ROY HENNESSEY’S ROSES 3 
ROSE PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS 
CUT NO ROOTS! LEAVE ALL ROOTS ON! CUT NO ROOTS! 
Plant your roses as soon as received, providing the ground is not 
frozen too hard to receive them. Hard frozen ground is the only reason 
for not planting roses. The bushes do not mind cold or wet. 
When you open the bundle see that roots are kept moist. Do not 
expose them to drying winds or sun for a moment. Keep roots in a 
bucket of water during planting operations. Should the roses seem to 
be dried out through shipping delay soak roots and tops in water for 72 
hours. They may die if planted when they are dried out. 
Put no manure, trash or fertilizer in hole where bush is planted. It 
may cause root canker or burn the roots. Put only clean soil or subsoil on 
all sides of roots. This is VERY IMPORTANT. Do not ignore it. Never 
plant new rose bushes in soil from which old roses have been removed. 
Always change soil from a bed of annuals or similar source. 
A CONE OF SOIL must be made under the center of each plant, 
where the roots spread downward in all directions, to avoid an air pocket. 
Do not put your bushes in a flat trench or hole and try to force the center 
flat against the soil without this support. In planting make the hole or 
trench large and deep enough to accommodate all roots when spread out 
and down at an angle of 30 degrees. Plant the union of rose and under- 
stock well above soil level. The HIGHER THE UNION the healthier 
and longer lived your rose will be . 
TEN EXTRA MINUTES spent in planting each bush PROPERLY 
will give you enormously greater results in years to come. The big roots 
on my plants will work miracles if allowed to. 
With your bush placed work soil among roots, gradually firming it 
down until the hole is nearly full. Then trample firmly over your now 
well covered roots until you could not possibly pull up the bush with your 
hands. If you are planting in mud omit the tramping, but tamp soil 
firmly from time to time. 
Now fill the remainder of the hole with water, even though you are 
planting in mud, to carry earth down into air pockets that may be left and 
would cause roots in such pockets to decay instead of growing. Finish 
with a final layer of loose soil. 
If you have received bushes having more than four or five canes, 
thin out the surplus canes, allowing no more than above number on a 
newly planted bush. Remove with a clean cut at base of the plant, and 
protect all wounds with tree paint or emulsified asphalt. 
HILLING: All canes are to be completely covered with soil after the 
bush is planted, either in winter or spring. For winter covering in severe 
climates like Minnesota and Montana a foot of loose material such as peat 
or anything else of that nature that is handy will do, tho soil should be 
used if other material is not available this is to be covered when hard 
frozen in order to prevent early thaws. This may also be used the fol- 
lowing summer to protect and keep cool the roots as well as protect the 
union of the rose and the understock which is the weakest part of the rose. 
Be sure and paint the huge wounds on the ends of the canes to pre- 
vent drying out and possible dying of these canes—there has been some 
loss of plants by ignoring this factor as it is impossible to handle a huge 
plant like mine in the same manner as a small one. 
