THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



127 



thing remains at all after this apparent 

 destruction, these same plants will be found 

 to bear profusely before the season is over. 

 Rugosas, climbers and pillar roses should 

 be pruned as little as possible, merely re- 

 moving the old wood past bearing, cutting 

 out dead wood and trimming back the ends 

 of the remaining shoots slightly, after training 

 them. It may be stated here that in training 

 all climbers, you must avoid straight-up 

 training, or the sap will all tend to the top, 

 denuding the lower part of the plant. First 

 bend the shoot in one direction or another, 

 then let it tend upward if necessary. If a 

 climber has developed more shoots than it 

 appears able to support", the weakest may 

 be removed, remembering that in most 

 cases the bloom of any one year is best on 

 the last year's shoots. t kt ti^L k& 



CULTIVATION, SUCKERS, LIQUID MANURE 



By April 15th the bushes will usually be 

 in sap, and from that time on the surface of 

 the soil must be kept hoed and in a careful 

 state of cultivation. As seasons go, it may 

 be assumed that a hoeing will be required 

 every fortnight until mid-July, at which time, 

 after a final hoeing, a good mulching will 

 be found of service. 



During this cultivation, and at all con- 

 venient times, keep a sharp lookout for 

 suckers, which are growths shooting up 

 from the roots from below the graft. Where 

 the rose is budded on the briar, as is usually 

 the case, the difference of foliage is so marked 

 as to attract attention at once, the briar 

 having very light green and small leaves as 

 compared to the rose leaf, and also a gross 

 reddish-white stem when young. The suck- 

 ers should be carefully broken off at their 

 point of junction with the root, if this can 

 be done without disturbing the plant. 

 Otherwise they should be cut off as low 

 in the ground as the shears will reach. If 

 this detail is neglected, the result may be a 

 choice crop of briars with corresponding 

 shyness of rose bloom. Manetti stock is 

 more difficult to detect, as it resembles the 

 rose in leaf. It should not be used as a 

 stock for out-of-door plants. 



When the roses are setting their buds, a 

 great benefit will be derived from the applica- 

 tion of liquid manure. 



The fluids from the barn-yard, and par- 

 ticularly from the cow stable, if collected in a 

 tank as they should be, will make a re- 

 markable difference in the rose crop. As 

 collected, this manure is far too strong for 

 application and it should be diluted to about 

 the color of ale and applied freely, preferably 

 just after a rain. 



In my practice this application is made to 

 the "June roses" by June 1st and to the 

 Teas and Hybrid Teas by June 15th, and 

 again to both classes in about mid- July, at 

 the rate of not less than half a gallon to the 

 plant; double the quantity would do no 

 harm. Do not forget the climbers in the 

 distrubution. 



Watering will be necessary in dry weather, 

 and to be of any use it should be copious, fully 

 a gallon to a plant. In all the applications 

 of fluid, remember that the feeding fibres are 



out in the bed, not around the stem; or as an 

 English authority puts it, "When you feed 

 a man, you put the bread in his hand, not 

 on his shoulder." 



Avoid watering in the heat of the sun. 



WHY AND HOW TO MULCH 



By mid- July, when the great heats are on, 

 give the beds a good final hoeing and cover 

 them with a liberal mulch of cow manure, 

 or stable manure, rather well spent. The 

 object is not to enrich the soil, but to retain 

 the moisture. It may be necessary to water 

 in spite of this assistance, but it will be 

 found a great help. Remove the surplus 

 mulch in the fall before putting on the winter 

 protection, so that the level of the beds may 

 not be raised too high. 



CUTTING AND DISBUDDING 



A queer fallacy induces some people to 

 leave the roses unpicked with the idea of 

 encouraging the plant. As a matter of fact, 

 roses should not only be picked as freely as 

 possible, but with as long stems as the growth 

 will permit, merely observing the precaution 

 to leave an outward-growing eye, or perhaps 

 two for safety, on the stem below the cut. 



Where it has been found impossible to 

 pick all the roses for use, then the plants 

 should be gone over daily and all faded 

 flowers removed to a point at least two eyes 

 below the flowers. A regular practice of 

 this precaution is the only means of assuring 

 some autumnal bloom, in our climate, 

 from hybrid perpetuals. 



Disbud freely on all free bloomers. Usu- 

 ally the H. P.'s bloom in clusters of three. 

 By disbudding and leaving the centre bud, 

 a very much finer effect will be obtained than 

 in the effort to mature all three. 



Well-grown, healthy roses suffer little in 

 the open air from insect pests — the rose bug 

 always excepted — whose depredations do 

 not depend upon the health of the plant. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES 



The green fly, or aphis, may make its ap- 

 pearance, but this and other sucking insects 

 are readily kept in check by preventive 

 spraying with a solution of whale-oil soap, 

 one pound to eight gallons of water, which 

 we usually apply four times a season, be- 

 ginning just before the leaves open, and 

 every twenty days thereafter to July 1st. 



Mildew and black spot, fungous pests, are 

 usually due to continued wet weather. As a 

 preventive, the best fungicide is the normal 

 Bordeaux mixture, the "one six" mixture, 

 diluted to one-half strength, as follows: 

 Sulphate of copper, six pounds; lime, four 

 pounds; water, ninety gallons. Apply once 

 a month. 



But this may render the foliage unsightly. 

 A safer preventive is sulphide of potassium 

 (liver of sulphur), one-half ounce to one 

 gallon of water. As this washes off easily, it 

 may have to be repeated of tener ; say as often 

 as once a week. 



Both remedies are effectual as preventives 

 of black spot and should be kept at their 



work from mid-July, to check the loss of 

 foliage that often comes in mid-August and 

 weakens the plants. If mildew actually 

 appears here and there on individual plants, 

 powder them and the ground underneath on 

 a sunny day with flowers of sulphur, and 

 increase the spraying. 



A chewing beetle, and a pest of the first 

 magnitude on sandy soil, is the rose bug. 

 It flourishes at its worst from June 15th to 

 July 1st. Paris green at the rate of one 

 pound to 200 gallons will fetch him, but it 

 injures the foliage. The application •■;■ of 

 arsenate of lead, five pounds to fifty gallons, 

 is recommended by high authority, and will 

 be given an exhaustive trial this year. 



Where the rose bug is not too numerous, 

 hand picking, especially in the early morning, 

 will be effectual. 



WINTER PROTECTION 



With the exception of the Hybrid Per- 

 petuals, Rugosas, Hybrid Polyant'has 5 (Ram- 

 blers) and Wichuraianas, roses are benefited 

 by protection in this climate, and most of 

 them require it. 



Here is a successful method of protection: 

 By November 15th all roses, including the 

 hardy ones, are given a liberal coating of well- 

 rotted manure around the base of the plant, 

 forming a cone about ten inches high. All 

 shoots of tender climbers relied upon for 

 next year's bearing are carefully bent down 

 and buried, with or without a salt-hay pro- 

 tection over the earth, according to the 

 degree of hardiness. All beds except those 

 of hardy roses are then covered after the 

 first hard frost with a coating of dried leaves, 

 at least twenty inches in thickness, held in 

 place by wisps of salt hay, or straw, the 

 holding-down material not to be too heavy. 



The covering should be completed usually 

 by Thanksgiving Day, but of course the final 

 application of leaves will depend upon the 

 actual date of the first good frost. Do not 

 cover too soon, nor with leaves which are wet 

 and soggy or half rotted. 



In the spring remove the covering gradu- 

 ally, none of it as a rule before April 1st, and 

 some should remain until at least April 20th, 

 to guard against late frosts. What remains 

 of the manure may be forked in, but avoid 

 getting the rose stems buried beyond the 

 proper depth. 



THE BEST VARIETIES FOR THE LATITUDE OF 

 NEW YORK 



The assortment of one hundred roses 

 named in the following list includes the 

 leading varieties found satisfactory in the 

 North, when treated as above described. 

 The color division is rather arbitrary and 

 in the case of Teas and Hybrid Teas, it n- 

 dicates merely the principal or primary 

 color of the beautiful combinations found 

 in these roses. Single roses, Luteas, Dam- 

 asks, Wichuraianas and others of interest 

 only to the general collector are intentionally 

 omitted. 



BUSH ROSES 



White. — Bourbon: K. P. Victoria, Souv. 

 de la Malmaison. Bengal: Ducher. Poly 



