40 
April, 1919 
Slower (Brower 
THE ROSE | 
Roses in Minnesota. 
T O HAVE a really fine Rose garden one 
must have at least a thorough working 
knowledge of the habits and require- 
ments of Roses. Soil, location and varieties, 
how to plant, prune, etc., are all important. 
Do not select a spot near trees or shrubs ; 
have your bed or garden at least as far away 
as the height of the trees, as the roots 
spread as far as the branches, taking all the 
fertility from the ground. 
Sun is necessary, but it need not shine on 
the beds all day. If you have any choice, 
place your beds where the morning sun is 
slow to come, as the Roses will then hold 
the dew and their freshness much longer. 
By the way, always pick Roses as early in 
the morning as you can, while the dew is on 
them. 
The ideal soil is clay loam, a sticky kind 
of dirt that will let the water through. This 
soil will grow good Roses but not the best. 
Do you want better Roses ? Add old cow 
manure and leaf mold, and mix well at least 
two weeks before planting, leaving the sur- 
face of the bed two inches lower than the 
ground to hold the rain. If you would have 
the very best Roses, you must work, and this 
is what you must do: If your soil is not 
naturally well drained, dig out your bed or 
trench to a depth of two and a half or three 
feet. Fill in the first six inches with coarse 
stone or broken brick and finer stones on 
top. The next six inches must be well rotted 
cow manure, on top of the stones, and then 
the top soil. When the land is well drained, 
begin with digging a trench two or three 
feet deep, and then fill in with six inches of 
manure, and then top soil. 
When the soil is loamy add yellow clay (it 
gives the Roses a deeper color), to make the 
ground more solid and hold the moisture ; 
also add to this kind of soil old cow manure, 
leaf mold and a little bone meal ; the latter 
will be in good condition for the roots to 
absorb in from thirty to sixty days, just when 
they are in full bloom. Mix all together and 
pulverize. 
Have you only a sandy place ? Dig it out 
and fill the hole with a combination of clay, 
loam, leaf mold and old cow manure in 
equal parts. Thoroughly mix and make fine 
with the rake. Do this, too, when your beds 
are old. 
The soil around Roses should be changed 
every five or six years. The bushes may be 
taken up early in the spring and the dirt 
changed. They really should be dug in the 
fall and buried, all but the tips. The bed 
should then be made new and allowed to 
freeze all winter, in this way killing many 
of the bugs. 
Care should be taken in selecting stock to 
have the graft not more than three inches 
from the roots, as this gives less chance for 
suckers. Suckers have seven leaves on each 
stem, and the wood is reddish and thorny. 
When planting, spread out the roots as much 
as possible, put the fine dirt over them and 
press in firmly with the foot. The graft 
should be about three inches below the sur- 
face of the ground. 
Hybrid perpetuals should be planted two 
or three feet apart, according to the space 
you have. Hybrid teas one and a half or 
two feet apart. When your bed is all planted, 
add one-half cup of air-slaked lime to each 
plant and rake in well. Then prune, leaving 
the bushes not over two feet high, with about 
one inch of stem above the last bud. When 
all is finished, cover the whole surface with 
about six inches of old cow manure and 
water well if the ground is not already wet. 
Soot, wood ashes, nitrate of soda and a 
very little muriate of potash, are all good 
fertilizers for Roses, but it would take lots of 
space to tell about them. If you do try to 
use them, do so with discretion. 
The most important thing of all is a 
thorough preparation of the soil. If you do 
this well in the beginning two-thirds of the 
work is over. 
For a small garden, the best twelve varie- 
ties for me have been : 
Hybrid Perpetuals— Mrs. John Lang, soft 
pink ; Frau Karl Druski, large white ; Gen- 
eral Jack, red ; Mad. Gabriel Luizet, silver 
pink ; Marshall P. Wilder, cherry red ; Clio, 
white sometimes tinted pink ; Prince Camtle 
De Rohan, dark velvet red. 
Hybrid Teas —Kilarney, a fine clear pink ; 
Mad. Caroline Testout, salmon pink ; Kaizer- 
ine Augusta Victoria, creamy white ; Grus- 
an Teplitz, velvety crimson; climbing: Dorothy 
Perkins, clusters of light pink. 
Madam Plantier is a hardy white June 
Rose, very prolific and should be in every 
garden. There are so many beauties, it is 
hard to choose. 
The Hybrid Perpetuals are the most hardy, 
but do not bloom every month. The Hybrid 
Teas do, but need more care as to covering 
for the winter. 
The Cochet roses are all teas, but are worth 
having even if one has to replace them every 
year. 
I hate to talk about bugs and things, yet 
must just a little. The first thing in the 
spring, before the leaves come out at all, 
spray the bushes with arsenate of lead one 
and a half ounces to five gallons of water, 
and then again when there are a few leaves. 
If this does not kill all the bugs, try it again 
when the buds are coming. The arsenate of 
lead will stick to the leaves all summer and 
does not discolor them, so you have a per- 
manent poison — but as the leaves grow out, 
of course, you will have to add more. 
Powdered sulphur, dusted on the damp 
leaves, is good for mildew. Some tobacco 
solution or soap suds is good to kill aphis. 
White hellebore dusted on damp leaves 
kills many enemies of the Rose, but the rain 
washes it off. 
The green worms and Rose bugs will have 
to be hand-picked into a pan of kerosene. 
Very early in the morning you will see most 
of them at work. 
But you will not have all of these troubles. 
This is just to show you what to do, if you 
have one or two of them. 
Covering for the winter :— I have had the 
best success, burying Roses in the ground, 
leaving the tips out. Many people bend 
them over and cover with leaves or straw, 
and over this place tar paper or boards. 
They must be kept dry and have a little 
ventilation. It is not the cold that kills 
them but the thawing and freezing. All of 
the Rugosa Roses are hardy and should be 
in every garden. There are a number of 
improved varieties that are double. — Mrs. 
H. B. Tillotson in Minnesota Horticulturist. 
Transplanting the German Iris. 
We have made many experiments with 
this Iris as to the time of transplanting, and 
find that the best time to do this is immedi- 
ately after the flowers have faded, as then 
the plants are able to make roots in abun- 
dance previous to dry weather setting in. 
We also find that the plants do far better, 
and also flower more freely, if care is taken 
when planting to keep the rhizomes on the 
surface. Of course, top-dressing can be done, 
but if the ground is well dug at first there 
is no need to top-dress at all.— Gardening 
Illustrated (English.) 
Join the American 
Gladiolus Society. 
The attention of our readers is again 
called to the advantages of member- 
ship in the American Gladiolus Society. 
Mr. H. E. Meader, of Dover, N. H., Vice 
President of the organization, has shown 
a special interest in increasing the mem- 
bership, and has not only offered a 
prize to the person turning in the 
largest number of new members, but 
in his advertisement in this issue he 
makes a special offer of bulbs of Mr. 
Kunderd’s beautiful variety, Myrtle, to 
all new members joining before the 
next annual meeting in August. A 
dozen corms of Myrtle is a premium 
worth having. Those who are grow- 
ing it appreciate Myrtle, and those who 
are not growing it should take advan- 
tage of Mr. Meader’s offer and join the 
American Gladiolus Society. 
We learn through Mr. Th. deGroot, 
manager of the American Branch 
Office of the firm of K. Velthuys, bulb 
grower and Gladiolus specialist of Hil- 
legom, Holland, that this firm has 
merged their entire stock of Gladioli 
with the well known house of P. Vos, 
Mzn, of Sassenheim, Holland. The 
importation of Gladioli being pro- 
hibited after July 1st, these combined 
stocks of bulbs will be propagated in 
this country as the larger part of same 
has arrived on the New Amsterdam. 
Sixty acres of land of high quality 
for bulb growing have been secured at 
Mount Clemens, Mich. The new firm 
will be known as the United Bulb Co. 
Inc., Maple Park Farm, Mount Clemens, 
Mich. They will specialize in Gladioli, 
Peonies and Dahlias. Mr. Vos, who 
was one of the pioneer travelers in the 
U. S. from 1890 to 1899, has been grow- 
ing bulbs and plants for the last thirty 
years and is well known as a hybridizer 
of Gladioli. He has brought with him 
a fine collection of new varieties which 
he expects to exhibit at the next flower 
show. 
We commend the article on “Culti- 
vating Wild Flowers” beginning on 
our front cover page, to those who are 
interested in this subject. This article 
is written by one who knows the sub- 
ject and from experience. The bring- 
ing of wild flowers into the garden is 
certainly a fascinating pursuit to real 
flower lovers. 
John B. 
R. D. No. 3 
Humphrey 
Logan, O. 
PRINCEPINE, 1 in. to IV 2 in. 
SULPHUR QUEEN. 
PANAMA, 
PEACE, iy 2 in. up 
WAR, Vt in. to % in. 
Per 100 
$1.50 
. 1.75 
1.75 
. 3.00 
. .80 
Every FIRST PREMIUM 
on Gladioli in the Professional Class 
at the New York State Fair in 1918 and 5 of the 
6 first premiums in 1917 were awarded to 
JOHN J. PROUTY 
B i\ 1 cl w i n a v i 1 1 e - - New York 
Catalog on request. Supply of bulbs limited 
