May, 1918 
I31k Slower (Brower 
51 
THE ROSE 
Climbing Roses. 
IFrom The Mother's Magazine. I 
Note by the Editor- 
[This excellent article on "Climbing Roses” by the 
talented horticultural writer, J. Horace McFarland, is 
an abridgment of the original article as it appeared in 
The Mother's Magazine. We regret our inability to 
publish the article in full because it is certainly ex- 
cellent and Rose enthusiasts will do well to procure 
the issue of the magazine referred to containing this 
article in full. It has a number of unusually good 
illustrations. 
We are indebted for the work of abridgment of this 
article to Mr. H. G. Reading, who wrote the article 
entitled, "Tausendschon a Climbing Rose of Merit 
and Distinction " in the January issue of The Flower 
Grower. Please note that Mr. McFarland bears out 
the opinion held by Mr. Reading that Tausendschon 
has great merit as a climbing Rose.] 
Last October The Mother's Magazine per- 
mitted me to discuss the subject of “Getting 
Better Roses.” In that article I suggested a 
certain form of Rose advance, and expressed 
willingness to provide information for any 
mother who wanted to try it out. The re- 
sponse has been surprising, not only in 
respect to the thoughtful inquiries that have 
come to me from all parts of the United 
States, but in respect to the Rose interest 
thus evidenced. It is clearly apparent that 
very many of the mothers of America want 
to grow Roses, and to grow better Roses. If 
I had needed confirmation of my belief that 
the Rose is the universal flower, the letters 
received would have provided it. 
I admit enthusiasm about Rose growing as 
it is now developing. “ A Rose for every 
home, a bush for every garden,” is the de- 
clared motto of the American Rose Society, 
and each year sees now an advance toward 
that happy consummation. I am tempted to 
apply to any Rose growing efforts the slogan 
of a garden contest recently held in a city of 
the middle west. It is, “You win if you 
lose,” and that is surely true as to thought- 
ful Rose growing for the effort itself is up- 
lifting, restful, improving. I urged last fall 
the planting then of many hardy Roses, 
rather than putting off planting until spring. 
But early spring planting is next best, and 
nearly as good as fall planting of Roses. 
Notice the italics for emphasis on that word 
early. It means that the plants should be 
gotten into the well-prepared ground just as 
quickly after the frost 
is out of it as is pos- 
sible. Every day 
earlier counts for bet- 
ter Roses ! 
It would not be 
honest toward the good 
women who will read 
these words did I not 
here set forth my 
belief that outdoor- 
grown, or so-called 
“ field "-grown, Roses, 
shipped promptly after 
the nurseryman has 
dug them from the 
ground they grew in, 
are preferable. Furth- 
er, I believe in getting 
all the roots, which 
seldom is possible if 
the roots of the plants 
grown in the open 
ground have been 
forced into a pot. 
The little mail-order, 
own-root Roses that 
are shipped in full 
growth have their 
place, and do well in 
some locations, par- 
ticularly in the south. 
They are, or ought to 
be, cheaper than the 
husky, outdoor plants 
that have come 
through one winter 
and one summer be- 
fore they are shipped. 
Before I discuss the 
handling of the hardy 
climbing Roses I hope 
to have generously 
planted about many 
homes this spring, let 
me repeat a few max- 
ims as to Rose-grow- 
ing. 
Roses prefer strong soil, rather than light 
and sandy soil, though they will grow quite 
freely in well-fertilized sandy loam. They 
are dainty in bloom, but not in feeding, for 
they need plenty of available fertility in the 
ground that sustains them. I saw ideal Rose 
soil at the great establishment of a friend 
who has grown them for a half-century, 
and one of whose regal productions is on 
my desk now — a massive bloom of four- 
score petals, five inches across its deep heart, 
and giving forth the breath of June! He 
collected roadside sods, which are piled up 
in layers with cow-manure between them, 
and in a year are just right for his Roses. 
This soil is fibrous from the slowly rotting 
sod. 
But any soil that would produce good corn 
or potatoes or peas will make good Roses. It 
needs to be thoroughly mixed with well-rotted 
manure, up to a third of its bulk. Cow 
Tausendschon is the one best climber of the cluster class. 
manure is preferred, but stable manure will 
answer. Let me italicize the thoroughness 
of the mixture of soil and manure. Dig it 
together, and then dig it again and again, 
each time working the soil and manure into 
each other. 
For any Rose success, deep preparation of 
the soil is desirable. A foot is barely kind 
to the Rose plants; two feet is better, and 
three feet is luxurious. If deep holes are 
dug or deep beds are prepared, get about a 
foot of some rough, coarse sods or manure 
or decay-brush at the bottom for drainage. 
Climbing Roses of the sorts now obtain- 
able may be used in ways not so well un- 
derstood as is desirable. The first thought 
about a climber is that it should cover a 
porch, or a trellis against the house, or 
ramble over the doorway. It is very beauti- 
ful in such use, but when I look at my 
neighbor’s street hedge of American Pillar, 
yet holding its bright and solid foliage 
against the frost of this fall day during 
which I am writing, I wonder whether that 
is not an even finer use? 
Then I think of the hedge around my own 
Rose garden, trained three feet high between 
eight-foot end and path posts, to which the 
Roses garland, and which for full six weeks 
gives me a glory of early summer bloom, 
with its twenty-six varieties, literally aston- 
ishing the visiting Californians who are sup- 
posed to be inured to Rose showers— and 
that seems the best use. 
But off in the garden is another climber, 
which I have permitted to grow to about 
five feet in height, with from six to a dozen 
strong shoots from the ground. These are 
twined in upon each other in a sort of bal- 
loon shape, hard to describe but easy enough 
to do if one wears leather gloves. When 
the bloom comes, the whole top of the bal- 
loon is aflame with Climbing American 
Beauty, and no shrub in the garden can 
touch it in glory. In this shape, as in other 
garden uses, the good foliage of these climb- 
ers makes the Rose as presentable as any 
other shrub when out of bloom. 
At the National Rose Garden in Arling- 
ton, where the American Rose Society and 
the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture are together trying out more than six 
hundred Rose varieties, there is a perfection 
of trellis training that gave very lovely re- 
sults last summer. The trellis is formed of 
commercial galvanized iron high fence posts 
strung with wires stretched about a foot 
apart. On these the climbers are trained or 
tied out in fan shape, so that every bloom has 
a full chance at sun, shower, air, and your 
eyes, which latter will linger longer upon 
their perfection. There is no extravagance 
about this trellis training ; it only requires a 
little time about once a week in the growing 
time. Nor are the posts expensive. 
In Captain Thomas’ wonderful Chestnut 
Hill Rose Garden certain climbers are car- 
ried up some five or six feet upon a wooden 
trellis, and at the top the canes are inter- 
twined to form a shape like a rather flat 
letter O laid down. The effect in bloom 
time is startling. 
The English call certain varieties “ pillar” 
Roses. The Rose is planted beside a post, 
and its shoots are rather narrowly twined 
about and around the central support, being 
turned over and trimmed off at the top. 
Contrary to all the laws and edicts of the 
Rose authorities, my neighbor, whose pillar 
Roses have made a very beautiful showing, 
cuts all the side shoots up and down the 
post to not over six inches in length, this 
being done in fall, winter or early spring. 
In consequence, the blooming shoots which 
spring from the last year’s growths are close 
to the center, and rather short, so that in 
June his Leuchstem, Christine Wright and 
Dr. Van Fleet are literally pillars of bloom. 
Looking last June from the car window of 
a western bound Pennsylvania railroad train 
( Concluded on page 57.) 
