50 
®(ie praties’ Slcra! Bafiuiei xmi Pictorial Home 
amptmiait. 
THE BEST HARDY ROSES 
For General Cultivation, and How to Grow 
Them. 
A Paper read before the Western N. Y. Horticul¬ 
tural Society. 
BT HENRY B. ELLWANG-ER. 
This is a query put by many interested devotees 
of Rose culture annually, and one in which all who 
love floriculture in any of its many forms have a 
never-failing interest. 
As we'are each year adding new sorts to our list 
of varieties, and are also making some occasional dis¬ 
coveries and improvements in propagation and culti¬ 
vation, it follows that our selection ol kinds and our 
treatment in culture will vary somewhat from year 
to year, as new varieties appear to take the places of 
old favorites, and we have knowledge of improved 
methods for the care of them. Reversing the order of 
our heading, we will first, offer a few brief suggestions 
regarding the general culture suitable for hardy 
Roses, and afterwards at some greater length consid¬ 
er what varieties can most satisfactorily be grown by 
the general public. 
The first requisite is the selection and preparation 
of a suitable place for planting. This is very impor¬ 
tant, as all that follows depends upon the care used 
in this first step. 
To begin with, then, choose the best place you 
have in the garden, a place where you can offer 
sufficient protection by means of hedges or board 
fences from bleak, sweeping winds. When fences 
are used, their general ugliness can be most appro¬ 
priately clothed by Roses themselves. A warm, 
sunny position is also requisite ; if so situated that 
there is an exposure to the morning sun and the hot 
rays during the afternoon are in part or wholly shaded, 
all the better, but a certain amount of sunlight is as 
essential to a Rose’s welfare as to our own, though 
many of us do not show our appreciation of the bless¬ 
ings of sunlight as gratefully as do our Roses. Be¬ 
sides scattering them through our gardens, Roses 
may be made very effective planted in borders about 
our lawns, either individually or in groups, and also 
planted in beds on the lawn. When the latter is 
done, we may with great advantage depart from the 
usual custom of growing the plants in bush-form and 
resort to what is termed the pegging-down system. 
In this case the mode of procedure is quite simple. 
Having planted our Roses—for this purpose those on 
their own roots are preferable—we allow them to 
grow the first season in the usual way: the following 
autumn or spring the short and weak shoots are en¬ 
tirely cut away, and the long ones carefully bent 
down and fastened to the ground by means of pegs, 
or where more convenient or preferred they may be 
tied to stakes. Occasionally it happens there is a 
hard, stiff shoot which will crack or break near the 
ground, but if the bark on the under side continues 
whole this is generally of no consequence, as flowers 
will be produced as well as though the shoot were 
uninjured. 
Every year the pegging down must be repeated, 
the old shoots being cut away and the new ones 
which have come up during the summer laid down 
in their place. The great advantage of this system 
over the ordinary practice of growing in bush-form 
is the immense quantity of flowers produced, thus 
giving a magnificent appearance on the lawn and 
affording all the cut flowers desired for household use. 
Soil. —Roses will do well in any ordinary garden 
soil that is free from standing water and well drain¬ 
ed. Where there is too much clay, the soil can easily 
be made sufficiently friable by the application of 
wood and coal ashes, lime, stable manure, etc. 
Where, on the other hand, a soil is sandy or too 
light we need to bring clay, muck, leaf-mould, etc., 
to obtain sufficient body. 
Pruning is best done during November or March, 
though to secure a good second crop of flowers in 
the autumn it is also necessary to prune immediate¬ 
ly after the first flowering is over with. 
Manures .—In regard to this important portion of 
cultural operations, we would say that there must be 
a generous application if we expect a generous yield 
of flowers. When Roses are planted in the spring, if 
the soil is ordinarily rich, it will be better not to dig- 
in much manure about the roots, but rather apply 
it as a surface-dressing. This will at once be nour¬ 
ishing, keeping the roots cool, and prevent suffering 
from the droughts of summer. The following au¬ 
tumn, say in November, after the Roses have been 
planted, there should again be applied as a mulching 
a free application of stable manure, which may be 
dug in the next March. We find cow manure the 
best fertilizer, on the whole, that we have tried, 
though all kinds of stable manure are excellent, as 
are also bonedust, soot, guano, etc. For full direc¬ 
tions regarding this and kindred objects we refer to 
the several excellent works on Roses. 
With these few cultural hints, we proceed to a 
consideration of what are the best hardy Roses for 
general cultivation. We mean by this a list for be¬ 
ginners in Rose culture and the general public, 
naming those varieties that are most certain to suc¬ 
ceed, and which will give the most generous return in 
profusion of flower, fragrance, and beauty. A perfect 
Rose, therefore, for general cultivation, should excel 
in the following particulars, and in the order named : 
First, beauty of color, as that which first attracts 
us to a Rose. 
Second, beauty of form, without which our eye 
cannot rest long, but wanders on, seeking a combi¬ 
nation of the two in one flower. 
Third, fragrance. Deprived of this no Rose can be 
perfect. Who ever yet saw a beautiful Rose without 
wishing to inhale its odors ? Gratification in this 
matter is ofttimes far more pleasing to us than the 
mere sight of beauty. 
Fourth, profusion and continuity of bloom. We 
like our good things in abundance, poured out to us 
with generosity, that we may have to distribute and 
carry our pleasure to friends. 
Fifth, vigor and healthfulness of growth, that 
will produce strength of plant thriving with a moder ¬ 
ate degree of care and attention, and that will endure 
the extremes of summer’s heat and winter’s cold. 
Let us consider at some greater length these sev¬ 
eral qualities essential to a perfect Rose. 
First. As regards color, we like something decid¬ 
ed and pronounced, or else of great delicacy and 
softness, and withal as durable as possible. The 
varieties differ very greatly in this respect. For ex¬ 
ample, Pius IX., a well-known old Rose of splen- 
| did habit, very seldom is seen of a clear color ; the 
| sun fades it almost immediately after the flowers ex¬ 
pand, and a dirty shade of rose is produced, anything 
but pleasing. La Reine, Giant of Battles, and 
others are likewise affected, though in less degree. 
Some, like Abel Grand and General Jacqueminot, 
are quite permanent, lasting ofttimes till the petals 
wilt and fall. Above all things, therefore, we want 
our colors pure and steadfast. 
Form. —In form, the Rose shows almost as much 
diversity as in color. We have globular, cup-shaped, 
imbricated, and quartered Roses, besides many modi¬ 
fications of these forms. The globular Rose, as shown 
in Alfred Colomb, is the finest of them all, but the 
others are very pleasing in their variety, and we 
should not wish to be confined to the one type. The 
quartered or flat form is the most objectionable, 
though there are very many lovely Roses of quarter¬ 
ed or flat shape, such as Caroline de Sansal, Baronne 
Prevost, etc., which are large, full, and even symmetri¬ 
cal. Shirley Hibberd, in his excellent work on Roses, 
places form before color. This may be right in an 
exhibition box of Roses, but not as judged from our 
standpoint. However, it shows the very great import¬ 
ance of excellence in form, without which a Rose can¬ 
not stand very high in the scale. 
Fragrance. —Did one ever think what we should 
lose were our Roses deprived of their sweet odors ? 
Why, there would at once be a vacant throne, with no 
Rose to hold a queenly sceptre, and the strife of Dahlia, 
Camellia, Idly, Gladiolus, and Rhododendron for 
supremacy would have no check, no limitation. 
Among all the delightful perfumes exhaled by the 
Lily, Heliotrope, Daphne, Jasminum, etc., none 
yield such delicate, sweet-scented odors as La 
France and Louis Yan Iloutte give us; they are 
alike supreme in beauty and fragrance. 
Profusion and continuity of bloom. —This is also 
a very important feature, as is ably set forth by W. 
D. Prior in an article on “ Autumn Roses,” which 
appeared in the Gardener's Chronicle, September 
21, 1878. He says : 
“ One of the most important points in which all 
Roses of comparatively recent introduction should be 
‘carefully watched is that of the habit of free autum¬ 
nal bloom. Until this has been well established, the 
title of even the finest varieties to rank as per- 
petuals is incomplete. There is the greater necessity 
for this vigilance because true perpetuity is the chief 
claim to superiority that our modern Roses are able 
tr, advance over some of their summer predecessors, 
which in form, color, vigor of growth, and hardiness 
are quite their equals, being surpassed only in the 
valuable property of having more than one season of 
bloom. Another reason for impartial examination as 
to this quality is that so many novelties receiving 
certificates when exhibited at the meetings of socie- 
