32 



THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



performed with an old pair of garden shears, which will 

 grip the top of the half-rotten stump, and then, by 

 a downward pressure on the handles, lever it out like 

 drawing a tooth. Again, although height is as a rule 

 more important than shelter as a protection against 

 frost, the drying power of the east wind in what 

 is called a wind frost is hurtful, especially to newly 

 planted Roses. It seems to dry the sap out of them, and 

 if long continued may do a good deal of harm. 



As strong wind is so injurious, shelter should be 

 sought for ; and that, not only on the north and east, 

 but also on the south-west, from which the strongest 

 winds generally come. Belts of close-growing trees or 

 thick and high hedges will be the sort of shelter 

 generally available, but it is most important that they 

 be not close enough, either to shade the Roses, or for 

 their roots to enter the beds. Buildings or walls are 

 the best shelters, as the protection they give is real with 

 some refracted warmth : they drop no seeds or leaves, 

 and especially they have no robbing roots. 



A place which has plenty of walls, even if most of 

 them be low ones, offers great advantages in situation 

 for Rose-growing. All the Teas and Noisettes can 

 be grown to greater perfection against a wall than they 

 can in the open, with the two disadvantages that the 

 blooms will be too early for exhibition, and that the 

 autumn crop will probably not be so good. The 

 higher walls will be useful for the Noisettes and 

 climbing Teas, or even for the climbing H.P.s or 

 Hybrid Chinas ; and the lower ones for the true Teas of 

 more moderate growth, which in the Eastern or Home 

 Counties will in ordinary seasons have first-class blooms 

 by the first week in June. Many do not know what a 

 beautiful Tea Rubens is, unless they have grown it on 



