STANDARD ROSES 57 



farmyard manure should be applied in autumn and 

 forked in the soil. In February Tonks's Manure or bone- 

 meal may be given. 



Suckers, i.e. growths from the stock on which the 

 rose proper is budded, are often a great nuisance on 

 standard roses. They form on the stem, even at the 

 top of the stem among the shoots of the rose, and a 

 watch needs to be kept in the month of May, when 

 suckers appear most freely, or one may find, when the 

 flowering season arrives, that one's care has been expended 

 on a shoot from the stock. Suckers often run under- 

 neath the soil for one or two feet, and then send up 

 growths ; they should be traced to the point of origin, 

 and there cut off. 



Weeping Standards. — ^Most of ue look upon weeping 

 standard roses as a modern creation, but they were 

 known and grown years ago. In the early seventies 

 Dean Hole wrote with enthusiasm concerning them : 

 " they form," he said, " such a floral fountain as may 

 have played in the fancy of our Laureate when he wrote : 

 ' The white rose weeps, she is late.' " But none of the 

 wichuraiana roses were available then, and these, owing 

 to their naturally slender growth, which droops readily, 

 make the best of all weeping standards. There is, how- 

 ever, still much to be said for the use in this form of 

 some of the old climbing roses, such as Fehcite Perpetue, 

 Dundee Rambler, and the Garland rose, to mention only 

 a few of those that are now less commonly grown. They 

 are graceful of growth and prodigal of bloom ; alas ! 

 that they are so fleeting. Weeping standards are real 



