DiNGEE Guide To Rose Culture 



FOUNDEl 

 1850 



Own Root vs. Budded Roses 



HEN we first started this busi- 

 ness over sixty years ago, for- 

 eign-grown budded and graft- 

 ed Roses were the only Roses 

 to be had. They were so un- 

 satisfactory at that time that 

 our Mr. Dingee, the founder of this busi- 

 ness, conceived the idea of growing Roses 

 on their own roots for American homes 

 and gardens. The undertaking was looked 

 upon with about as much favor as was 

 Morse's telegraphic invention. Today 

 Own Root Roses are just as much an im- 

 provement over the ancient system of bud- 

 ding and grafting on wild roots as the 

 railroads are over stage coaches. Some 

 Catalogue Houses, Nurserymen, Seedsmen 

 and Department Stores, who are without 

 the equipment or knowledge of growing 

 Own Root Roses, import great quantities 

 of these cheap budded Roses from Europe, 

 where they are grown in a wet soil, pro- 

 ducing a quick, soft growth, and are of- 

 fered here as heavy specimen or Star size plants. The budding is usually done 

 on wild Manettia Rose stalks by taking a bud from the original plant and insert- 

 ing it under the bark of the Manettia and binding it thereon, as in Illustration No. 5. The first year the budded Rose 

 makes a rapid, soft growth, probably producing some blooms, but the second year the wild root begins to assert itself 

 and grows with tremendous vigor, throwing out wild shoots from the roots, thus sapping the life from the top, which 

 usually dies, as in Illustration No. 4. Note the shoot from the side with the foliage thereon, which is the wild Rose 

 that will not bloom, nor is it ornamental; also note the dead branches of the original Rose 

 budded thereon. This is an actual photograph of a two-year, budded Rose. Anyone who 

 wants Roses and not wild shrubbery should buy only the best, or Roses grown on Their Own 

 Roots. Such are The Dingee Roses, known the world over. We sometimes won- 

 der why these budded Roses are offered by some firms; selling them to an 

 unknowing and unsuspecting public, but, as Barnum said, "American people 



like to be humbugged." We are content 

 to adhere to the principles laid 

 down by the founder of this busi- 

 ness, who, notwithstanding the 

 many ridiculous claims put forth 

 by men who were yet unborn 

 when Mr. Dingee was active in 

 the business of producing Own Root Roses, 

 now claim to have invented this method of 

 production. 



In buying Roses don't be misled by appear- 

 ances, and if you want permanent Roses se- 

 cure own root plants. We have been sending 

 these own root plants to every State in the 

 country for over fifty years, and the demand 

 increases each season. Budded Roses seem so 

 much larger and stronger than on own root 

 plant that any one is apt to be deceived and in- 

 duced to buy them. Read what others say 

 about them on the next page, and purchase 

 your plants from reliable houses who have 

 made the business a life work. 



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