the hardy climbers. This is not a 
theory: it is based on genetic, scien- 
tific experience. 
What will be the demand for hy- 
brid teas of superior merit that will 
perform better and longer? It is prob- 
ably a fact that there are more gar- 
deners in the United States who have 
tried growing hybrid tea roses and 
have given it up than the number 
who are growing them today. Most 
of these, and many times more, will ~ 
eagerly join-the ranks of rose gat- 
deners when they know that they can 
get hybrid teas of full beauty and 
merit that require no more attention 
than the sturdy shrubbery in the bor- 
der. In weather 15 degrees -elow 
or colder, freezing will kill the wood 
to the bed level, and the plants will, 
like a peony, from shoots below, 
form a normal bush, with no more 
replacements than for syringa, phil- 
adelphus, barberry and the like. 
How will these long-lived hybrids 
affect the rose nursery business of 
the future? In the ratio of 1,000 or- 
ders filled there have been received 
200 voluntary letters of appreciation 
and, praise. In analyzing these letters, 
it is to be judged that the average 
gardener is much impressed and that 
[ Reprinted from American Nurseryman, April 1, 1945 | 
Rosa wichuraiana hybrid teas are 
going to be extensively preferred to 
the older, more tender sorts. A sub- 
stantial proportion of the larger dis- 
tributors are handling them. The de- 
mand is practically doubling each 
year. 
If there are any who feel that rose 
growing for commercial sales is now 
necessarily based on a rosebush last- 
ing two or three years and that 
the loss of the replacement business 
will radically curtail the output, they 
are, we believe, too much influenced 
by an impression that all things 
should stand in status quo and that 
progress is of doubtful expedience. 
Let us analyze the effect of this 
new race of roses upon the commer- 
cial situation. Will anyone question 
the premise that the American public 
is as fond of flowers as the people of 
other nations? It seems certain that 
our gardening public rates the rose 
as a universal favorite and unques- 
tionably upholds it as the queen of 
flowers. But have not many here de- 
veloped a hesitancy in growing roses 
because of difficulties born of expe- 
rience? In some parts of England 
and on the continent of Europe the 
annual planting of rosebushes has 
been reported to average nearly two 
per capita. In the United States it 
was at its height only about one-fifth 
of a rosebush. That difference is, of 
course, due largely to the fact that 
the run of hybrid tea varieties has 
fitted into some foreign environments 
rather well, while here a much larger 
proportion fails disappointingly. ‘= 
Selected varieties of wichuraiana 
hybrid teas can suit. our conditions’ 
in America far better than the pres- 
ent hybrid teas fit in England and 
Europe, because they are hardier and 
of greater longevity. 
In the postwar world, the progres- 
sive American rose nurseryman can, 
with an increasing number of good 
wichuraiana hybrid tea varieties, un- 
der sound business policy, adapt the 
industry, through dissemination of 
information, within a few years to a 
fifty per cent increase over the last 
full year. With a ten to fifteen per 
cent annual expansion over the fol- 
lowing few decades, a growing de- 
mand will call for upward of two 
rosebushes per capita. This will give 
the rose-growing nurserymen all the 
business they will care to handle for 
the next thirty years or so. 
