THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
503 
are to be lifted and removed elsewhere. The object of 
this cutting around is to prepare the subject to meet the 
check or shock that it will receive, and partly also to 
cut any thong-like roots and to get a mass of fibrous 
roots instead. 
In these dark winter days what better occupation once 
in a while than to plan improvements and developments 
of the garden. Too many places are far from cosy or 
inviting. They are naked and require hedges, shrub- 
beries, borders of hardy plants, trellises, arbors, walls 
and ornamental features. 
One of the precious factors about gardening is that 
it never gets worn out. It has a splendid literature — 
illimitable, and although the grounds are bare and we 
may not have endless conservatories full of treasures, we 
can read all about the favorites whose acquaintance we 
may have met in a call at a neighbor's place, we can 
look up the meaning of its name, where it hails from, 
find out what it is related to among the other flowers 
and get to know its peculiar cultural needs. Your true 
gardener must have a good library. At this time the 
garden clubs should also discuss next year's show plans 
and schedules. 
Even at this late date it is possible to purchase splendid 
bulbs — narcissus, tulips, crocuses. Why not box-up a 
few hundred or even put them in the open ground? The 
land at this writing is friable and not cold. Late plant- 
ings on north borders will give flowers even into the 
third week in May. 
We cannot all have choice orchids, perhaps not even 
cyclamen nor lilies nor carnations nor roses, but a 
bench of the humble geranium in a variety of colors, 
pink, white, salmon, scarlet, is not to be despised. If 
properly treated the plants can be had all winter in 
bloom. 
Roses for the Arbor and Trellis 
THE character of the foliage and hardiness should be 
an important consideration in choosing types of 
climbing roses for covering arbors, trellises, per- 
golas, pillars and similar structures. Roses used in this 
way are usually in conspicuous places and flowers can be 
depended on for ornamental effects for a relatively short 
period only during the year. Climbing roses with a 
poor leaf development or those especially liable to at- 
tack by insects and diseases, therefore, make but a poor 
appearance. 
Of the trellis and arbor roses the members of the 
Wichuraiana group are among those most resistant to 
disease and insect attack. They have foliage pleasing 
to the eye throughout practically all seasons. The blos- 
soms are white and single. The Multiflora climbers 
flower in clusters. Many of them, however, especially 
the so-called ramblers, are subject to mildew and in- 
sect attacks. They are reasonably hardy in the North. 
Roses of the Laevigata group, represented by the Chero- 
kee, on the other hand, require a warm climate. This 
is true also of the roses of the climbing Noisette group 
represented bv the Marechal Niel and Lamarque. These 
roses are suitable for culture only in the warmer sec- 
tions where the Winter temperature seldom falls below 
10 degrees F. above zero. 
Climbing roses require large quantities of plant food. 
The body of good soil available should be equal to a 
mass 3 feet square and 30 inches deep. A hole of this 
volume should be dug and filled with good garden soil 
mixed with well-rotted manure. Climbers, like all other 
roses, require good drainage. No roses will thrive 
where water stands about their roots. Planting should 
be done carefully. 
Special pruning methods must be employed for climb- 
ing roses. These methods are determined by more or 
less of a compromise between the desire, on the one 
hand, to force the growth of blossom-bearing, new wood 
by removing old wood, and, on the other hand, the de- 
sire to keep arbors and similar structures at least par- 
tially covered. One-half of the wood should be pruned 
from all the climbers, as from the other types of roses, 
at planting time. In the case of the established plants 
the Wichuraiana and hardy climbing" ros'»s should be 
pruned just after blooming. At this time young shoots 
will have started from the roots. The growth of these 
shoots should be encouraged, as it is from them that 
most of the branches are produced that bear the follow- 
ing year's bloom. The best way is to remove all the 
old wood at this time, so that all the strength will go 
into the young shoots. Where the roses are trained 
over a trellis so high that one season's growth will not 
cover it, the method just described is not practicable. 
In such cases some of the old shoots should be cut off 
at the ground, and the others should be shortened from 
3 to 6 feet, depending on the amount of growth the vine 
has been making each year. New shoots should be 
trained to take the place of those removed. It should 
be kept constantly in mind that the present year's growth 
bears next year's flowering branches and that a few 
vigorous branches are more desirable than many weak 
ones. 
Roses of the hybrid Noisette group, of which the 
Mareehal Niel is a representative, should be trained to 
a good strong cane, with the side shoots cut back to 
about three eyes. The main cane can be renewed oc- 
casionally. 
The Cherokee rose should be treated like the border 
roses, pruning only dying or crossing branches. Every 
few years it may be cut back severely and allowed to 
start again. 
It must be kept in mind that roses have no provision 
for attaching their canes to trellises and arbors as grape- 
vines and other tendriled plants have. Roses, therefore, 
must be carefully trained, the canes being tied to the 
desired positions as they grow. 
Throughout large sections of the country it is un- 
necessary to protect climbing roses in Winter. In the 
northern sections where roses are apt to winterkill, how- 
ever, some sort of protection is necessary. Wrapping 
the bushes in straw is effective where the cold is not 
too great, but is somewhat unsightly. It permits keep- 
ing the vines more nearly in their Summer position. 
A surer method is to lay the vines down, covering 
them with earth, and after that is frozen adding a 
layer of straw or manure. This covering must 
be removed promptly in the Spring as soon as freez- 
ing is over. — United States Department of Agriculture 
thill cliu. 
