Mabch 26, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



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vegetable matter, but the soluble salts 

 are apt to be present in large quantities, 

 because there has been little water to 

 dissolve them and wash them away. 

 Some of these salts are beneficial and 

 some of them are harmful. In many 

 localities alkaline salts are present in 

 such quantities as to make the soil ut- 

 terly useless, and the water of the streams 

 naturally partakes of the chemical qual- 

 ities of the soil, so that in a great many 

 cases the water is so badly impregnated 

 as to be utterly unfit for use. Many 

 florists in the arid region have failed 

 because they neglected to investigate the 

 quality of their water supply before de- 

 ciding upon a location. 



It is generally possible to find soil 

 which will produce good roses in the 

 field, but it is difficult to find it heavy 

 enough to be satisfactory and at the 

 same time porous enough to permit of 

 heavy watering in the benches. Our 

 heaviest soil, called adobe, formed from 

 decomposed shale, is certain to contain 

 alkali, and cracks very badly when dry; 

 but by a careful selection of soil most 

 growers are meeting with fairly satis- 

 factory results, although there is still 

 much to be desired and the ideal soil 

 has not yet been obtained. 



It is not an expensive or a difficult 

 matter to secure a determination of the 

 soluble salts in a sample of water, and 

 the Agricultural Department will furnish 

 valuable advice in such cases, if request- 

 ed. When it comes to an analysis of the 

 soil, the situation is very different, for 

 then the problem becomes very complex, 

 and what with soluble and insoluble food, 

 moisture content, mechanical condition 

 and nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria 

 in numerous varieties, the layman search- 

 ing for information becomes confused 

 and is quite ready to agree with a re- 

 cently published statement of Professor 

 Corbett, to the effect that the plant 

 itself must tell you by its action whether 

 the soil is suitable. Yet even the soil 

 sharps quarrel among themselves, and 

 many of them claim that soil analysis 

 is a safe guide. Your Illinois Experi- 

 ment Station seems to be among the 

 latter; and, more than that, they sup- 

 port their claims by results which lead us 

 to hope that the present confusion will 

 some day crystallize into tested and ac- 

 cepted methods, whereby the man in the 

 laboratory may give wise counsel to both 

 the man with the hoe and the one with 

 the hose. 



G)mpostins[ in G>Iorado. 



Owing to the exceedingly drv atmo- 

 sphere and the light rainfall, it' is very 

 difficult to get good results from the 

 composting of soil in Colorado. If sod 

 is piled up, it does not rot, but dries 

 out. If manure is mixed with the soil, 

 its chemical condition remains unaltered 

 for a long time. Some of our rose 

 growers have, on that account, absolutely 

 abandoned the use of manure in soil put 

 into the benches, and all growers use it 

 with great caution. When used as a 

 top-dressing, it should be mixed with 

 about an equal quantity of soil. It is 

 safe to say that if a rose grower in 

 Denver were to top-dress his benches with 

 such quantities of green manure as are 

 used in the vicinity of Chicago, he would 

 hardly have a leaf left on any of his 

 plants at the end of a week. We Den- 

 ver growers are simply amazed at the 

 impunity with which manure is used 

 in this vicinity. 



Among the ordinary evils which rose 

 growers have to contend with, there are 

 none of them which we do not have. The 



A Glimpse of the National Rose Show, Chicago, March 25-27. 



dry air seems to suit the red spider to 

 perfection, but with our continual sun- 

 shine we are able to syringe the roses 

 freely, without any bad effect. Black 

 spot attacks the Beauties and hybrid 

 teas to some extent, but is not nearly 

 the scourge that it is in the east. Thrips 

 are like the poor, and arc always with 

 us, though I cannot vouch for as many 

 varieties as your Illinois Experiment 

 Station claims; and the greenfly propa- 

 gates as freely with us as elsewhere, 

 but is eradicated long before we get 

 rid of the thrips. 



Prevalence of Mildew. 



Mildew has been quite a problem with 

 us in August and September. In the 

 summer time our houses not infrequently 

 show a temperature of 110 degrees, when 

 they are not shaded, although it is rare 

 indeed that the weather bureau reports 

 any temperature above 95 degrees, and 

 some of our September days are nearly 

 as hot as midsummer. We frequently 

 get a night temperature in June, July 

 and August, of 45 degrees, with 6 or 

 7 degrees lower than that on rare oc- 

 casions, and we expect a severe frost 

 about the middle of September. At the 

 place where I have charge, we keep 

 steam in the boilers all through the 

 summer, believing that it pays to do 

 this as a protection against mildew; 

 and yet, last summer we had a great 

 deal of mildew, while one of our neigh 

 bors did not fire at all and his stock 

 was perfectly clean. Owing to the dry 

 air, one would naturally expect us to 

 be free from this trouble, and I am not 

 competent to say why we are not. 



A number of years ago our tea roses 

 were not producing well, and were not 

 making a good growth. Investigation 

 disclosed the presence of immense num- 

 bers of eel worms. Our dry climate and 

 our mild winters seem to be ,iust suited 

 to the production of nematodes in the 

 open ground. After a very thorough 

 comparative test, we abandoned the grow- 

 ing of tea roses on their own roots, 

 and have now, for a number of years, 



grown them only on Manetti. For a con- 

 siderable time we sterilized the soil that 

 we put in the benches, but this proc- 

 ess has been abandoned, as the Manetti 

 stocks have seemed to be perfectly /im- 

 mune. I believe that a large proportion 

 of the tea roses grown in Colorado are 

 now grown on Manetti stocks. 



The growing of American Beauties on 

 Manetti has been quite extensively tried, 

 but the results have not seemed to be 

 (lecisive either for or against this method, 

 and the gain, if any, was so slight that 

 all Beauties are now grown on their 

 own roots. 



Native Roses of the State. 



So far as I know, none of our native 

 roses have ever been used as stocks upon 

 which to graft or bud roses for forcing 

 or for 'garden use, and I presume the 

 probabilities are against securing any 

 good re.sults, but the experiment ought 

 to be worth trying. We have one or 

 two native roses that are quite vigorous 

 in their growth, and they are, doubtless, 

 resistant to the evil effects of the al- 

 kaline salts so generally prevalent in the 

 soil. Probably nothing but an actual 

 test could determine how well they would 

 respond to winter forcing, though the 

 chances are that they would prove re- 

 bellious. 



Dormant roses of all kinds are hard 

 for us to handle. They are slow in 

 making roots, and it requires careful 

 handling to keep the wood from shrivel- 

 ing. Such roses as the Crimson Rambler 

 are always in evidence in the stores at 

 Easter time, but plants that are really 

 well done are always scarce, and no 

 grower can be absolutely certain of his 

 results. 



Our people, as a rule, are but just be- 

 ginning to show a proper appreciation 

 of garden rorses and shrubbery, and with- 

 in the la.st few years business in these 

 lines has largely increased. 



Owing to the peculiar climatic con- 

 ditions already outlined, the growing 

 of roses in the garden presents a great 

 (Continued on page 26) 



