ROSES THAT DO BLOOM 
IN LATE SUMMER 
j. Horace McFarland 
Editor of “The American Rose Annual,” Author of “Roses and How to Grow Them” and other works 
Repeating the Successes of June in August and October in his Breeze Hill Gardens 
8 }T IS easy enough to have Roses in June, for any re- 
- spectable Hybrid-tea or Hybrid-perpetual is full of the 
impulse to do its appointed work in the world in that 
f month. Even though the Hybrid-teas are newly 
planted, they will most assuredly do business. But Roses in 
August means that these same Hybrid-teas, having made the 
grand effort in June, have been so handled as to keep on grow¬ 
ing, and therefore will bring forth another crop, not in the 
favoring days of the year’s best floral month, but under the 
fierce summer sun, which dries out the atmosphere and makes 
even the nights breathlessly hot. 
1 can crow a little—just a little—about the Breeze Hill 
Roses. To be sure, frequent rains have favored growth, but 
also heat far in excess of the average sometimes worked the 
other way. Yet in the early days of August, my eyes are 
gladdened each morning with a veritable new glory of Roses, 
giving me anywhere from a dozen to fifty buds, including often 
a score of varieties. 
I DO not know that my part in this result has been especially 
influential. I do know that 1 have kept the ground culti¬ 
vated and mulched, that the Roses have been fed three times 
since early June, and that a jealous watch has been kept over 
them against the ravages of mildew and black-spot, to say 
nothing of the aphis, the presence of which in any orderly rose 
garden is an evidence of laziness or carelessness, or both! 
The mulch has been of tobacco stems, and that has done for 
the aphis. Three, and in some cases four, treatments have been 
given with the sulphur-arsenate prescription—9 to i—fully 
described in the 1922 “American Rose Annual,” and the result of 
the scientific investigation of our good worker, the pathologist, 
Dr. L. M. Massey, of Cornell. 1 have been particular to get 
real dust for this application, as produced by the Corona 
Chemical Division, of Milwaukee, and shot on to the plants 
easily and comfortably through their extraordinarily good dollar 
gun. 
More than this, I have watched for black-spot, and whenever 
leaves showed its inception I have picked them off and burned 
them, keeping the ground clear of fallen leaves. 
Even the Pernetianas are measurably free, though Wm. F. 
Dreer has about gone out of business, after not doing much 
anyway, and Mrs. S. K. Rindge, with its fine yellow-and-red 
flowers, is a little unhappy. 
Now is the time when the thoughtful rose grower studies the 
varieties he has to greet him. There are three high points 
in having a rose garden which assumes to promote the anoma¬ 
lous “everblooming” habit by which we designate recurrent 
blooming. We can hardly avoid, save by carelessness, the 
June burst of bloom. We can hardly have, save by the greatest 
carefulness, the August average of bloom. If we do hold the 
August bloom and keep on with sanitation and care, we are 
assured of a great glory in September and October. These 
three high points, then, these of early summer, midsummer and 
fall, are the times when we can determine which sorts do best, 
at which times, and can either eliminate or increase, as expe¬ 
rience dictates. 
As a rose editor, enjoying rather than enduring a very exten¬ 
sive rose correspondence, 1 find that most people want to be told 
to do something rather than how to do it. This is the lazy way 
of getting experience by proxy, and it is as poor as it is lazy. 
M v experience at Breeze 1 lill is at the command of any one who 
comes to see it, but it may not be the experience of my neighbor, 
who ought to be getting his own. 
F OR instance, the 1922 midsummer survey in early August, 
under the conditions above noted, gave me some informa¬ 
tion of value. 1 discovered, for example, that among the red 
Roses it is hardly necessary to grow both Etoile de France 
and General MacArthur, both having about the same color, 
but MacArthur having the greater vigor. I must have Francis 
Scott Key for its superb and luscious open blooms, General- 
Superior Arnold Janssen for its lively light crimson, Red 
Radiance because it is completely dependable, George C. 
Waud because it is an all-season Rose of delightful quality, 
and of course Gruss an Teplitz and Ecarlate because it is a 
poor day when either of them does not glow with bright 
color. 
Bloomfield Progress seems to be an overlooked gem among 
the red Roses. It is good in color, free from tendency toward 
blue, delightfully scented, and on a plant of vigor. 
Rose Marie seems to me to nearly take the place of Miss 
Cynthia Forde as a deep pink ilower. Lady Alice Stanley 
is the old reliable. Columbia does well, but not exceedingly 
well, and it is a shade lighter than Rose Marie. I can see no 
reason to retain Killarney when I need the room, and so far 
Premier has not justified its place. Supreme among light pinks 
is Mr. Scott’s unintroduced Cornelia, which is a perfect pink 
Ophelia of wonderful endurance in flower and wonderful habit of 
bloom. 
Mme. Butterfly is a good summer Rose, just as it was a good 
spring Rose. Radiance is, as usual, very good, while Lady 
Ursula provides more flowers of beautiful soft pink than any 
other Rose. 
Gruss an Aachen, classed as a Polyantha, seems more of a 
Hybrid-tea, and it is a prize in summer, as it was in spring. 
Mrs. Aaron Ward and Duchess of Wellington both in¬ 
dulge in their usual vagaries of color, but they produce flowers. 
Janet has given exquisitely beautiful flowers of unique form and 
quality, and Golden Emblem has produced some clear yellow 
flowers which I rather suspect are as good as any that Souvenir 
de Claudius Pernet will ever produce in America, unless that 
interesting variety becomes so accustomed to us that it ceases 
to give us deformed buds of its lovely color. 
Among all of the Roses tending toward the Pernetiana 
salmon, Mrs. A. R. Waddell stands at the top because of its 
color, quality, freedom and good plant growth. I think 1 can 
do without Mme. Leon Pain, at least in midsummer, but 1 shall 
have to retain La Tosca. 
My old friend Chateau de Clos Vougeot is nearly out of 
business in midsummer. It is an aggravatingly important 
Rose which somebody ought to recast into better form with 
the same exquisite color and fragrance. 
The Hybrid-perpetuals did me proud that year by repeat¬ 
ing, which shows that it was a favorable rose season. More 
important, perhaps, is the way in which F. J. Grootendorst 
keeps on with its continuous production of clusters of red 
carnations, borne on the ends of good shoots which bear Rugosa 
leaves. It is inimitable as a garden Rose. 
