December 6 , 1913 . 
927 
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ROSES 
DECORATION. 
THE GARDENERS’ MAGAZINE. 
FOR GARDEN | 
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t 
At a recent monthly meeting of the Ciren¬ 
cester Gardeners’ Association Mr. Edward A. 
Jefferies read an interesting and highly in. 
structive paper on “ The Selection and C'ulti. 
vation of Roses for Garden Decoration.” Mr. 
Jefferies briefly referred to the rose gardens 
that were a source of disappointment to their 
owners, and said: In such a garden the roses 
were planted perh§p6 eight, ten, or fifteen 
years ago in badly prepared beds or borders, 
and have not b^n replanted since. The 
varieties planted were perhaps chosen from 
blooms seen exhibited in a first prize box 
at some show or other, and planted without 
any regard for the different habit of growth 
of the various sorts. The owner of the gar¬ 
den cannot imagine why some of his plants, 
although they make strong growth, never 
bloom. A casual glance shows that in this 
case the stock upon which the rose was 
budded has been allowed to overgrow and 
smother the poor rose. And probably in the 
same garden we shall find fault number 
four, namely, plants that are living and 
doing fairly well are all bare and leggy at 
the base and the growths crowded together 
at the top of the plants, the result of faulty 
pruning or no pruning at all. I believe more 
roses are ruined by their owners refusing to 
allow their gardeners to prune their roses as 
they should be pruned than from any other 
cause. 
Bedding: Roses. 
In the case of rose gardens it is preferable 
to keep to one variety to a Bed, the effect is 
certainly better both as regards colour and 
mass of bloom, and also you have an even¬ 
ness of growth that it is difficult to obtain 
when planting three or more varieties in the 
same bed. aS to the best varieties to grow, 
assuming that a rose garden has just been 
planned and made, and that the owner re¬ 
quires good bedding varieties, he will want 
roses that are continuous and free-flowering, 
of not too rampant a growth, not too 
addicted to mildew, and distinct in colour¬ 
ing; and, lastly, varieties that carry their 
flowers erect. The following varieties 
comply very closely with these conditions; 
bady Ashtown, pure deep pink colour, and 
considered the best of the pink bedding 
roses; Caroline Testout, bright pink, a fine 
rose in all weathers ; Mdme. Abel Chatenay, 
everyone knows this fine decorative variety, 
salmon pink best describes its colouring, par¬ 
ticularly good in autumn; Madame Ravary, 
deep golden-yellow, perhaps the best yellow 
bedding rose, though Harry Kirk, bright 
sulphur yellow, and Lady Hillingdon, bright 
orange yellow, run it very closely, the bronze 
red colour of the young wood and foliage of 
Lady Hillingdon makes a very pleasing set¬ 
ting to the bright yellow blooms; Madame 
Jules Grolez, described as a deep rose-pink, 
but a colour unlike any other pink rose, it 
requires care in placing, for it clashes with 
other pinks, and should be put in a bed that 
js in the neighbourhood either of clear yel- 
lows or pure white roses; Antoine Rivoire, 
pale cream with deeper centre, a great 
beauty, fine early and late; Molly Sharman 
Crawford, eau-de-nil, white; Madame 
Melanie Soupert, pale yellow flushed delicate 
pink, excellent; Mrs. Aaron Ward, Indian 
yellow petals edged white, very attractive; 
Madame Antoine Mari, rose and blush 
"^hite., foliage almost evergreen, especially 
good in the autumn; Richmond, glorious 
^nmson, and flowers of nerfect shape, very 
fragrant. 
General McArthur, bright scarlet crimson, 
the best crimson bedding rose; Ecarlate, 
scarlet, an excellent bedding ro^, 
always in bloom, but perhaps would not be 
chosen by everyone, as the individual blooms 
lack form, but the plant is so very continu¬ 
ous in flowering that this fault may be ex¬ 
fawn, very lovely m the bud stage! 
one of the best; Pharisaer, rosy.white, 
shaded salmon, excellent in the autumn and 
good throughout the eeason; Joseph Hill, 
coppery.yellow, shaded apricot, charming 
foliage; Viscountess Folkestone, cream, 
white, shaded flesh, introduced as far back 
as 18^, but still one of our best bedding 
roses; Marie van Houtte, lemon-yellow, 
petals edged with rose; Betty, coppery-rose, 
shaded yellow, very pretty in the bud; Mrs. 
Wakefield Christy Miller, a charming rose, 
inside of ^tals soft blush, and the reverse 
of petals deep rose, a charniing combination; 
Lady Pirrie. deep coppery.salmon, a delight¬ 
ful rose; Irieh Elegance, a beautiful single 
flower, shades of apricot and budaorange. 
While referring to beading roses I should 
like to mention two of the Swarf polyantha 
varieties, Orleans and Jessie, the former a 
vivid rosy-crimson, and the latter a cherry- 
crimson, both are excellent for bedding, and 
from the eud of June until October Ix'da of 
these varieties will be a mass of colour. 
Of the foregoing twenty-four varieties, 
nineteen are hybrid teas, five are teas, and 
not a single hybrid perpetual amongst them, 
not that manv of the H.P.’s are to be 
despised for beading, for Hugh Dickson, that 
grand crimson roee, had my list extended to 
one more, would have been the selected one, 
and Frau Karl Druschki. Ulrich Brunner, 
Mrs. John Laing, Mrs. Sharman Crawford, 
Captain Hayward, to mention no others, arc 
good bedding ro^s, but just miss, in my 
opinion, being amongst the best twenty-four 
for the purpose. 
My list shows what a great change has 
been made in the rose world during the last 
twenty years, for, with two exoe^ions. none 
of them were in commerce in 1893, and by 
far the largest proportion have been sent out 
during the last ten years. Did you intend 
growing roses for exhibition my list would 
be a very different one, and of the twenty- 
four varieties I have mentioned, only Lady 
Ashtown Caroline Testout, Molly Sharman 
Crawford, Madame Melanie Soupert, and 
Pharisaer would be suitable for competitive 
purposes, and though it by no means follows 
that exhibition varieties are not good for 
garden decoration (many are excellent for 
loth purposes), yet an exhibitor ^1 
obliged to grow such roses as Mildred Grant, 
Bessie Brown, William Shean, and Florence 
Pemberton, varieties which, had it not be^ 
for the exhibition boxes, would, I think, 
have disappeared from cultivation ere this. 
The rose-lover should not say that he can¬ 
not grow roses in the soil of his or her gar. 
den I am prepared to say that the toiI may 
be a heavy efoy soil, a light soU, a sandy soU. a 
chalky soil, soil with gravel as a subsoil, or any 
other kind of soil, and with pro^r pr^ara- 
tion you can |rrow good roses. Good drain¬ 
age IS essentwl, for rosea will not thrive 
il a water-logged soil, but we must not for. 
get that the r^ is a moisture-lovmg plant, 
fnd therefore the soil must be made reten- 
^'^e ideal soil for roses I should, describe as 
two feet of rich loam of a greasy » 
Libsoil of clay, and good drainage benrath 
and if we have not this in our garden (and 
few of us have) in making rose beds we must 
trv and as closely approach it as 
If Vurs is shallow land, on gravel, a light 
loam or chalk soil, my method of piepara- 
tlon’would be this. Dig out and put aside 
the top soiL which will s'Wf 
inches^deep, then dig out and take right 
itav the nixt eighteen inches or two feet 
orgravel, b^h. or chalk as the case may 
be. The drainage of theac subsoilB will pro- 
bably be naturally good, so that beyond 
forking up the bottom nothing more will be 
needed to ensure perfect drainaM. Having 
thus dug the bed out from two feet to thirty 
inches deep, I should fill up the bottom 
the bed with a layer of clay to a depth of 
about six inches; upon this wheel in a layer 
of loam, or the top spit from a heavy poa- 
ture, then a layer of old cow manure, then 
again a layer of turf or loam and another 
layer of manure, and so on in this manner 
until the hole U filled up to within nine 
inches of the top. llien turn to the heap of 
soil that was taken out of the bed, and, if it 
is very poor, incorporate some leaf soil and a 
dressing of quarter-inch or bone meal, mix 
well, and fill in with the mixture. When 
filled the level of the bod should be quite six 
inches above the surrounding ground level to 
allow for sinking. 
On a heavy clay soil the same preparation 
applies, except that it will be neoe^Kary t*» 
dig out the beds three feet instead of two, 
and fill up the bottom nine inches with 
stones, burnt clay, broken bricks, or clinkers 
to ensure drainagt ; upon thia replace the 
clay, then the loam and cow manure in 
layers, and lastly the top w>il as previously 
explained. If this top soil is very heavy 
it will be improved and made more friable 
by the addition of burnt earth and wood 
ashes, mortar rubbish, and road sweepings: 
but a word of caution about the latter-^o 
not get the sweepings either from a tarred 
road or from a road much frequented by 
motors. 
The rose bed or rose garden should be in 
the open, away from trees and walls, and for 
preference facing south or west. The shape 
of the beds de|iends very lawly upon local 
conditions, but my ideal l>e(l is one with a 
width of five feet, "which will allow for three 
rows of plants. 'Hie length is unimportant, 
but the simpler the design of the Led the 
better the effect. I would always have the 
Toee IxhI surrounded by turf. 
ITie principal things to remember in plant¬ 
ing roses are to make the hole large enough 
to take the roots easily, deep enough for tne 
junction of the roee and the stock to be one 
inch Mow the surface, and to plant firmly, 
the latter being most important. 
Pruning:. 
It is perfectly safe to make a rule that all 
roses the first spring after planting should 
be pruned to within three or four inches of 
the ground. Even climbing varieties should 
not nave more than twelve or eighteen inches 
left of their strongest growth. It may seem 
a great pity to cut away four or five feet of 
growth that if left would seemingly furnish 
the arch or pergola with blooms the first 
year after planting, but harden your heart 
and prune, and the results the second and 
after years* will amply repay you. 
Pruning after the first year of planting 
will need to be varied according to the varie- 
ties and the purpose for which they are 
grown. Those intended for exhibition will 
need harder pruning than those for garden 
decoration. Strong growing varieties, as 
Hugh Dickson, Frau Karl Druschki, J. B. 
Clark, will only need shortening back 
to about eight inches from the base, whereas 
less vigorous growers will need to be pruned 
back to four or six eyes from the base. The 
shoots should always be pruned to an eye 
pointing outwards, and, of course, all dead 
or unripe wood should be cut clean away. 
Climbing roses should have some of their old 
shoots cut clean away each se^n directly 
after their first flowering. This encourage-s 
fresh growth from the base, and keeps the 
arch or wall well clothed at the bottom. 
But rose pruning is a big subject to tho¬ 
roughly master, and enough could be written 
to make a paper on this subject alone, so I 
Boses,” published by the National Rose So¬ 
ciety, wul give you detailed information for 
pruning nearly every rose in commerce. It 
should be in the possession of every rose 
grower. 
(To be continued.) 
