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BETTER FRUIT 



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ROSES AND HOW TO PREPARE FOR THEIR GROWTH 



BY REV. SPENCER S. SULLIGER, D. D., IN THE OREGONIAN 



THE one thing usually neglected in 

 rose culture is the proper prepara- 

 tion of the ground. Without doubt 

 a fairly stiff clay soil is the ideal for a 

 starter. If it has natural drainage of 

 gravel or sand about three feet beneath 

 the surface, and the clay soil be suitably 

 enriched, we will have the ideal for gen- 

 eral rose growing. True, the tea rose 

 enjoys a lighter soil, and many of the 

 hybrid tea roses do well in a lighter soil. 

 But clay, clay, clay is to be the basis, 

 and then each rose bed enriched and 



Figure 4— TEA ROSE AND AMERICAN BEAUTY 



lightened to suit the hybrid perpetual, 

 the hybrid tea and the tea roses. If nat- 

 ural drainage of gravel or sand is not 

 yours it will pay to dig out the soil for 

 about two and one-half feet deep, fill in 

 six inches of gravel and then replace the 

 soil. Lots of work? Sure! But a great 

 truth about roses was never better stated 

 than in the opening chapter of Dean 

 Hole's work, "A Book About Roses": 

 "He who would have beautiful roses in 

 his garden must have beautiful roses in 

 his heart. He must love them well and 

 always. He must have not only the 

 glowing admiration, the enthusiasm and 

 the passion, but the tenderness, the 

 thoughtfulness, the reverence, the watch- 

 fulness of love." 



Lacking clay in my rose garden at 

 Bellingham, I excavated to the depth of 

 two feet a bed for some choice roses. 

 Mixing with the clay I had obtained 

 some of the excavated ground I refilled 

 the bed. The result? In a very sharp 

 contest the following year I captured 

 four first and three second prizes at the 

 rose show. And every prize won, except 



one first and one second, came from this 

 specially prepared rose bed. But if you 

 have ordinary garden soil and will prop- 

 erly plant roses where they will have 

 plenty of sunshine and air you will have 

 roses galore. 



For instance, for my rose garden in 

 Vancouver I was forced to have the lot 

 graded when the clay soil was quite wet, 

 and this soil was mostly that excavated 

 from the basement of the dwelling. A 

 most unfavorable starter, save the fact 

 that the soil was clay. Neighbors con- 

 cluded that the roses would either die 

 or come to nothing. But they did not 

 consider that I dug out the ground for 

 about two feet deep and two feet across 

 and put well mixed soil around each rose 

 planted, being sure that each knob where 

 the rose had been grafted on the Manetti 

 root — and I grow only grafted roses — 

 was put about three inches below the 

 surface of the ground, thus limiting, if 

 not preventing, the crop of wild suckers. 

 All this after I had carefully cut off every 

 piece of bruised root and also cut back 

 almost all the healthy roots some, and 

 carefully spread the roots of each rose 

 so that none were crossed or planted too 

 deep. The result was as fine roses as I 

 have ever grown. 



Figure 6— TEA ROSE 



ROSE, THE BRIDE (WHITE), BRIDESMAID 



(PINK), AND RICHMOND (RED) 

 Grown by J. A. Balmer, Cle Elum, Washington 



Here, in a nutshell, you have about all 

 that is needed for the proper planting of 

 roses. Technical and minute instruc- 

 tions are oftener confusing than other- 

 wise. Purchase healthy two-year-old, 

 out-of-doors-grown rose bushes from a 

 reputable dealer, even if the first cost is 

 a little high. Then properly plant them 

 in the ordinary garden soil, and results 

 will be good. True, if you want the 

 ideal then look to the clay and the drain- 

 age, with proper enrichment of soil. 



The "Queen of Flowers" has many 

 enemies. If the other flowers are jealous 

 of the queen and have hired assassins to 

 destroy her these assassins certainly 



ROSE, BRIDESMAIDS 

 Grown by J. A. Balmer, Cle Elum, Washington 



understand their work. From childhood 

 to old age the queen has a fight. For- 

 tunately, good cultivation will do much 

 to prevent or control the many pests the 

 rose is subject to. I believe that proper 

 planting, cultivation, pruning and spray- 

 ing as a preventive will keep almost any 

 rose bush in a healthy condition. Pre- 

 ventive spraying, which should be done 

 during the fall, winter and spring, is the 

 secret of healthy rose bushes in the sum- 

 mer. Spraying calendars, giving the day 

 in each month when each kind of spray- 

 ing liquid is to be used, are almost all 

 of them worthless, or worse than worth- 

 less — harmful. The less roses are sprayed, 

 excepting when the bushes are dormant, 

 and the more they are cultivated the 

 better roses you will have. Spray the 

 bushes in the late fall, winter and in the 

 early spring before the leaves start to 

 grow with rose bordeaux mixture, mix- 

 ing arsenate of lead with the early spring 

 spraying, and if the beds are properly 

 fertilized and cultivated with a hoe dur- 

 ing the spring and summer the roses will 

 be better without any spraying after the 

 leaves have appeared in the spring. Cul- 

 tivation should be as frequent as is 

 needed to provide a good dust mulch, 

 but shallow, so as not to disturb the 

 feeding roots of the rose, which are near 

 the surface of the ground. 



The rose bordeaux mixture is the one 

 indispensable for rose culture. The mar- 

 ket is full of ready-to-use mixtures and 

 substitutes, but the one safe thing is to 

 make your own mixture. This can be 

 done with but very little trouble if the 

 following directions are followed: Dis- 



