a well-flowered 

 plant, even if it does entail a little more 

 labor. And now is the time to prepare 

 for the plant that you want to sell a year 

 hence. 



If you have stock on your own grounds 

 that you planted out last spring, they hav- 

 ing made a few strong canes during 

 summer, you have the finest material to 

 begin with. If you do not have such 

 plants, then buy of one of our good 

 nursery firms some strong plants that 

 were grown in the field last summer. 

 Prune last summer's growth back to 

 within five or six inches. Pot them in 

 6, 7 or 8-inch pots, according to strength 

 of plant. Use a heavy loam with a fourth 

 of cow manure, not too old, and pot 

 firmly. Start them in a cold frame that 

 you can keep close until root action be- 

 gins. A daily spraying is always bene- 

 ficial. You will be sure to get a num- 

 ber of breaks from these plants and when 

 the young growths are three or four 

 inches long select four or five of the 

 strongest and rub ofif the others. When 

 once the young growths start you are 

 sure the roots are also at work and then 

 remove them to a good, light bench. In 

 fact, a rose house would be the place, 

 although by no means a necessity. 



Free growing as these Ramblers are, 

 they easily succumb to mildew, so while 

 making their growth under glass, up to 

 the end of July, they should not be sub- 

 jected to extremes of heat or cold or be 

 allowed to get too dry at the roots. 

 With a daily syringing during their grow- 

 ing time they will make fine, long canes 

 and if ripened oif outdoors in the fall 

 you cannot fail to have plants that will 

 break and flower from the pot to the tip 

 of the canes. But more of that here- 

 after. It is now you want to start. Do 

 not think there is much labor or expense 

 over all this. A hundred Ramblers will 

 take up little room before the first of 

 June, when you have plenty of room, and 

 they are outside or in a cold frame the 

 rest of the time until you start them 

 growing in January. 



A Famous Bed of Ramblers. 



The popular Crimson Rambler will, per- 

 haps, be always chief favorite on ac- 

 count of its brilliant color, contrasting 

 with its green foliage, yet there are 

 others well worth growing, so buy some 

 of the other desirable varieties. Their 

 treatment is the same. Dorothy Perkins 

 is a beautiful pink, with distinct foliage. 

 The Farquhar is a fine rose pink, with 

 deep green foliage. Try some of both 

 of them. Someone at Boston made men- 



tion of the fact that these climbers, par- 

 ticularly Crimson Rambler, are grand in 

 a bed or mass. This is well known to 

 many and recalls to the writer the bed of 

 Crimson Ramblers at the Pan American 

 in 1901. If you wanted to duplicate such 

 a bed, you should plant now, or within 

 the next few weeks, or, in better words, 

 while the plants are dormant. 



That famous bed had one great ad- 

 vantage, viz., the soil, a foot of heavy, 

 yellow clay loam, which had been piled 

 up as sod for a year, with at least a 

 fourth its weight of cow manure. The 

 plants arrived about the second week in 

 June. Think of the date. They were 



growths were tied up to a stake her* 

 and there and some strong canes were 

 tied together to form an arch, but the 

 general surface of the bed was as in- 

 formal as possible. About the following 

 July never was there a more brilliant 

 sight. The bed was of irregular form, 

 about a thousand square feet and there 

 must have been 50,000 trusses of bloom. 

 A picture of this bed was published in the 

 Review, with F. R. Pierson standing in 

 the background, admiring his exhibit. 



Planting Hardy Roses. 



Some say plant hardy roses, particu- 

 larly hybrid perpetuals, in the fall. This 

 is not good advice for our latitude. 

 Spring is the time for us, and as early 

 as you can, as you would any hardy de- 

 ciduous shrub, and tell your customers not 

 to expect too much the first year. 



The difiiculty is, our customers want a 

 fine show the first year. It can 't be 

 (lone. Supposing you plant this month! If 

 you cut each dormant cane down to three 

 or four eyes you should not lose one 

 plant in a thousand. This class of roses, 



M. H. Walsh's Seedling Rambler Rose, Lady Gay. 



dry little sticks £hat were either imported 

 or had been in a root house all winter and 

 spring. When the bed was planted you 

 had to look closely to discover that there 

 was anything there, for the dry little 

 stems were cut within an inch of the 

 ground. With water and mulching and 

 water ad libitum throughout the summer 

 the ground was covered with growth by 

 October. With a covering of pine 

 boughs, they came through the winter 

 with scarcely a shoot killed. Strong 



the most important for the garden, must 

 be cut down. You will the following 

 June and July get a few flowers, on va- 

 rieties like Magna Charta perhaps a good 

 many, but they should be pinched oflf 

 quite short. It is the wood for next year 

 that you want to encourage and if you do 

 not get good, strong growths this year 

 you cannot expect fine blooms next year, 

 or succeeding years. How simple it is 

 to have fine beds of Paul Neyron, Mar- 

 garet Dickson or Ulrich Brunner if you 



