ROSE CULTURE (Continued) 
condition during shipment. It is not suitable for storage. 
So, unpack your roses on arrival. 
If it is at all possible, plant them at once. There is no 
spot so good for your new plants as Mother Earth her- 
self. 
If a day or two must elapse before you can get the roses 
planted, then unpack the bushes immediately, moisten 
the roots and cover them entirely from the air with damp 
peat or sphagnum moss. Let air reach the tops of the 
plants, but keep them in a cool place, sheltered from 
sunlight or wind. 
If a week or more must pass before you can plant your 
roses, then the best thing to do is to bury them for the 
interval. This is a simple but effective method of stor- 
age. Select a spot that is shaded from the sun and dig 
a trench about 12 to 18 inches deep and as long as the 
rose bushes are high. Remove the wrappings from the 
plants and lay them flat in the trench. Cover immedi- 
ately with moist soil, making sure that clods are broken 
o the soil filters in well around the roots. If the soil 
is dry, add water, but the trench does not have to be 
filled with wet, muddy water. See that the plants are at 
least 3 or 4 inches beneath the surface. Plants buried in 
this manner will keep well for a considerable period if 
the weather is not too warm. 
n 
Above all, when handling bare roots plants, be posi- 
ive that the roots are never allowed to dry out. Once 
this has happened no amount of care will restore the 
plant. 
Planting Your Roses 
The rose bushes you receive from us have been pruned 
back to the approximate size best adapted to trans- 
planting. No pruning should be done to the roots at 
all except to remove broken or damaged parts or to 
trim back an exceptionally long root which causes dif- 
ficulty in planting. While your rose bush needs all the 
roots it has in order to get a good start, it is better to 
cut off that long root than to fold it back or curl it up- 
ward in the hole. 
The tops of the plants should not be cut back any 
shorter than 12 to 14 inches here in the South, and in 
the case of the more vigorous varieties like President 
Hoover or Buccaneer canes 14 to 16 inches long are 
perfectly all right. However, weak or damaged canes 
should be cut out entirely. Prune to a healthy, outward- 
pointing bud eye. 
Keep the roots moist at all times. A good way to insure 
this is to carry the plants immersed in a bucket of water 
while planting. 
Now you are ready for the actual planting of the rose 
bush. Make a cone of earth in the center of the hole, 
sloping it to a 45-degree angle, tamping it firm and 
having the top of the cone about 4 inches below the 
general soil level. Place the center of the root system 
on top of this cone and spread the roots out in their 
natural position, pressing them firmly into the sides of 
the cone. Be sure the bud union (bulge on understock 
where top is budded on the stock) is at or slightly above 
the ground level. See the drawings on page 3. Cover 
the roots and pack in firmly, filling the hole at first only 
about half full of soil, then watering thoroughly, adding 
4 
more soil and watering again until the hole is filled to 
about 2 inches below the general ground level. 
Now make a 2-inch rim of soil around the entire plant 
at the edge of the nearly filled hole, creating a basin 
about two feet in diameter. Into this basin put a mulch 
2 to 3 inches deep and composed of a fifty-fifty mixture 
of well composted dairly manure and crushed corn cobs 
or very old (8 to 10 years) sawdust. This mulch reduces 
evaporation, helps control weeds, and allows the feeder 
roots to come up near the surface of the soil just below 
the mulch so that even cold and inactive soils will grow 
very fine rose bushes. The mulch also acts as an in- 
sulator against extreme heat in summer and cold in 
winter, protecting the tender and important feeder 
roots. 
Water every day until you feel that the plants are well 
established. Use a soil soaker like our Money Bag 
Soaker (described in the back of the catalog) to get the 
water deep down where it will do some good. Do not 
rely on a sprinkler to do the job! 
Feeding Your Roses 
There are plenty of opinions on how and what to feed 
roses, with proponents of fish meal, chemical fertilizer 
mixtures, bat guano, compost, and various manures all 
ready to be heard. We have our opinion, too. 
The feeding program we like best is a new one. I| think 
that one of the greatest steps to more healthy, vigorous 
and productive plants has been accomplished by the 
development of foliage nutrients. By foliage feeding 
your plant absorbs food much faster and more com- 
pletely than any other way, thereby producing more 
and better foliage and far more blooms with longer and 
stronger stems. And it makes feeding so much easier 
than the more laborious and messy methods of soil 
feeding. Just a simple attachment like the Hayes Pro- 
portioner (described in the back of this catalog) which 
fastens between your garden hose and water faucet 
and meters the concentrated plant food right into your 
garden hose so that you feed and water in one easy 
operation. 
The fertilizer we have found most efficient is Descanso 
Plant Food, also offered in the back of this catalog. It 
can be used either as a foliage food or applied in the 
regular way to soil. We have had several users tell us 
they have increased their production of blooms by 50% 
to 75%, with longer and stronger stems just by spraying 
Descanso Plant Food on the foliage every two weeks 
during the growing season. 
Insects and Diseases 
Regular spraying or dusting every week or two dur- 
ing the summer will keep your plants healthy and free 
of both insects and diseases. If you like to use spray 
(which leaves no visible residue on the leaves) then we 
recommend Isotox and Orthocide. If you prefer to use 
a dust, just one product is needed to control both insects 
and diseases—Ortho Rose Dust. 
Pruning Your Roses 
The best time to prune bush roses is during the latter 
part of February in the South. Cut back with sharp, 
clean, slanted cuts as indicated in the drawing on page 
3. Climbing roses should not be pruned for the first two 
years, but from the third year on cut back all new 
growth one-third, right after the blooming period. 
