June, 1914 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



299 



the Hybrid Teas will not thrive on their 

 own roots at all and the Manetti does not 

 seem long lived. 



It should be noted that this garden is 

 used for pleasure not for profit, pruned for 

 •quality not for quantity. The bushes are 

 planted to stay, not to be removed unless 

 better varieties, well tested out in advance, 

 appear to take their places. The varieties 

 are mostly full flowered, very few thin 

 ones. When planted they are field grown 

 plants in their second year — that is to 

 say, roses budded in August, 191 2, have 

 been grown out of doors until April, 1914, 

 •and then placed in the garden. 



As to climbers, the Multiflor and 

 Wichuraiana hybrids, such as Crimson 

 JRambler, Dorothy Perkins, Evergreen Gem 

 and in general the hardiest and most 

 prolific of these two climbing classes, do 

 well here on their own roots. 



Change any of the above conditions and 

 it is possible that a different opinion as to 

 stocks will be fully justified. For instance, 

 it is generally known that certain Hybrid 

 Teas do much better on briar cutting stock 

 than on seedling briar — but not in the 

 Xong Island summer climate. Reason, 

 not enough deep root growth. Again, an 

 eminent British authority showed me in 

 his garden last year some beautiful Com- 

 tesse du Cayla and other Chinas on their 

 own roots. In a similar climate I should 

 certainly try out this method of growing 

 Chinas, but from previous and bitter 

 •experience it might not do here. 



It follows that your symposium is likely 

 to show great diversity of opinion and many 

 •of these views may be absolutely correct 

 for the localities and conditions on which 

 they are based. Which simply means 

 that in this huge country, with a climate 

 ranging from polar to tropical and every 

 known variety of soil, rainfall and ex- 

 posure, any hard and fast rule as to rose 

 stocks will not govern. 



Roslyn, N. Y. 



C. L. Meller, Landscape Architect and Park 

 Superintendent, Speaks for North Dakota: 



"Oh, Mr. Meller! will you please come 

 up and look at the rose bed you planted 

 for us; some of the roses are running wild. 

 Reverting to the ancestral form I suppose." 

 Thus was I greeted, and what I expected 

 I found. 



It was budded stock I had set out, and 

 some of the roots had sent up vigorous 

 shoots that competed strenuously with 

 the buds. But for this fact the rose bed 

 was thriving, thriving under neglect be- 

 cause the soil was a soil that roses like. 

 The inference seems obvious and if my 

 experience had been limited to this single 

 instance it might be: plant no more budded 

 stock. However, I took up those wildings 

 and planted budded stock, only an entirely 

 different kind. I take it upon myself 

 now to watch that rose bed a little and see 

 to it that proper care is given. 



A friend of mine writes: "I think they 

 are much better if on their own roots, the 



severe cold seems to hurt the budded or 

 grafted stock." This man has raised 

 roses in North Dakota for twelve years 

 and yet I am not convinced. Perhaps the 

 editor has no business printing this. This 

 friend I speak of raised in 191 1 from his 

 Paul Neyron roses, blossoms that measured 

 six and a half inches across. He further 

 tells me that he has tried almost every 

 kind but has found that a lot of them will 

 not stand our winters. This year he cuts 

 down the list of roses with which, as he 

 tells me, he has had the best results, to 

 six Hybrid Perpetuals. Therein his 

 trouble lies and that of many another who 

 attempts to decide upon the respective 

 merits of budded stock and own root 

 roses for our northwest, at least for a large 

 part of the region of the Red River of the 

 North; they have not found the rose 

 actually suited to our climate, but unaware 

 of this fact they lay to budded stock the 

 inherent weakness of the kind of rose 

 they are trying to grow. The Hybrid 

 Perpetual is not the rose altogether suited 

 to our climate though some few varieties of 

 that type prove hardier than others. The 

 China rose, or Hybrid Bengal, Gruss an 

 Teplitz is the rose for us. I have had real 

 success with budded stock of this rose. 

 Others have had like experience. 



Soil is a rose's chief concern and we have 

 the rich, clinging, clayey soil a rose delights 

 in; perhaps a little too heavy our soil may 

 be, but when into this there is spaded some 

 cow manure rich in well rotted straw, an 

 excellent humus, we have a soil to make a 

 rose root grow with a gluttonous abandon. 

 How well our soil is adapted to roses is 

 attested to by the fact that our native 

 prairie rose becomes a weed that seriously 

 interferes with the cultivation of crops! 

 Among the grains it also flourishes. There 

 it takes the place of the poppy and the 

 bachelor button of European grain fields. 

 Now into this soil thrust a coarse vigorous 

 root able to assimilate this abundance of 

 coarse food and upon it bud a stock innured 

 to the climate and what else but success 

 can follow? The wilding is more able to 

 dig into the soil and feed so that the budded 

 stock will get its food more easily and in 

 greater abundance. 



A positive climate confronts the rose 

 out on the prairies. The frost goes down 

 eight feet or more and the wind at times, is 

 strong. Our growing season is short, but 

 nearly always intense. Not until the 

 first of June and up to September first 

 are we entirely free from frosts, free in 

 such a manner that it becomes a certainty, 

 though there is nothing regular about it 

 all, for instance, during Arbor Day cf 1909, 

 it snowed all day and it was a struggle to 

 walk against the wind. During that year 

 ■ the first killing frost occurred the eleventh 

 of October. I have had tulips in full 

 bloom frozen brittle as glass, though this 

 did not impair their blooming. With 

 roses it does not seem to be so much a 

 matter of cold as it is the evaporation they 

 are subject to during winter. At least 

 the behavior of the Crimson Rambler 



would seem to indicate this. When the 

 canes of this climber are left uncovered 

 they die down to the ground, when, how- 

 ever, laid down and covered with about a 

 foot or more of soil firmly packed the canes 

 come out unharmed in spring. Covering 

 merely with straw or leaves will not answer 

 the purpose. The intense cold of our 

 winters penetrates this soil covering very 

 readily, but the canes are protected 

 against the evaporation of our strong 

 winds and naturally dry climate. Might 

 as well say that most of the apples are not 

 hardy simply because they are grafted. 

 A rose that is not hardy in our climate, 

 unable to endure our occasional stiff winds 

 and the dry cold of our winters is not 

 going to prove any hardier because on its 

 own roots. On the other hand, the wild- 

 ling roots cover a larger area so to speak 

 are more rugged and consequently better 

 able to resist a drought. After the rose 

 or roses best adapted to the climate have 

 been found, the question resolves itself into 

 one of food, for roses are "some feeders" 

 and stock budded on to the more rugged 

 root will have more food for its blooms 

 than stock on its own roots. 

 Fargo, N. D. 



F. V. Holman, Originator of Portland's Rose 

 Fete, Writes: 



When I began to grow roses, more than 

 twenty-five years ago, I purchased small 

 bushes on their own roots and was im- 

 pressed with the argument that such roses 

 were greatly preferable to budded or 

 grafted bushes. I refer particularly to 

 low-budded bushes which in European 

 catalogues and books are called "dwarfs." 

 But there were some of the finest roses 

 which it is extremely difficult to propagate 

 on their own roots. One of the best 

 examples is Baroness Rothschild. 



After I became more experienced in the 

 growing of roses, I changed my opinions 

 altogether and for a great many years I 

 have not purchased any new bushes on 

 their own roots if I could obtain them low- 

 budded or grafted. 



The greatest advantage is that on such 

 stock as the canina and others which have 

 an abundance of roots, far more sap is 

 furnished than is furnished by the roots of 

 the varieties themselves. Many varieties 

 of roses have weak roots, and consequently 

 produce but limited qualities of sap. Even 

 bushes which have strong roots of their 

 own seem to grow better when low-budded 

 or grafted on strong stock. When plant- 

 ing dwarf bushes the place of budding or 

 grafting should be put at about three 

 inches beneath the surface of the ground. 

 In the course of time new roots come from 

 this place of juncture, so that the bush has 

 not only the roots of the wild stock, but 

 also its own roots. It is true, that care 

 must be taken that suckers from the wild 

 stock are destroyed in order that all the 

 sap from the roots shall go into the budded 

 stock. Intelligence is necessary even in 

 growing roses. 



Portland, Ore. 



