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Apbil 11, 1012. 



jyjic Weekly Fbfiste^ Rgvkw^ 



18 



fair success of roses with hot water 

 alone, I have never seen roses of the 

 best quality produced with hot water 

 heat exclusively. Hot water and steam 

 in conjunction we consider ideal. If one 

 system breaks we have the other to 

 keep out frost. If in the cold of win- 

 ter the warm water pipes are in the 

 house, the moderate heat is beneficial, 

 but we do not want this heat in the 

 warmer days in spring and fall, when a 

 «team pipe about the houses is needed 

 at night, and, as the steam pipes cool 

 quickly, we have no heat on during the 

 day, when it is not wanted. A circula- 

 tion of air at night by means of open 

 ventilation, with a steam pipe on which 

 sulphur has been placed, is the means of 

 keeping off mildew and black spot, 

 which in summer are so apt to affect 

 roses. From 3 a. m. to 5 a. m. is the 

 danger time, and the air at night is 

 .iust as essential as in the day, for the 

 morning that finds the white dew set- 

 tled on the foliage at daylight is the 

 morning trouble starts. It is all due to 

 dead, stagnant air and poor ventilation, 

 which more air, a little sulphur and a 

 steam pipe or two will correct. 



I have stated on other occasions that 

 a good rose house is a house which will 

 grow roses well, and this is true, but 

 there are different kinds of roses, just 

 as there are different styles of houses. 

 I have seen good summer roses in poor 

 houses running north and south, but 

 these conditions are the opposite of the 

 ideal. My personal opinion is that an 

 even-span wide house is the best house 

 for roses and that qualification, even- 

 span, is put in because I believe the 

 even-span house is more properly ven- 

 tilated than the two-thirds-span or un- 

 even-span house, and, so far as shade 

 goes, any good, modern built iron con- 

 struction house is light enough in all 

 parts for the proper growing conditions, 

 although the more light the better, pro- 

 vided we do not go to the extreme of 

 laying glass the 24-inch way to get it. 



Drainage is an important factor, wor- 

 thy of consideration. With solid beds, 

 plain land tile covered with from ten to 

 eighteen inches of coarse gravel or coal 

 ashes makes drainage that will give 

 satisfaction. In building benches the 

 builder should never forget that wet 

 lumber swells and should allow for the 

 swell in building and leave the cracks 

 wide. We grow practically all our roses 

 in solid beds, but for growing young 

 stock and certain varieties of roses we 

 prefer the bench. 



Cultural Suggestions. 



Given, then, good soil, good water, 

 steam heat, or steam and hot water, 

 good houses, good plants, the question 

 is, how to produce the goods. A few 

 general pointers may be helpful. Build 

 up a plant first. Get something to 

 work on. Don't flower the first bot- 

 tom breaks and sacrifice your future 

 for the few j)ennies they will bring in 

 a glutted market in hot weather. Get 

 back to good, sound eyes and let them 

 grow. The root system will be in pro- 

 portion to top growth, and build the 

 top and you '11 have the roots. Water 

 freely, and especially is this true if 

 your roses are grafted. Wild roses 

 grow best in the swamps and your 

 Manetti root is a wild root. Just so 

 long as water can get away freely you 

 will seldom be able to overwater graft- 

 ed roses, and that time comes only 

 when you are cutting a heavy crop of 



Wallace R. Pienon. 



flowers and thus checking the root 

 action. 



Don t let spiders sap the life from 

 the foliage, as it leaves them without 

 lungs, for the leaves are the lungs, and 

 sometime when you see a sickly bunch 

 of spider-eaten plants think of a tu- 

 berculosis camp and clean their lungs 

 out with numerous good applications 

 of the hose and let them get a breath 

 again and go ahead. 



Don't mulch heavily, not under any 

 circumstances. Your root system will 

 be buried and killed for lack of air, 

 as your feeders are near the top and 

 until they have made new feeders there 

 can be little growth. Don't cut back 

 into the hard wood unless there is big 

 money in sight. Your next crop will 

 be longer breaking from the hard wood 

 and you are losing valuable time. 



Diversify the Supply. 



And, most important of all for sue 

 cess in growing roses for the open mar- 

 ket is, don 't grow what everyone else 

 grows just because they are growing it. 

 Increased glass area means more roses 

 grown. Suppose, for example, all the 

 new ranges were planted with Killar- 

 ney. White Killarney and Richmond. 

 Figure out the result for yourselves. 

 If you have any reason to be dissatis- 

 fied with this year's returns from your 

 crop, just figure what it will be in the 

 future with more of the same product 

 in the market. The way to avoid glut 

 markets is to fill the market with a 

 variety of roses and not with the same 

 identical thing. Give your retailer a 

 chance to show what he can do with 

 something besides Killarney. That 

 seems to me to be the solution of the 



problem: Education of the public to 

 be discriminating flower buyers through 

 our parks and flower shows, local ad- 

 vertising by the retailer, an assortment 

 of roses in sufficient quantity to insure 

 a steady supply. In all these things 

 the retailer, wholesaler and grower 

 must work in harmony for the good 

 of the trade. 



Keep roses in your stores twelve 

 months of the year. My Maryland, 

 Double White Killarney, Mrs. Aaron 

 Ward, Mrs. Taft,"- Radiance and roses 

 of the type of Christy Miller and 

 Princeton will make a good combina- 

 tion from March to December. Killar- 

 ney Queen, Killarney, Double Pink Kil- 

 larney, White Killarney, Richmond, 

 Ijady Hillingdon, Sunburst, in addition 

 to those previously mentioned, will in- 

 crease the variety and perhaps be at 

 the best when the former are not. I 

 regret that this list of varieties is not 

 longer, but every year adds some that 

 are worth growing and there is money 

 in any when properly grown and prop- 

 erly handled. 



The question of roses is broad and 

 it takes in pot roses, which subject is 

 a study in itself and on which T wish 

 to speak but briefly. Baby Ramblers, 

 Mrs. Cutbush, Dorothy Perkins. Flower 

 of Fairfield, Tausendschon and others 

 make a most interesting display and 

 medium-sized, well-grown plants are as 

 a rule easilv salable. The work of Mr. 

 Walsh, of Woods Hole, Mass., in bring- 

 ing climbing roses into the high place 

 they now hold was well worthy of the 

 American Rose Society's gold medal. 

 He is one of the men we honor, and 

 you have in Baltimore one who de- 

 serves and is given the admiration and 



