MABCH 18, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



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in October and November. Keep the 

 buds pinched off until the plants are 

 strong and heaKhy and breaking freely, 

 and at this point a top-dressing of cow 

 manure will be beneficial. 



Gf . w Only a Few Varieties. 



Do not grow too many varieties. For 

 the small grower or beginner I would 

 recommend but three kinds; Bride, 

 Bridesmaid and Kichmond. Don't fool 

 with the American Beauty; let the 

 Beauty specialists attend to them. 



If roses must be grown in a small 

 way, give them as many of the advan- 

 tages that they receive on larger places 

 as possible. Acquire as much knowledge 

 as can be gained from reading and prac- 

 tical experience, and then see how large 

 a per cent of this knowledge can be put 

 into practice. / 



-^Therc 



ROSE GARDEN. 



[A paper by J. F. Husa, of Hartford, Conn., 

 read liefore the American Ilose Soflet.v at tba 

 BufTalQ convention, March 17 to 19, 1909.] 



It may be an unusual moment to write, 

 when naiure is in winter garb, about the 

 rose garden; still, the very name is 

 enough for the lover, to stimulate 

 thoughts which bring back everything 

 so highly interesting in the rose garden. 

 Everyone may not care to have a garden 

 of roses exclusively, but who among lov- 

 ers of flowers would not like to have in 

 his own garden the scene of three years 

 ago that the rose committee witnessed 

 here, on our place, which for private 

 uses may be taken as a model f 



But we cannot leave the rose with this 

 notice. Grand as are the masses of roses 

 we have occasionally met wiih, we have 

 never yet seen anything even approach- 

 ing our conception of the scenes of 

 grandeur and beauty that might be 

 worked out by the massing of the mod- 

 ern varieties of roses. A rose garden 

 is now almost indispensable, either as a 

 part of, or as an adjunct to, every large 

 and comprehensive garden. If in the 

 original plan of a garden it cannot be 

 conveniently worked in with the gen- 

 eral arrangement of floral gardens, then 

 a separate piece of ground is set aside 

 for the purpose. This I have often seen, 

 and have always found it a most inter- 

 esting spot. But apart from the immedi- 

 ate question, whether there is a separate 

 rose garden or not, roses should be 

 found plentifully in every general gar- 

 den, on account of the varied forms they 

 are capable of assuming, either naturally 

 or by training. They are seldom out of 

 place anywhere. What with dwarf roses, 

 standards and climbers, there exists am- 

 ple material to adorn the most select 

 position, or to obliterate the most awk- 

 ward spots, bringing them into harmony 

 with the general design. 



Form of the Rose Garden. 



But what should the form of a rose 

 garden bo ? I will give my ideas as 

 briefly as possible. 



It should be formed, if possible, on 

 level ground, with as many beds as the 

 apace selected will allow. Such beds 

 should be four feet wide, planted with 

 three or four rows of plants, two feet 

 apart, and a grass border three or four 

 feet wide between beds will enable any- 

 one to reach each plant to cut the roses 

 without stepping into the bed. Such 

 grass borders are easily kept, by mowing 

 once a week with a lawn mower. At the 

 same time this grass walk sets off the 

 flowers to great advantage. With some 

 fifteen or twenty beds, with a double 



J. F. Husi. 



amount of well selected, best flowering 

 varieties, say, forty plants in each bed, 

 it will make a very attractive collec- 

 tion. These beds may be in the form of 

 a square or oblong. 



The rose garden can be made very 

 attractive and artistic. All depends upon 

 the gardener who has charge of such es- 

 tates, or upon the landscape gardeners 

 who have to make designs for a small bed 

 or a regular rose garden. 



The rose garden should be surrounded 

 with a border, three feet wide, of hy- 

 brid teas, a few fine standards or French 

 briars, or of laxa slock, which are the 

 two most flexible stems for the layering 

 in the fall. 



Fences^ Pergolas and Tet races. 



A very light wire fence, with a %-inch 

 iron post, with two or three wires a foot 

 or eighteen inches apart, and planted 

 with Crimson Rambler roses, will make 

 an excellent appearance from a distance. 

 A still more imposing scene can be ob- 

 tained by forming a pergola, which can 

 be easily constructed with %-inch gas 

 pipe driven into an 18-inch cedar or 

 locust post, eight feet high, with a cross 

 bar on the top from one post to the 

 other, with a grass walk in between, as 

 many of our rose members will remember 

 having seen at our place, which was 

 pronounced by all a veritable paradise 

 of roses. Such a pergola or arch should 

 be planted wilh as many varieties as 

 there are posts, or not more than two to 

 a post, as with our advanced progress in 

 hybridization of so many valuable climb- 

 ing roses, the choice is at everyone 's 

 command, and goi'geous sights can be 

 obtained, of most bewildering beauty, of 

 plants that bring forth their blossoms 

 at the same periods, of hybrid perpetuals 

 and the rest of teas or hybrid teas. 



Again, a rf>se garden may be laid nnt 



on a terrace, *as ours is located. There 

 may be a bank sodded or sown with 

 grass seed. But such a bank should be 

 in full harmony with the rest of the rose 

 garden and should be planted with trail- 

 ing roses and pinned down, making it a 

 ' ' bed of roses. ' ' It will add greatly to 

 the rose garden. 



Good taste and, art should be exem- 

 plified in every detail of a rose garden. 

 We have also a great many dwarf roses, 

 like the Baby Eamblers and the mi«Iget 

 roses, that are used to form borders, 

 especially around hybrid perpetual be<ls, 

 to hide the bare ground. They are very 

 attractive, and the result is one that will 

 meet with the deligh ed approval of 

 every lover of rose gardens. Such sights 

 cannot easily be forgotten. 



Soil and Mantjre. 



Almost any soil will grow roses, as 

 we see them in yards or gardens, pro- 

 viding a proper selection of varieties is 

 made, and attention is given *to the ap- 

 plication of suitable manure. Roses, of 

 course, enjoy a rich soil, but to keep 

 adding cow, horse and pig manure upon 

 a naturally rich ground is not as bene- 

 ficial as a change to nitrate of soda in 

 the case of light soils, or soda for those 

 that are naturally very close and stiff. 

 This subject is, therefore, more a ques- 

 tion of judicious manuring than selec- 

 tion. The golden rule is to add what 

 the ground is most deficient in, and 

 never to apply close, moisture-retaining 

 manure to a soil that is naturally stiff 

 and moist. A very dry and sandy com- 

 post may easily be made suitable, by 

 adding a few loads of stiff, fibrous loam 

 and clay, also by manuring with fairly 

 Well rotted cow manure; while in many 

 cases, by adopting the opposite plan, a 

 stiff, poor soil may be worked into 

 equally gooil condition. The ideal ma- 



