HORTICULTURAL SPECIALIST 
1 
HARDY GARDEN ROSES 
Garden roses may be successfully planted either 
in the fall or spring. To achieve success with them 
thorough preparation of the ground is essential. 
Well drained ground, free if possible from shade, 
deeply spaded and liberally manured is what roses 
love, they are more often starved than otherwise. I 
do not remember having seen any which have died 
from over-feeding; use cow manure if possible, but 
stable manure, well rotted, sheep manure, and bone 
are all good, so is soot. Plant as early as possible 
in spring for the best results. Be sure roots are 
moist when planted, spread them out well, and firm 
thoroughly. Cover the swollen part from which 
the shoots spring at least IV 2 inches. Do not prune 
newly planted stock until it has started to grow, 
then do not be afraid to head the plants back 
severely. During the growing season keep the sur¬ 
face soil stirred lightly and always do this after a 
rain. When you water do it thoroughly. Spraying 
the plants each night is more harmful than help¬ 
ful. Winter protection is best afforded by drawing 
soil up around the plants just before freezing up 
weather, when the ground is hard frozen this can 
be supplemented by a generous covering of straw 
or leaves, this must not be done while the ground 
is soft or field mice may burrow below the mulch 
and do great damage. To hold the mulch down 
evergreen boughs are excellent to use. Do not un¬ 
cover too hastily. In the vicinity of Boston late 
March is sufficiently early to remove first the ever¬ 
greens, next the mulch of straw or leaves and last¬ 
ly level down the soil banked around each plant. 
As a rule April 15 is early enough to start prun¬ 
ing of rose bushes. Much of the pruning on Climbers 
and Ramblers should be done directly after flower¬ 
ing so that not much is necessary in spring. 
The plants we offer are two year old field grown. 
We do not carry the cheap discarded greenhouse 
roses featured by some advertisers, these are good 
for one year if the price is no higher than that of 
bedding geraniums. We do not offer or recommend 
the “package roses” to be found each spring in 
all types of stores. 
Fall planting of all types of hardy roses I would 
strongly recommend. In recent years I have had 
very much better success with fall than spring 
planting and I would strongly recommend anyone 
who has any doubts as regards its success to try a 
few plants this fall and compare results with spring 
plantings. 
As a summer mulch I cordially recommend Ideal 
Peat Moss spread to a thickness of IV 2 to 2 inches, 
this prevents the soil drying out, keeps the roots 
cooler and assists materially in checking weed 
growth, remove this in the fall and do not incor¬ 
porate it in the soil. For black spot nothing is bet¬ 
ter than Massey Dust or Niagara Dust applied once 
a week at least through the season, and before 
each rain. All affected and fallen leaves should be 
picked up and burned, if this is not done the trouble 
will be more likely to be acute the following year. 
A great many roses are today being patented. 
These include, good, bad and indifferent varieties. 
High powered advertising through colored plates 
stimulates the sales of these but many are very 
disappointing and have been dropped from our list. 
Again I would say order and plant early for the 
best results. 
