A Rose Garden That Gave Results -By Josiah D. Whitney, 



A REFUTATION OF ALL THE COMMON BUGABOO IDEAS ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY OF GROWING ROSES 

 AND GETTING FIRST-CLASS BLOOMS — FLOWERS ALL SUMMER AND FALL AND AT LITTLE COST 



New- 

 Jersey 



I THINK I was made into a rosarian 

 suddenly by reading in a garden book 

 some such prohibition as this: "The 

 first thing a novice always wants to grow 

 is roses, although it ought to be the last." 



The implied challenge is enough to make 

 a rosarian of anybody. Every garden 

 person knows that being a novice has 

 nothing to do with the case. That advice 

 should merely have read: 



"Nobody ought to try to grow roses 

 who is not willing to show a little common 

 sense and a little devotion." 



My rose garden — which at the time 

 of this writing is a little more than a year 

 old — has upset so many of the popular 

 beliefs that I am encouraged to set down 

 a few of the facts about it. 



Roses are generally regarded as being 

 expensive. We have 230 bushes in 30 

 of the finest varieties; and the cost, up 

 to date, has been $25. 



Another belief is that roses require an 

 unheard-of amount of care. I have man- 

 aged ours singlehanded in odds and ends 

 of time. A few minutes a day, most of 

 the time, are all they need. 



A third notion is that it is almost im- 

 possible to keep the foliage looking well. 

 Nothing is easier, if you keep the plants 

 themselves well. 



We had also read that rose bushes, out of 

 flower, could never be an ornament to the 

 landscape, and that after the June festival 

 there would be no further returns till the 

 following year. Our plantings have been 

 beautiful and have borne flowers constantly 

 from May 15th till the first snow after 

 Thanksgiving. 



There were other bugaboos, such as 

 the sucker peril with budded stock, but 

 they all failed to materialize. 



For several days in the spring of 1909 

 my neighbors thought that I was crazy. 

 They saw me getting out before breakfast 

 on raw, cold mornings, clad in old clothes 

 and hip boots. The plants I was putting 

 in looked insignificant — being dormant, 

 leafless stock — and the people regarded 

 it as an act of folly that I cut the plants 

 down to the ground. Many came into 

 the yard and inquired: "Aren't you put- 

 ting them too close together?" Others 

 said: "Do you have to plant them so 

 deep?" and "Isn't it too cold yet?" 



I did not undertake to be at all positive, 

 never having raised a rose before, and only 

 knowing what I had read. However, 

 the following summer — three months 

 later — we had armfuls of flowers. 



I waited one year before writing this 

 article, to see whether the performance 

 would be repeated. It was, many fold. 



The rose garden came about originally 

 through the accidental opportunity to 

 buy some plants very cheaply. The lust 



of possession, reinforced by an unusually 

 low market, overcame me, and soon I 

 had several hundred bushes. They were 

 mostly Dutch stock, budded on Manetti 

 roots. But some were American grown. 



We have been able to give away twenty- 

 five or more plants to friends, and sell a 

 number in their second season to people 

 who wanted roses which they had seen in 

 bloom. The account stands at present 

 as follows: 



Expended on plants . . . $24 . 45 



Labor 1.50 



Manure 2 . 50 



Sprayer 2 . 00 



Insecticides 2 . 00 



Straw jackets .25 



$3 2 -7o 



Deduct for those sold . . 7 . 70 



$25.00 



There are 230 plants left, as follows: 

 Bush roses: 13 Frau Karl Druschki, 

 white; 5 Killarney, brilliant pink; 4 Hugh 

 Dickson, crimson shaded scarlet; 9 Kaiserin 

 Aug. Victoria, white to lemon; 14 Gruss an 

 Teplitz, fiery red; 3 Paul Neyron, deep 

 pink; 10 Maman Cochet, pink; 5 Prince 

 Camille de Rohan, almost black; 7 Magna 

 Charta, bright pink; 1 Mme. Plan tier, 

 white; 1 La France, pink; 9 American 

 Beauty, crimson, 5 Margaret Dickson, 

 white; 13 Mme. Caroline Testout, clear 

 pink; 5 Mme. Jules Grolez, red; n Ulrich 

 Brunner, crimson scarlet; 8 Mrs. John 

 Laing, soft pink; 7 Clio, flesh; 5 Duke of 

 Edinburgh, dark red; 3 Gen. Jacqueminot, 

 rich crimson; 1 Captain Christy, pink; 



Clio. Flesh Colored (in the foreground) and Mag- 

 na Charta. a bright pink 



80 



1 Bride, white; 5 Perle des Blanches, 

 white; 4 Persian Yellow, yellow; 7 Soleil 

 d'Or, yellow and copper. 



Standards: 4 Gruss an Teplitz, fiery red. 



Climbers: 3 Gloire de Dijon, creamy sal- 

 mon; 2 Dorothy Perkins, pink; 3 Prairie 

 Queen, pink; 2 Hiawatha, scarlet; 1 Tau- 

 sendschoen, white to deep pink; 2 Lady 

 Gay, cherry pink. 



Rugosas: 48 red or white, single. 



Miscellaneous: 9 names uncertain. 



I decided to grow primarily for "cut 

 flowers;" and so I had an Italian dig up 

 four long rectangular beds in the rear half 

 of the side yard. These beds were so 

 placed that the roses would have air and 

 light on all sides. There was no tree near 

 enough to dispute the soil and the sun 

 fell on them all day except in the late 

 afternoon. I had read Dean Hole's de- 

 scription of a suitable place for roses, and 

 this seemed to fit it, save that my loca- 

 tion was somewhat windswept. I tried 

 to remedy this by planting a hedge of 

 rugosa roses and other shrubbery to the 

 north of it. The rugosas are so hardy 

 that they mind nothing. Some of them 

 were planted on December 15, 1908, when 

 they had to be inserted with the aid of a 

 pickaxe. 



Early in February I had measured off 

 the beds and sprinkled sheep manure on 

 the snow where they were to be. As the 

 snow melted the richness sank in. The 

 ground was naturally rich; and when, 

 in March, Tony came round to dig the beds, 

 all that seemed to be needed was to lay 

 a little old cow manure in the bottom 

 of them. 



Excepting some of the rugosas, all the 

 plants were put in between March 20th and 

 April 4th. After struggling with the 

 first bush, the vision of 250 more to plant 

 was indeed appalling. The term "budded 

 low" is, in most cases with Dutch roses, 

 a misnomer. The roots are likely to be 

 long, and they call for a deep hole. Then 

 care has to be exercised not to get the 

 manure against the roots, and each plant 

 requires a half bucketful of water to settle 

 it. When the planting was finally com- 

 pleted, I spent several weeks with a bottle 

 of peroxide of hydrogen and needles re- 

 moving thorns from my hands. 



The loss by death was less than 5 per 

 cent. Cutting the bushes back had the 

 effect of making them grow strongly, and 

 the stems stout, so that the bushes stood 

 up of their own accord, A third result 

 was that larger and fewei: blossoms were 

 obtained. Within three months of that 

 first planting, we cut a Frau Karl Druschki 

 which measured five and one-half inches 

 in diameter. 



We expected to have some flowers the 

 first year, but we were unprepared for the 



