- 



434 



GA RDENERS MA GA ZINE. 



J 01 -* 9, 1898 



Rose Growing in Town Gardens. 



To anyone who has lived a great part of his life in the pure air and has, with me, three successive crops 



... . . m 1 • . • • - 4 • — . 1 • « ■ . « 1 .mm 



in any collection, as they are so much 

 the so called Hybrid Perpetuals. 



mstance, 



healthy surroundings of a country home, it is a painful experience at first the-way, this, with us, almost the best tea, is not univer 



to move his Lares and Penates citywards, and to settle down in the looking over the roses lately, of a distinguished amateur ^ ^ hen 



midst of bricks and mortar, and to have to listen to the everlasting country, who has won no end of trophies and cups for tlTtL W '!* 



* ai ■ lu * * • . a ~e t u~ c~r, ~( i„ 1 j • \.s 1 u l informed me that he cannot grow it satisfy rtnr\u, Y\ , 0ses > he 



traffic in the streets instead of the song of lark and nightingale ; but to rose haye their g ial favouri f jf^ had to ° St , 1 « vers of 



no one does the change come home with more powerful effect than to i should select Viscountess Folkestone "i*Ke a defimf* 



one who has hitherto watched his roses thrive in the untainted country or three times each season, is delicious." 

 air, and now, instead of seeing them bathed with the pure dews of 



■ • a _ 



□aq to make a definite choice 

 l l lt^'A ro V^ blooms two 



the bud, is lovely even when full-blown ; hanging on 'the Tree MitTl" 1 

 heaven, has to behold them soot-begrimed and stunted by City fogs, so P earl y , shelL , °P en * freeI y'. Perhaps a little too freely for the evhihi, g 



that he might almost despair of growing roses at all. But the true tast ^. tho f u ^ h 11 oh f in prize stands early in the season rS 



• r .i. .1. , v v ,i * 7 , The following list will be found useful to select Wr, tu 



lover of the rose must have roses, even though they be not grown without are give n in any good catalogue, and each lower 1™^ ' ? Urs 



™a fr rt .,Ki« th» n r<a„««f «■ — .1*- to his taste. One great drawback we have in town T*rT^ t a " ordlD g 



nr1r.rir.iic AyTar^r*l\a1 will n^f Ar\ . .v." ^vvn ^druens is that the 



infinite care and trouble, and even then cannot touch the standard of 

 those reared in more favoured localities. 



And so it came about that the writer has struggled for more than 

 twelve years, more or less successfully, in a suburban garden, 11 within 

 the eight mile radius from Charing Cross," hemmed in by walls and 

 fences, and trees, to cultivate roses which will give at least fair blooms 

 for four months in the year, and sometimes longer. Of course here the 

 preparation of the soil and much of the after-cultivation are the same as 

 required in other positions, but there are a few little matters of importance 

 to the suburban grower, which tend to give better results if carefully 

 noted and properly followed out. 



Firstly, the position of our rose beds should always be in the highest 

 and most central position of the garden, to secure all the light and air 

 possible where the supply of these necessarv commodities is so limited. 

 Of course, the fences and walls may be clothed with climbing roses, of 

 which more anon, but the main body of rose trees should stand alone, and 

 away from the shade of overhanging trees, and the scorching and 

 cramping effect of walls and fences. And here we may remark that 

 standards are often to be preferred to dwarfs, as they lift the roses up 

 where more air circulates ; certainly the teas and hybrid teas thrive far 

 better as standards, even if the briar stem be but a'foot or two in length. 



Another point is to get thoroughly healthy trees or bushes from some 

 good nurseryman, and to plant in autumn. November is the best month 

 —of tins I am certain— for plants put in during spring often experience 

 a harsh drying wind, and the persistence of north-easterly winds in spring 

 in the neighbourhood of London is most notable, and to this district 

 these notes chiefly refer. By having a supply of dry material at hand, 

 we are enabled to plant at once, even though there may have been some 

 recent ram, and this may be accomplished by getting a few loads of road 

 scrapings, especially during the fall of the leaf, thrown down at our gates 

 and wheeled to some spare corner, where they can be mixed with other 

 material from old hotbeds or seed boxes or frames, and turned over a 

 couple of times before being used. A dressing of bone meal or quarter- 

 inch bones may with benefit be added to top spit when turning it in over 

 the manure, which should have been dug in in the usual way as the beds 

 were trenched. These beds, if made in the grass about five feet wide, 

 allow us to attend to the trees, only placing one foot on the soil, and 

 the roots can ramble at their own sweet will under the grassy paths. 



Another great advantage in early planting is that seldom do the rose 

 trees need watering, as do those planted in spring ; and to the town 

 grower watering is a heavy item. Most suburban amateurs are away in 

 the City all day, and by the time they return the water has been turned 

 on from the mams, leaving no pressure for a hose to work; and the 

 labour of carrying cans about is so great, that the beds are apt to get a 



none. In our gardens, too, which are 

 always in view of the house, mulching is unsightly, to say nothing of the 

 way it is scattered by the birds, which soon find therein a happy hunting- 

 ground Besides we cannot use the hoe, and all through the growing 

 season this useful implement will, if not neglected, keep I mulch of fine 

 sou on the surface. 



Another point to be attended to is the time for pruning. March is 

 g i ven u as th * time in rose books, but I believe April is quite early 



STw h ." g f mth the teas ' and > as a & eneral rule > hard Pining 

 should be practised, except, of course, for those free-growing kinds, whose 



names and requirements may be learnt from any good catalogue. 

 pv . ln a la rge collection of roses, grubs and caterpillars may, to a certain 

 extent, be ignored, as they merely thin out some buds ; but as our trees 



y Vtry * • m ', ted in numb er, we must diligently search for the 



makers immediately after growth has begun. I use a narrow spring 



lSv^wi^J! mser i ed carefully into a rolled leaf, or between two 

 ° fl J ? arC f( T d adherin g> and if it is allowed to open gently, 

 The zreen tWlT r g at y< ? Ur merc y and the P oint of the Creeps 



Presen Hnl K a P °° r ' ,S alwa y s with us ' some y ears > a * 



fo ^2nn* Sdtf kS-f C tL a ^ 1 have found nothin S answer better 

 S"ffir5?j£f2B3aW so ! ution o f£ l uassia chips, mixed in a 



glorious Marechal Niel will not do in the open, and as these notes are 

 only intended to refer to outdoor roses, he_must be excluded from our 



T7 r tt a a . ke stone, Caroline Tesu 



E. Gifford, Anna Olivier, Mrs. J. Laing, Duke of 



list. For general purposes : Viscountess Folkestone, Caroline T>^„/ 

 La France, Hon. E. GiffnrH A« n , ruu^. M ™ c ^ a T ro |">e lestout, 



Wellington, A. K. William _ 



child, Merville de Lyon, John Hopper/Madame IsaacVeTeTre^Souve^r 

 de la Malmaison, Suzanne Maria Rodoconachi, Marie Baumann Ulric'h 

 Brunner, Dupuy Jamain, Prince Camille de Rohan, Fisher Holmes 

 Charles Lefebvre, Madame Hoste, Madame Victor Verdier, Captain 

 Christy, Jeannie Dickson, Margaret Dickson, Mrs. Sharman Crawford 

 Henri Schultheis, Augustine Guinoisseau, and Gustave Regis. For 

 fences— Gloire de Dijon, Bouquet d'Or, Madame Berard, Reve d'Or 

 Amy Vibert, and Flora, as well as the Penzance Briers, though the latter 

 are, perhaps, more suitable for pillars. For small roses, suitable for 

 button-holes, &c— Laurette Messimy, Perle d'Or, Madame Falcot, 

 Madame Chedane Guinoisseau, Madame Capucine, William Allen 

 Richardson, Allester Stella Gray, and the Austrian Briars. The lapanese 

 roses, Rugosa alba and rubra, have the advantage of doing well almost 

 anywhere, even in partial shade, and have handsome foliage. Lastly, the 

 China roses, pink and crimson, help to brighten odd spots in the garden 

 for several months in the year. 



Sydenham. 



H. Shackleton, M.D. 



Relative Valu 



T 



Ros 



books 



Very many people who are interested in roses, but who know very little 



about their culture, are frequently deterred from growing tea roses be 



cause of their delicacy. Those who grow only a few plants do not like 



the risk of losing their whole stock, or a large proportion thereof, by 



frosts in a severe winter ; but with moderate precaution by protection 



given early in the winter the risk is practically reduced to a minimum, 



except in the most abnormally severe weather, which rarely comes oftener 



than once in a decade. In the winter of 1 880-1, for instance, and the less 

 severe winter of 1894-5, the loss of tea rose plants was great, but since 

 1895 the winters have not been severe, and few people have lost many 

 plants. Those who fear to grow tea roses, and therefore have not ex- 

 perienced the advantages to be gained by their autumnal flowering pro- 

 perties, should not delay to try them experimentally, even if it necessitates 

 the elimination of some other varieties. I know many amateurs who are 

 gradually eliminating hybrid perpetuals from their rose gardens and plant- 

 ing teas, because they find that although hybrid perpetuals are usually 

 hardier, and of great value for their floral gifts in early summer, marry 

 varieties hardly furnish the house with a rose after July (the delightful 

 rose Gabriel Luizet being a notable sinner in this respect), whereas the 

 tea rose flowers both early and late, beginning in June and giving us good 

 roses up to October. 



The exhibitor knows the importance of tea roses from a decorative 

 point of view, as in a box set apart for exhibition they are of great value . 

 bat their decorative and staying powers for use in drawing-rooms ana 

 about one's house are of far more importance, as they last ^? rrn ~:? 

 days, and in this respect they rank far before hybrid perpetuals. 1 nescen 

 of many tea roses may not in most cases be equal to the sweetest or 

 hybrid perpetuals (the most delightful and best known in this maier 

 advantage being Marechal Niel, Madame de Watteville, Madame u» . 

 and a few others), but with hardly any exception teas have some s 4 

 whereas many hybrid perpetuals have none, these scented varieties • 

 frequently roses of great decorative and some exhibition value, nw ; 

 Suzanne Rodocanachi, some of the varieties raised at Newtowna ds a 

 Her Majesty, Captain Christy, and some others. Captain Christy 

 of the few hybrid teas which has no value as a scented variety, ana 

 not of high value as an exhibition flower, but it is of wide-wot :ia p 

 tion. Most of the hybrid teas are delightfully scented, 

 France, Viscountess Folkestone, Augustine Guinoisseau, *~ ^ 



damping brush," such as is used for copying- Augusta ^^S^TEd ^ wTth the ^ 



P^^^^hSn^^^m clone, and if syringed with 



these notes aTnot Tr ^talh ^1! * ^ ^ As 



severe disbudding or thinn „£ Wl11 not be need t0 ^commend 



the centres of our trees ™" g ° f Sh J °° ts ' but in an y case we sh <>uld keep 



rward 



9 O 



call the 

 of bard 



ine centres of our trees open and I a7 ( , • eep rose seaS3n > June and July, but also right up to u.c 



badly, as for instance, S. M R,l r J° SeS n d ° n / ed thickening" frosts, as teas are the true perpe ual flowererl ' . . ^ot 



pomt to urge on suburban gro^rf tT^i / ? ^ chief In concluding Sese^S^SSks I would advise those who ^ 



open their blossoms freely, S3 are ° k,nds A onl y wh ich rely on their own experience andTudgment, to consult some jjnaM^ 



her anH > \T, J ° penin S> especially in da 



district, I would suggest ^ ^ OVed « this 



u * teas and hybrid teas should predominate 



"j«tKe a selection of those roses which (lower uw»; • , ^i- 

 damp weather, we By avoiding the very ddicate teas and only 



ing hybrids and hybrid teas, they will find that they can ' 0ctob€r( ^tl 

 depend on an ample supply of roses from mid-June w ^ ^^g, 

 little risk of loss in the winter. 



Ch 



