ROSE GARDENING MARY HAMPDEN THE JiOME GARDEN BOOKS Class __Si:l Book Jdi ROSE . GARDENING THE HOME GARDEN' BOOKS TOWN GARDENING By Mary Hampden Illustrated from Photographs & Drawings Practical instruction for the Town Gardener Cr. 8vo. 6/- net. THE LYON ROSE ROSE GARDENING How to Manage Roses and Enjoy Them BY MARY HAMPDEN Author of 'Town Gardening,' 'Bulb Gardening,' etc. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1922 -.'p'f^ 3>0 D L I, O Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner, Frame and London. DEDICATED WITH TRUE REGARD TO A FORMER NEIGHBOUR C. T. WHO LOVED HIS ROSES PREFACE A FOOL came running to his King, and cried, ' Sire, sire, rejoice ! A glorious thing has happened in your king- dom.' But the more the Monarch and the Courtiers, the Ministers of State, the Doctors of Divinity, the Journahsts, the PubHc Crier, questioned him as to the nature of this wonderful event, the less he could remember what it was. That night, when the King was playing the flute to his Queen, and had persuaded her to listen to the beginning of his latest symphony for the third time (because he always forgot some sharps and flats in the second bar, so had to recom- mence), the Royal apartment was burst into by the Fool, who carried a red rose. ' Sire, sire, Fve found the miracle ! ' he shouted. ' It only happened at midday. What a wonderful kingdom this must be for such a Rose to open in it ! ' ' Out of my presence, you tiresome fool ! You aren't even amusing,' quoth the enraged Ruler. And a page-boy seized the Rose and tore it into fragments. But a Poet, having seen that flower before even the Fool discovered its rarity, had written a little sonnet about it, in which he had preached a little sermon, all on Love. And that poem touched the heart of a woman so much that she wedded her poorest suitor, who was king of himself, which is far finer than being king of any number of fools and acres. And the young husband taught his wife some of the myriad beautiful truths that the Rose is always whispering to those who have 9 10 PREFACE ears neither dulled nor closed on purpose. And the young wife thought of these lovely facts so much that her babies were partly made of them, and had sublime faces, with souls looking through. And one baby became a statesman, who saved his country from revolution ; another was a physician, who studied till he learnt just how to subdue pain ; a third was a priest, who drove wickedness out of all who heard his dis- courses. That is the end of the ands. But the King's reign was very peaceful, thanks to the Statesman ; his people were blest in being spared suffering, through the Physician ; while the words of the Priest flowed like a river through the years, gathering to themselves all the beautiful Love that is only waiting to be invited. Nobody knew that the Rose had done all that. Unless the Fool found out, when he died smiling. MARY HAMPDEN. CONTENTS CHAP. I Why we should Grow Roses II Ramblers . Ill WiCHURAIANAS . IV Climbing Roses . V Great Full Roses VI Long-blooming Roses VII Roses for Garden Decoration VIII Roses for Gathering IX Beds of Roses . X Standard Roses XI Pillar Roses XII Pernetiana Roses XIII Dwarf Polyantha Roses XIV Briar Roses XV China Roses XVI The Whims of Roses XVII Roses of Rare Colour XVIII Fragrant Roses XIX Soil for Roses . XX Planting Roses. XXI Rose Pruning . XXII Disbudding and Feeding Roses XXIII Grafting Roses. XXIV Budding Roses . 11 PAGE 15 24 31 35 44 53 59 67 75 84 90 96 100 103 107 no "5 118 122 126 130 137 146 150 12 CONTENTS CHAP. XXV Sowing Roses . XXVI Raising Roses from Cuttings XXVII Layering Roses XXVIII Supporting Roses XXIX Watering Roses XXX Protecting Roses XXXI Curing the Ills of Roses XXXII Roses in Pots . XXXIII The MARfecHAL Niel Rose XXXIV Breeding Roses XXXV Roses in Rockeries . XXXVI Moats, Ditches, and Banks of Roses XXXVII Rose Pergolas and Arches "XXXVIII Rose Hedges and Rose Espaliers XXXIX Making Rose Gardens XL Some Rose Pedigrees XLI Town and Seaside Roses , XLII Rose Arranging Indoors . page 154 157 160 161 164 166 170 177 184 186 189 193 196 201 206 211 214 217 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS In colour ^The Lyon Rose . ~ Frau Karl Druschki . ^ Ulrich Brunner "■ Madame Edouard Herriott ■Joseph Lowe 'Richmond . ' Lady Hillingdon ' Ophelia Madame Second Weber Golden Emblem . Lady Alice Sinclair . General McArthur ■ Duchess of Wellington "" Hugh Dickson Caroline Testout Grubs an Teplitz (The Daily Mail Rose) Frontispiece Facing page 32 „ 32 . „ 48 „ 64 . „ 64 „ 64 ,. 96 .. 96 „ 128 ,. 128 ,. 128 ,, ,, 160 ,, ,. 160 ,. M 192 .. .. 192 Line Drawings in the Text Plan for a Rose Garden ..... Rustic Wood Pillar for Rambler Roses . Iron Support for Climbing Rose .... Poles for Climbing Roses, to Screen the Corner of a Border A Garden for Colour, Scent and Sound . A Garden of Rose Hedges and Pillars . A Leaf of Hybrid Perpetual Rose. A Leaf of a Rambler Rose ..... A Leaf of a Tea Rose ...... A Handsome Border of Long-blooming Roses Lawn Beds of Long-blooming Roses Rustic Cross for Climbing Rose .... Fan-shaped Support for Roses .... The Night-cap Rose Protector .... 13 Page 17 25 27 32 37 41 45 46 49 54 57 61 64 68 14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Line Drawings [continued) — A Hanging Cap Rose Shade ..... Wisp of Straw Rose Shade, tied between Stakes . Impromptu Shade made with a Box and two Sticks A Shade and Bud-hastener made with a Sheet of Whitened Glass ....... A Shade made of an Old Tin and a Bamboo Rod Bamboo Poles and Wires, for Climbers, to shade Roses . A Grass Walk Rosery . A Bed of Roses to form a Pyramid A Properly Staked Standard Rose . Rose Pillars in a House-wall Angle A Round Rosery, with Grass A Paved Rosery .... Bed of Dwarf Polyantha Roses An Uncommon Border for Dwarf Polyantha Roses Rose with Branches Trained Out ... Rose Trees laid in Trench to await a good Planting Time An Old Tree before being Thinned Out An Old Tree well Thinned Out An Old Tree Cut Down A Malformed Bud. A Green-centred Bud . A One-sided Bud .... One Bud too many A Good Rose Bud weakened by one that should have been Removed .... Two Buds too many Pointed Scion ready to Insert Branch of Stock, with slit cut ready for the Scion Branch ready cut to receive Bud . Bud, ready to Insert Sheltering Screen of Wood and Gorse Boughs Pot Rose stood out on a Slate and Two Bricks Pot Rose stood upon Wooden Laths on Cinder-strewn Border A Portion of a Rose Rock Garden Pillars sunk two feet deep, wedged by Stones A Rustic Wood Fencing for Roses A Paved Formal Rose Garden A Novel Red and Pink Rosery in Grass Page 68 69 69 71 71 79 81 85 87 92 97 98 lOI 102 113 127 131 135 135 138 139 139 140 140 140 148 148 152 152 168 178 182 190 199 203 208 210 ROSE GARDENING CHAPTER I WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES ' Oh, Rose, of thee I dream, Of all the flowers supreme.' IT is possible to love the Rose more than the Rose Garden, or the Rose Garden more than the Rose, but the true enthusiast so schools his affections that he learns to be fair to both. To plant so as to merely show off a favourite variety is to miss the rapture of making a perfect dream of a Rose Garden. Perfect, do I say ? Alas, no ! There are bound to be the three f 's — flecks, flaws and failures. Yet let us thank God that it is so, since zeal can only exist in comfort while there are higher steps to climb, more of the race to run, mistakes to be buried, missed perfection to be pursued. Believe me, rose- growing is the happiest hobby in the world. With music in the drawing-room, books galore in the library or by the bed- side, a moderate, but certain, income, health, a rose garden beginning just outside the windows then stretching far into the mysterious beyond — given friends, dear people of some kind, with whom to share blossoms, scenes, rooms, authors and harmony — a man or woman ought to be royally conscious of living in luxury. And at present more people live luxuri- ously than are aware of it. The beyond need not be very extensive, the books may be in paper covers, the music drawn only from a sweet, old, rather tired piano, and the roses have to be counted by dozens, instead of hundreds or thousands. It is the love of good things that 15 i6 ROSE GARDENING makes possession of them precious ; and sometimes the folk who have fewest love those most. It is a hobby that will develop the muscles, or can be indulged in gently and partly by proxy ; it will empty full pockets, yet an obscure, scarcely well-to-do person of either sex has all the facilities for revelhng in it. The labouring man, with hours filched from morning sleep, and spring and summer evenings only, is not debarred from conferring some almost immortal new Rose upon the universe ; which represents, of course, the highest in rose culture. What colours the garden can wear ! What a scented plea- saunce it can prove ! How gathered roses will overflow the rooms, and go forth to paint exquisite patches, and spread haunting perfumes in divers places ! Then, though the Rose has been so long in cultivation that we cannot trace the identity of the first man who grew it for pleasure, what extraordinary new effects we can create with it, and what a scanty amount we know about it, in spite of all the centuries of study by our scientists. Perhaps the Rose smiles to herself, out there in the moon- light, over the knowledge of her own mysteriousness ; for we all like to be puzzles to our world. An old priest, who was a poet in mind, once said to me : ' As often as I remember that the poor are always with us, I reflect, unwittingly, that the same can be said of the Catholic faith, and surely of the rose ? God never wastes His great works.' An unadvertised social reformer — one of those beings with nice mad ideas — told me he was convinced there would be no wars, strikes, murders, injustices, desertions, robberies, frauds or hypocrisies, if we all worked in rose gardens.'and had our children trained to grow roses before learning to read and write. May there not be something in the notion ? The rose is the best flower to love rabidly — as we soon shall if we take up the culture — because roses can be had in bloom every month, week, day, probably hour, if not minute, of the year. Special facilities are required for this, yet far WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 17 less expenditure than is demanded by several other flower hobbies such as orchid, carnation or auricula growing. Plan for a Rose Garden. i8 ROSE GARDENING We may begin with garden roses, giving them all aspects, representing all classes, from the Banksians that commence the show to the very latest bloomers. Here is a list of those I have watched competing among themselves each year for the honour of being latest out. Caroline Testout. Pink. Gruss an Teplitz. Crimson- Mevrow Dora van Tets. Scarlet. scarlet. Climbing Mrs. W. J. Grant. Mrs. W. C. Miller. Vermilion, Deep rose. rose and pink. Killarney. Pink. Betty. Gold and rose. La France. Pink. Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Yellow. Viscountess Folkestone. Florence Haswell Veitch. Creamy pink. Crimson. La Tosca. Silver pink. Frau Karl Druschki. White. Then one can grow pot roses to force, pot roses to bring on slowly, pot roses not hastened at all, pot roses in sun, in shade, in stoves, greenhouses, conservatories, porches and various frames. If there are hundreds of pot roses, and they are cut back in small batches at all sorts of odd seasons, given the necessary artificial temperatures, they will blossom at just as odd times. Pot roses out of doors can be prevented from blooming all at once by being differently located, as well as differently pruned : some should be stood in a shaded stone courtyard, for example, while some of their brethren are start- ing growth in spring sunshine. Roses, too, can be pruned a number of times, instead of once or twice in the usual pruning months ; the hardier sorts bear this series of checks less well than the Teas, however ; as for Hybrid Teas, their autumnal and early winter vigour after the rough treatment proves a glorious reward to their manager, and, let us hope, reconciles them to the being delayed. Try keeping on cutting back a Madame Abel Chatenay pot specimen, and limiting its shoots, all the summer ; give it its head in October, grow it on under glass, with sunshine, food, water and genial warmth, and see how it will bloom. A famous rose grower, the Reverend J. H. Pemberton, remarked, in an address to the National WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 19 Rose Society : ' It is possible to have roses in the garden from April to Christmas ' ; his daughter having been able, for several years, to place six vases of roses on the altar of his church on Christmas Day. I repeat that pot roses, out of doors, can be prevented from blooming all together by being differently situated, as well as differently cut back. Some should be stood on stones or bricks, in a cold shaded court, while their brethren are starting growth in spring, or beginning to blossom in early summer. Again, roses can be pruned two, three, or four times to retard them, instead of only once, or twice, in March or April. I say, or twice, because it is generally found that some of the once-pruned branches die back, and we mostly have to go over our trees again, each year, and finish the work by another application of knife or secateurs. That the hardiest sorts of roses bear the many prunings needed to retard them less well than do the Teas, and Hybrid Teas, is no doubt because their autumnal vigour is not as great as that of their more delicate relations, which can be trusted to give a glorious late yield even when pruned in April. Rose culture can be pursued as part of what a philosopher has called ' the supreme sanity of creation.' From babyhood Man is happiest when * making something,' and either a rose garden, or a new rose, is undoubtedly no mean contribution to the world that God set growing. Some comfort is required by every creature. While one person may seek it in rare food, drink, sport, or costly raiment, the collection of snuff- boxes, blue and white china, stamps, door-knockers, silhouettes, the entertaining of celebrities, throw of the dice, dealing of cards, millions of men and women prefer to take it in the sight of growing Beauty. Fair surroundings, in one form or another, are essential to refined souls. The best, ethically, are able, I admit, to keep ever within sight such fair purposes and ideals, that they can dispense with gardens. But the ordinary mortal frets without loveliness often before him. The bene- volence of the Divinity is naturally seen more readily through 20 ROSE GARDENING a rose, than through a worm on the path, or the dust and mud of the street. For a pageant of colour there is nothing hke rose time. The hues, hke the scents, heal our nerves, improve us morally, infuse new talent into us, compensate us for our past winters of disappointment. There is delicate beauty about our lilacs, hawthorns and laburnums, under skies of spring turquoise, but the richer blend of summer's ultramarine with the crim- son, scarlet, copper, orange and gold of the roses, offers a more strengthening, revivifying tonic. One, too, that remains ours till winter calls on us to become fireside folk again. Suppose a man enters upon a new tenancy, or buys a free- hold, in May or June. He can make his grounds charming at once by buying pot roses and sinking them in very rich soil, after breaking away just the bottoms of the pots. In November he will find that the roots have gone deep ; then the sides of the pots should be broken away, and, hey presto ! the roses are discovered to be as finally planted as though introduced to the garden in the customary manner. Rose gardens may be as formal as any carpet-bedding design ; indeed, a fine plan can often be worked out from one of the bedding patterns of yore. Or rose gardens can have no shape, be as wild as hedgerows and copses on neglected land. Loyalty may be evidenced by one's rosery. There are the Scotch roses for the sons and daughters of the kingdom of the thistle. Pre-eminent is the King of Scotland, a purple- red, streaked with white outside, or often with all the reverse of its petals pinky-white, but too generally sent out as York and Lancaster. The true type of the latter, for Saxons, is half-red, half-white, flatfish of blossom, with pale green leaves coated with a fine down, and the twiggiest, thorniest of stems. Then, in the Loyalty rosery, roses that have been specially loved by, and named after royal, or sanctified, personages should be included. French sympathies, or ancestry, can be shown by blending WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 2i the French roses, Rosa galHca varieties, or cultivating exclu- sively the thousands of roses raised by Frenchmen. The antiquarian ought to make a garden to show how the rose came to be as at present ; which would form a memorial to the gifted gardeners who, during the centuries, have bred and improved the race of the rose for us. The roses should be labelled and placed according to dates ; Gloire de Dijon, Madame Falcot, Jules Margottin and General Jacqueminot were introduced in '53 ; '58 saw the debut of Celine Forestier, welcomed, but feared as very dehcate. These, and plenty more olden sorts, are obtainable now ; but happy is the fancier who can discover the pink Hebe's Cup, the rosy-Hlac, white striped Duke of Devonshire, or a real Beauty of Billiard, ' middle-sized, of compact form, colour like a burning coal, actually shining as though on fire.' We may read of, and long for, a ' River's George the Fourth, English flower, very dark and velvety, raised from seed ' ; for the Old Double Yellow ; for Mossy de Meaux, that throve best on arid soil ; for Rose A Odeur de Dragees, whose almond fragrance filled our great-parents' bowers, a pale flesh flower ; for the hght salmon Queen of Perpetuals ; the red and flesh striped, double-cupped Striped Perpetual or Panache de Giraudon ; for Purpurea grandiflora, a large blooming double well-cupped noisette ; for the Oleander-flowered Bourbon ; for the original tea rose, single, named The Simple, but dowered with a wondrous perfume ; for Bouquet Blanc, the white Cabbage ; for the big, cream, double, evergreen Triomphe de Bollwyller ; or for the scarlet Eglantine rose called La Belle Distinguee. But enough ! I shall but be making the mouths of rose enthusiasts water uncomfortably. An old author states : ' Those who are fond of tracing Celtic etymologies derive the word Rose from the Celtic Rhodd or Rhudd, red, whence it is alleged comes the Latin rosa.' Possi- bly this is as wise and probable a surmise as to trace the origin of King David's harp to Wales, or to suppose the old Roman toga and cornamusa originated the plaid and bagpipes of the 22 ROSE GARDENING modern Caledonian. But Celts are at full liberty to cherish the theory. As all flowers began as white, or cream, so it is said, the first rose to receive a name was not likely to be called red ; however, the title may have been conferred at a later period of history. We do know for certain that the garden rose has been cultivated from time immemorial, and double roses are mentioned in chronicles of above two thousand years ago by Herodotus, Theophrastus and Athenaeus ; while Pliny enumerates several sorts besides the well-known Cabbage rose {Rosa centifolia) : ' The floweret of a hundred leaves, Expanding while the dew-fall flows And every leaf its balm receives.' Whether we elect to manifest the glories of the Rose of the past or the present, rose-growing will be a delight to ourselves, our neighbours, and our friends. Small space is no veto ; 100,000 roses viewed en masse do not identify themselves with us as do ten cultivated by our living-room windows ; the latter will be our pets, our familiar consolers, our floral children ; the former will be merely a breadth of colour, a noble landscape feature, a legi- timate show-off. Roses are less trouble, and cost less, than either bedding- plants or herbaceous ones ; they are especially to be recom- mended for front and back gardens to ladies who, being not strong enough to do much manual labour, and without much spending-money, will be able to prune, feed, dis-bud, and occasionally water these trees during droughts. If the hoe is kept busy upon the surface of beds and borders, and insects are prevented from spoiling the blooms and foliage, their roses will flourish. Whereas, if bedding-subjects had to be renewed for spring and summer, or overgrown perennials lifted and divided, either the cost of floral ornaments would be considerable, or the services of a man and a spade would become necessary. The sad and lonely should grow roses, for there is solace in WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 23 giving away big baskets of the produce to other poor lonely and sad folk who are without such flowers. The gay should grow roses as a symbol of their gladness, or maybe, to have their too exuberant mirthfulness a trifle sobered by the anxi- eties inseparable from any pursuit. For the greatest happi- ness is not noisy and thoughtless — but deeply quiet. The hobby is for the child, the adult, and the aged. The last will probably gain from it the fullest serenity, through knowing that it is well for the best splendours of earth to be fleeting, since that sets us at liberty to hope most from glories soon to come. If we are unable to have roses in glasshouses, let us console ourselves by the reflection that no rose, grown under exotic conditions, has ever the robust comeliness of its sister of the open air. If we possess much land, let us write up, in some arbour, these lines of the Abbe de Lille : ' To me the garden a vast picture seems ; Be painter then. The ample fields around ; Their varying shades unnumbered that display The vivid rays of light, or mass of gloom ; The hours, and seasons, and revolving still The circle of the year and circle of the day ; The meads in variegated beauty bright ; The ever-cheering verdure of the hills ; The streams ; the rocks ; the rivers ; and the flowers, Thy pencils these, thy canvas, and thy tints.' But if we own, or rent, but a few rods, let us paint a perfect rose miniature, and cease to long for a huge canvas, realizing that it is as good a work to encircle a little homestead exqui- sitely as to colour a solitude. Roses always seem to me to be eager to make our gardens beautiful. Plant them, then, tend them lovingly, and reap the harvest gratefully. CHAPTER II RAMBLERS ' A white rose, delicate On a tall bow and straight ; Early comer, early comer, Never waiting for the summer. ' For "If I wait," said she, " Till times for roses be — For the musk-rose and the moss-rose — What glory then for me In such a company ? — Roses plenty, roses plenty. And one nightingale for twenty ? ' For I would lonely stand. Uplifting my white hand- On a mission, on a mission. To declare the coming vision." ' E. Barrett Browning. IT has been said that all climbing roses are Ramblers, because they all ramble, and do not actually climb. But I think this a foolish suggestion. It is true that roses will not cling to walls or trellises, as do the self-clinging Virginian creeper and some sorts of ivy, but neither will clematises, wistarias, or a host of the ' climbers ' we value. Plant a Crimson Ram- bler, a climbing Hybrid Perpetual, Hybrid Tea, or Noisette, by a house wall, and it will be up to the bedroom window, or on to the roof, in due time, whether nailed or tied up, or not. After a period of very untidy, sprawling, neglected-looking over-luxuriance, the stem will thicken, like a tree trunk, to 24 RAMBLERS 25 support the branches high in air. Nail up one of these roses and it will mount amazingly fast. When we talk of ' Ramblers ' we certainly give quite a loose, disjointed sort of classification ; but we generally mean the most rapid-growing roses that possess small flowers in bunches, or on long sprays, amid a profusion of leaves. Flower shows have familiarized us with many charming kinds ; if we amateurs fail to recognize their differences as to habit, requirements, and hereditary influences, we are scarcely to blame, since not only is the subject naturally complex, but raisers, and other scientific rosarians, complicate it by using various styles of nomenclature. There is no need, for instance, for a Crimson Rambler to be listed as a Climbing Polyantha in one catalogue, and described as a Multiflora in another. The unlearned should be catered for in these matters. Again, one journalistic article will allude to Ramblers as though they were all of identical ancestry ; another will mention none but Wichuraianas. Now, it has been stated that it is most important for the cultivator to recognize which Ramblers are Wichuraianas, and which are not, because the pruning should not be similar. The methods are fully detailed in Chapter XXI ; I merely mention the case here as an illustration of the pitfalls into which scientists unnecessarily warn amateurs not to tumble. Apart from pruning for exhibi- A tion, I have proved that the Multifloras (or Climbing Polyan- rustic Wood Pillar for thas) will thrive if pruned as Rambler Roses. 26 ROSE GARDENING though they were Wichuraianas, and give a glorious garden show, I had a rampant hedge of Dorothy Perkins, the best-known chmbing Hybrid Wichuraiana, that I wished to grow extra thick and high ; so I set to work to prove, at least to my own satisfaction, that this class of rose can equally well be treated as though it were only a Polyantha. I did not cut away the old wood, and grow on none but new shoots, but let young branches spring out of old stems, as they would. The result was a quicker, denser, broader, higher hedge in two years than could have been gained in six by the ' right ' method. Dogmatism is such a pity when it frightens people off rose- growing. Another experiment I tried was with a Euphro- syne, which is a Climbing Polyantha of the Crimson Rambler order. Instead of cutting it down almost to the ground, after planting it against a west wall in autumn, I let it become a tree in which the birds of the air could make their nests — and did. The result was that it covered the whole front of a stable in a couple of years, from ground to chimneys. No. Amateurs need not fear to buy and plant Ramblers. If they do not cultivate them in the best way of all, there are plenty of other ways, to which these accommodating trees take most kindly. These, like most other roses, can be cut, fed and located variously, according to the divers effects they are required to produce, or the exigencies of circum- stances ; it is by dealing differently with trees of the same variety that the gardener learns the merits and disadvantages of rules, gains a respect for the robust wills of the roses them- selves, and adds fresh interest annually to his hobby. Do we wish all roses to continue blooming all the rose season ? That question has been vigorously debated by rosarians. No one can settle it, because all persons do not think alike (thank Providence), and we cannot put it before the country, by a General Election, to see which way the vote goes. Rotation of beauties is part of a garden's charm. We do not want to keep daffodils till November, or start sunflowers RAMBLERS 27 in May. Let the Ramblers follow the Banksians, have their day, and be followed by the later roses. How impossible it is to prophesy which will be the first ' real ' roses out in a garden ! Ramblers are not actually the earliest. Usually it is a Gloire de Dijon that bursts forth just after the tiny Banksians, but sometimes a different warm wall climber, possibly a Mrs. W. J. Grant, or Madame Alfred Carriere, will give the lead. Climbing Wichuraianas, of which the white single-type flower is sadly neg- lected, go on flowering much longer than Crimson Rambler and Co. Yet there is no other rose that has quite the colour of C.R. or gives such a show of it, or that embowers the place with such prodigality of charm. Do not talk to me of Flower of Fairfield — which was brought out as a perpetual Crimson Rambler^ — not as the latter's rival, at all events ; it has its value, but grow it beside the beloved C.R., and note the points it lacks. It has but yellowish- green foliage, not healthy pale emerald ; it is paler of crimson, as though more water had been mixed with the paint ; its blossom is rather papery ; it fades soon to a dull tint ; and, ten to one, it doeswo^ go on lavishly blooming, but at the best, takes a long rest, then may bud forth again, feebly. Grow it, by all means, in case it beautifies autumn ; but never say it is an improvement on dear C.R. Besides, the true C.R. blooms quite late enough. Shall I attempt to define the chief deliciousness of the Rambler roses ? Surely it is their buds, minute, half-deve- Iron Support for Climbing Rose. 28 ROSE GARDENING loped, coming open, just unfurled ? Is not a bouquet of only these, in all stages, one of the loveliest things in creation ? For the little individual, semi-double, or double roses, of which the great trusses are formed, are perfect in make and spring from perfect sheaths ; the roses have simply chosen to be miniatures, as though destined for Fairyland. Yes, we must have the Ramblers, and the more represen- tatives we can admit into our grounds, the happier for us. As pillars they take up a deal of space, for they must go high, even though the branches can be wound round and round a frame of poles, and this frame, made square or circu- lar, can have a width of a yard or more. Indeed, there are countless methods that may be tried for supporting Ramblers. They often need fastening up owing to the lavish weight of blossom trusses. I was once amused to find a gardener who kept haymaker's forks for this ; but the prongs, invisible under the garlands, certainly held the branches aloft famously. The handles were sharpened so that they were easy to drive into the ground. What an admirable hedge Ramblers afford, supported by stout stakes in a double line, as green-pea sticks are set ! Or they will cover real pea, or bean faggots, if those are more at command, and by the time the faggots have dried and become brittle the roses will have wound into a hedge-mass of boughs, and grown so strong that no more propping up will be necessary. It is an excellent plan to arch many of the long shoots right over, like a succession of hoops, and peg them down on the other side of the hedge, proceeding thus with the shoots on that other side also, besides stretching out numbers of branches horizontally, low down, say six inches only above the soil. A hedge against a fence is, of course, easiest to form. Ram- blers are useful, grown thus, to increase the height of boundary fences. Ramblers will not thrive on hot walls. It would be silly to warn readers specifically that they will not flourish on south, or south-west walls, because circumstances alter cases. I have known them adorn a south house-front magni- RAMBLERS 29 ficently, where tall trees, on a grass plot, shut off the sunshine from them. They will do well with an east wall background, better still with a west one, yet they never relish walls ; the materials bother them, I believe, be those brick, stucco, plaster or stone. Give them wood, trellises for choice, as they are air lovers. They can be grown as bushes, weeping standards, on rustic screens, espaliers, along pergolas, up flag-staffs or other poles, on stately painted iron pillars, united by slung ropes or wires ; or they can be put on the tops of high mounds, or banks level with wall summits, and allowed to trail down- wards. The effect will be best if turf is beneath them, or they can dip their tips in stream, lake or pool. Glades, like the nut walks and bowered alleys of Eliza- bethan gardens, can be made with Ramblers. To achieve this, plant Ramblers each side of a path and give only such supports as must be, to within a sixth part of the height required, then bend and arch the shoots over gracefully, cross them with their opposite neighbours, and bind them together. For supports, have natural wood, ash boughs, willow rods, birch poles — slender, to sway a little in the winds, neither rigid nor clumsy. Feed the trees generously, as soon as they are established, to encourage a copse-like growth of shoots from the base. As the alley grows up, the boughs can be woven in and out for a close roofing. The subject is inexhaustible, but this chapter must be brought to a finish with a description of some of the best of Ramblers, all suited to the ordinary garden. American Pillar. Large single, Hiawatha. A ivhite-eyed crim- deep rose, with white in centre, son ; extra effective and vigor- and gay gold stamens. The hips ous. are handsome in autumn and early winter. Blush Rambler. A most beauti- mine. ful sport from Crimson Ram- Euphrosyne. Bright pink, semi- Crimson Rambler. Vivid car- bler ; blooms similarly, in large double, extra floriferous ; not masses. Blush pink, eclipsed by any later variety. 30 ROSE GARDENING Flower of Fairfield. Slightly ■paler than Crimson Rambler. Often continues until late au- tumn. Graf Zeppelin. Can this rose be bought now, under that name, I wonder ? It is a lovely shade of cerise red, and very bountiful. Leuchstern. Single. Bright rosy carmine, with white centre. Lyon Rambler. Carmine-shaded pink flowers, in enormous trusses. Most valuable and strong. Tausendschon. Buff pink, flow- ers deepening as they develop. A very rapid climber, and one of the loveliest. Veilchenblau. Blue-heliotrope ; often called slate-blue , and adver- tised as the Blue Rambler. So unique that we should all patron- ize it. Placed next a pale pink, or yellow, it gives a delightful harmony. Paul's. Scarlet Rambler. Vivid scarlet. Evangeline. Single pink, white- centred ; a paler edition of Hiawatha ; has bronze - tinted foliage. Sander's White. Very fine white. Stella. Carmine-red ; white-cen- tred. Aglaia. Pale yellow ; glossy evergreen foliage ; simply ex- quisite ; but does not bloom, except by chance, until it has been established two years. The Tea Rambler. Coppery- rose. Rosa Polyantha. Single white. Thalia. The white double, or semi-double Rambler. White Tausendschon. Blush- white, sometimes flecked with pink. Oriflamme. Brilliant rose, with gold-copper sheen, in bunches. Tree Climber. Double blush. Thousand Beauties. Pink-and- carmine. Mid-season flowering. Pemberton's White Rambler. Pure white, late blooming, almost mildew-free. Goldfinch. Orange-yellow flow- ers, intensely brilliant in bud, becoming nearly white as they fade. Semi-double. Rampant. Geisha. All scarlet-crimson. Very showy. Fairy. Single white, in large clusters. Baroness von Ittersum. A blend of orange and crimson. Perpetual blooming. Vigorous. Mrs. F. W. Flight. Pink with white centres, enormous trusses. CHAPTER III WICHURAIANA ROSES ' When the brow of June is crowned by the rose, And the air is faint with her breath, Then the Earth hath rest fi'oni her long birth-throes ; — ' The Earth hath rest and forgetteth her woes. As she watcheth the cradle of Love and Death, When the brow of June is crowned by the rose.' Emily Pfeiffer. HOME gardeners have expressed to me frequently their bewilderment at the rapidity with which rose fashions develop. The Wichuraiana roses seemed to be no sooner really introduced — that is, made a fuss over at the great shows, boomed in the Press, largely advertised— than the number of their varieties exceeded a hundred. There are a vast number more now, yet some amateurs know them not, or have grown them for years without knowing them to be Wichuraianas. Lady Gay and Dorothy Perkins, for example, have flung their gorgeous boughs right and left for so many seasons that they are old favourites ; yet Wichur- aiana herself, single white, dainty, trailing or prodigiously climb- ing, as requested, is often examined, at shows, as ' something novel.' And are not the simple folk wiser than we after all ? Wichuraiana herself, the real thing, is still the real rarity, whereas the hundreds of popular varieties are but hybrids, owning her as one parent. We ought to call them Hybrid Wichuraianas ; yet how seldom do we find the prefix used ? 31 32 ROSE GARDENING The very title, in many cases, is spelt wrong, as Wichuriana; while, to do proper honour to the memory of Herr Wichura, GiiriiCr>i,DiiiDujLOrj,,jcDtviu jr_jL.:j' 3ji^jcj(r:)Lr.;r-3crjc:iL -'(C-k :j :ji.jLjrj'-ji...>iLljL.jijc. C ., K. J»_U ..liJil. Jl . J.v_ .'j. . .KSj LJ .' i. jy.,tjL:o^jC'-^~ji jj^ -L- -' ■D^-;;ju,iju...j!..,jtUi.ufAi:rn;i,.jL J ~;, ji .' BO(^0Ei\ PAT'/^ Poles for Climbing Roses, to Screen the Corner of a Border. the discoverer, in China, in i860, it must be given the extra 'a.' Not till thirty years later did the ever-enterprising Americans take up this rose and, by crossing it with others, introduced FRAU KARL URUSCHKl {IVhite) ULRICH BRUNNER {.Ked) WICHURAIANA ROSES 33 the valuable hybrids that immediately took the public heart by storm. All Wichuraianas do not climb ; some trail. A gardening boy once defined it as — ' You can grow 'em upside down if you wants to.' They are the roses for planting on banks by a river or stream, to trail down to the water, or on the top of grass banks or rockeries, to bound tennis lawns, or shut in a rose garden. The rampant climbers can be pegged down ; the lesser growers can be nailed up. They would be worth growing for their leaves alone. Where else can we look in the winter garden for such splendid masses, canopies, coverings of glossy foliage ? After rains the verdant sheen is most remarkable ; in spring the young growth is pea- green, flushed with red and copper ; in summer's greatest heat and dust there remains a clean, fresh show, generally without a touch of mildew and shunned by green-fly and other insects to whose taste the softer greyish leaves of other classes of roses are more inviting. While all Wichuraiana roses are not evergreen, I do not know of one that, under ordinarily good conditions, becomes bare in winter. By minghng them with Hybrid Perpetual, Hybrid Tea, Noisette, Tea, and other climbing roses, we combine the wonderful grace of their luxuriant growth, the colour concen- tration of their great trusses of small blossoms, with the merits of big flowers that are set singly on thick-thorned stems, among mammoth leaves of sober greens. By mingling them with the Ramblers we obtain a long show of bloom ; for many Wichuraianas are late summer, and even late autumn flowerers. We must realize, however, that Wichuraianas are not healthy when grown against warm walls. The following list of some of the charming Hybrid Wichur- aianas will assist rose-lovers in making their choice before next planting season. Wichuraiana itself, it is perhaps well to repeat, is the type rose, the original, the Mother Eve of the race, and has single snow-white flowers on rampant boughs. 34 ROSE GARDENING ExcELSA. Classed also as a Ram- bler. Generally described as the scarlet Dorothy Perkins, but I have always found the flowers larger, set more apart, in sprays rather than trusses ; which gives them a superior elegance for vase arrangements. White Dorothy. A white sport from Dorothy Perkins. If too well fed becomes streaked or shaded with pink. Dorothy Perkins. Rose pink. Immense clusters. Perfumed. Will continue blooming late. Lady Godiva. Creamy pink. Often flowers as late as October. Jersey Beauty. Pale yellow, large, single. Rampant. Ever- green. Dr. van Fleck. Rosy flesh. Minnehaha. Pink ; some of the individual flowers being a deep hue, others light. In loose, grace- ful trusses. Gerbe Rose. Soft pink ; large blooming, semi-double. Per- fumed. Not rampant, but strong. Blooms all the summer. Alberic Barrier. Pale yellow, well-formed flowers, not massed in trusses, but some grouped, some set singly. Tea-scented. Lasts long in water or on the tree. Very glossy foliage. Continuous blooming. Gardenia. Deeper yellow, buds tinted with orange. The earliest to bloom. Franqois Juranville. Coppery- rose ; large, scented flowers. Bronze-tinted foliage. Goes on blooming late. Paul Transon. Coppery-rose. Summer and early autumn bloomer. Rampant. Hiawatha. Sometimes classed as a Wichuraiana, sometimes as a Rambler. {See preceding chap- ter.) Often blossoms again in autumn. Aviateur Bleriot. Yellow full blossoms, deeper in centre, pro- duced in clusters. Rampant. Coquinna. Single, wild-rose pink, with pale yellow base. Delight. Carmine flowers, in large masses, among shining deep green leaves. Vigorous. Shower of Gold. Golden, with handsome coloured foliage. Early. Emily Gray. Yellow, glossy foliage. Very valuable. CoRALiE. Shrimp-coral. Lady Gay. Cerise-pink, or cherry. Free bloomer. Rampant. Source d'Or. Gold, in large masses. Vigorous. Coronation. Crimson - headed scarlet, splashed with wliite. Large trusses. Dark shining foliage. Rampant. DiABOLO. Fiery red, shot with sepia. Joseph Billiard. Singlebronzy- red. Dorothy Dennison. Pink flow- ers, with wliite base. A sport from Dorothy Perkins. American Pillar. Single, deep pink - and - wliite. Perfumed. Sometimes classed as a Rambler. [See preceding chapter.) Leontine Gervais. Salmon-rose and yelloiv. Early. CHAPTER IV CLIMBING ROSES ' O, the faint fragrance of roses, Crumpled up, pink and white, in your hand.' Alice E. Gillington. ROSES that climb, but are neither Ramblers nor Wichur- aianas, might be divided into classes ; but we will consider them in haphazard fashion, confident that they will loose none of their beauty or sweetness through being unscien- tifically appreciated. They are all suitable for walls ; most of them will give grand displays on arches or pergolas, where winds will sweep through them, except the Banksians and the more delicate roses recommended for south walls, such as the old Lamarque. A few words first about the Banksians, which are unique. An old writer says of them : ' From China. They are white or yellow, half-hardy climbers, which must have plenty of space to ramble over and a sheltered situation. If kept in bounds with the knife they will only make the more wood, and won't flower. Dead wood and irregular shoots must be rectified with thumb and finger. The blossoms are very small, in clusters, and very fragrant. Were they hardy they might be budded on the tallest possible stocks, to make trees of the magnitude of Weeping Ashes. For instance, at Toulon, there was, in 1842, a white Banksian covering a wall 75 feet broad and 18 feet high ; when in full flower, from April to May, there were not less than 50,000 to 60,000 flowers on it. At Caserta, near Naples, another plant chmbed to the top of a poplar tree 60 feet high. At Goodrent, near Reading, there 35 36 ROSE GARDENING was a Yellow Banksian which, in 1847, produced above two thousand trusses of flowers, with from six to nine expanded roses on each truss.' Interesting facts, these, yet they leave the Banksian rose's charm to be inferred. And what a charm it is ! To open a bedroom window in April, and lean out over the compact wee golden, or white, roses and inhale their delicious scent, is to have a foretaste of summer. And even when summer arrives, with all her other rose pageantry, we shall find ourselves regretting the Banksians that did their bit so early, and are mounting now, instead of blooming, that they may frame our windows more generously still another April. This kind is certainly but semi-hardy, inasmuch that it must have a south wall ; yet the trees often live for fifty years or longer. For this, they must be well fed ; mixed farmyard manure, quite decayed, is best for their special constitutions, and should be dug into their border twice a year, in February or March, and in October. Failing mixed farmyard manure, cow or pig manure will do ; horse manure is less suitable. The frequent complaint, ' The Banksians have not flowered this year,' will not be heard if pruning is done directly the blossom has died. Use finger and thumb, by all means, where possible ; knife or secateurs for stronger branches, rubbing wet clay on any large wounds that have to be made. Remove all coarse shoots that would overcrowd others, and tip every other shoot. Then do not touch the trees again until they have flowered once more. There is a very fascinating rose called Banksiafolia. I must confess that I do not know its origin, but it has very similar foliage and possesses scented bunches of white-and- buff blossom, produced from the end of June until winter. Lamarque has been named as a south-wall rose. It has the queer habit of giving creamy-buff, or lemon, flowers out of doors, and nearly pure white ones under glass ; the perfume is about perfect in either case. One of the oldest roses we still have, dating back to 1830 : a Noisette, which makes its delicacy strange. On a warm wall, though, it is not likely CLIMBING ROSES 37 to be killed by any frost, and it yields a real profusion of blooms. Celine Forestier is another semi-delicate Noisette, primrose yellow. Oh, what a lot of feeding it needs to make its stems strong enough to hold up the roses ! The foliage is pale A Garden for Colour, Scent and Sound. green, the scent excellent. People are fond of saying ' it is a variety that has been superseded.' This is, of course, a matter purely of individual taste. Reve d'Or I prefer, if one must make a choice. It grows 38 ROSE GARDENING strongly, has dark ruddy-tinted foliage and deep yellow, large blooms. Buy Fortune's Yellow, if you can be sure of obtaining the genuine article. Here is an old author's account of it : ' I had been much struck by the effects produced by this rose in the gardens of Northern China, where it was highly prized, and I had no doubt it would succeed equally well in this country. But from some cause^ — probably ignorance as to its habits or the treatment required — my favourite Wang-Jan-Ve, as the Chinese call it, was cried down. It had been planted in situations where it was either starved or burnt up ; and in return for such unkind treatment the pretty exotic obstinately refused to produce any but poor, miserable flowers. Then the learned in such matters pro- nounced it quite unworthy of a place in our gardens among English roses ; and I believe, in many instances, it was either allowed to die or was dug up and thrown away. Five or six years had elapsed since the introduction of this fine climber, and it had never been seen in its proper garb. But the results in two places proved it to be a rose nearly as rampant as the old Ayrshire, quite hardy, and covered, from the middle of May, with hundreds of rather loose flowers, of every shade between a rich reddish-buff and a full copper-pink. The old standard plants in the open ground were one mass of bloom, the heads of each being more than four feet through.' As a matter of fact. Fortune's Yellow is a gorgeous orange at its best, a ruddy-shaded apricot when it happens to be sulky. Surely we cannot afford to be without such a charmer ? Beautiful though countless of our new roses are, they do not rival it. (I suspect Madame Hector Leuilhot of trying to do so, however ; she is so like a resuscitation, or a modern version, of Fortune's Yellow.) The author adds of this rose : ' It is perfectly hardy scramb- ling over old walls ; but it requires a rich soil and plenty of room to grow. The Chinese say that night-soil is one of the best manures to give it. Only fancy a wall completely covered CLIMBING ROSES 39 with many hundred flowers of varying hues — yellowish, salmon and bronze-like — and then say what rose we have in the gardens of this country as striking ? ' Fortune's Yellow succeeds splendidly as a climber under glass, in a rich border-bed of greenhouse or conservatory, and directly one enters the building one is greeted by its full perfume. Another name it owns is Beauty of Glazenwood. A chapter in this book is devoted to Marechal Niel, so let it suffice to remark here that it can be grown on a south wall, in most parts of England not reckoned bleak, especially if there is a recess, or alcove, of brick in which its lower stems can find shelter from east winds. I am frequently asked what roses can be grown on north walls ? I feel inclined to answer : ' For the roses' sake — don't try.' Only I know the pride of having a cold wall made fair by the Queen of Flowers, and can sympathize with the pre- dicament of the rose-lover who has no better wall to offer her. Well, the Ramblers and Wichuraianas often succeed ; so does Felicite Perpetue, and if she does not give many of her ivory blossom clusters, there will yet be the glossy foliage. J. B. Clark, crimson-scarlet, seldom disappoints ; Longworth Rambler, crimson, semi-double, throve with me ; Dundee Rambler, white, edged with pink (Ramblers with a difference, not of the Crimson Rambler family), and the Dawson Rose, a rampant grower with masses of pale pink blooms on pendant boughs, can be tried with every confidence. I always advise also the Hybrid Sweet Briar, Catherine Seaton, and the ordinary Rosa Rugosa, or Japanese rose, for covering the wall rather lower down. Really, all the Hybrid Briars are suitable for walls ; if they are alternated with tall climbers there will be red-and-orange-tinted autumn leaves, and scarlet and amber hips, after a long yield of flowers. Other roses for north aspects are Bennett's Seedling and Thoresburyana, both white. Most roses do well on west walls, especially Madame Alfred Carriere and the good old Gloire de Dijon. 40 ROSE GARDENING An east wall needs a rose that is not much attacked by pests or the diseases which east winds always seem to bring, but probably only prepare the way for, by weakening the trees and drying up the healthy sap that, like healthy blood, can enable life to resist sickness and endure injuries without much hurt. Evergreen, or very glossy foliaged roses should be chosen. Aglaia, the yellow Rambler, is an example. Griiss an Teplitz, scarlet-crimson, has done well in my garden, also Hybrid Briar roses, and Rugosas, which can be trained as climbers. Evergreen Gem, buff-yellow, scented as a briar, opening quite white, is a pretty thing to watch, and invariably admired in vases. Rene Andre, semi-double flowers, two to three inches across, orange- or carmine-marked yellow, tea- scented and glossy leaved, and Jersey Beauty, a single yellow, might be planted against an east wall or fence as experi- ments. Ards Rover, too, would probably make himself at home. A wall that will not take nails is a genuine trial. There is the expedient of putting trellis woodwork against it, but this will have to be painted sometimes, and the roses will suffer unless the greatest care is taken in unfastening them and bending them forward, to poles, till they can be replaced. A wire trellis is apt to hurt young growth. The best plan is to call in a builder to drive strong staples at wide distances. Tarred strings, passed between these, will support the lighter boughs of climbing roses, and the stout branches can be fastened to the staples themselves. There is not the least obligation to grow as climbers only such roses as are marked ' climbing ' in growers' catalogues. Where a rustic screen, or fence, or trellis, has to be orna- mented, or a summer-house clothed, and six-foot ornaments are sufficient, very beautiful displays are to be obtained from robust Hybrid Perpetuals, Hybrid Teas, and Teas ; if the locality is a chilly or wind-swept one, these roses will do better than similar varieties grown as bushes or standards, pillars or half-standards. Hybrid Perpetuals I have used thus with success are Uhich Brunner, cherry red ; Margaret Dickson, blush ; and Duke of Edinburgh, vermilion ; the last CLIMBING ROSES 41 being a rose that only flowers satisfactorily when very little touched by the knife. A mixed lot of roses to grow against supports of some kind are La France of '89, deep pink ; Baroness Rothschild, pale pink ; Helen Keller, salmon-rose ; Marie van Houtte, lemon shaded with pink ; Madame Hoste, lemon ; Madame Pierre Cochet, apricot-orange; and Betty, rose-and-gold. It is a A Garden of Rose Hedges and Pillars on Turf or Gravel. capital plan to alternate climbers and non-climbers against wall or fence, training the latter as horizontally as possible over the bare lowest stems of the tall growers. Occasionally a landlord proves fractious, and will not allow climbers to be placed against his walls. The way to improve a house in that eventuality is to plant pillar roses a couple of feet from it, and a yard or a couple of yards apart. Three 42 ROSE GARDENING yards will be best if rampant roses are used, and their boughs should be tied along stout cords or wires slung from pillar to pillar. The terraced walk under a verandah may be enclosed on the outside by a hedge of roses, or by espalier roses, or roses against wooden trellis work, four feet or more high. The ends of verandahs can soon be turned into arbours by embowering them in climbing roses. To attempt even to give a full list of climbing roses would make this book too much like a florist's catalogue. Every rose-lover, I am certain, sends for such lists and pores over them fondly, unless deterred by the sad consciousness that there are no shillings even to be spent on the pleasure grounds. So I will content myself with suggesting some of the too- neglected varieties, some that are not generally familiar though of sterling quality, some of the newest, some of the oldest ; the prominent charm of each will be found out by attention to the descriptions. Alistair Stella Gray. Noi- sette. Perpetual blooming. Pale yellow. Fragrant. In clusters. Climbing H. V. Machin. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet-crimson. Bardou Job. Hybrid Tea. A wonderful black-shaded crimson. Single large. Billiard et Barre. Tea. Ex- quisite golden buttonhole rose. Cheshunt Hybrid. Hybrid Tea. Of a rare cherry-red shade. Carmine Pillar. Single car- mine, brilliant, and very free blooming. Climbing Lady Hillingdon. Yellow. Sarah Bernhardt. Scarlet-crim- son, with real vermilion blushes. Only semi-double , but enormous and deliciously sweet. Climbing Cramoisie Sup£rieur. The little flowers are so double and exquisitely formed, so round and dainty, that this rose is un- like all other climbers of similar height. It simply blooms throughout summer and autumn, and is a rich crimson. Climbing Cumberland Belle. The climbing pink moss-rose. Climbing Irish Fireflame. Hy- brid Tea. A marvellous com- bination of orange, madder-car- mine, etc. Single. Free bloom- ing. Crepuscule. Noisette. Buff, tinged with red. A full rose of great effectiveness. Madame Isaac Perri^re. A Bourbon rose. Very large and double. Carmine. Vigorous. Moonlight. Hybrid Tea. Use- ful because a white cluster rose, that blooms all the season and is scented. CLIMBING ROSES 43 ZfepHYRiNE Drouhin. Hybrid Bourbon. A rose without a thorn. Carmine - rose. Very sweet. Constant bloomer. Paul's Lemon Pillar. Pale lemon, large, full - formed. Strong, but best on wooden fences or up pillars. Very fragrant. Rubin. Purplish-red. Large, full, and hardy. Especially ap- propriate for giving warm colour on white or grey walls. Conrad Meyer. A rugosa, or Japanese rose. Large, semi- double ; silvery pink, perpetual blooming, strongly scented. Mostly a six-foot kind. L'Ide;al. Noisette. Nothing really rivals the orange-red shade of this veteran rose. Noella Nabonnand. Hybrid Tea. Huge semi-double carmine rose flower with a velvety texture. Sweet. About ten feet high as a rule. Climbing Paul Lede. Carmine- rose and salmon. Evergreen Gem. Hybrid Briar. Buff-yellow with white ; double. Pink Rover. Gives large pale pink roses, deeper pink in the centres. Hardy and tall. Macrantha. a big single white, with extra handsome yellow anthers. Hardy. Climbing Richmond. Crimson. Climbing Chatenay. Pink. Paul's Scarlet Climber. Scar- let-crimson, semi-double, in big clusters. Remarkable for the length of time that the floivers last. Mermaid. Single, sulphur yellow, constant bloomer, with dark bronze-tinted foliage. Viridiflora. The green rose. A curiosity. Titania. Copper-crimson buds, salmon-crimson flowers. Climbing Ophelia. Hybrid Tea. Salmon-rose. CHAPTER V GREAT FULL ROSES ' 'Twas a Jacqueminot rose That she gave me at parting ; Sweetest flower that blows, 'Twas a Jacqueminot rose, In the love-garden close. With the swift blushes starting, 'Twas a Jacqueminot rose That she gave me at parting.' Arlo Bates. SHALL I be voicing the opinion of a large majority when I say that, to give thorough gratification, a rose, other than a cluster-bloomer, must be either fully double or a big single ? — Thorough means a lot, of course. There are roses, such as Mevrow Dora van Tets, that have some startling perfection or originality that atones for the scarcity of petals ; in Dora's case it is her scarlet tulip-like effect, for no other rose of brilliant vermilion is that peculiarly elegant shape. But speaking generally, semi-double roses are not real food for one's rose hunger, not filling enough, as a boy might say of wafer biscuits. When we come to the selection of roses for garden decora- tion only, we shall realize that semi-double or loose-petalled varieties are of value ; as a rule they are the kinds that give prodigious harvests, keep on and on, as though they could never be tired out, and have most gorgeous, or exquisitely delicate, or tender colourings ; frequently they can at the same time be praised for scent, and may be gathered in gene- rous branches, set with perfect foliage and tipped with ideal buds. Slim pointed buds, too, that have supreme grace, 44 GREAT FULL ROSES 45 a lightsomeness of effect to which the buds of stalwart-stemmed, intensely double roses can never aspire. But, for looking into, give me the great full roses. What pride we can take in the deep, deep heart of a wonderful rose, a firm mass of countless closely-curling petals. In death, as in life, those petals will cling together ; whole sections of the heart will be swept up and burnt, or buried. What admirable ' waste ' of structure ! What divinely-created symmetry for our delight. It has been argued that the cleverness of Man has called the double rose into existence, yet who but Providence supplied the raw material, renews it fresh very minute of time, or teaches the mystery we call a rose to grow into such per- fection in the summer's sunshine ? It is quite out of the question to decide which is the ' doublest ' rose ; so we will content ourselves with paying homage to many of the best. Firstly, it will be well to recollect that good culture, demanded by all roses, is extra needed, and merited, by the great full ones. A weak specimen of an intensely double flower is worse, because more disappointing, than a weak specimen of a decorative or loosely-formed one. The tree must be strong, full of life and sap, that the stems may be equal to holding up the beautiful flowers. Plenty of manuring, wisely diversified, will give the trees every chance. Chapter XXII deals with this food question. Plenty of watering, of pruning, of hoeing round, of mulching and of syringing are required. A giant needs a large bed and meal ; while a pigmy can put up with a cot and small rations. Leaf of Hybrid Perpetual Rose. 46 ROSE GARDENING There is compensation for the cultivation of huge sohd roses, for they are far less trouble in other ways than are the slender, flappy, semi-doubles to keep in health. Mildew attacks some of them, it is true — Margaret Dickson, that great, flattish pale flesh, or blush beauty, for example ; but it is really a mistake to take her for any sort of illustration, owing to her being some kind of a freak, or at least an eccentric. Queer, is it not, that she refuses to be produced by cuttings ? — At least, so 'tis said, and neither I nor any of my friends have contrived to prove the saying false. A rose that has such a pronounced peculiarity is an uncanny thing. All the dearer, of course, for being incomprehensible. Mildew is a malady that attacks the strongest trees ; but when a stout grower is seized upon by a disease or by insects, it is, naturally, not much trouble to cure. The robust specimen of Rose can defy weather that would threaten the very lives of fragile members of the race. The cutting east winds fol- lowing closely upon the prun- ings will be found to have shrivelled much youthful leafage, but will not have even blacked the tips of the great healthy rose's greenery. An awful spell of iron-hard frost will leave gaps only in the beds of less vigorous roses. This is one reason why the robust roses ought to be kept by themselves. Another is that delicate ones grown near them are bound to be more delicate, unless extraordinary care is taken in supplying them with compensating quantities of foods and water. Even so, so difficult is it to understand the precise soil-ingredients for which they are yearning, they are almost sure to suffer. The giants will have drawn that particular force-giving something from the earth all around. Leaf of Rambler Rose. GREAT FULL ROSES 47 A gardener's wits are not often equal to measuring just the amount that must be made up to the surrounding roses, and the cleverest gardener's time has such a cruel way of becoming deficient. Perhaps the extra feeding of those roses is one of the jobs that do not get done, simply because a man hasn't a dozen pairs of hands and unlimited hours. Then, even if perfect culture is achieved, the enormous leaves, rigid thick stems and heavy great blooms of the big full roses make smaller, lighter-formed types of roses look foolish ; while they, in subtle revenge, make the giants look coarse. Keep the grand monsters by themselves, is the counsel I give. Allow the trees plenty of room — too much, if you can. Let them be staked with wood of adequate girth, painted dull brown or rose-leaf green. Greediness in the quantity of buds allowed will prevent the opened roses from being the variety's best. Of course, when a large full rose tries to flower in bunches, two, three, four buds pressing] together, it is folly not to remove all but one on that stem or shoot while they are the merest babies ; all details of which culture are fully explained in future chapters. The beginner going in for a collection of big full roses should start by buying some of the older Hybrid Perpetuals, such as the following : — General Jacqueminot. Pur- Her Majesty. Bright satiny plish-shaded crimson. rose. A. K. Williams. Bright crimson. Louis van Houtte. Fiery red, Baroness Rothschild. Pale shaded crimson. flesh. Merveille de Lyon. White. Beauty of Waltham. Cherry- Tom Wood. Cherry red. crimson. Horace Vernet. Velvety crini- Charles Lefebvre. Velvety son-purple. scarlet-crimson. Madame Victor Verdier. Light Dr. Andry. Deep carmine-red. crimson. Duke of Teck. Crimson-scarlet. Marie Baumann. Red. Extra bright. Reynold's Hole. Maroon crim- DuKE OF Edinburgh. Real ver- son. milion. Prince Camille de Rohan. DuPUY Jamain. Cerise. Deep crimson-maroon. 48 ROSE GARDENING Nobody should be deterred from buying older roses because people say that the new are so much better ; the antiques should not be forgotten. Believe me, there is a fascination about the veterans that ought to endear them to us still. There are differences in the doubleness of double roses. One may be large, full, but fiat when fully expanded, some- what the shape of a prize double hollyhock blossom ; others are long and pointed as buds, so have pointed or peaked deep centres when fully matured, and may die before really opening. Examples of this shape are numerous. The most solid roses seldom go to pieces utterly, but fall in lumps, if the inelegant expression can be forgiven. Two that occur to my mind are — Frau Karl Druschki. Pure George Arends. The pink Dru- white, with pink-flushed buds. schki. The olden description of the ' properties ' a rose must have were given thus by the famous authority, Glenny : ' I. The petals should be thick, broad and smooth at the edges. ' 2. The flower should be highly perfumed, or as the dealers call it, fragrant. ' 3. The flower should be double to the centre, high on the crown, and regular in the disposition of the petals.' Now, Merveille de Lyon and Frau Karl Druschki are both white roses, fully entitled to the description double or full, yet they are striking contrasts, the former being flat, the latter deep and pointed. Each is lovely, so let us have them near together, as an interesting object-lesson. The lover of large full roses should add some, at least, of the following to his collection : — Cleveland. Reddish copper on Sir Rowland Hill. Mulberry old rose. claret. George Dickson. Crimson. Victor Hugo. Crimson-red. Gorgeous. Orange-yellow, flushed Gloire de Margottin. Brilliant with reddish copper. red. Pride of Waltham. Pale sal- Hugh Dickson. Scarlet-shaded mon-pink. crimson. MADAME EDOUARD HERRIOTT ( The ' Daily Mail ' /v /J.5..') GREAT FULL ROSES 49 Marchioness of Ormonde. Hy- brid Tea. Straw yellow, with carmine shading on reverse of petals. Lady Dixon. Hybrid -Tea. Apricot-salmon. Candeur Lyonnaise. White. Louis Crette. A Druschhi-like white rose, just shaded with straw. Hugh Watson. Crimson, flushed with carmine. Mrs. George Marriott. Hybrid Tea. Cream, flushed rose and vermilion. Mrs. Dunbar-Buller. Hybrid Tea. Rosy carmine on yellow. Senorita Carmen Sert. Hybrid Tea. Indian yellow with pale carmine-pink. Nellie Parker. Hybrid Tea. Creamy white, flushed with faint- est pink. There are others, of course, and by the time the rose-lover possesses these, the collector's zest will be so strong in him that he will be sure to search high and low for more great full roses. Hybrid Teas are first favourites with the public ; there is no doubt about that. New varieties come out by the score annually, and connoisseurs are annoyed because many of the new bear so strong a resemblance to the old that they sim- ply confuse the market. One may read descrip- tion after description of these modern arrivals and find the reiterated phrases, ' Semi-double,' ' Rather a loose flower,' ' Good decorative rose.' Fullness is no longer de- manded, it seems; buyers are content if there is a chance of having a blazing colour show in the garden, and grace, scent and colour on the dining- table. It consequently behoves the collector of big plump Leaf of Tea Rose. 50 ROSE GARDENING roses to be careful. The finest Hybrid Tea there is must surely be still La France ? Duchess of Albany is a deeper rose version, but lacks the absolute charm. I think I am correct in stating that not even among her descendants can such a glorious firm flower be found as that of La France. Note how her blooms fall without having had time to unfurl, so nobly is she dowered with petals within petals. I am speaking, naturally, of a healthy and well-nourished La France. The peculiar shape, those over-curls to the rose-pink, satiny petals, make her recognizable anywhere by the veriest amateur. ' Oh, that's La France,' he says at a show, or before a florist's window. ' I could pick it out among a hundred roses.' La France of '8g, deep red-pink, beautiful though it is, is not full enough in all seasons and soils, circumstances and situations for this list we are making. No doubt some of the recommended roses have proved disappointing in the matter of doubleness in some gardens, but I have found them admir- able, and one can but speak of a rose as one finds her. Beaut£; de Lyon. Coral-red. Grange Colomb. Pale flesh-pink, [A Hybrid Pernetiana.) deeper in centre. Caroline Testout. Bright pale Lady Faire. [Called also Joseph pink ; a very round, full rose. Lowe.) Salmon-pink. Cheshunt Hybrid. Cherry-crim- Lady Bowater. Palest flesh, son. Laurent Carle. Rosy crimson. CissiE Easlea. Yellow, suffused Lyon Rose. Shrimp-pink, with carmine. A globular rose. Marcella. Salmon. Duchess of Westminster. Melanie Niedlieck. Lemon. Deep rosy crimson. Perfectly- Mrs. E. Alford. Clear pink, formed flowers. Pointed centre. Edward Mawley. Velvet crim- Mrs. Walter Easlea. Crimson- son, carmine. Earl of Warwick. Salmon- Mrs. W. J. Grant. Rose-pink, pink. Queen of Fragrance. Shell- Florence S. Paul. Deep rose- pink, petals paler at tip. pink. W. E. Lippiat. Crimson, shaded Francis S. Key. A good red. maroon. George C. Waud. Orange-ver- William Shean. Pink. Very milion. General McArthur. Velvety Benedicts Sequin. Red-apri- crimson. cot, flushed carmine. GREAT FULL ROSES 51 E. Godfrey Brown. Hybrid Tea. Reddish crimson, a giant, yet free blooming. La France Victorieuse. Hy- brid Tea. Pale pink, with deeper heart on yellow. Lady Anderson. Coral -and - gold. Mrs. Bertram J. Walker. Cer- ise. £^TOiLE de France. Deepest crimson. Cup-shaped. Countess of Derby. Salmon- and-rose. Dean Hole. Silvery rose, shaded with ochre and salmon. Duchess of Wellington. Saff- ron-yellow, stained with crimson and copper. Ethel Malcolm. Ivory tinted with peach-pink. Killarney. Pink. Mrs. Cornwallis West. cate pink on a white base. Mrs. Joseph H. Welch. Bril- liant rose-pink. white, Deli- Among Tea roses my choice would be these :- Archie Gray. Deep crimson, flushed with velvety scarlet. Miss M. J. Spencer. Gold throughout. Very effective. Captain F. Bald. Black-scarlet. Lady Dixon. A pricot-and- sal- mon-pink. Mrs. Henry Morse. Rose-and- vermilion. KooTENAY. Primrose. Bouquet d'Or. Deep yellow, shaded with bronze. Catherine Mermet. Rosy pink, flushed with carmine. Madame Hoste. Pale lemon. Madame Lambard. Salmon-red. Molly Sharman Crawford. Greenish white. Souvenir d'^lise Vardon. Ivory, with yellowish centre. Extra big. Then there are the Bourbon roses, that are rather delicate and succeed best against warm walls, whether they are climb- ers or not. The best to include in this list are the familiar — Souvenir de La Malmaison. Acidalie. Blush-white. Blush. Kathleen Harrop. Pale pink. A repetition word of warning shall close this chapter. All roses that are to throw giant full blooms must be well grown, that is to say, given rich, stiff soil, watered when necessary, hoed round, properly pruned and disbudded. A variety that exists in poor, arid, neglected soil, and is left to spread and tower as it chooses, will scarcely be recognizable as the brother or sister of a rose of the same name that is flourishing under the loving care of a good master or mistress. 52 ROSE GARDENING Winds and rains will spoil the merely decorative roses of the garden, and dash the singles to atoms, before the great full roses are injured ; and the latter keep fresh longer in vases. CHAPTER VI LONG-BLOOMING ROSES ' Why are you sad when the sky is blue ? Why, when the sun shines bright for you, And the birds are singing, and all the air So sweet, with the flowers everywhere ? If life has thorns it has roses too. ' Be wise and be merry . . . ' H. COURTHOPE BOWEN. WE have already reflected on the much-debated subject whether we desire all our roses to bloom early and late, and have, I trust, shown ourselves to be modest in our requirements, by declaring that we do not always want every- thing good at once. If we invariably had plums in our cakes, we should weary of the monotony and cry out for plain buns. So, although all roses are so beautiful that we might be excused for wishing to retain them constantly, let us be glad to see our rose garden changing with the months. But though we can reconcile ourselves to parting early with many roses, we certainly do crave to have some roses with us until the end of the floral year. After the Banksians come some unclassed pioneers, then the Ramblers, the Persian Yellow and Copper Briars, the Wi- churaianas ; then the summer roses, such as that magnificent pale pink. Captain Christy, and many others, that will not bloom again until another June. Then we turn to Hybrid Teas, Teas, Noisettes, Dwarf Polyanthas, Mosses, Bourbons, Ayrshires, Chinas, etc, etc., to compensate us for the glories that are lost. But there is this serious side to the matter. In quite a 53 54 ROSE GARDENING small garden blanks are very sad to see. The man whose breakfast-room window looks out on a rose-covered fence, or trellis, becomes sorry for himself in July if he had only Ramblers against it, and rightly objects to seeing merely leaves all the rest of summer and autumn. That is why we do right to unite our climbers, letting late bloomers mingle boughs with early bloomers. But the man whose breakfast-room window gives view of O O PoL^f»,N^l^^ Roses / ■'■■'"'■>'/ ,■'.'' A Handsome Border of Long-Blooming Roses. beds or borders of roses requires, and rightly, to have roses * out ' in those, too, during all the rose months. While his neighbour may be specializing in great full roses, or roses for colour, or scent, or exhibition, he needs chiefly roses for long blooming. He will find them in several classes. Frau Karl Druschki (dwarf or climbing, for she may be had in both styles) is one of the most reliable. The Duke of Edinburgh gives splendid flowers late if the earlier ones are cut, long-stemmed as though for bouquets, before they go to seed, and if the tree is then well fed and its surplus branches thinned out. Caroline Testout LONG-BLOOMING ROSES 55 and La France go on and on ; so do Madame Hoste, Lady Ashtown Noella Nabonnand, Souvenir de Pierre Nottmg, Gloire de Dijon, Catherine Mermet, Madame Lambard, Baroness Rothschild, George Arends, Hugh Dickson, Wilham Shean, Mrs. W. J. Grant, Dora van Tets, the Lyon Rose, also the garden favourite, William Allen Richardson. It should be every gardener's aim to get as much as he can out of his roses without exhausting the trees ; certamly not as many flowers at once as the trees would give if not dis- budded, but, firstly, as fine flowers, and then as constant and long a supply of many as may be. Summer pruning is explained in Chapter XXII. Manures and stimulants are dealt with in another chapter. Let it be realized that there are circumstances that produce stagnation. A tree that is left to become very thirsty any time after buds form will receive a check. So will a tree that has exhausted the nourishment in the soil, so has begun to subsist on the stored-up strength in its own veins, and must live on so till its unkind owner comes to its rescue. So will an overgrown tree, a tree with bedding plants put in too close about it, a tree surrounded by masses of tall, or too robust-growing annuals, a tree encroached upon by perennials, a tree devastated by green-fly or maggot, a tree attacked by rust or mildew, a tree in caked soil that the hoe or fork should have repeatedly loosened. Receiving a check means either cessation of flowering, or the production of many miserable little blossoms. We often see a starvehng tree bearing lots of puny pale buds and a number of sickly, yellowish leaves, that drop off— shank— at the least touch. The rose-grower must study which manures encourage flowers, which encourage foUage or root production ; then he must study individually every tree he possesses, not merely every variety, and act in their interests as common sense cllCt3.t6S If he has a sunless, or rather semi-sunless, bad position to fill, he had better give it to one of the roses that bloom 56 ROSE GARDENING late, as by that period of the year the summery atmosphere will have warmth even in shadow. If he has to make a baking hot corner beautiful he can do it well by planting a very early rose, and mulching and watering so generously after the initial harvest that ' new wood,' as the classic phrase goes — the red shoots that bear more roses — soon follows. For years rosarians have been studying rose habits, and com- piling lists of varieties that are ' good autumnals ' ; for as many years their praiseworthy efforts have been received with scant appreciation by captious amateurs, who, not being sufficiently exact in rose culture, have failed to get fine late supplies from those varieties. The difference between a professional and an amateur, in any art or trade, is chiefly that the former works patiently and thoroughly, the latter by bursts of enthusiasm and with erratic practice. A great work cannot be perfectly achieved without method ; but once the rudimentary rules of rose culture are understood, loyalty in applying them is more essential than further know- ledge. It is in doing his duty to the work that the amateur usually fails. Then his results are mean, and, growing angry, he declares that scientists only succeed by the exercise of wonderful formulae that are not revealed, and that the triumph he wanted is not to be won without devoting too much time, or millions of pounds, to the pursuit. A pianist performs his piece so many times, all to himself, that he knows every note, every reason for every note, every guide to light and shade, every point where expression will teU. The amateur at the piano rattles through a number more pieces, in his fewer hours, therefore never plays one without missing out some notes, losing some melodious chance, letting something happen that was not intended. Scamping in gardening has just the same effects as scamping a few lines in writing a poem, leaving some characters misty in a novel, a piece of foreground blurred in a painting, some harmonies muddled in a sonata. ... It spoils the whole show. Be loyal to your roses, and they will be loyal to you, is the text on which all rose-lovers yearn to preach. LONG-BLOOMING ROSES 57 We have strayed a bit from the subject of the best late- blooming roses, but wandering of the sort leads to new views Lawn Beds of Long-Blooming Roses. and wider panoramas of rose gardening, so are not to be considered trivial. In addition to varieties abeady recommended there are some specially famed for doing royally in autumn. Mrs. W. C. Miller. One of the very best. Donald McDonald. Rose-pink. Hadley. Dark red. Mrs. Paul. Bourbon. Blush. Shaped like a camellia. Victor Hugo. Hybrid Perpetual. Dazzling crimson. Captain Bald. Hybrid Tea. Black-scarlet. Mrs. R. D. McClure. Salmon- pink. Richmond. Hybrid Tea. Scar- let-crimson. Madame Abel Chatenay. Hy- brid Tea. Salmon-pink. La Tosca. Silvery pale pink. General McArthur. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet-crimson. Lieutenant Chaure. Crimson. Madame S. Weber. Pink. Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Yellow. Earl of Warwick. Hybrid Tea. Salmon, flushed with vermilion. 58 ROSE GARDENING Semi-double very beauti- Hybrid Tea. Hybrid Tea. Cynthia Forde. Hybrid Tea. Deep rose-pink. Conrad F. Meyer. A Rugosa, or Japanese Briar rose. Bright rose. Rugosa Delicata Wild-rose-pink ; ful. Caroline Testout, Pink. Antoine Ri voire. Cream, shaded with flesh ; just edged with carmine. Alexander Hill Gray. Tea. Lemon-yellow. King George V. Hybrid Tea. Deep crimson, purpleflushed. Juliet. Hybrid Tea. Old gold, with rosy-red blushes. J. B. Clark. Deep scarlet crimson, shaded with plum or sepia. Duke of Teck. Hybrid Per- petual. Crimson-scarlet. Catherine Seaton. Penzance Briar. Soft pink. British Queen. Hybrid Tea. Pure white. Mrs. Muir Mackean. Hybrid Tea. Carmine. W. C. Gaunt. Crimson. Gruss an Teplitz. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet - crimson. Vigorous. Fine red-tinted foliage. Ulster Gem. Single. Primrose- yellow. CoRALLiNA. Tea. Rosy Crim- son, paling to salmony rose. Sallie. Hybrid Tea. Affection- ately called ' Butter and Eggs ' by some growers. Hon. Mrs. R. C. Grosvenor. Hybrid Tea. Flesh-and-orange. Covent Garden. Hybrid Tea. A new ' Cant ' raised rose of igi8. Dark plum-crimson. Thick stemmed and free. There are not many Tea roses that are not late bloomers; there are few Hybrid Teas that do not try to rival the Teas ; so we may fill our gardens with these, and justifiably hope to have roses very long. But the roses just mentioned are noted for exceptional late flowering. Then there are the China roses, beginning with the dear Old Pink. Also there are the dwarf Polyanthas — little gems. Both these classes have chapters to themselves. CHAPTER VII ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION ' Lilacs glow, and jasmines climb. Larks are loud the livelong day. Oh, the golden summer-prime ! June takes up the sceptre of May, And the land beneath her sway Glows, a dream of flowerful closes. And the very wind's at play With Sir Love among the roses.' W. E. Henley. A LITERARY man (who should have known better) once said to me, ' What, going to write a whole book about roses ? Won't it be rather monotonous ? The difficulty is to omit enough, not to put in enough ! The subject of Roses for garden decoration would make a capital book all by itself. For there are scarcely any limits to the effects one may create with roses, the scenes that can be wrought with them, the nooks made, the vistas arranged, the colours blended, the canopies woven, the ground carpeted, the beds planned, the borders invented, the landscape ups-and- downs presented, the perfections blended into a perfect whole ! We do not do half, or a quarter, or even a fraction, what we might with roses. As an example of an original scheme, a garden all of grass and roses that I once visited remains supreme in my memory. Yet there was no enormous expanse, just about three-quarters of an acre, surrounding a modern, double- fronted, detached villa ; the owner had made all the ground into grass, dissected by curving gravel paths, and planted his roses in the turf, so it appeared at least, at intervals that 59 6o ROSE GARDENING allowed him to wander among them easily, arm-in-arm with a chum. In places there were trios, or quintets, of standards, groups of half-standards, immense bushes, pillars, bits of irre- gular espaliers, but the main plan was to let the roses grow singly out of the lawns, far enough apart not to be inconvenient. Some Teas were pegged down, some Wichuraianas sprawled. That garden from a little distance was marvellously beautiful, so unlaboured in character, so greenly restful, yet so brilliant. And I am sure the individual roses, the rose varieties too, had never had such a chance to display their diverse merits, in competition with one another. The grass had to be cut by hand-shears round every tree, of course ; still, there were no visible beds to be constantly weeded and hoed neat ; only a few inches of ground showed against the stems of the roses. Spring was very fair in that garden, too, before the roses took their turn, for the turf was liberally planted with bulbs of innumerable species. The garden of roses may be made in order to show off a collection, or to be shown off itself by the roses. So the subject divides at once into two chief portions. As a rule roses get planted for their own sakes ; one has to look at some public park, or great estate, to observe their elaborate use as ornaments. A round bed of fifty roses — say of the Daily Mail rose, Madame E. Herriot, of a blend of saffron, copper, scarlet and cerise — strikes a brilliant shrimp note ; a bed of King George V looks almost the hue of a heather-clad mount ; one of Old Gold resembles the tint of a field of ripening corn. It is quite delightful, and amusing too, to study rose colours at different distances ; the roses must be well massed, of course, for the trial to be made fully. A thicket of Griiss an Teplitz appears the hue of copper-beeches, because of its ruddy foliage, that melts into the scarlet-crimson of the fresh roses and the violet-crimson of the fading ones. A grove of roses is indeed a spot for dreaming in. It is not a pergola, since symmetry and artificial material should not be in evidence ; the roses ought to seem to bower naturally ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION 6i over the walk, and form a roofing of irregular height, tunnel- like here and there, high-domed elsewhere. Big-flowering roses should be with the small-blossomed, giant singles, tiny rosette-flowering climbers should mingle with the grand trusses of such fine roses as American Rambler. Long branches should arch themselves in their own sweet wilful way ; boughs should swing as pendants, only restrained where they would endanger the eyes of pas- r sers-by ; and all between the tall growers, filling up gaps beyond them, standing in front, leaning against their sides, should be the bush roses, from majestic Paul Neyron (which was the lar- gest blooming rose, and may be so now, since the new- comers advertised as larger do not seem to me to eclipse old Paul) down to the tiniest dwarf Polyanthas, such as pure white Katherine Zei- met. There is no need to use mainly climbers, I mean ; all classes of roses can be pressed into the service of the grove. Banks covered with roses show them off so splendidly that it is possible to have a rosery all of banks, and not regret it. Banks there should always be, in gardens small or large. It is worth while to leave much ground inequality when making a new garden, instead of spending considerably on ground-levelling, and builder's men should be discouraged from tidying up, in their odious fashion, by burying broken bricks, stones and cement, to ' make good ' their excavations. Rustic Cross for Climbing Rose. 62 ROSE GARDENING There is no need to use chiefly climbers as trailers on banks ; pegged-down Teas are very showy when estabhshed, and many other kinds of roses are wilHng to sprawl about if per- mitted. La France naturally grows straight up, but plenty of other favourites spread out ; for example, the white Souvenir de S. A. Prince, popular Madame Abel Chatenay, the dainty-flowered but robust growing Homere, and Madame Jules Grolez, that brightest of pinks. Plant these on a steep slope, and their boughs will rest upon its sides. It is a fine idea to turf steep hills in the garden, then plant rose groups at intervals. I like to see little copses dotted about, without method, in which the different types of Rose are employed to imitate the purposes of gorse, heather, bracken- fern, blackberries, wild clematis, hawthorn, of our field coverts. Roses are not half enough used to ramble up tall trees. Reine Olga de Wurtemburg will clothe a large silver-birch in deep green foliage and scarlet flower without harming it ; the result will be one more rare beauty to remember. A copper-beech gives too heavy a shade for most roses, but I have seen a young one exquisitely climbed by a yellow Rambler, Aglaia, which suggested to me that the roadside Prunus Pissardi of many a villa front garden might serve as a pillar for a William Allen Richardson, since the Prunus is leafless so long that the rose would have a good chance. Similarly, an almond-tree might be hugged by the slender, fragile- looking arms of a white Rambler. Rose-covered slopes, when looked down, give sheets of colour that are most striking, of course, when only one, or at the most two varieties are massed ; yet are very fascinating if all rose hues are blended. According to which roses ' do best,' in each month, week or day, will the chief colour note be struck ; at one time it will be yellow, then scarlet-salmon will prevail, or rose-pink, but by the end of summer rich crimson is sure to take the lead. Anybody who has given even a cursory study to the art of decorating the garden by roses, knows that varieties em- bracing in themselves blended colours are less effective than ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION 63 are ' selfs ' ; also that roses that droop their heads on sHm stems are not of much value in the scene, no matter how exquisite they may be when gathered or closely examined. The Lyon Rose is an exception, because the chrome-yellow foundation of the petals so shades into the cherry-red that the whole appearance is of a deep shrimp, a rare tint for roses not long ago, though now repeated and intensified in some of the new introductions. By specializing in colours unique garden displays are to be easily gained. Imagine a front garden all of lawns, shrubs, and maroon and the darkest crimson roses. All passers-by would pause to gaze and comment. Imagine a similar garden massed with only evergreen shrubs and white roses. How striking the combination, yet attained at no more cost of coin or labour than goes to the planting of our millions of commonplace rose gardens. The maroon show may have either a white, grey, or aged dull red-brick house behind it ; the white one needs a red-brick background, will make white stone look dirty and dreary, stucco an ugly bilious yellow, and grey paint gloomy. Beds of roses can be diversified as to heights, to prevent a tamely level garden-scape. Why, it is possible to have a bed of climbers, if these are placed five feet or more apart, given colossal stakes, and lesser stakes all round to support the lower, spreading branches. One rose may be fastened to another, the stakes of all can be shared, till, at last, there will be a rose copse, with very little, if any, ground showing below. Some beds may be all of standards, others all of dwarfs, but to make beds real assets in the colour scheme, the vari- eties of roses must be carefully chosen and kept separate. Leslie Holland, Hybrid Tea, a prodigiously free bloomer ; Claudius, Hybrid Tea, carmine-rose, also very lavish from early summer to late autumn ; Countess of Gosford, Hybrid Tea, deep salmon-pink; Gloire de Chedane Guinoisseau, Hybrid Perpetual, a vermilion continual bloomer and most vigorous ; Lilhan Moore, Hybrid Tea, deep yellow, are splendid 64 ROSE GARDENING colour-givers. The last is known as the thousand dollar prize rose, because it was the winner at the Panama Pacific Exposition as the best new seedling rose. Caroline Testout — good old Caroline — has rightly been called ' probably the best of all garden roses.' A tree of it is far more showy than one of La France, because it is all pink, whereas the latter has silvery curl-overs to the petals. Fan-shaped Support for Roses. Original-shaped supports add to the interest of a garden scene. There may be a ten, or twelve, feet high cross of rustic wood in the midst of a gravel square, paved court or lawn, grown up by some climbing rose, whose boughs outline the arms and hang from their ends. A fan-shaped trellis on a sufficiently giant scale, given to a white rose, will have a remarkable, spectre-like effect in the garden by night. A row of huge targets, made of open-work wire, covered by roses that do not hide the shades, will amaze people and show the adaptability of the grandest of all flowers, as well LADY HILLINGDON (y,;ueu') JOSEPH LOWE (/'/«ii RICHMOND {Crimson) ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION 65 as affording perhaps a much-needed screen to ensure the privacy of a lawn. Continuous arches ranged round a lawn may be so tall as to look like the boundary to the precincts of some classic temple, or amphitheatre of old, or so low as to be but a series of pretty hoops. In one part of the rose garden all the plants and shrubs may be ruddy, or crimson, as to leaves and blossoms, and all the roses cream, white, or pale gold. In another part, silver, or white-variegated, and white-blooming trees, shrubs and plants can be accompanied by hundreds of carmine roses. It would indeed be a noble garden that possessed a different coloured rosery for every one of the rosy months. A few inches of this chapter must be spared for advocating the planting of an orchard of roses. Probably no other form of rose garden is quite as lovely. Let it be hedged by Japanese, Penzance, and other Briar roses, then have a ditch inside the hedge where Teas can be pegged down and little dwarf Polyanthas nestle. Raise some banks at the ends, unequal, undulating mounds among the trees, and plant Wichuraianas on some to trail over, and mount great bush roses on others —hardy bushes, such as of Conrad F. Meyer, the old Cabbage rose, and York and Lancaster, white Boule de Neige, lemon Gustave Regis, and strong growers of shades of scarlet-crimson, such as J. B. Clark, Hugh Dickson, Reine Olga de Wurtem- burg and Noella Nabonnand. Add to these Mosses on their own roots, which will straggle luxuriantly, the Scotch prickly white roses, and silvery-blush La Tosca, a Hybrid Tea that may be called rampant. Make a pit or two in the orchard, if there are no natural declivities, and learn how grand the big single roses, Irish Fireflame, Irish Elegance and Irish Brightness, will look growing out of craggy sides. They are orange-scarlet-and- apricot, tawny coral-and-gold, and vivid rosy carmine, respec- tively. Choose Ramblers and Paul's Single Scarlet to festoon the brinks of pits. For imitating orchard trees pillars of natural, unbarked 66 ROSE GARDENING tree trunks will be wanted, and for supporting not only climbers but all the best of the hardy semi-climbing, and the extra vigorous roses, of which Gloire de Chedane Guinnoisseau, Caroline Testout, Noella Nabonnand, Maiden's Blush, J. B. Camm, a pale salmon, the many strong China roses, Austrian Briars and Ayrshires are samples. Let there be turf between the trees and some pegged-down roses in the grass. CHAPTER VIII ROSES FOR GATHERING 'Fair wave the sunset gardens, The rosy signals fly.' Whittier. IT might be thought that all the so-called ' decorative ' roses would be admirable for gathering ; but that is not the case. They are free-blooming roses, all of them, of non-classic shapes — as the classic in florist's flowers is reckoned — having less petals than the really double roses, often having those petals set on loosely — petals of elongated shape that flap in every breeze ; they open quickly out of tapering elegant buds, and then show their yellow stamens, or gold hearts as we may more poetically term them. Natur- ally they are supremely graceful, which is one of the chief merits in vase or bouquet flowers, and they can be cut in beautifully bud-tipped and foliaged branches or sprays. But many of them drop to pieces too rapidly when gathered, and some flag from the first moment they are put in water, not having much stamina. The big single roses are usually good lasters, owing, no doubt, to their having abstained from putting their strength into other rows of petals, and they can be taken in the bud and semi-opened state with the pleasing certainty that the fully unfurled flowers will come to a perfection indoors that will beat the perfectness of flowers expanded on the trees. For the still, genial air of a room suits their health better than a blaze of sunshine and the buffetings of the winds or chance showers would do. Some of the most double roses are magnificent lasters; 67 68 ROSE GARDENING yet the heavier-headed, and more ponderous shaped the bloom, the greater the skill needed for their successful arrangement. The qualities of individuals need not detain us now, as I shall end this chapter with a list of roses that I have found specially good for gathering, and using when gathered. The twofold The Night-cap Rose Protector. A Hanging Cap Rose Shade. recommendation means that the trees are generous, and the blossoms of satisfactory colours and lastingness. Whether roses are desired for gathering for trade or for private purposes, the trees should be richly fed, with this one precaution, that rank manures are not given them, only thoroughly rotten stuff, and chemicals. Coarse feeding results in too sappy growth, and often alters the distinctive hues ROSES FOR GATHERING 69 of the blooms. Soot should be given freely, its sole drawback being that, in time, it intensifies the bluish or violet shadings in deep rose and crimson varieties, causing them to have objectionable magenta flushes directly the flowers begin to fade. I beheve it is true that, while a scarlet rose is always scarlet, a salmon rose salmon, a crimson rose is never its true crimson, Wisp of Straw Rose Shade, tied between stakes. Impromptu Shade made with a Box AND Two Sticks. and a gold rose misses being more than yellow, if the trees are only half-nourished. Of all the roses that show clearly the consequences of starvation, La France provides the most striking object-lesson. Its well-known blue shading becomes an ugly greyish heliotrope that spoils the pink, its intensely full petalled blossoms hang in an unwieldy, dejected fashion 70 ROSE GARDENING from weak stalks that render them most awkward for ar- ranging ; also, few blooms will be worth gathering, as their ball shape, in the bud stage, will oblige most of them to drop off before the tree has the strength to send them up the nutri- ment required for their rearing. Yet, in a wholesome con- dition, La France is an ideal bouquet, or bowl, rose. Shading roses is advisable when blooms are wanted for exhibiting, and numerous contrivances are sold for this purpose. Capital contrivances too ; but if several hundreds have to be fixed, the gardener's time is encroached upon. So I would keep the manufacturer's shades for those exhibition blooms alone, and use tiffany for shading the whole beds and borders of rose-trees whose harvest is intended for sale, or for house, church, or hall, decoration on a grand scale. It is easy to stick long, slender bamboo poles at intervals along the edges of borders, or at the sides or corners of beds ; if each pole has been plugged with a cork, into which a brass-headed nail has been driven, and if the tiffany lengths have small rings sewn to their margins, it is equally easy to slip rings over nails, and so obtain a lightsome roofing. The widest beds and borders are better protected if there are a few cross-poles, just bamboos tied horizontally to the tops of the uprights, here and there, to keep the tiffany from sagging down on to the trees. Hints on arranging gathered roses will be found in Chapter XLII. We have already thought of ways by which the season of roses can be prolonged. The genuine rose-lover will not be content till he or she can go a-gathering in most months, from frames, glasshouses and stoves, as well as from the different ' aspect ' places of the gardens. Growing mainly for gathering becomes, of course, a hobby, and one of the most charming and unselfish. The garden planted for the purpose will be quite sufficiently beautiful, though it must lack the high standard of gardens in which the show is the aim, whose roses are not cut till past their best. Nor will the blossoms cultivated for quantity rank as high as those from severely disbudded and hard-pruned ROSES FOR GATHERING 71 trees For in rose-growing, as in all pursuits, one may not eat one's cake and still possess it. Sacrifices are Wisdom, when made for some great end. The trees should be planted so that they have room to spread out freely, yet can be approached very conveniently, even when most luxuriantly developed. Indeed, it is best for the gatherer to be able to reach them from at least three sides. Shade and Bud-hastener, made with a sheet of Whitened Glass. Shade made of an Old Tin AND A Bamboo Rod. They ought to be in as many positions as possible, on walls, against fences, in big bushes and as pillars, climbing over summer-houses, porches and arches, pegged down and hori- zontally-trained in the open. Roses on espahers are generally the healthiest roses in a garden, because they have air on all sides, without being tossed by winds, and their own foliage 72 ROSE GARDENING cannot obstruct sunshine, or the heat from the atmosphere that solaces those in semi-shady spots. Roses on walls or fences are frequently ruined by pressing against them ; some tying out to their own branches will prevent this, or a wedge made of a ball of matting, or stout paper, straw, or bracken-fern, may be forced between stems and background, so that a flower stands some inches away. It is advisable to let some rose-bud-furnished boughs droop downwards, if they incline naturally, as the sap feeds pendant flowers soonest, hastens their maturity, and often adds to the richness of their colouring. A garden of roses for gathering is nicest for the owner if the walks and spare places are of bricks, flagstones or tiles ; asphalt is sticky in great heat, and ugly until very aged. Red gravel, or the beach gravel that consists all of tiny stones, are better than turf. The bed and border edgings should be of brick, stone or wood, if not tiles ; nothing to wet the clothes of the gatherer, as box and turf would do. The following are excellent roses for picking : — Aladdin. Coppery yelloiv. Ecarlate. Scarlet. Amateur Teyssier. Creamy Flame of Fire. Orange. yellow. Florence Pemberton. Reminds Ards Rover. Velvety crimson. one of a pink-flushed waler- Carmine Pillar. Bright car- lily. mine. Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Lemon, Caroline Testout. Pink. tinted, crimson-orange. CoMTEssE DE Rafells St. Golden Emblem. Deep gold. S A u V E u r. Reddish - orange General Superior Arnold shaded with coral. Janssen. Deep carmine. C. W. Cowan. A rare cerise- Gloire des Belges. Scarlet- carmine, orange-carmine. Crimson Chatenay. Bright Gustave R6gis. Canary-yellow, crimson. Hadley. Velvety crimson. Dan^. a perpetual blooming Harry Kirk. Yellow. yellow cluster rose. Henrietta. Fiery orange-crimson, Dora van Tets. Called the with cerise-salmon. Very lovely. Tulip rose. Vermilion. Hon. Ida Bingham. Rose-pink. Duchess of Wellington. Deep Ion a Herdman. Clear orange, orange-gold. Irish Beauty. White. Single. ROSES FOR GATHERING 73 Irish Brightness. Crimson. Irish Engineer. Scarlet. James Coey. Yellow. J. B. Clark. Scarlet-crimson. Joanna Bridge. Buff, shaded strawberry. A rare colouring. LadyAshtown. a beautiful rose shade. Lady Waterlow. Cream, edged pink. La France. PiTik. La Tosca. Silvery blush. Liberty. Brilliant scarlet-crim- son. The Lyon Rose. Shrimp. Madame Abel Chatenay. Sal- mon-pink. Madame E. Herriot. Coral with orange, and red. Madame Jules Grolez. Bright pink. Madame Pernet Ducher. Yel- low. Magnolia. Lemon. Most ele- gant shape. Marguerite Montavon. Rose- pink. Miss Stewart Clark. A globe- shaped gold rose. Mrs. Aaron Ward. Ochre-yellow, with some rose flushings. Mrs. Arthur Munt. Ivory white. Mrs. E. C. Hill. White interior ; coral-pink exterior. Mrs. George Roupell. Cop- pery gold. Lady Inchiquin. Rose-and-cerise. Chameleon. Flame-cerise. Cherry Page. Gold and cerise. Countess of Lonsdale. Cad- mium-yellow. Mrs. J. Fred Hawkins. Sabnon- pink. Mrs. Peter Blair. Lemon- yellow. Princess Mary. Crimson-scar- let. Single. Lamia. Reddish orange. Sarah Bernhardt. Scarlet- crimson. Semi-double ; large. Donald McDonald. Orange- carmine. TipPERARY. Golden-yellow. Ulster Gem. Primrose. Single; large. Gorgeous. Orange and red-copper. William Cooper. A peculiarly fine shade of crimson. La*dy Pirrie. Yellow and copper- salmon. Los Angeles. Gold. British Queen. White. Margaret D. Hamill. Straw, flushed deep rose. IsoBEL. A rose of five petals. Bright carmine-red, with orange. Lieutenant ChaurI;. Crimson. A late bloomer. Ophelia. Salmon rose. Prince Charming. Reddish copper and gold. K. of K. Vermilion. Semi- double, with reddish wood. Extra lovely. Miss Willmott. Deep cream. These blossom with great freedom. Other excellent roses for gathering include : — Alexander Hill Gray. Tea. Gloire de Dijon. Tea. Buff- Yellow, yellow. Frau Karl Druschki. Hybrid Hugh Dickson. Hybrid Perpe- Perpetual. White. tual. Scarlet-crimson. 74 ROSE GARDENING Juliet. Hybrid Briar. Blend of orange and rosy red. Lady Penzance. Hybrid Sweet Briar. Copper and yellow. Lucy Bertram. Hybrid Sweet Briar. Deep rich crimson, with white centre. Golden Ophelia. Hybrid Tea. Clear gold. Miss Alice de Rothschild. Tea. Citron-yellow. Nita Weldon. Tea. Ivory white, with pink-tinted edges. Victor Hugo. Hybrid Perpetual. Crimson. Constant bloomer. Bouquet d'Or. Tea. Deep gold, shaded brown. Corallina. Tea. Coral-crimson. General Schablikine. Tea. Coppery red. Iceberg. Tea. Small, very charm- ing white flowers. Lady Hillingdon. Tea. Orange. Madame Constance Soupert. Tea. Yellow, shaded with peach and carmine. There are, of course, countless lovely roses that might be added to our list ; I can but suggest those that have given most pleasure to their cultivators among my acquaintances. For varieties of Ramblers, Wichuraianas, Chinas, Dwarf Polyanthas, and other classes of Rose, I must refer readers to the chapters dedicated to those separately. It will be but a choice in colours, as all are graceful, free blooming and attractive. Madame Hoste. Tea. Lemon. Papa Gontier. Tea. Rosy crimson. President Bouche. Hybrid Briar. Coral-crimson. W. C. Gaunt. Tea. Vermilion and maroon. President Parmentier. Hybrid Tea. Pink-apricot. Miss Connor. Hybrid Tea (1920). Canary-yellow. Hawlmark Crimson. Hybrid Tea (1920). Vivid maroon-crimson to scarlet. Semi-double. Very elegant. Independence Day. Hybrid Tea. Flame-and-gold. Mrs. H. D. Greene. Hybrid Tea. Red-bronze with flame and pink. Crimson foliage. Francklin. Hybrid Tea. Flesh and salmon, yellow flushed. Bronze foliage. CHAPTER IX BEDS OF ROSES ' Said the Rose, " Of every drop That in my blooms doth stop Sweet perfume I distil." ' AN artist is needed to choose rose varieties for the beds of a rosery. However, all good gardeners are artists, so we must let ourselves follow our own light, not be frightened of assuming responsibility. Daily contact with flowers, daily living among beautiful floral scenes, tune the eye, heart, and soul, to the right aesthetic key, no matter how little the person may recognize himself as an artist. Indeed, genius is said to be invariably modest ; though this ought not to prevent genius from appreciating its own powers. Many a rough type of jobbing gardener will be found to have a really tender feeling for colour. Perhaps the rougher his personality the more likely it is that he has refused to follow the general lead when planting flowers ; such a man simply won't put red roses in a bed with carmine roses, if he doesn't happen to like the combination himself ; and the chances are that he will not like it. He may not be able to say why, but he will avoid the mistake. I heard of an old gardener, a mere garden labourer, who when told to bed out scarlet geraniums and magenta petunias along a border, in front of a wall climbed by several trees of the vermilion tawny rose, L' Ideal, replied, with some forcible expressions added : ' Not me ... I bain't no murdrer.' 75 76 ROSE GARDENING Sometimes an employer says : ' Never mind about the colours not going together. I want the garden to look bright.' Then the gardener sneers unseen or visibly, for he knows that colours do matter — dreadfully. Sometimes, of course, it is the gardener who denies this, and makes a brilliant hotchpotch as his best idea of what a garden should be. Then the employer is wrathful. I have offered these remarks just to argue that the artistic sense is not the property of any one class. A cottager's rosery may be perfect in blended hues, while a duke's, or some merely rich man's, is an offence to the refined eye. Happily for the timid folk who do not trust themselves, who doubt their possession of good taste, the rules for colour mingling are few and simple. Carmine, rose-pink, and maroon, must never be used with cerise, salmon, shrimp, orange-vermilion, or vermilion-scarlet. Apricot, and real orange, do not go well with clear yellow, for those are really the deeper shades of cream, whereas yellow, or gold, is the deeper shade of lemon. These are the only mixtures to always avoid. Minor truths are that white always improves carmine, maroon, and pinks of the real rose shades ; but cream, or apricot, or buff, would rather injure them. This is because white has a bluish tone that softens the effect of the bluish shades in those colours ; but the warm tone in cream, buff, and apricot, intensify those blue or violet shadings, making the rose-pink, maroon, or carmine roses look dull and heavy. Cream, buff, and apricot are perfect with coppery crimson, with scarlet, and orange-vermilion. White is seen at its very best by the real scarlet-crimson, such as the velvetiness of The Duke of Edinburgh, or the tulip vermilion of Dora van Tets. Beds can be of self colours, of assorted colours, or all of blended colours. They can be set singly in lawns, or gravel, or paved squares, or be grouped. When they are many, near together, the same care must be exercised in making BEDS OF ROSES ^^ neighbouring beds harmonious as is needed in associating roses harmoniously in one bed. Beds may contain only one type of rose each, or two types, or several : as when pillar ramblers occupy the centre. Hybrid Tea bushes come next, and the edging is of dwarf Polyanthas. These dwarf Polyanthas are very useful in bedding ; so too are bush Tea roses, kept fairly dwarf. Ordinary Teas can be set alternately with standard roses, or bushes of Hybrid Briars. It is an admirable idea to accom- pany Hybrid Perpetual standards with Teas as bushes, so that when the H.P.'s are not blooming the Teas will be. Raised beds show off dwarf roses famously, and are also good for pegged-down roses. The pegging-down system is often patronized in wind-swept gardens, as a safeguard to young shoots ; but, if that is necessary, it is better to peg down the roses on the level, where they will be still more sheltered. The primal reason for pegging-down is evidenced in a damp, heavy-soiled garden, that is not to be drained, either because draining is too costly or because the garden occupier meditates a change of residence. Roses can then be succeeded with in the worst bits of ground, when the raised beds are compounded of the best soil ingredients. Sunbaked flat gardens are not as suitable for roses as may at first thought be imagined, though they can be made to suit by very frequent mulchings of the surface with various materials. It is disastrous for the lower stems of roses to become over-dried. To mitigate the evil, pot-plants of bedding annuals and perennials can be sunk between the trees towards the middle of the beds, and a rockery edging, half a yard high, or a turved bank edge, will partly shade some portions of the outer rows of rose-trees. Another thing to do is to have other flowering plants sown, or planted, among the roses. Growers for exhibition would reject this plan, but, according to my experience, more trees suffer from sunbaked soil than from the company of suitably light-growing plants. First-class blooms can be gleaned from rose-trees growing out of such delicate charmers 78 ROSE GARDENING as Iceland Poppies, Blue Flax, Red Flax, Viscarias, Venus's Navel-wort, Nemesia strumosa Suttoni, the smaller Quaking Grass, Virginian Stock, Gypsophila elegans. White, or Rosy Gem, Tom Thumb Nasturtiums, Linarias maroccana, or Lobelias. And it is not always easy to obtain magnificent blooms, in a tropical burst of summer, from trees in ground uncovered beneath midday's blazing heat. The whole secret is to have the plants at proper distances, either by thinning out, or judicious sowing or planting, and then prick the soil over frequently among them, not deeply enough to threaten the rose's fibrous roots, of course, but just to loosen the surface, A bed of standard roses and salpiglossis is one in which I delight ; though so tall, the annual is a light grower, and does no damage. Another idea is to sow the annual white Gypsophila elegans in the spaces of beds of gay roses. The effect of the ' mist flower ' will not be a white that can detract from the beauty of any pink rose, but rather more of a dreamy grey. If rose beds that are much exposed to heat are to be mulched, for the roots' protection, instead of grown over, dry, oven- baked leaf-mould is the best material ; moist leaf-mould may turn mouldy, and is usually teeming with insect life. Cocoa-nut-fibre refuse is less cool, and looks unnatural. Some quite tiny plants make thick mats of foliage, so are unsuitable, small though we count them, whereas taller, grassy-foliaged plants are innocuous. I do not like rose- beds carpeted by rock-cress, arabis, yellow alyssum, double red and white daisies, or violas, not if rose culture is the feature of the garden, or the particular part of the garden is the rosery. Annuals, or bedding tender perennials, and biennials, are best, for they are carted away when past their glory, so leave the soil vacant for weather to mellow, except in summer temperatures. Roses enjoy a light shading in the hot months. Of course we do not want to employ artificial shades in the ornamental garden, so some clever gardeners adopt different devices. I have seen white clematises grown up twelve feet high poles. BEDS OF ROSES 79 and along wires joining them, and wires crossing the whole of the bed. Annual Convolvuluses, Cobaea scandens, Honey- suckles, Canary Creeper, would answer the same purpose, but the wires must be crossed so as to form an extremely wide mesh, and the climbers' growth be limited by thinnings out, or the shade will be excessive. Also it is necessary to arrange the wires so that no drip can fall on the trees, only upon the soil between them where extra moisture will do good service. Bamboo Poles and Wires, for Climbers, to Shade Roses. A deal of consideration should be given to the habit of growth of roses for bedding. All depends on the aim of the planter. If a prim effect is desired, only roses of first-class bedding qualities should be employed. If a wild garden sort of show is preferred, the trees may be of great diversity of heights and girths, simply grouped as we group perennials in the her- baceous border. Or of these beds on one grass-plot, the first 8o ROSE GARDENING may be of huge bushes, the second of traiHng roses, the third of dwarf Teas, or Polyanthas. Or Briars, Mosses, and Chinas may be preferred. Standards, and Half-Standards, being obviously florist-made, are unsuited to any wild garden bit. Special combinations of roses with other important plants, or shrubs, are legitimate enough, only they belong by right to the mixed garden, not to the rose garden, and they are likely to depress the spirits of enthusiasts who regard the rose as entitled to chief respect. Undoubtedly Liliums, such as the Auratum, the Tiger Lily, the pink and red, finely spotted, Lilium speciosum and the elegant Lilium lanci- folium, the old Turk's Cap Lilies, too, make grand comrades for scarlet, crimson, pink, or white roses. They may be pot-sunk. If grown in the beds they must be given plenty of space, or the rose-trees will suffer. The same may be said, in warning, about Delphiniums, Michaelmas Daisies, Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, Pseonies, or any of the large- growing plants that are sometimes made to accompany roses. We can beautify the rose-beds more reasonably, if the roses are not enough for us, by planting Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter blooming bulbs among them — Snowdrops, Chion- odoxa, Scillas, Meadow-saffrons (or Colchicums), Autumn, and Winter Flowering Crocuses, the sky-blue December Iris Vartani, the slightly later Irises Alata, Histrio, Reticu- lata, and Persica. A wide bordering of Violas to the beds seldom does roses any harm, the middle spaces of ground being left free. Pinks may be cultivated as narrow edgings. I have known Car- nations and Roses grown alternately in beds, without either suffering ; the former were young plants, renewed each year, and none stood nearer than a foot to any tree. There are some roses, of peculiar, striking, or unusual colour, that make most eye-arresting beds. The vivid hue of Madame Norbert Levavasseur, which is called the Baby Crimson Rambler, the cerise of Reine Marie Henriette, the shrimp of the Lyon Rose, occur at once to mind. For a genuine scarlet splash I always recommend a bed BEDS OF ROSES 8i of Dora van Tets. Other varieties may be better, but every rose lover is entitled to have fond fancies. Possibly the loveliest garden of beds of roses is the one in which they are huge round, square, oblong, diamond, Showing Part of a Grass Walk Rosery. crescent, heart, club ones, set along the middle of a very wide grass alley, that is flanked on either side by shrubberies — giant borders of Weigelas, Rhododendrons, Escallonias, Spiraeas, Deutzia, Veronicas, Cotoneasters, Berberises, Azaleas, ' "X.^^7 /r'^y 'M/yy//J/.d^, /^.V^/^>^,^^ SHRUBS A^'/.fT'^' y^'/y' /'t''^'^////^^^7 : ^^-z'^- Showing Continuation of Grass Walk Rosery. Hydrangeas, Brooms, Corses, Andromedas, etc., towered behind by the taller tree Spiraeas, Deutzias, Lilacs, Laburnums, Mock Oranges, Snowball, and Snowberry trees, Forsythias, Buddleias, and Acacias. Here is a list of a few of the roses that are noted for being of splendid value in beds. 82 ROSE GARDENING Countess of Ilchester. Hybrid Tea. Carmine-pink. George C. Waud. Hybrid Tea. Deep salmony scarlet. With orange shadings. Mrs. Bullen. Pernetiana. Semi - double ; vivid scarlet- carmine on orange-yellow ground; produced in big clusters. Noblesse. Hybrid Tea. Apri- cot-primrose, with flush of pale pink. Prince of Wales. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet-cerise. Clarice Goodacre. Hybrid Tea. Buff-shaded white. Donald McDonald. Hybrid Tea. Orange-carmine. Madame Marcel Delaney. Hybrid Tea. Reddish apricot. Prince Charming. Hybrid Tea. Copper and gold. Red Cross. Hybrid Tea. Crim- son-scarlet. Tipperary. Hybrid Tea. Golden- yellow. Cheerful. Pernetiana. Pink- orange. Very large. Semi-double. Maman Cochet. Tea. Flesh- rose. White Maman Cochet. Tea. White. Isabella Sprunt. Tea. Deep canary-yellow. Caroline Testout. Hybrid Tea. Pink. Madame Abel Chatenay. Hy- brid Tea. Salmon-pink. Marquise Litta. Hybrid Tea. Carmine-rose, with Vermilion heart. Dwarf. Amateur Teisser. Hybrid Tea. Creamy yellow. Arthur R. Goodwin. Pernetiana. Coppery-red, with pink. Medium size. ^TiNCELANTE. Hybrid Tea. Red- crimson, purplish-shaded. Very striking. Freda. Hybrid Tea. Old - rose colour. Henrietta. Hybrid Tea. Orange-crimson and salmon. Very free. Lady Ashtown. Hybrid Tea. Rose-pink. Lyon Rose. Hybrid Tea. Shrimp. Frau Karl Druschki. Hybrid Perpetual. White. C. E. Shean. Hybrid Tea. Clear pink. Golden Spray. Hybrid Tea. Gold, single, in arched sprays. Florinda Norman Thompson. Hybrid Tea (1920). Pink and Lemon. Charles K. Douglas. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet-crimson. Mrs. John R. Allan. Hybrid Tea. Bright pink. Majestic. Hybrid Tea. Car- mine-rose. Marquis of Salisbury. Hybrid Tea. Pale carmine. Very free. Mrs. Frank Workman. Hybrid Tea. A carmine pink rose of camellia shape. Mrs. George Norwood. Hybrid Tea. Rich pink. Mrs. Mona Hunting. Hybrid Tea. Intensely double medium- sized flowers of fawn-yellow. Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. Blush, with deeper centre. Large blooms. Mrs. Wallace H. Rowe. Hy- brid Tea. A rare shade — peach- pink, nearly mauve. BEDS OF ROSES 83 Mrs. Wakefield Christie- Miller. Hybrid Tea. Ivory blush inside, rose-vermilion outside. Blooms right into Winter. Moderately tall only. Ophelia. Hybrid Tea. Salmon- rose. Rayon D'Or. Pernetiana. A gold rose, buds streaked with red, and shaded with orange. Dark glossy foliage. Very vig- orous. Robin Hood. Hybrid Tea. Rosy scarlet. Verna Mackay. Hybrid Tea. Sulphur-buff, turning to lemon. Very free. William Cooper. Hybrid Tea. Rich carmine-red, known as lake. Very free. Baronne de Maynard. Hybrid Perpetual. White, only medium size, but one of the very freest bloomers. Hugh Dickson. Hybrid Perpet- ual. Scarlet-crimson. Constant bloomer. Captain Hayward. Hybrid Perpetual. Scarlet-crimson. Juliet. Hybrid Briar. Gold, rosy red, and deep rose. Susan Marie Rodocanachi. Hybrid Perpetual. Glowing rose. Mrs. John Laing. Hybrid Per- petual. Soft pink. Good au- tumnal. Baroness Rothschild. Hybrid Perpetual. Constant bloomer. Pale pink. Rosa Moschata Alba. The white Musk Rose. Lady Curzon. A decorative Rose. Pale pink, single. Hugonis. a nother decorative Rose. Yellow. Very early. Catherine Seaton. Hybrid Sweet Briar. Soft pink. Conrad F. Meyer. Rugosa. Silvery rose. Nova Zembla. Rugosa. Pure white. Refulgence. Hybrid Sweet Briar. Brilliant scarlet ; semi- double. Padr^. Hybrid Tea. Coppery scarlet, flushed yellow. Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Hybrid Tea. Yellow. Mrs. Redford. Hybrid Tea. Apricot-orange. President Bouche. Hybrid Briar. Coral-crimson. Queen of Colours. Hybrid Tea. Bright pink. Lieutenant Chaure. Hybrid Tea. Crimson. Queen Mary. Hybrid Tea. Lemon chrome. Madame S. Weber. Hybrid Tea. Salmon-pink. Red Letter Day. Hybrid Tea. Orange-crimson-scarlet. Duchess OF Wellington. Hybrid Tea. Deep gold. Lamia. Hybrid Tea. Red- orange. Emma Wright. Hybrid Tea. Pure orange. Christine. Hybrid Tea. Gold. Mermaid. Hybrid Tea. Orange- apricot. John Davison. Hybrid Tea. Deep velvety crimson. Mrs. Elisha Hicks. Hybrid Tea. Palest pink, with pale green foliage. Erect growth, CHAPTER X STANDARD ROSES ' O royal Rose ! the Roman dress 'd His feast with thee ; thy petals pressed Augustan brows ; thine odour fine, Mixed with the three-times-mingled Wine, Lent the long Thracian draught its zest. What marvel then, if host and guest By Song, by Joy, by Thee caressed, Half trembled on the half-divine, O Royal Rose.' Austin Dobson. UNDOUBTEDLY the Rose, born as the twining wild rose, or dog rose, was never intended to become a standard. But that does not make standards unattractive, or prove that garden-owners who love standards are Goths and barbarians. A diamond is scarcely beautiful until it is cut ; a slab of marble needs polishing, or is of greater artistic value when carved than when in its native state, or a mere prepared block. The excuse for making roses into standards is the same as the excuse for putting eggs into puddings ; we like them that way for a change. A garden all of standards might be a lovely garden, yet there would be more pleasure in visiting the novelty than in living with it. The reason for making standards is to procure one more pretty effect, as a variation, change of form, of height, of effect generally, as pleasing to the eye. Then, the bare straight stem is actually more pleasing than the rough, curving, bumpy stem of an old dwarf-trained rose that has had its side branches chopped off as wood has died. And the 84 STANDARD ROSES 85 bare pole of a standard surmounted by a fine head, has a regal, crown-like suggestion about it. Again, the pole, when hidden among dwarf roses in a bed, enables the head to supply far more upper foliage and flower in that bed than could be /\ B^D of l\0S^S To roi\r[ O Sf/\r^D/\i\D5 • BUSIES • Dv^''\\\r PoLY^^Jt^t^S gained by packing dwarfs too tightly ; the result being a mount of leaf and bloom. By mingling standards, half-standards, and bushes in bed, or border, pyramidal displays, or sloped stretches are built, that show off rose colour to great advant- age. Standards set formally, in little beds round the edge of a lawn, are suited by their environment. Standards edging a piece of grass not cut, except for hay, yet part of the garden, would be ridiculous. When a Too-Too-Utter-Artistic-Person 86 ROSE GARDENING says to me : ' You ought to know better than to reduce your rose-trees to a hideous spherical broomhead on a too thin stick ' ; I answer : ' Then don't mow your lawn, or use weed- killer for your walks. Let everything everywhere grow into a buoyant wilderness.' Standard trees have their own charm. Do not let us quarrel with it because it is not some altogether different charm. There is room for all. I have never been able to appreciate half-standards, except for helping in building up rose-masses ; but that is merely a personal idiosyncracy, such as we all must plead guilty to on one subject or another. There is an idea that standard roses are likely to fail. Well, the head, that is to say the portion that is rose, not briar stock, the product of briar budding, is apt to be blown out by a violent gale. But that will not happen if the stake that supports a tree goes up high enough for the thickest portion of the rose to be tied to it. In cold districts a few handfuls of straw, or dry bracken-fern, woven among the branches, drawn a little over the junction of rose and briar, and secured in place by a web-like criss-crossing of rafha, or string, will safeguard a tree against Winter's frosts and snow, and Spring's most cutting east winds. On damp soil, rose trees that are standards keep in better health than do bushes that are closer to the wet earth. Perhaps standards were first used round lawns on account of their not being as liable to injury from balls — croquet and cricket balls especially. Even tennis balls that speed beyond proper boundary lines, often dash into any dwarf rose bushes, breaking off shoots, smashing promising sprays, scattering petals. It is rare for a tennis ball to drop into a standard rose head so as to damage it. Then, the human lawn-mower has his task simplified if the roses are standards, instead of bushes that are sure to project half over verges. It is also true that standards suffer less from being grown round by great quantities of bedding plants. Long rows of standards give exquisite effects in perspective ; double rows seem to converge to a mere point in the distance. STANDARD ROSES 87 Of the value of standards for giving colour on a higher level than that of bushes and ordinary flowering plants of beds and borders, we need no proof beyond our own memories. srETn- sr\\^ A Properly Staked Standard Rose. 88 ROSE GARDENING Believe me, an obviously artificial house, and made garden, is well suited by artificially trained roses. Railings, conser- vatories, verandahs, pergolas, terraces, plants set at even distances, and grouped together with design, regulated spaces between beds and borders-, and grass that is kept neat, are not imitations of Nature, nor examples of allowing Nature to do what she will. So our roses need not grow as they choose. Really the double rose is itself an artificial product. And as for the highly cultivated critics of artificial gardens, are they not strikingly artificial products themselves ? Let them realize that, as we do not ask them to return to the primitive uses of woad, or to banish spoons and forks from their tables, we may surely declare our own right to cultivate roses in a fashion that tones well with the modern world we inhabit. An authority, in 1843, gave the following counsels : ' On Standard Roses. ' The great mistake which people make in the pruning of these beautiful subjects is, that they cut back the very first limbs to one or two eyes, however long they may have grown, and thereby keep the head small and pimping for years, where- as the first consideration ought to be to obtain something like proportion in the head. How frequently do we see stan- dards of five feet in height, with heads not larger than a respectable house-mop. . . . The head of a rose-tree ought to be as large through as the stem is long from the ground to the lower branches.' Valuable, too, is the same author's advice on how to per- suade a head to grow symmetrically from the start. ' As there will be five or six branches, such of these as will grow straight away from the centre, to form a circular head, may be left on, while those pointing upwards should be short- ened. Thusly, something like three or four limbs, pointing different ways, may be secured, but weakly ones should be cut right away. Those limbs that are left will not form a proper head unaided, therefore should be pruned back to three STANDARD ROSES 89 or four eyes, the end eyes to be left, being under ones, will grow downwards, elegantly branching.' Then there are Weeping Standards. These may be easily formed by letting the long branches grow wild all summer, then bending them out, on all sides, and tying them to stakes set at intervals round the tree. For next season, take away the stakes, for the branches should be strong enough to do with only a little skilful invisible tying to the main stem — and remove overcrowding inner shoots, of course. To begin to make a Weeping Standard, from the very first, out of an ordinary standard, prune hard the first March, then let Nature do the rest, except for the restriction of the number of inner branches, and the tying. It surprises many persons to learn that it is possible to have Weeping Standards twelve feet tall, trees, in fact, like Weeping Willows, and Ashes. Of their loveliness there is no question. Rambler, Wichuraiana, Climbing Polyantha, and Ayrshire Roses make splendid Weeping Standards. So do Hybrid Tea and Tea Climbers. It is really invidious to men- tion any roses that are specially charming for this treatment, but some that soon grow into handsome specimens are Bardou Job, W. A. Richardson, American Rambler, Hiawatha, The Dawson Rambler, Felicite Perpetue, Aglaia, the Yellow Rambler, and Reine Olga de Wurtemburg. CHAPTER XI PILLAR ROSES ' When from the portals of her paradise. Sweet Eve went forth, an exile with sad heart, She lingered at the thrice-barred gate, in tears. And to the guardian of that Eden fair, As on her cheek there came and went the rose. She, weeping, mourned the harshness of her fate. " O Angel," cried she, " bitter is the fate That drives me from this fairest paradise, And bids me wear life's rue, and not its rose ! Give me one flower to lay upon my heart Before I wander through far lands less fair. And drown all visions of my past in tears." Within the angel's breast compassion rose At sight of her sad face and falling tears. The while her beauty touched his tender heart ; And, knowing well the misery of her fate. He gave the flower, a rose of paradise. Because she was so very young and fair.' Florence M. Byrne. WE have already mused a good deal on climbing roses, but the subject of Pillar Roses deserves a few thoughts all to itself. Where should pillars be set up ? No nutshell answer is possible. Some gardens are too fiat, and pillars are inexpen- sive to erect, and will cure the scene much sooner than forest trees could grow up to do. Pillars are a mode of gaining prodigal quantities of blossom, beyond the supplies that can be gleaned from standards or bushes. 90 PILLAR ROSES 91 Pillars, like slender tall women, please by their graceful height ; and, when perfectly clad, show off their clothing as do those elegantly formed women. Pillars can be seen from afar, whereas hedges, shrubberies, etc., intercept the long view of beds and borders of bush roses. Pillars enable us to patronize all the climbing roses that have no dwarf counterparts, and also the climbing varieties of many dwarf roses that our skilled growers have raised for us — that are often superior to their dwarf parents in vigour and floweriness. The walls and fences of a small garden are soon covered ; then, though pergolas and arches might take up too much room, create too much shade, cause awkward drip, bountiful climbers can always be held up by pillars. A very original garden rosery can be wrought by dotting a lawn all over with pillar roses. The following remarks were once made by the then cele- brated Mr. Godwin, of Market Drayton : ' No object can be more attractive, or form a finer feature in a flower garden, or a well-kept lawn, than a pillary of Roses judiciously introduced. From the middle of November, until Christmas, I find the best time to plant these and all other kinds of hardy garden roses, where the soil is not too wet, or situation too exposed. Where, however, the latter is the case, and the soil of a retentive nature, the better time to plant them will be found the middle of April, and not February as is generally recommended, as I have discovered from many years' observation, that they generally suffer more during the month of March than from the combined effects of the preceding winter. They also do much better when planted singly to a pillar, than introducing two or more varieties. It will be found exceedingly difficult in that case to get them to assimilate in growth so as to prevent one from destroying, or materially injuring, the other.' It is true that when two climbing roses are given the same pillar, or side of an arch, it usually comes to be a question of the survival of the fittest. 92 ROSE GARDENING How high should pillars be ? The higher the house they are near, the higher the pillars, arches, pergolas, that may legitimately be placed within view from it. Twelve to eighteen ,/■'(«■ /"■• w.^ Rose Pillars in House-Wall Angle. feet, eight to twelve feet, six to eight feet, are good heights for various uses. For my own taste I would never tolerate a pillar lower than six feet. Pillars may be of many a sub- stance. Old gas-piping, painted white, grey, green, or brown, answers well. Natural birch, or ash, are always beautiful. Hop-poles are cheap and strong. The four-square posts sold PILLAR ROSES 93 for washing-line props have many merits. Young fir trunks, though picturesque, do not suit roses, for they are resinous and rough. A modern villa, with carved iron gates and verandah sup- ports, is suited by painted iron pillars. A rustic cottage is harmonized with by rustic pole pillars, A Tudor or Ehza- bethan house needs hidden supports for the climbing roses ; the arches and pillars should look to have been in existence long enough to have overgrown every foundation ; this is not difficult to contrive, for if the pillars, or poles, are of some pliant wood, that of the Mountain Ash, for instance, and are used in the green state, the rose growth, of mature new climb- ers, will be scarcely distinguishable, and soon present a picture of pillars of rose alone. Squarish solid wooden pillars are not out of place with any garden in which wooden trellis-work abounds. Poles may be slender or broad ; the slim ones are often set in circles or squares, each a foot, or couple of feet, from its neighbour. Solid pillars, it may be mentioned, are of real cultural service in cold windy places. If it is agreed that standards give fine perspective lines when planted in lengthy rows, so as to face one another, or in avenue fashion, it will be realized that yet grander lines for vision are afforded by pillars set in long rows. Mr. Godwin advised : ' The ground should be well trenched, and made particu- larly rich by the addition of a thorough dressing of well-rotted manure. We have pillar roses with us varying in height from six to twenty feet, simply supported by larch poles, from fifteen to twenty-three feet long, which, being previously subjected to the action of fire for about three feet at the bottom of each, will stand a number of years without further trouble than the annual dressings of the roses.' Most of the garden-owner's troubles with blown-down arches and pillars would not occur if supports were bought very lofty, then charred for three feet up. Climbing rose varieties should be chosen carefully, the 94 ROSE GARDENING most rampant for the highest work, the lesser climbers for the lowest. Those classed as semi-climbers will reach the top of a six-foot pillar. Climbers can be trained straight up, or wound round and round a pillar, or group of pillars. I give a list, necessarily a very inadequate one, of climbing roses of special merit for pillars. AiMi;E ViBERT. Noisette. Pure white. Alistair Stella Gray. Noi- sette. Buff-yellow. Antoinette Massard. Noisette. C ar mine -vermilion. Semi- double. Billiard et Barre. Tea. Gold. Large flowering. Climbing Captain Christy. Hy- brid Tea. Pale pink ; very fine, but only a summer bloomer. Climbing Captain Hayward. Hybrid Perpetual. Crimson. Climbing Caroline Testout. Hybrid Tea. Pink. Large. Climbing Catherine Mermet. Tea. Flesh-pink. Climbing Cramoisie. China. Double little flowers of velvety crimson. Continuous blooming, and hardy. Climbing Cumberland Belle. Moss. Pink. Climbing Devoniensis. Tea. For south walls. Creamy blush. Climbing Lady Ashtown. Hy- bridTea. Pink. One of the best. Climbing Liberty. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet-crimson. Climbing Mrs. W. J. Grant. Hybrid Tea. Bright rose. Large blooming. Longworth Rambler. Noisette. Light crimson ; in sprays. Madame Isaac Perri^ire. Bour- bon. Carmine. Very full, and large. Madame Plantier. Bourbon. White, medium size, a great grower, double, and continuous blooming. Climbing Paul Lede. Hybrid Tea. Salmon flesh. William Allen Richardson. Noisette. Apricot. Climbing Irish Fireflame. Hy- brid Tea. Orange, splashed and flushed with carmine. CoLCESTRiA. Hybrid Tea. Satin rose. Perfumed. Climbing Chatenay. Hybrid Tea. A vigorous climbing ver- sion. Ards Rover. Hybrid Perpetual. Deep crimson. Constant. The above may all be reckoned very tall. Liberty is not as sure to mount high as are the rest, but generally does so in good soil. For lower pillars I can recommend : PILLAR ROSES 95 L'loiiAL. Noisette. Yellow, shaded with metallic red. ZfPHYRiNE Drouhin. Briar. Bright pink. The thornless rose. Constant. NoELLA Nabonnand. Hybrid Tea. Enormous velvety crim- son, loose flowers. Red Admiral. Hybrid Tea, Cerise-red, in masses. Queen Alexandra. Hybrid Tea. Large single flowers of primrose flushed with salmon. Frau Karl Druschki. Hybrid Perpetual. White. Florence Haswell Veitch. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet, crimson- shaded. GusTAVE RfeGis. Hybrid Tea. Canary yellow. Semi-double. Hugh Dickson. Hybrid Per- petual. Scarlet-crimson. Meg Merrilees. Hybrid Briar. Bright crimson. J.B.Clark. Hybrid Tea. Scar- let-crimson, maroon shaded. The last-named rose will grow tall, if allowed, but makes an admirable six-foot pillar variety if cut almost down each autumn. CHAPTER XII PERNETIANA ROSES ' Rose, with a hundred leaves, a thousand scents, in one.' Anon. MANY people do not understand what a Pernetiana rose really is, and could not describe it in answer to any rose-grower's catechism. Well, in 1900, I believe, or thereabouts, Messrs. Pernet Ducher, the famous rose-breeders, introduced a very lovely new rose that they named Soleil d'Or, having obtained it by crossing the familiar Persian Yellow, or Austrian Briar, with some other rose. Instead of having gained a single or semi-double rose, this proved really double, a brilliant gold, with red streaked buds, and quite hardy. Of course Soleil d'Or has demerits, though it seems mean to notice flaws in a flower nearly perfect. The blooms are flat, not pointed, and have a way of splitting into three sections, or making a three-cornered heart, when fully expanded, as we have all observed that the good old Gloire de Dijon is fond of doing. But the blossoms last extra long, and are very sweet. Also the long soft tawny red spines of the stem add to the beauty. Since then Soleil d'Or has been used as one parent for innu- merable roses ; we owe the Lyon Rose to it, to begin with. Generally speaking, Pernetiana roses are splendid for the garden, and for cutting, grow cleanly, look fresh, handsome, and happy, yield well, mostly giving a flower for every shoot, and do not mildew. There is some regrettable confusion about the classification of these hybrid roses, many getting called after their other 96 OPHELIA {Pale Pink) MADAME S^GOND WEBER .Rose Pink) PERNETIANA ROSES 97 parent, not the Pernetiana side of the family. This may be correct for those that show strong Tea, Hybrid Tea, or other characteristics than Pernetiana ones, but, unluckily, we may find the same rose catalogued as a Pernetiana by one firm. A Round Rosery, with Grass. written about as a Pernetiana by one authority, and as a Hybrid Tea by others. A long sunny border, down one side of a lawn, given up to Pernetiana Hybrids, is a very magnificent garden feature, and may be had in towns and by the sea, as well as by country dwellers. Grouped beds, forming a special Pernetiana Rosery, can be as cordially recommended. The open ground is best ; sunshine is, of course, needed. G 98 ROSE GARDENING

- fS- CJl^ASS MOUND W, •Vosi- An Uncommon Border for Dwarf Polyantha Roses. Many of these little roses are perfumed, notably Aschen- brodel, Ellen Poulson, cherry-rose, Eugenie Lamesch, orange yellow, Jean d'Arc, white, and Merveille des Polyanthas, white. CHAPTER XIV BRIAR ROSES ' Here roses sweet their blushing charms disclose. Red and white roses, Zephyr swayed.' J. H. A. Hicks. EVERY Briar Rose is not a Sweet-Briar. That is the first fact to remember. As long ago as 1838 the follow- ing remarks were made upon the subject : • * The Eglantine, or Common Sweet-Briar Rose [Rosa rubi- ginosa), has been cultivated more for the fragrance of its leaves than for its flowers, but, by the recent discoveries in crossing, and the activity of cultivators, there have been numerous varieties produced whose flowers are of good character, and numerous, as many sometimes as forty in a bunch, though they naturally grow only in threes in the wild state. There is also a wild variety, if not a species {Rosa inodora Agardh), which can scarcely be distinguished except from the leaves being scentless.' The garden-owner who wants scented Briar Roses should mention so when writing to a rose-seller. The same author described Briar Roses as ' rather of tall growth, and when wild grow naturally generally among other shrubs and trees in copses and the like, striking their roots deep into the soil, and preferring shade rather than too much sun.' The soil best adapted for them, according to the celebrated Paxton, is ' a deep rich loamy soil, and if somewhat strong it will be so much the better ; for though as they strike their roots deep, it might be inferred that they would answer in deep sandy soil however dry, this is not found to be the case. 103 104 ROSE GARDENING Shade is more or less indispensable, together with some mulch- ing round the roots. When the Sweet-Briar is grown as a hedge it is usual to cut it like privet and hawthorn with the shears, but it is, notwithstanding, shy of sending out shoots, and when thus treated rarely flowers ; whereas the white, or blush, roses that stand in old farm gardens untouched for years by the pruning knife, for the most part bloom profusely. From these two facts it may be inferred that the less pruning given to roses of this sort, the better.' It is true that Japanese Briar Roses should be tipped only, and relieved of dead wood, in March. A writer in 1864 noted the Austrian Briar's dislike to smoke, to pruning with a knife, and to being budded on other stocks, ' and its liking for plenty of liberty for its branches to ramble." We may make hedges of Briar, and Hybrid Briar Roses, and grow them on trellises and fences, but their real place is, I think, the semi-wild garden, the shrubbed glades, or among the large boulders of rock-gardens. Still, the Hybrid Sweet- Briars are charming filling beds, or as tall items at the back of the mixed border. They have been vastly improved ; their blooms are large, in many examples, and new colours have been introduced of late years. I hope this list will help amateur gardeners to choose with- out seeing. Amy Robsart. Deep rose. Jeanie Deans. Semi-double. Anne of Gierestein. Dark Scarlet-crimson. crimson. Julia Mannering. Pale pink. Canary Bird. Yellow, tinted Extra scented. with crimson. Lady Penzance. Copper with Catherine Seyton. Rosy pink. yellow. Edith Bellenden. Pale rose. Lord Penzance. Buff, shaded Flora McIvor. White, flushed with clear green. with rose. Lucy Bertram. Deep crimson, Green Mantle. Pink, with with white centre. white centre. Meg Merrilees. Glowing crim- Ibis. Double rose. son. Janet's Pride. Semi-double, Minna. Rose pink. Double. white, striped with carmine. Extra sweet. BRIAR ROSES 105 Refulgence. Semi -double. Lucy Ashton. White, pink Scarlet. edged. Rose Bradwardine. Clear rose. Raymond H. Austrian Briar. Brenda. Peach-blossom colour. Orange, carmine - flushed, on peach. The Japanese Briar Roses {Rosa riigosa) grow into large shrubby trees unless trained out against espaliers, walls, fences, trellises, etc., or deprived of their side growth to keep them in shape for pillar forming. They are useful for creating screens anywhere ; if set three feet apart only, at first, alter- nate trees can be removed when they become overcrowded, preferably when the branches interlace at all. As lawn speci- mens, too, they are of good service, especially in town and seaside gardens, it being no small part of their charm that they carry gloriously coloured fruits in profusion, that hang till the close of the year, and take on autumn tints of amber, russet, and red. They are not sweet-briar scented. All are of value, but attention may be drawn to a few of the best. Conrad F. Meyer. Silvery rose. Mrs. Anthony Waterer. Nova Zembla. White. Scented. Bright crimson, semi-double. Blanc Double de Combert. Rose A Parfum de l'Hay. Double white. Cherry-carmine. Hay-scented. Daniel Lesueur. Cream-yellow, Rugosa Alba. White. Single. copper and pink. Comte de Epremesnil. Magen- DoLLY Varden. Apricot pink. ta. Very sweet. Madame Georges Bruant. Evening. Semi-double, rose. Semi-dottble, white. Maid of the Mill. Carmine. Madame Jules Potin. Rose Small-flowering, but very gay. pink. Cup-shaped. Yesoensis. Pink. The fruits are edible, and make excellent jam ; for which purpose they should be gathered in the golden stage, being over-ripe, and tasteless, if left till they are red. Then we may have the Scotch Briar, or Burnet Rose {Rosa spinosissima) , pure white, intensely double, and as intensely prickly, but of admirable service for table decoration, being exceptionally long-lasting. I like to plant this little rose as Box is planted, for edgings round giant beds, also to have io6 ROSE GARDENING them among the biggest boulders of the rock-garden, where they can sprawl in the way they love. All the Briar Roses may be the consolation of rose lovers who have shady, semi-shady, enclosed, or sticky-soil gardens, for they flourish almost under any circumstances, except Lord and Lady Penzance, and the Austrian Briars, Austrian Copper and Austrian Yellow, which need lighter ground and sunshine — some sunshine at least. CHAPTER XV CHINA ROSES ' Whether by lake, or velvet fields, Of emerald lawn, where sunshine yields Plumed shadows not a few ; Or in the environs of thatch, Wliere not a window smiles to match, — Of ev'ry tint but blue, The roses laugh, and glow, and bless, Making all Summer one caress.' HAS any one ever come across a villa, or cottage, front garden all adorned by China Roses ? — I think not. Yet no other kind of front garden would give as little trouble for as fair an effect, keep in beauty as long, or prove less expensive in the course of years. Fill a garden with shrubs and trees only, round a gravel square, hoping to have done with trouble, and the day soon comes when a man has to prune, and there are embarrassing barrow-loads of rubbish to cart away, who can suggest where ? Fill it instead with China Roses, and directly the bushes seem to be getting too big cut them into shape, throw the little boughs thus obtained on the kitchen fire, or the garden refuse-heap ready for a bonfire, thinning out the bushes as well as cutting them tidy, then enjoy the spectacle of their fresh sprouting. Only do this, and never let the bushes get too big, then there will not be any further bother. March is, of course, the right time for the first pruning each year, and growers who want fewer, but extra fine blooms, cut back the branches to within six, or, at the most, eight ' eyes ' from the base. 107 io8 ROSE GARDENING See that the soil is fairly rich, at first, and always give a late February mulch. If you wish for an extra good show, apply soot water, liquid manure of any sort, and sprinkle Fertilizer, in turns, each month of the rapidly-growing season. The China is just as fit an ornament for the great house's gardens. Indeed, it is especially lovely when massed by many- century-old walls of inhabited castles or romantic ruins. It is a rose that, when present by tens, sheds a wonderful sweet- ness abroad ; and when one is met by that particular fragrance one naturally thinks of many a remembered old-world garden, where Chinas revelled beside Lavender, Rosemary and Southern- wood bushes, among Sweet Williams, Snapdragons, Hen-and- chicken Daisies, Goat's Rue, Penstemons, Jacob's Ladders, and Pinks, in beds and borders all divided by giant edgings of Box, overarched by Golden Chain, and backed by English Hawthorn. A child can grow China Roses. Really children are very useful, to keep the dead blooms snipped off ; for that ensures a continuous flower-yield. China Roses are all quite hardy, and will flower in shade, even under the drip of tall deciduous trees ; though, for their real welfare, and to have them show what they are worth, they should be in sunshine. They endure smoky air ; they are splendid for pot culture either with or without forcing. They can be trained to cover low walls or fences, but, if so, should not be exposed to full sun, or they will flag both as to blooms and foliage. They can be propagated by layers, or by cuttings of the season's young shoots, six inches long, put into small pots in August or September, and wintered in cold frames. Another method is to put the cuttings into trenches against a south wall, at the end of September. An old writer says that the Chinas ' strike readily, especially if assisted by handlights and bottom-heat.' The all-yellow Double China is no more. At least, I fear not. It was the second tea-scented Hybrid Rose introduced to England, the first having been The Blush, or Rosa indica CHINA ROSES 109 odorata. Now we have countless Hybrid China Roses, yet the dear old Common Pink China remains indispensable. I once saw a garden that possessed a steep grassy hill, all flecked with crocuses, single daffodils, and wood anemones in spring, and beautified by yellow coronilla tufts and harebells in summer, between bushes of China Roses. At the foot of the hill, in a less exposed position therefore, was a continuous hedge of Hybrid Chinas. How the bees and butterflies haunted that spot ! To lie on the turf, with a crimson rose dropping scented petals on the right, and a tall white rose scattering snowflakes on the left, able to gaze up at azure sky, or down at azure bird's-eye and harebells, and bask and dream, was the kind of holiday that never palls. The following are some of the best of these dainty and pro- lific roses : Common Old Monthly Pink. Wild-rose pink. Old Crimson. Small but double. Cramoisie Superieure. Crim- son. Double. White Pet. Miniature. Arethusa. Deep yellow. Aurora. Gold, tinted pale car- mine. Very perfumed. Chin Chin. Yellow. CoMTESSE DE Cayla. A blend of gold, copper, and red. Ducher. White. Alice Hamilton. Velvety red. Semi-double. Fabvier. Crimson^ with white centre. Hermosa. Double pink. Irene Watts. White, salmon- flushed. Queen Mab. Rosy apricot, with deep gold centre. Madame Laurette Messimy. Deep pink, yellow shaded. Leuchtfeuer. Brilliant scarlet crimson. Papa Hemeray. Scarlet single, with white centre. Madame Eugene Resal. Rose and orange. Eugene Beauharnais. Damask crimson. TiTANiA. Coppery pink. Charlotte Klemm. A blood-red and gold blend. Mdlle. de la Valette. a gold and ruby blend. Scented. Little Meg. Creamy white, sometimes edged crimson. Star- shaped, in clusters. CHAPTER XVI THE WHIMS OF ROSES ' Thorns will put on roses to-morrow, Winter and sorrow scudding away.' Christina Rossetti. THERE is no doubt about it, Roses have individual char- acters. I do not mean that all La Frances behave in a La France way, or that every Grace Darling sulks because some certainly do. No, — there are family traits, to be detected by the ardent rosarian, as we all admit, but also special trees in one's garden, no matter their parentage, species, or noted idiosyncrasies, exhibit strong, original, extra peculiarities. At first thought this may seem unimportant, a mere frivo- lous cotnment to make in a book on Rose Culture, but it is really most desirable to learn how to deal with refractory specimens. Suppose a tree persists in remaining quite dwarf, in a bed where the others grow properly ? The good roses must not be pruned down hard to make them match the height of the naughty rose. Of course the offender can be removed, but, believe me, the real heart-and-soul gardener hates to let a tree, shrub, or plant get the better of him. Transplanting, however desirable, is an admission of having been beaten. Well, there is a method that usually makes a rose-bush grow fast — that is to limit it to two, or three, main stems, keep the leaves stripped from two-thirds up these, water it copiously, and mulch with Hop-manure. Sometimes a tree keeps dwarf because it is growing in ground too hard for it. I generally try loosening such a tree a very little in the earth, using a large fork with extreme care, flood- ing beneath it with the mildest of liquid manure, and then no THE WHIMS OF ROSES iii treading it in again ; for no tree can grow, of course, if it wobbles. Cultivators often need reminding that roots cannot grow in rock, though loose shifting soil is, maybe, worse. The New Testament parable of the sowing of the good seed contains many a fine lesson for gardeners. Suppose a rose drops all its buds ? — That is a great trouble, I have found it caused by the ground being worm-tunnelled, and waterings with a weak solution of mustard, in rain water, have invariably driven the worms out. If a quantity of nice sandy loam is put round the bush, lightly forked in, and trodden level, then heavily watered, the tunnels will be filled up. Rose-buds may drop off because there is a draught. We know how a lady in a drawing-room will manoeuvre to avoid a direct current of air, but My Lady Rose cannot move in her bed to escape a chill wind. The simple expedient of training out the boughs of some of the neighbouring roses, tying them to each other, or to the tops of short sticks, will screen a feeble bush, and the next crop of buds will probably be able to develop. Often enough a Rose takes a dislike to some ingredient in the soil. Oh, it may be a carefully prepared bed, or border, but just one trowelful of unhealthy stuff, a lump or two of crude clay, a rusty tin, a mouldy bone, some rotting ivy or laurel leaves, may be the cause of mischief. Again, the tap-root may have struck on a stone, or slab of concrete, or bit of slate, and the tree will flag and sicken until the root can turn aside into free soil. I admit that a Rose often appears to flag out of sheer cussedness, still let us give each invalid the benefit of the doubt, and doctor it for illness, not for temper. If the roots have encountered what for them is poison, the only hope of saving the tree is to move it right away. It is wonderful how a weak, backward, or non-blooming Rose will become one of the best in the garden after being moved to another place. If it has fallen ill in full sun, give it semi-shade, and vice versa. If it has failed in dry soil, see if it will not do better in the damp. 112 ROSE GARDENING Moving roses from one part of the country to another is a charming bit of speculation. I have found that inland-Sussex roses taken to the Sussex coast improve, in the main. Hert- fordshire gravel-soil roses, taken to Kentish clay, give finer flowers, but some of the trees will die. My Sussex coast roses, moved into Warwickshire, resent the change, as a whole ; a few that were captious formerly, how- ever, have burgeoned forth so powerfully that it is difficult to believe they are the same trees. A Mrs. Sam Ross, that had been a terribly shy bloomer, and would not grow tall, as the variety should do, put up strong boughs, and yielded the true apricot-cream blossoms, in early June. A puny Grace Darling now tries to become a standard. Every tree that sulks has some real grievance. Now and then, tying out branches to stout sticks, to keep them from being wind-tossed, affords a tree all the help it craves. A lanky tree, that goes all to leaf and stem, should be left unpruned half a year, nearly. By the first weeks of August it will very likely have had enough of being only great and green, and if cut back hard will have time to flower a little before winter, and will prove grandly floriferous next year. A tree that buds and buds, but has feeble leaves that nearly all drop off, after yellowing, can generally be cured by doses of soot-water. Occasionally insects are the cause of the apparent whims of rose-trees. Of three Hugh Dicksons of mine, two grew large and blossomed lavishly; the third was feeble, and never gave more than one decent flower a season. They were not far apart, in an ideal site, a south-west border, backed by a close wooden fence. Having exhausted all the art at my command, I was leaving the sorry specimen alone, resolving to move it into a portion of outer garden that is called the Infirmary, when a friend came to look round, and opened my eyes to the real trouble, ' Don't you find the tree always devoured by green-fly ? ' he asked. ' Yes. Sickly trees always attract pests.' THE WHIMS OF ROSES 113 He smiled. ' And some trees are rendered sickly by being infested. Keep it washed, from toe to tip, with a weak solution of Sanitas fluid and water, and pour once on the soil a bucketful of suds made with any good carbolic soap.' The effect was wondrous. The tree revived. I had cut it back first, and new shoots sprang forth from every branch. Rose with Branches Trained Out. shoots red to begin with, then the vivid deep green rose enthusiasts thrill to behold. Buds followed, and resulted in fine velvety scarlet-crimson flowers, in profusion. My friend was justly proud. ' Green-fly preferred that Hugh Dickson to the others,' he said, ' because north winds were shut off from it by that hedge, H 114 ROSE GARDENING and yet, through the shght slant of the border, it gets more westerly sun in the day, just a little longer span of sunheat. And you neglected fighting its foes because you had no respect for it.' A quite hardy rose, in a too hot place, may ' refuse to bloom ' because its tiny sap-needing buds are dried to death, baked brown. A Madame Berard against a south wall was a proof of this. Only the closest observation proved that its shoots were not blind, but held scorched-up infant buds. Moved to a westerly wall it quickly recovered its reputation as a fairly free bloomer, — not as free as its relative, the old Gloire de Dijon, still, a giver of better formed and more golden flowers. CHAPTER XVII ROSES OF RARE COLOUR ' Saints are like roses when they flush rarest"; Saints are hke hhes when they bloom fairest ; All like roses rarer than the rarest.' Christina Rossetti. THE Lyon Rose is the most astounding colour-variant ever introduced into the Rose family. Until it arrived no rose with that shrimp tint, that has been called also a ' diluted terra-cotta,' had blossomed within the memory of Man. Other roses since have been of the same class of shade, brighter, or deeper, yet The Lyon still holds its own. One can detect it at a show, or in a garden, from afar. For a blend-rose I would give the prize to the Marquis de Sinety, a marvellous golden-ochre flower, flushed and streaked with bronze red, and often with magenta. Some rose-lovers give the palm to Juliet, or Rayon d'Or, others to Soleil d'Or. So the point shall not be pressed. No rose of blended hues has ever the astonishing effect of the Lyon Rose, or of other striking ' selfs,' such as the dazzling scarlet single Hybrid Tea, K. of K. — a true pillar-box red. By- the-bye, single roses are generally more brilliant in appearance than doubles, just because, where petal folds over petal, shades are cast in a flower, whereas a wide flat bloom catches the light on each satiny petal's surface. But we are now out to consider the beauty of certain rare-hued roses, not only their brightness. For poppy scarlet the rose to grow is the Hybrid Perpetual 115 ii6 ROSE GARDENING Rouge Angevine, which often gets taken for a paeony, so large and separate-petalled are its blooms when fully expanded. For a tulip scarlet there is Dora van Tets. For a scarlet that shades down into orange-yellow there is the Hybrid Tea, Augustus Hartmann. My choice of a nearly purple rose would be Gloire de Ducher. A decided black tone in the deep crim- son blossoms of Captain F. Bald makes it indeed a rarity, as well as a most welcome addition to the older dark roses, while, being a Hybrid Tea, it excels in vigour. Chameleon is flame colour, deepening to cerise at the edges, and quite unlike the cerise roses of the past. Cleveland, a Hybrid Tea, combines gold, copper, and vieux-rose ; a con- noisseur has said it always reminds him of sunset sunbeams on old red brick. There is a water-colour pigment called orange-cadmium that matches the beautiful rose named Edward Bohane, except that, when richly fed, the latter gains a vermilion blush. Flame of Fire is yet another strangely bright Hybrid Tea ; an orange flame it is, not the glow of red coals. Francis Gaunt is very remarkable, in a different style, for it is really palest hazel brown under intense culture, fawn- straw when ill-nourished, — certainly not gay, but quite unique and with a charm for many persons. How shall I describe Irish Afterglow, a single ? — Well, the raiser says of it that it is ' deep tangerine, passing to crushed strawberry.' But there language fails. The rare hues of the different stages, of bud, of fully developed, and fading bloom, must be seen to be believed. After all, the name is the best description ; the western sky, when a day has died gloriously, has all those blends. Beatrice, Hybrid Tea, can be included among rare coloured roses, especially as variants among pinks are scarce ; the colour is rich deep rose, the petals have curls, in the La France style, and the edges become quite pale, producing a remarkable variegated effect. I have heard Florence E. Coulthwaite, Hybrid Tea, called an original colour rose, because its cream petals are dotted with pink inside ; anyhow it is lovely, and large. ROSES OF RARE COLOUR 117 Josiah Henslow, Hybrid Tea, described as brilliant orange- crimson, always secures attention. Other roses I can recommend for similar merit are : Mrs. C. V. Haworth. Hybrid Tea. Pale buff, shaded with apricot, and with a film of cerise rose over immense petals. Entente Cordiale. Hybrid Tea. Nasturtium red-gold. Mrs. E. G. Hill. Hybrid Tea. While the inside of the full flower is white, the outside is cerise red. Mrs. F. W. Vanderbilt. Hybrid Tea. Bronzy orange red. Mrs. Henry Balfour. Hybrid Tea. Ivory, deepening to a primrose core, with petals edged by a picotee line of cerise. Mrs. Wallace H. Rowe. Hy- brid Tea. Called Sweet Pea mauve. P. L. Baudet. Hybrid Tea. A carmine rose, curiously marked with salmony yellow. Serge Bassett. Hybrid Tea. Garnet red. The Queen Alexandra. Hybrid Tea. Vermilion, the petals nearly all gold outside. Pierre Notting. Hybrid Per- petual. Blackish crimson, shaded with violet. An old favourite. General Schablikine. Tea. Coppery red. Molly Sharman Crawford. Tea. Green-shaded white. Rainbow. Tea. A pale pink rose, shaded, splashed and streaked with carmine. LfioNiE Lamesch. Dwarf Poly- antha. Tomato red. Soleil de Angers. Pernetiana. Ochre gold, edged vermilion. Veilchenblau. Climbing Poly- antha. Slate blue. David Pradel. Hybrid Tea. Pale rose and lavender, mottled. Hugo Roller. Tea. Lemon yellow, flushed and edged crim- son. Mrs. David Baillie. Hybrid Tea. Madder carmine, veined maroon. Marechal Vaillant. Hybrid Perpetual. Brilliant red-purple. Brightness of Cheshunt. Hy- brid Perpetual. Brick red. Madame Delville. Hybrid Per- petual. Lilac rose. Purple East. Climber. Car- mine purple ; semi-double. Pride of Reigate. Hybrid Per- petual. Pale crimson, striped maroon. Verna Mackay. Hybrid Tea. Ivory-buff. Mrs. Ambrose Riccardo. Hy- brid Tea. Honey colour. Lilian Moore. Hybrid Tea. Deep Indian yellow, and camellia shaped. Chameleon. Hybrid Tea. Striped with gorgeous colours, on cerise. Vesta Pernetiana. Vieux rose. CHAPTER XVIII FRAGRANT ROSES ' Again with wealth of colour do ye bloom and bend to meet us. Again your own sweet fragrance fills the blissful Summer hours.' Maud Mary Brooker. IF all sweet-scented roses were mentioned, a book would have to consist only of their names. So I give a long list here, at the close of this chapter, of my own favourites, and some notable new introductions, omitting the most familiar roses, such as La France, Dorothy Perkins, Marechal Niel, etc., of which rose enthusiasts do not need reminding. Per- haps the sweetest rose of all, apart from the Tea-scented, which are a race by themselves, is the old Duke of Edinburgh. And I cannot resist a few prefacing words on the uses of scented roses. Firstly, we may plant for concentrated scent in the garden, and it is an interesting discovery that we gain most sweetness from a dell, or sunk bed or border, of roses. The perfume ascends to greet the passer-by. The roses in each bed may be of mixed varieties, or all of one ; the latter being best where trees can be had by the hundred, instead of by tens, or units. Secondly, we can put scented roses in front of the house windows and nail them up to the wall to reach the bedroom levels. Thirdly, there is indescribable charm about a little scented rose-garden kept mainly for night enjoyment, where dry paths of white paving stone lead between beds and borders edged by whitened stones to keep feet from straying in the dark ; where a few evergreens, clipped, if preferred, and a tall fir or 118 FRAGRANT ROSES 119 two, stand as wind-screens and to cast quaint black shadows ; where the time can be occasionally told from a moon-dial, and music from the drawing-room can be softly heard. Fourthly, we can cultivate scented roses in front gardens, perhaps as an avenue up to the door, to welcome visitors. Or we may grow varieties only to gather, to arrange in vases, to wear, to give away. Well-fed, but not manure-gorged roses give the best fra- grance ; guano seems to specially increase it. In hottest gardens sunheat often draws the perfume out uselessly, dries the scent-sap, I suppose, before the buds are really expanded ; semi-shade would be better. I am convinced that dripping seasons, and over-watering, decrease rose-perfume. Roses for fragrance must never be gathered during or soon after rain. Gardenia. Wichuraiana Climber. Yellow. DEBUTANTE. Wichuraiana Climber. Deep pink. RfeNfe ANDRfe. Wichuraiana Climber. Orange yellow. Ards Rover. Climber. Maroon- crimson. Waltham Climber, No. 2. Crim- son. AvocA. Hybrid Tea. Crimson- scarlet. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. Rugosa, or Japanese Briar. Sil- very pink. Aladdin. Hybrid Tea. Cop- pery orange gold. Mrs. E. J. Hicks. Hybrid Tea. Pale pink, that turns to blush. Walter C. Clark. Hybrid Tea. Maroon. Nova Zembla. Rugosa. White. Alexander Emslie. Hybrid Tea. Velvet crimson, with white centre. Betty. Hybrid Tea. Salmon rose. Chateau de Clos Vouget. Hybrid Tea. Fiery scarlet- crimson. CoLCESTRiA. Hybrid Tea. Rose pink. Countess of Lonsdale. Hybrid Tea. Deep yellow. Crimson Chatenay. Hybrid Tea. Crimson. C. W. Haworth. Hybrid Tea. Crimson- scarlet, black shaded. Duchess of Wellington. Hy- brid Tea. Orange gold. Duchess of Westminster. Hy- brid Tea. Rose. Edith Part. Hybrid Tea. Old rose and salmony yellow. G. A. Hammond. Hybrid Tea. Apricot gold and fawn. George Dickson. Hybrid Tea. Velvety blackish crimson. GusTAVE Gunnerwald. Hybrid Tea. Cannine-pink. Hadley. Hybrid Tea. Velvet crimson. 120 ROSE GARDENING Henrietta. Hybrid Tea. Or- ange, cerise, crimson-orange. His Majesty. Hybrid Tea. Crimson. WiCHURAiANA Alba. Single white. WiCHMOSS. Moss. Pink. Climb- ing, semi-double. Rosa Moschata Alba. White. Musk-scented. Pax. Hybrid Moss. Lemony white. Tuscany. Damask. Soleil d'Or. Austrian Briar. Nasturtium red, orange, rose. Magna Charta. Hybrid Perpet- ual. Rose. RuHM DES Cartenwelt. Hy- brid Tea. Blood red. Maman Cochet. Tea. Carmine and rosy salmon. The Dandy. Hybrid Tea. Crim- son-scarlet. Very rich scent. Lady Helen Stuart. Hybrid Tea. Crimson-scarlet. Also very scented. Prince of Wales. Hybrid Tea. Bright red. Vesta. Pernetiana. Orange, scarlet, salmon, vieux rose. Edward Mawley. Hybrid Tea. Rosy crimson. Said to be the sweetest. ^TOiLE DE Lyon. Tea. Yellow. Jonkheer J. L. Monck. Hybrid Tea. Carmine. Madame Jules Grolez. Hybrid Tea. Rose. Madame Lambard. Tea. Pink. Madame Falcot. Tea. Apri- cot. George Arends. Hybrid Per- petual. Known as the pink Druschki. Friedrichruh. Tea. Blood red. Alexander Hill Gray. Tea. Lemon. Lemon Queen. Hybrid Perpet- ual. White and lemon. Miss Alice de Rothschild. Tea. Citron yellow. Mrs. Campbell Hall. Tea. Creamy white, edged rose, with cerise centre. AscHENBRODEL. Dwarf Poly- antha. Peach and orange. AuRORE. China. Gold, flushed with rosy carmine. Brunswick Charm. Climbing Wichuraiana. Orange yellow. Alberic Barbier. Climber. Creamy yellow. Ellen Ponson. Dwarf Polyan- tha. Cherry rose. Colton Pearl. Rambler. White. Cordelia. Perpetual Climber. Yellow. Iona Herdmann. Hybrid Tea. Orange. James Coey. Hybrid Tea. Yellow. Janet. Hybrid Tea. Buff gold. Juliet. Hybrid Tea. Old gold. Rosy red, carmine marked. KiLLARNEY BRILLIANT. Hybrid Tea. Rosy carmine. Lady Greenall. Hybrid Tea. Pale sulphur yellow. Lady Ursula. Flesh. Lyon Rose. Hybrid Tea. Shrimp. Madame Marcel Delaney. Hy- brid Tea. Pale pink. Major Peirson. Hybrid Tea. Apricot. Marie Adelaide, Grand Duch- EssE DE Luxembourg. Hy- brid Tea. Orange. Molly Bligh. Hybrid Tea. Madder rose on orange. Musk scented. FRAGRANT ROSES 121 Moonlight. Hybrid Tea. A cluster rose, lemony white. Mrs. a. Gled Kidston. Hybrid Tea. Brownish crimson and deep rose. Mrs. Alfred Tate. Hybrid Tea. Fawn and red-salmon. Mrs. Ambrose Riccardo. Hy- brid Tea. Honey gold. Mrs. Arthur E. Coxhead. Hy- brid Tea. Claret red, on ver- milion. Mrs. Charles E. Pearson. Hy- brid Tea. Orange, terra-cotta red, and fawn yellow. Mrs. Charles Reed. Hybrid Tea. Cream,, peach, gold. Mrs. C. V. Haworth. Hybrid Tea. Brownish apricot buff, sheened with rosy cerise. Mrs. E. J. Holland. Hybrid Tea. Deep salmon rose. Mrs. Elisha Hicks. Hybrid Tea. Very pale pink. Mrs. F. W. Vanderbilt. Hybrid Tea. Orange red, shaded bronze. Mrs. Maud Dawson. Hybrid Tea. Orange carmine. Mrs. Walter Easlea. Hybrid Tea. Crimson-carmine. My Maryland. Hybrid Tea. Salmon. Queen Mary. Hybrid Tea. Canary yellow, pencilled with carmine. Queen of Fragrance. Hybrid Tea. Shell pink. Red Cross. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet. W. E. LiPPiAT. Hybrid Tea. Maroon-crimson. River's Musk. Pinky, on deep cream. Climbing. Queen of the Musks. Pinky white. Climbing. Snowstorm. Mitsk. White, small flowers, in bunches, a constant bloomer. Splendens. a pinky white Ayr- shire, semi - double, evergreen. Myrrh scented. Princess Victoria. Hybrid Tea. Salmon cerise, on gold base. Captain Kilbee Stuart. Hy- brid Tea. Velvety scarlet. Vanity. Hybrid Musk. Pink, semi-double, in clusters. Miss Connor. Hybrid Tea (1920). Canary yellow. Lady Anderson. Hybrid Tea (1920). Coral and flesh on yellow. Lady Dixon. Hybrid Tea. Ap- ricot, salmon pink. Mrs.C.V. Haworth. Hybrid Tea. Apricot, buff, flushed rose aftd lemon. Charles K. Douglas. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet-crimson. Colonel Oswald Fitzgerald. Hybrid Tea. Blood red. CHAPTER XIX SOIL FOR ROSES ' Dear Heart of Earth, that hast secure, Our rose-wTeaths in thy keeping. Dear Dew of Night, that watereth The roots where they he sleeping.' THE gardener who will take most trouble is the gardener who succeeds. It is rare to possess an ideal garden soil for roses, so the rose planter has to work hard, one way or another, to improve the soil, according to its deficiencies. He may do this either partly, or perfectly. The Rose is an accommodating Queen ; she will reign under rather adverse circumstances, but her record is, naturally, more glorious when circumstances enable her to show her finest qualities. Stiff cold clay soil can be improved by forking it to a depth of three feet, and putting in a lot of grit of some sort : sand, road sweepings from clean country roads, or river-bed sand will do, and old horse manure. This work should be finished two or three months at least before roses are planted. Or the ground can be scientifically trenched, which means removing the top foot of soil, then the second foot, keeping them separate, then forking and turning the third foot, and mixing manure, etc., with it. Then putting the removed top foot of soil in, then a thick layer of manure, etc., then making up with the second foot of removed soil, which becomes the surface soil. Trenching is seldom required except by new ground, or neglected ground. After-care of trenched soil is easy ; more old manure can be forked into the top eighteen inches each year, until the fourth year, when it may, or may not, be desirable to fork up the whole depth of three feet, and add manure below also. 122 SOIL FOR ROSES 123 Good garden ground, with manure, grit, and lime forked in to a three-feet depth, and incorporated with all the soil, is excellent for roses, but the manure must be well decayed, and adequate time, two or three months at all events, be given it to become composite. During these months some light forkings should be given. There are other ingredients that assist the soil. Vegetable ashes are capital, but not demanded by old pasture land, or old cultivated vegetable gardens. Hop manure supplies a nice texture, as well as imparting the elements of plant food ; it is of the prepared, or fertilized, hop manures sold for gardens that I am speaking. No green grass, freshly fallen leaves, prunings of trees or shrubs, should ever be put into rose-land. Burn them, all but laurel or ivy, on the site, or elsewhere, and the ashes become of enormous value. If the ground to be used for the garden has been pasture- land, it will be sufficient to add horse-manure at a depth of three feet, where shrubs, roses and strong-growing peren- nials are to be set, and merely to fork up and weed the ground for bulbous and bedding subjects. Sour, or insect-infested ground, or land over which vege- tation has been left to grow wild, ought to be forked to the three-feet depth, thrown up in ridges, and left rough for months, for rains, winds, frosts, and snows, to sweeten ; it should be frequently turned over that birds may peck the foes out. Incorporating gas-lime, while the ground lies idle for six months, or dressing it often with freshly slacked builder's lime, and soot, is also good. But birds mostly avoid dressed soil, so I would give them their chance first, if they are numerous in the locality. Frosts, snows, and April showers, are won- derful gardeners. A stony garden must have a great deal of old cow-manure, leaf-mould, and vegetable ash dug in, soot too, and, if possible, some stiff clayish loam. It is not difficult to obtain the last, for builders habitually come across it, and dig it up, when excavating for new buildings. These improving ingredients can be added by the trenching system, 124 ROSE GARDENING or haphazard, at the gardener's will. Mixed farmyard manure is excellent for the average garden soil, cow-manure for the too light soil, dry horse-manure for the sandy or gravelly soil, very strawy horse-manure for the chalky or sandy soil, and some cow-manure also. A chalky soil does not want lime, but most other soils do. There are other methods, of course, for improving soils, but they all come to mostly the same thing. This is the great gardener-author Glenny's advice for rose gardens : ' If the soil be light, holes must be dug, and loam and dung forked in at the bottom of the hole, as well as the hole be filled up with the same mixture. . . . Kitchen gardens, weU kept up, will always grow the Rose well, and, unless the soil is very poor and very light, a good spadeful of rotten dung mixed with the soil where the Rose is planted will answer all the purpose.' He also points out that many a Rose has come single, or semi-double, through the evil effects of poor soil — a Rose that was meant to be double, of course. It is true, too, that many a Rose has come of miserable colour, weak stem, and flabby texture, from the same cause. In some famous gardens the stiff cold clay soil has been dug out, burnt, and replaced, manure, grit, and bone-meal being added, to make a perfect compost, and prevent stag- nant wet in winter. Roses do not need manuring for a year after being newly planted ; the richness of the prepared bed or border being all they can digest. Mulching with manure in November is a good preventive to injury from frost, on light dry soil ; it is dangerous on heavy, wet, cloggy soil ; the mulch in the latter case should be of fresh turf loam and leaf-mould. March mulchings are safe, and when there are a great number of trees, and the gardener's time is precious, it enables him to feel comfortable about his trees if they cannot have all the later attentions that he would like to give them. Mulched trees do not suffer from droughts as do those in bare-surfaced ground. It is a good plan to scatter lime under and over SOIL FOR ROSES 125 mulches. The way to really lime a plot is to scatter fresh- slaked lime at the rate of one pound to a square yard, and lightly fork it into the surface soil a few days later. A simple way to manure a plot for roses is to dig a two-foot wide, and one-foot deep, trench across the plot, lay three or four inches of manure at the base, forking it in. Then dig more trench alongside — that is to say between the digger and the length already dug — throwing its soil into Trench Number i. Trench Number 2, being manured, is filled up with soil from Trench Number 3, and so on, until all the piece of ground has been dealt with. Ground when prepared should not shift loosely under the foot, nor be so solid as to leave no impression of the foot. The clods should be all pulverized, and the large and medium- sized stones removed. Slants need more manure than do levels, hot borders than shady ones. If the soil cakes directly sunshine falls on it after rains, it is not in good condition, needs manure, vegetable ash, lime, and a lot of working. The hoe is the Rose's best friend. Well-hoed ground can do with half the feeding and watering that is essential to keep roses healthy in ground where the gardener scamps hoe, or fork, labour. I would rather have mossy saxifrages, rock-cresses, viola cornutas, and forget-me-nots over the rose-beds than let them be burnt and caked by sun-heat. In gardens of new soil the use of carpeting plants has much to recommend it ; they conserve moisture, and protect as well as assist in the decomposition of vegetable and animal substances. The ignorant gardener is puzzled about how much manure he ought to put into the ground. Well — I find that simplest instructions are those most likely to be remembered and followed, so I always tell questioners to allow a barrow-load of manure to a plot that measures twelve feet by twelve ; providing, of course, that the soil needs feeding, this will not be excessive. CHAPTER XX PLANTING ROSES 'A rose, A child, A bird, A star — Those are my loves ; better them ye who can.' THE end of October is the time I prefer for planting roses. November, an excellent month, is a better one than December, because the trees become more fitted to resist the cold. February will do, if weather and temperature are favourable, and the work could not be done before Christmas, but I never plant in February if I can avoid it. Really, one always can avoid it, unless one is going away later. How ? Well, if the trees are in hand too soon they can be kept waiting for six weeks. There is not the least risk about delaying planting, even for three or four months, if the proper method is pursued. Dig a deep, flat-bottomed trench, wide enough to take the bushes laid out across it ; put in a few inches of good compost, leaving it loose. The trees can overlap each other. Cover them in with nice crumbly soil, just damp. Fill up the trench. While they lie there they will swell, and even put forth young white fibrous rootlets. Of course the most extreme care must be taken not to break those when planting is done. This is different from the system of keeping roses a little while — say a few days — by ' putting them in by the heels,' That means half, or three quarters, burying them, upright or slanted, not laid flat. If trees received from a distance look dry at the roots, or appear very flagged, I always stand them, root, branch, and foliage altogether if possible, in a bath of rain-water, 126 PLANTING ROSES 127 made tepid if the season is bitter. They can be kept in it twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four hours, if necessary. If they cannot be planted then, they must be buried wholly, as described, because if a portion obtruded from the soil, and a sharp frost ensued, being wet, the wood would suffer. Rose Trees Laid in Trench to Await a Good Planting Time. The amateur's first idea is to get ' the new trees in,' at any cost. You may see him delving away, out in pouring rain, cutting soaked soil into sticky chunks, standing for hours in pools, sinking into bogs, as uncomfortable as man can be, and making things most disastrously uncomfortable for 128 ROSE GARDENING the roses. He had better by far have buried them for weeks. Choose a pleasant day for planting, especially pleasant under foot, and don't get flurried. Never mind if a crust of thin ice, or frost, has to be broken first, as long as the soil below is not frosted, but the cold upper stuff must not be thrown into the holes. Snow must infallibly be kept from falling in. The bad practice of digging holes for trees, and leaving them open for weather to act on, is extremely perilous, and always does some mischief, though that may not be detected till much later. Never dig up submerged, or partly submerged, trees before they can be planted. The roots must not be exposed at all to the atmosphere. Have all tools close at hand, including stakes, tying materials, and labels. Make a hole two feet deep, and about the same width, for any strong rose tree. Hold the tree in the hole ; ascertain how deep it must go in order to have the junction of briar- stock and rose just covered. Shovel in the removed soil until the hole is full enough for the roots to almost rest on this. The ground having been prepared earlier, there will be no more manure to add, only a handful of sandy loam, with a scattering of bone-meal, if wished, and, in all cases, some little bits of the fibres of dead turves for the rootlets to be able to cling to at once ; failing turf-loam fragments, really old cocoa-nut fibre refuse will do. Hold the tree with the left hand, while the right hand spreads out the roots. Do not try to force roots out of their shape ; if they have all grown sideways, and become stiff, they must remain in their form. Sometimes roots go all one way because the tree has been blown by sou'-west gales ; keep the roots on the sou'-west side now, and put a stout stake on the opposite side. It is a great help to have a comrade to hold each rose tree steady. Work some good compost between, and around, the roots, and add a couple of inches of this above them. Make the roots firm in the soil, but do not pound it into a sort of con- GOLDEX l-.MBLEM (JV/A-r,.) 1 APV AI.Ii K STANLKY iPink) GKXERAT, McARTHUR (/wv/) PLANTING ROSES 129 Crete. Of course the proper placing for rose roots is to spread them out evenly on all sides, but this cannot invariably be carried out. Fill up the hole to about a couple of inches above the level of the rest of the ground ; do not be persuaded to make it any higher against the stems of the trees, or no rains will be able to enter where they should. See that the stakes are quite firm, and that the ties are not so tight as to check sap, yet not so loose as to leave the bough or stem shaking. If the weather is not frosty, give a gallon of rain water to each tree. If the temperature is dangerous, or sharp frost may be expected at night, defer the watering until a genial spell comes. Go round the trees a week later, and tread them in, making the surface of the ground then just level. In severe weather strew straw lightly and evenly over the bed, or border, or lay down the feathered ends of pea-faggots. Tall climbers should be given as deep holes as their great roots call for, and, if buried before they can be planted, may lie in the trench long-ways, instead of across. The stems of planted climbers should be from four to six inches distant from the walls or fences. For Dwarf, Polyantha and Tea bushes, holes of eighteen- inch depth, or even only a foot, will suffice. For advice as to treating soil for rose planting, when the site has not been prepared in advance, see the preceding chapter. If stakes are not put in at the same time as the rose trees, there is danger of piercing, or breaking, the roots. Affix labels. If wire or tarred string is used, see that these do not cut or cripple the wood. Even if they are loose enough at first they will be tight ligatures as the branches develop, so watchfulness will be advisable later on. It is always wise to fix labels to the stakes, instead of to the roses ; by cutting a little groove in a stake the string is prevented from slipping. After heavy rains the trees will need treading firm. Do this directly the ground can be walked over without injury. CHAPTER XXI ROSE PRUNING * The Heaven of which we dream lacks neither bird nor rose.' Mary Engell. THE expert rose grower has only to look at a rose-tree to know at once what cutting it needs. The amateur rose-grower craves some hard and fast rules by which he can cut his roses, year after year — and he cannot have such rules. There are plain precepts, of course, but they are useless in many cases, and private judgment must always be exercised. With common-sense, however, the rose grower, new to his business, need not make any blunders that will do irreparable harm. Look at an old, or moderately old, Hybrid Perpetual bush in March. It is a mass of stout stems, with boughs springing out of these in all directions. Examination shows that some of the stout stems are a year, or years older than others ; the eldest are the ones to cut away altogether, to prevent the centre of the bush from becoming blocked, and to make more light and air for the others. It may be necessary to take off some of the semi-old stems too, right down at their base, whether this is out of the very earth, or from the visible trunk. But a pruner should always be very chary of cutting off any of what are known as the basal shoots. All stems that cross, so as to touch each other, must be cut away, unless there is space to bend them horizontally and train them out to stakes, and this sometimes interferes with the symmetry of a bed of roses. The big stems are dealt with thus. So far, so good. Look at the bush again. It has a lot of tall branches, 130 ROSE PRUNING 131 either erect or jutting out sideways, and these are stouter and healthier in their lower portions than in their upper lengths. The thin branch-tops may be dryish, or weakly, or they may be putting forth attractive tufts of spring foliage, An Old Tree before being Thinned Out. with bud-shoots in embryo, but, in any case, they are worth- less. The flowers they will carry if left alone will be mere travesties of the right sort of roses. So pruning has to be begun. The removal of stout stems, in which the grower has already indulged, has been thinning out ; he has not 132 ROSE GARDENING commenced to prune. Is the tree of a nice shape, and of the size required ? If so, cut the thin branches oft to within four or six eyes of the main bough from which the whole branch springs. A poor dwarf Hybrid Perpetual, on the contrary, must be more encouraged to become taller, broader, and stronger. And how does the clever gardener encourage it ? By sparing the knife ? Not at all. That would be ' spoiling the child.' No, he cuts the secondary branches down to within one, or two, eyes of the main stems, and considerably shortens the main stems themselves. Indeed he may cut them so far down that the tree becomes just a tuft of sticks a few inches off the soil. New strong shoots will spring then out from the junction of briar-stock and rose. And these new stems will prove taller, even in one season, than the old tree was. A weak rose-tree always requires hard cutting and pruning. It is also a fact that, to obtain roses of prize quality, rosarians of note always cut trees nearly to their base ; but that would be a mistake where trees are grown for garden decoration, or to give plenty of blossom for gathering. A well-shaped Hybrid Perpetual bush does quite finely enough if the stems are thinned out, and the minor branches reduced in number, if too many, then tipped, or cut back as advised, to within four or six inches of the wood that gives them birth. If a tree is too tall, the stems that are left, from which the branches grow, should be made of uniform height, so as to suit the arrangement of the bed or border. If not too tall they need be only tipped. Some Hybrid Perpetual roses maintain a lovely floral show if only thinned out and tipped ; the Duke of Edinburgh is one variety, and this chapter closes with a list of some other varieties that object to hard pruning. Hybrid Tea roses, after being thinned out as to stems, and then thinned out as to secondary branches, should be shortened far enough to get rid of the leafy shoots that are trying to make flower-shoots. Roses borne on the early growth would be mere rubbish. The pruner should pinch ROSE PRUNING 133 branches gently, to find out where the vigorous stalk ends and the feeble top-growth begins ; then cut back to just above a promising eye. Pruning is always done just close above an eye, with a nice slanting cut. If the cut is a clean one, leaving no snag, I do not think it is of consequence if it is made with knife or secateurs. Some growers sneer at secateur pruning ; yet I have known famous cultivators use secateurs in preference, and the tool is certainly safer than a knife in the hands of an inexperienced worker. When choosing an eye to cut back to, let it be one that is on the side where a new young branch is desired. The old law says, ' Let it be an eye pointing outwards.' But I often find that an ugly shaped tree, with gaps in it, can be made symmetrical by encouraging a new branch to slant across the tree, even inwards. Tea roses, thinned out and simply tipped, do well. But large old bushes are not always wanted. Dwarf trees in beds should be pruned annually into correct size and shape. A weak Tea rose will not flourish unless cut nearly down, that stronger growth may have a chance to come from the best stems, or even from the base. Very healthy rose trees can be trained out to espalier supports, some of the branches bent low, some stretched horizontally, to save sacrificing them, by giving them a place each in which they can develop without overcrowding the rest. Climbing roses, generally speaking, only need tipping, and training so that the stems do not incommode each other. However, it is often advisable to remove whole portions of old climbers, so that the younger portions may receive the whole of the sustenance from the roots. The warm wall climbers are the first to prune, in March ; then climbers on walls of other aspects, except the coldest, which may better wait till April ; then Hybrid Perpetuals, then Hybrid Teas, Hybrid Pemetianas, Chinas, Hybrid Chinas, etc. Finally the Teas, Dwarf Polyanthas may be done either 134 ROSE GARDENING in March or April ; those in sunny spots will be active early, so should receive attention. Roses planted in autumn require strong pruning. Hybrid Perpetual roses that are so vigorous as to be a nuisance in their particular positions, can be cut down almost to the soil. I treated a majestic J. B. Clark so every second year ; the first year following a pruning it formed a wonderful bush ; the second year it had once again become a many- stemmed bush, twelve feet high. Bourbon, and Hybrid Bourbon roses give their blossoms on the branches that spring from two or three year old boughs, so it is always essential to leave some of this older wood, or there will be no flowers. Rambler roses may have all the old wood cut away after it has bloomed, and the young shoots nailed or tied into place ; or they can be left to send out new growth from old boughs, after bending these down, or stretching them out horizontally. Wichuraiana roses may also be treated either way. China roses, and Dwarf Polyanthas, only want thinning out, relieving of the too numerous small twigs and shoots, and tipping of each shoot. Standard rose pruning must be done by method, guided by the shape of the special tree itself (see Chapter X). Superfluous branches should always be done away with. The strong annual growths of Rugosas, or Japanese roses, may be either left, and tipped, trained out horizontally, or pegged down, or cut back half, or two-thirds, their length. The bushes may be cut down to the ground nearly, to reduce them. Hybrid Sweet Briar roses, not being quite so robust, should be treated a little more sparingly. The two buff yellow varieties. Lord and Lady Penzance, being the most slow of growth, must not be pruned severely. When making an old-world garden, in which roses are wished to form huge bushes, it is folly to prune them hard ; the trees must grow almost as they will for two or three years, except for being kept clear in their centres. ROSE PRUNING 135 Banksian roses must be tipped, and the coarsest wood cut out, directly they have bloomed, then not be touched any more with the knife, or there will not be any flowers the next season. Climbers planted in autumn are mostly cut down in March. This is not the waste of time it seems, for their growth will be more rapid than if the old tall stems were left on. Moss roses, and the old Cabbage, should be pruned hard, but not cut down. An Old Tree Well Thinned Out. An Old Tree Cut Down. Summer pruning, namely cutting trees back after they have bloomed in summer, is advisable for all that will flower again in autumn. When roses are gathered lavishly for vases, or gifts, plenty of the wood being taken, no summer pruning is required. This fact demonstrates the exact kind of pruning that is correct in summer ; it must not be the cutting far back of the spring pruning. Fortune's Yellow is a lovely old-fashioned rose that ought to be cut a very little directly it has flowered, and not any more in spring. 136 ROSE GARDENING The following roses are to be pruned with great circum- spection, as hard cutting means that for season after season they will make growth but not give a flower. Duke of Edinburgh. Charles Lefebvre. Madame Jules Gravereaux. GusTAVE R£gis. Her Majesty. Prince Camille de Rohan. Gruss an Teplitz. Margaret Dickson. Abel Carri]e;re. Sir Rowland Hill. Earl of Dufferin. Xavier Olibo. Madame Gabrielle Luizet. Dupuy Jamain. Hugh Dickson. John Hopper. Anna Olivier. Hom^re. G. Nabonnand. Maman Cochet. Safrano. Grace Darling. Papa Gontier. Viscountess Folkestone. Bardou Job. Madame Lambard. Aglaia. CHAPTER XXII DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES ' Spying a rose-bud on a tree, I cried, " Ah, thou shalt ope within my bower ! Lonely this garden ; here thou shalt not hide." But from each bud bursts not a perfect flower ! Some warped condition did the petals close ; My bud ne'er opened to a perfect rose.' I PUT disbudding first in the title of this chapter because, no matter how good the diet of rose trees, there are very few that will give fine blooms unless the number of buds is limited. I am speaking, of course, of the larger-flowering kinds, not of any that yield large trusses of small flowers. Whether such a rose as American Rambler, or as Dorothy Perkins, should be disbudded, is a question on which opinions differ. Even scientists, I gather, are at variance upon it. The best course to pursue is to treat some trees one way, some the other. There is great beauty in a pointed, or pyramidal, cluster of distinctly set blossoms ; there is a lovely prodigal effect about a truss so packed with blooms that many are unable to open till some have flowered, faded, and fallen, or been snipped off as dead. And this shedding, by nature or art, of the dead individuals, not only makes the rose look excellent, but prolongs the season of the tree's attractiveness. Large roses always need disbudding, except those that are so wise as to give but one bud to a shoot. Dora van Tets is usually admirable in this style, though I have known her unduly lavish. The buds that should be removed are superfluous ones, 137 13S ROSE GARDENING warped, or malformed ones, and grub-eaten ones. Two or three buds on one stem should be reduced to one. Now and then a long stem bears a second bud far down it, in addition to a single one at its top, and this distant brother may be left on, to look charming when the elder has been gathered ; unless, of course, extra fine flowers are the grower's object. It is in vain to try to persuade some old gardeners to disbud. How tired I have become of the reiterated reply — ' For my part, I like roses to grow naturally.' Roses don't. We prune. And we have a race of roses that are wholly made by artists, as tools of the Most High. So the obstinate old gardener ought to bring dog-roses from the hedges into his beds and borders if he really prefers a rose that grows naturally. Having to open too many buds ex- hausts a tree, as well as results in a ple- thora of miserable flowers, and a dearth of creditable ones. Disbudding should be done when the buds are just visible, tiny green objects only, set in the hearts of shoots. Every day they all live the one that is to reign alone ultimately is being impoverished. The best bud should be left ; it is usually the middle one, if there are three or more, and the highest up. Removing malformed buds is a task that calls for doing all summer ; but it begins when the first sort of disbudding takes place, as it is essential to ascertain that the bud left Malformed Bud. DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 139 is not warped, as some of the biggest, and most promising, at first glance, are apt to be. Buds are often twisted, sometimes abnormally swollen, or rock-hard. Then there are buds that maggots pierce, or earwigs nibble ; buds too that go black in the stem, and would soon drop off ; buds that are so covered by green-fly as to be ruined. Later in the season there are mildewy buds. The Green-Centred Bud. One-Sided Bud. rose tender has to be constantly on the prowl, disbudding as well as deterring, catching, or poisoning the foes of the rose. It is inspiriting to see how a bud will grow after the others that were close are taken away. Feeding roses, after the manure before planting, and the valuable mulches to which attention has already been drawn, should never be done with only one kind of food or stimu- 140 ROSE GARDENING lant ; just as a boy or girl, to be healthy, must not be brought up on one form of food alone. I give many good recipes here, so that the inexperienced gardener can try experiments, after considering carefully what his special ground is likely to require. My own predilection One Bud too Many. 1/ A Good Rose-Bud Weakened BY One that should have BEEN Removed. Two Buds too Many. is for Tonk's Manure, which is known and respected all over the world, yet one year I relied chiefly on Hop Manure, when the soil seemed to need getting into a pleasanter crumbly texture, and another season I applied a great deal of Multiple Fertiliser. I have no reason for naming patent manures, no interest in pushing any ; I merely speak of the products as DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 141 I find them. Tonk's is made up by a settled prescription, and any agricultural chemist can supply it. It is a safe plan to use soot, either as dressing or liquid, every year, in addition to the other stronger foods that must not be over-used ; not with them, of course, but a few weeks after. It is also a fine idea to use lime-water once a year at least, in June, unless the garden is known to be too limed or chalky. Lime releases the chemical properties of animal manures, and so sends them down to plant roots in a digestible state. Liquid manures made with animal dung must always be used in such a diluted condition that the liquid is very pale in colour. Though roses are strong feeders they become rank, both as to foliage and flower, if too violently fed. A very weak liquid, often given, suits roses, while a strong dose of evil-smelling stuff does more harm than good. Chry- santhemums and dahlias thrive on strong liquid manures, but the rose does not, a fact that gardeners sometimes find it difficult to realize. Although the trees may seem to thrive on coarse feeding of this sort, for a few weeks after its application, they may later change colour, produce too much sappy stem, go all to leaf, give green-centred buds, yellow, and collapse altogether. Manures must invariably be applied when the ground has been thoroughly wetted, by rain or the can, and only to trees that are in health. To attempt to cure a sick rose by feeding it up with any sort of manure, is to determine its speedy end. A rose that is merely weak can be given a stimulating food tonic, of course, but not an invalid rose. List of Manures for Roses. No. I. Tonk's Manure. Superphosphate of lime (mineral), 48 lb. Kainit, 40 lb. Sulphate of magnesia, 81 lb. 142 ROSE GARDENING Sulphate of iron, 4 lb. Sulphate of lime (gypsum), 32 lb. Mix, and crush, then apply, 4 ounces to a square yard (a plot 3 yards square). This manure should only be given once in a season, March being the best month. It can be bought ready mixed, by the 7 lb., or larger quantities, up to a hundredweight. No. 2. A Good Stimulant. Superphosphate of lime, ^ ounce. Sulphate of iron, I ounce. Sulphate of ammonia, ^ ounce. Dissolve in 2 gallons of water. Give 2 gallons of this solu- tion to each tree, every fifteen days, or less often, after buds are set, until autumn. No. 3. An After-Pruning Manure. Mixed farmyard manure, that has lain in a heap out of doors all winter, and been turned occasionally. Gently remove some soil above the roots, in a ring a foot wide, 6 inches distant from the stem of a rose tree. Fill up with the manure, slightly press it in, and cover with a little of the removed soil. No. 4. Peruvian Guano. Peruvian Guano. 4 ounces to 2 gallons of water. Give a gallon to a tree when buds begin to form. Repeat each fortnight until the tree is flowering fully. No. 5. Peruvian Guano. 2\ ounces for each tree, scattered round it, in April, and hoed into surface soil. No. 6. For Backward Roses. Mix 3 parts of superphosphate of lime, i part of sulphate of potash, I part of sulphate of ammonia, if parts of nitrate of soda, I part of sulphate of iron. Scatter i ounce, for 2 feet, round each tree, in May or June, DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 143 No. 7. Standen's Manure. Scatter | ounce on a square of 4 yards, fork lightly in, in April. No. 8. For Light Soil. Nitrate of Potash, | ounce. Dissolve in i gallon of water, and water each tree with this once a week during the flowering season. No. 9. Multiple Fertiliser. Scatter i heaped tablespoonful round each tree, lightly prick into surface soil, every fortnight after buds form, till flowers are over. No. 10. To Prevent Disease. Mix I" ounce of sulphate of iron with as much dry sand, and scatter an even sprinkling over the ground round each tree, in May and September. Water it in. This generally renders trees almost immune from fungoid diseases. No. II. Lime Watering. Dissolve a cupful of freshly slaked lime in 2 gallons of water. Apply all over the soil of the rose-bed, once or twice a year, allowing 2 gallons to each tree. The stems and foliage must not be wetted. No. 12. Guano. Dissolve 12 lb. in 2| gallons of water, and use this by putting 2 ounces of the liquid into 5 gallons of water. Allow f gallon to a tree. No. 13. Liquid Cow-manure. Weigh the manure, and dilute with 4 times its weight of water. No. 14. Liquid Horse-manure. Weigh the droppings, and allow 3 times the weight of water. No. 15. Pig Manure. Make a garden heap of equal portions of pig manure and 144 ROSE GARDENING dry soil ; waste soil from turned-out pot plants will do well. Use, after some weeks, to mulch roses, in light soil. No. i6. An Excellent Quick-acting Manure. Superphosphate of lime, 2 parts. Muriate of potash, i part. Nitrate of soda, | part. Bone flour, i part. Mix, apply just under the soil, at rate of 2 ounces to a tree. Apply first when buds form, and again at midsummer, omitting the bone flour. Can be repeated at the end of the flowering season, to strengthen the trees for another year. No. 17. Bone Meal. 3 ounces to the square yard (a square made of 3 yards each way), lightly hoed in, once, any time in autumn or early winter. No. 18. Clay's Fertilizer. I ounce to 2 gallons of water, once a week from April to September. No. 19. Clay's Fertilizer Liquid. Dissolve I ounce in 2 gallons of water. Use once or twice a week all summer. No. 20. Soot Water. Soak I lb. of soot in 10 gallons of water, for three days or longer. No. 21. Dry Soot. Make a mulch half an inch thick. No. 22. Pig Manure for Banksian Roses. Fork in a spadeful to each yard of the top soil, each March and October. No. 23. For Chalky Soil. Apply superphosphate of lime as a surface dressing, each spring, 2 ounces to a square yard. DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 145 No. 24. Fertilizer for Chalky Soil. Saltpetre, ^ ounce. Phosphate of potash, ^ ounce. Dissolve in a gallon of water. Apply each May and July. No. 25. Basic Slag. Place at the bottom of the trench cut for manuring, at the rate of ^ lb. to 2 yards. K CHAPTER XXIII GRAFTING ROSES ' The rose looks fair, but fairest it, we deem, For that sweet odour which doth in it Hve.' FEW are the owners of pleasure gardens who are anxious to graft roses, yet propagation by grafting is a subject that cannot be omitted from a book on Rose Growing. Long, long ago, when grafting was more in favour than now, an eminent authority stated that the operation may be performed in as many ways as a broken whip, or stick, can be spliced ; the only thing required for success being a good fit, and that the stock and the scion be something nearly alike in size. The stock is the branch, or stem, on which the graft is made ; the scion is the piece that is grafted in, a piece taken from some rose. An intelligent schoolboy, after pondering this, would be quite capable of making a new rose tree by grafting. In cutting the wood of either the stock or the scion it must not be hacked or bruised ; the right season is said to begin in September and end in March, but the likeliest time is about the end of February, weather being normal, when the buds of the trees are beginning to swell. This is known as spring grafting ; the French nurserymen are adepts at it, and frequently flower the trees the same season so well as to gain prizes for the blooms. The scion to be inserted is a long pointed wedge, or a slice ; cuts to receive scions have to be made to resemble them closely, but slightly larger, in the side of the branch, or stem, of the stock. When the scion is inserted in the slit in the 146 GRAFTING ROSES 147 stock, the two are bound firmly together by tape, or raffia, then covered by grafting wax, which is a mixture of beeswax and resin softened by tallow sufficiently to enable it to be applied like paint. Some growers use clay, others a starch paste, covered with moss or wool to keep it from being washed away. This last is really a safe method, as it is so easy to get rid of the coverings when the splice has succeeded ; whereas removing grafting wax, or clay, is a somewhat delicate and hazardous operation. When grafting is done low down on a stem below earth, no grafting wax or other sticky material is needed. Nor is any required for root grafting. Bud-grafting consists of taking a small piece of rose branch with a ' bud ' in it, cutting it with a long point, and inserting it in a slit cut partly through the ' wood ' of the stock's branch, or main stem, folding the sides of the cut bark over it as far as possible, binding them up, and painting lightly with grafting wax to exclude the air. Root grafting is easy, though so seldom practised by amateurs. Search the garden in October for a rose tree that is sending up a strong sucker which is a shoot from the root of the briar. Fork away some soil, cut through the briar root as so to detach the sucker with a good bit of it attached. Replant the rose at once and water it in. Pot the sucker, in loam, leaf mould, and a little very old manure, with some sand ; house it in a greenhouse, or frame, or sink the pot in a cinder bed by a warm wall out of doors. Keep the sucker growing till February is advanced, when turn it out of its pot, graft a rose scion on to its root, and plant out in rich soil. The following clear instructions on root grafting are from a journal of far past days. ' Suckers in abundance may be found in all rose plantations ; dig them up with their roots, and when you have as many as you would like to make rose trees of, cut off the upper growth to within an inch of where it touched the ground ; select cuttings from such sorts as you are desirous of propagating, and take a seat in the house or arbour, or wherever it is most 148 ROSE GARDENING pleasant. Depend on this, that it matters very little how you fix the graft (scion) to the root, so that it is a fit, and the barks of both are close to each other. We verily believe that we grafted twenty different ways, and had not one in fifty miss. Fancy that your root, just below the surface, and your graft, being the same size, have broken by accident from each other, and that you have to mend them as you Pointed Scion Ready to Insert. Branch of Stock, with Slit Cut Ready for the Scion. would a fishing-rod ; cutting each of them sloping, so as to j5t each other exactly, and binding them neatly together is one person's mode of accomplishing it ; cutting one to a wedge shape, and slitting the other, and cutting the wood out to receive the wedge, would be another. The root, having nothing but the new substitute for its old stock to support, amply supplies the nourishment, and rapid growth is the consequence. All your work being tied, plant them in rich ground, with the grafting tie below the surface, and shade them from direct sun.' Many growers pot their stocks after they are grafted, and keep them in mild heat under glass. As to selecting suitable grafts, or scions, another old author gave sound advice : ' Examine your shoots after pruning each tree in March ; select those which are finest, and place their thickest ends in a lump of clay that is moist and an inch deep ; pinch the clay tight round them, and then put the lump of clay in a pot full of earth, leaving the shoots out, until ready for use. At the end of each shoot there will probably be one or more buds open ; these must be carefully cut off from GRAFTING ROSES 149 the shoot, or they will infallibly exhaust the others. Let the shoots remain for three weeks in an outhouse, or any place neither very dry nor very damp, where neither wind nor sun can come in contact with them.' When the scions begin to swell, the grafting wax or clay has to be removed, and there must be a loosening of the tying raffia. Grafting is the quickest method of rose propagation, for a stock grafted in early March may be a fine blooming tree by August. CHAPTER XXIV BUDDING ROSES * The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new ; The rose is sweetest washed by morning dew.' Sir Walter Scott. ROSE budding is simple to do, but exceedingly difficult to explain, except by demonstration. To bud we must possess briar stocks. These can be bought and planted in autumn, or winter, for budding the following July ; or raised from the hips, or red seed pods, to be found on the wild roses of our hedges. Late autumn is the time for this. The seeds have to be removed from the hips, rubbed between the hands with some damp sand, which removes an oiliness of the outer skin that would otherwise delay germi- nation, perhaps for a year. The seeds are then stored in damp sand until March, when they may be sown, two feet apart, an inch deep, in drills across the kitchen garden ground. The soil must not dry up. Then all that is necessary is to wait until the briars are large enough to turn into rose trees by budding them. Mature briar stocks, planted in November, will begin to shoot out in the following spring. The end of July, or the beginning of August, is the best budding time ; the weather should be moist and cloudy, but, as it is not possible to order the correct sort, a gardener combats injurious sunheat by rigging up some tiffany, or leafy branches, to poles set between the briars and the midday sun. After a thunderstorm is usually held to be a capital time for budding, as heavy rain has set the sap stirring. If there is a tiresome drought in 150 BUDDING ROSES 151 July it is wise to give the briars a thorough soaking or two during the early part of the month. An old author says : ' Budding should be performed in the evening, and on the south- west side of the shoot.' But either side will do ; indeed the modern way is to bud on the underneath of the branch ; it is more troublesome to do, but the sunshine cannot play on the place. The bud to be inserted is to be taken from a quite healthy tree, from a bough of the current year's growth. We generally say now ' from a bough that has borne a flower. ' Old practitioners said : ' The bud should be from a part of the tree that has never flowered, because the bud of a shoot that has once flowered becomes thereby weak and feeble.' The buds are to be found at the base of the stalks of leaves. They will be observable in all stages, but the smallest and the largest are unsuitable ; the medium ones, plump and juicy, should be taken. And how do we take them ? — Ah, that is the difficult matter to explain ! The scientific instructions run thus : ' Great care is necessary in removing the bud. The operation is best performed by a thin-bladed knife, which should be inserted about three-quarters of an inch above the bud, and passing nearly midway through the wood of the shoot, come out again about three-quarters of an inch below it, the cut being as clean as possible. The portion of the bark in the centre of which the bud is situated is called the shield, and when removed as above described it contains a portion of wood. This is to be carefully removed.' I remember when I first read these directions, and set about looking for the ' wood,' I expected to find a large piece ! The bit is very small. That was long, long ago ! The ancient mode of getting rid of the bit of wood was by drawing a hair, or thread of silk, through the whole, as cheese is cut by wire or string. The modern fashion is to remove it by the tip of the knife, or tear it gently away with the nails of the first finger and thumb. An expert budder will whisk out a dozen in less than a minute, without spoiling a bud. It is true that if the bud is in proper condition, neither too 152 ROSE GARDENING old nor too young, vigorous, not effete, it does come away readily. To quote another old authority : ' You must now examine whether the incipient bud, or heart of the bud, has been dragged out with the wood, which is sometimes the case, and which can quite easily be seen on looking inside the bark, when there will be found a hole, if the heart of the bud is gone, perhaps not larger than a pin hole ; should this be the case it is useless, and will never grow. This has induced many to bud without removing the wood at all, and they will often take, or unite, quite well. . . . Nevertheless the danger is that the woody portion does not unite, and the bud branch is more easily blown out by the wind.' Before the bud is made ready the branch in which it is to be inserted must be prepared. The budding knife cuts a slit in the bark of that branch, underneath it, about an inch and a half long, and, preferably, within an inch of the base of the branch, because there it Branch Ready Cut to Receive Bud. Bud, Ready to Insert. will be strongest. About the middle of the slit a trans- verse cut is made. Budding knives used always to have a thin end to their handles, like a palette knife, often of ivory ; this was to use to raise the green bark of the slit, on both sides, acting also as a kind of slim wedge to hold the cut open while inserting the bud. BUDDING ROSES 153 The bud is put in so that it peeps out of the sHt, yet is partly inserted on both sides, exactly against the transverse cut of the slit. Then a moistened strand of raffia, or wool, binds it in place. A piece of moss, or cotton-wool, is generally bound lightly over, but the ' nose ' of the bud should show. The wool should be damped daily, if dry weather ensues. The boughs of the briar stock used to be cut down low before the budding. This is not the practice now. They may be cut down at the beginning of November, but, so dangerous is it to shake the budded portions, that a shortening to about a foot is usually made to suffice. In March the trees are pruned, all the growth being removed so as to leave just one bud, or eye, on each branch above a budded part. If several buds are inserted, and take, in several branches of a briar, a fine tree is quickly obtained. Thus, several varieties of rose can be made to grow upon one tree, but this is a pretty freak, or pastime, only, and the best effects are gained otherwise. After the budded portion has grown, and gained two or three pairs of leaves, the tip of its shoot is nipped out. Whether a bud has taken or not can generally be ascertained in three weeks' time after budding ; if it has not, the bud will be black. CHAPTER XXV SOWING ROSES ' " Ah, Rose, blessing men by thy beauty dower, Fall not, thy scented gift to us to spoil ! " " I fall, loving all men," replied the flower, " That I may feed fresh rose-buds from this soil." ' RAISING roses from seed is a fascinating pursuit, one of the chief merits of which is its economy. One obtains rose trees for nothing but the trouble. Other merits of the mode are that one loves them more than one loves bought trees, and it is within the realms of possibility that one may gain a marketable marvel. As a matter of fact, a few of the greatest triumphs in rose varieties have been raised by mere amateurs. Then the roses are on their own roots, so never throw up tiresome briar suckers. They grow luxuriantly when adult. It is good to beg hips from friends, as well as make use of those from one's own garden, in October. They should be stored in sand, indoors, until spring. In the third week of March they should be rubbed well in some sharp sand or grit, then sown, an inch apart, in properly drained large pots, using a compost, of equal parts of fresh turfy loam, and old hot-bed manure, with a quarter part of coarse silver sand. Half an inch of the compost, sifted, should cover in the seeds. The pots can be stood in the open, or in generally uncovered frames, and it is a great help to sink them to the rims in cinders, as then the compost will not dry up as quickly. The difficult item in the cultivation is just the maintaining the slight moisture in the compost that promotes germination, 154 SOWING ROSES 155 then prevents its receiving any check. Drying up stops germination, usually destroys the seed germ, and also often destroys infantile sprouts when germination has taken place. Yet the moisture must be slight, not a swamp ; too wet soil turns sour, and then seeds are killed ; even if they are not, the seedlings will be mildewed off. Outdoor-stood pots will not be likely to take any harm, if properly drained, though it is best to protect them if rain continues persistently for twelve hours. It is probable that many seedlings will appear in May. When these are an inch high, or rather more, they should be tenderly lifted and potted separately, in three-inch or four-inch pots, care being taken not to break their roots. After potting them they are best kept in a closed frame for a few days ; then admit air by degrees, but shade them from hot sun. In a couple of weeks they can be exposed to full light and air. In six weeks they should be planted out (turned out of the pots with their balls of soil intact so that they do not know they are having a shift), in rich soil, and an open sunny situation. It is an excellent plan to take ' buds ' from them, in the following July or August, wherewith to bud briars ; this en- sures the survival of those seedling varieties whose merits have not yet been tested, even if the seedling trees them- selves do not live. Also the budded briars may be blos- soming rose trees before the seedlings are. The first winter is the dangerous time. The trees should be well trodden in, mulched with the very oldest manure, and have bracken-fern fronds heaped round them, and woven in and out their branches, to protect their hearts. Seed may also be sown in the open ground, in March, in drills filled with good compost ; in pans, or pots, too, in frames of cool greenhouses. I have succeeded in raising delicate roses — those from seeds of delicate varieties, such as Niphetos, and Marechal Niel, by treating the seeds just as those of half-hardy bedding flowers are treated in spring in hundreds of greenhouses, viz., by sowing them in boxes. 156 ROSE GARDENING glass-covered, in the moderately-warmed glasshouses, and hardening them off with the bedding ' stuff.' Some gardeners use a propagator, or hotbed, to give bottom heat to pans of sown rose-seed. It is also a help, I am sure, to rub the seeds out of the dried hips before sowing them, but they must be sown instantly, not allowed to lie about exposed to the air. Seedling roses, raised altogether in pots (preferably placed singly, in 2-inch size) can be potted and re-potted, and wintered in cold frames. But the rose is actually a hardy subject, although some varieties are tender, so any over- coddling will prove disastrous. In order to grow seed of extra promise it is customary to plant a dozen or more roses in a bed or border close together, far from inferior kinds, and to choose those sorts for special qualities, such as colour, habit, free-blooming, cupped or pointed shape, early or late blossoming, evergreen foliage, or size. Bees will impregnate the flowers, by con- veying pollen from one to another, and seed of the hips will be more valuable than seed gleaned from ordinary mixed collections of roses. T CHAPTER XXVI RAISING ROSES FROM CUTTINGS • Riper months the perfect year disclose, And Flora cries, exulting, " See, my Rose ! " ' Mrs. Barbauld. HERE are several ways of growing roses from cuttings, as the following recipes will explain : — No. I. Find a nice open space, where the soil is good, and make a cutting-bed, turning it well for a depth of about 2 feet, without bringing the under soil to the top, mixing in the mean- while a considerable quantity of sharp sand, or road grit. Draw, and dig out, narrow trenches across the bed — trenches with one side perpendicular, one side slanted — and put two inches of coarse damped silver sand at the base of each trench. Find some well-ripened strong shoots, in October, that have borne flowers, and have young ' buds,' or eyes, showing at the axils of the leaves, which means where the leaf-stalks spring from a branch. Take cuttings about 8 or 9 inches long, using the lower portions of the chosen shoots, not the thin upper- wood portions, and making the cuts just below an eye, and so as to bring away a tiny scooped piece, called a heel, of the old wood with each — a fragment of the main stem, or stout bough, that the shoot grows from. Remove all leaves but two or three at the top of each cutting, but never remove the buds, or eyes, from the base of any leaves. Insert the cuttings against the perpendicular side of each trench, so that they are two-thirds buried when the trench 157 158 ROSE GARDENING is filled up. Place them at least 5 inches apart. Half fill in a trench at a time, tread it, to make the soil firm round the cuttings. Fill up the trench. There will be no need to water the cuttings. Cover their tops lightly with some fronds of bracken-fern, in November, or lay the utmost tops of well-feathered pea-faggots all over the ground. When the ground has been deluged by persistent or heavy storm rains, or softened by thaws, tread the cuttings firm again. No. 2. Take the cuttings as above, insert them in a bed made up in a cold frame. Use the glass lights only on cold nights, during days of excessive rainfalls, or in spells of severe frost and snow. No. 3. Insert cuttings in the open ground. Cover each with a glass jam jar, pressed an inch into the soil. Do not remove the jars till spring. No. 4. Insert cuttings in a 9-inch deep bed of good soil, in frame against a south wall. Water thoroughly. Put on the glass lights, and stretch tiffany shading over those. Lift the lights to spray, or lightly sprinkle, the foliage of the cuttings occa- sionally. Do not water or give air until it is obvious that the cuttings have taken, and are growing. No. 5. Take cuttings, in June, of half-ripened shoots. Each should have three or four eyes, and be cut below the axil of a leaf, or else be taken with a heel off the main branch, or stem. Remove only the bottom leaf, or leaves, not injuring their eyes. Prepare potfuls of a compost of equal parts of loam and coarse sand. The cuttings may go one in each pot of 3-inch size, or five round the sides of a 6-inch size. Strew sand on the surface of the compost, rather quickly, that it may fall evenly, just powdering the soil, then dibble the cuttings in, RAISING ROSES FROM CUTTINGS 159 which will carry some sand down to where the base of each cutting will rest. Water well. Stand the pots in a deep box, with glass lid. Place the box in a propagator, or on the hotbed of a vinery, cucumber house, or frame. The potting of cuttings must be done without injuring their roots, so must any removals from open ground. Perhaps the safest way of all is to strike each cutting in a small pot, as they can then be turned out without suffering any check. When they are pot-bound, that is, show roots protruding from the drainage holes of their pots, they are in need of a shift. But if the season is against their removal, they can be kept healthy for a time by standing the pots on a lot of rich soil, in a made frame-bed, or a box or pan ; the roots will enter this, and find sufficient sustenance. CHAPTER XXVII LAYERING ROSES ' What is a Rose ? A cup of pure delight.' Old Play. LAYERING is a quick, and almost sure, way of propa- gating climbers, and the more vigorous roses. It is best done in July ; if not done until September or October, the layered shoots must be removed in spring, which wastes almost a season's growth. The Ramblers root with the greatest ease. Indeed, if layered in June the new young trees can often be planted in permanent quarters in October. After a bough has been bent so as to reach the soil about midway of a nicely ripened bough, the under part of this bough, just where it would crack if pressed, at the bend, is given a slit, quite half way through it, lengthwise. A dexterous twist or two with the fingers widens the slit ; damp sand is rubbed into the aperture, and the whole is pegged down, just at that place, into some very sandy soil. The pegs should be miniature crooks, of wood, or wire; large-sized hair-pins can be used, but wooden crooks are better. They should be long enough to be thrust rather deeply into the ground, or else thaws, rains, and winds, may uplift them, and ruin all the work. The layers must be kept watered in dry weather. When a layer is seen to be rooted, the branch should be cut away, between the layer and the parent tree, quite close to the former, which can then be lifted, and should show a nice tuft of roots. The old growth above the layer should be shortened one half. In the following spring the layered tree is treated as a newly planted climber, viz., pruned down within three or four eyes of the ground. 160 DUCHESS OF WELLINGTON .Yelloiu) HUGH DICKSON {Crhiison\ CHAPTER XXVIII SUPPORTING ROSES ' Flinging thy boughs to every breeze. Prodigal of thy arts to please.' THE ingenious mind can invent hundreds of fashions of supporting roses, non-cUmbers, semi-chmbers, and ram- pant chmbers. The use of chains slung between pillars has been ridiculed, and some critics have waxed indignant at this idea of associating iron links with the dainty flower. To my mind, that incongruous blend provides the romance, the pathos, the poesy ; just as the rugged ruined towers give charm, by contrast, to the waving wallflowers, snap- dragons, and toadflax, and pendulous dancing harebells that subsist in their crevices. Only let the pillars be of slim iron too, very tall, and the chains painted to match, then a beautiful effect is certain. The way to appreciate it best is to visit the spot at sunset time, and stand between those swaying garlands, to see them against a roseate sky, all massed, as they will be, with blossoms of every warm hue. Still, ropes are an efficient substitute for chains, and suit pillars of rustic wood, which chains do not ; also, the rose tendrils delight in clinging to them. It will be necessary to repaint both pillars and chains every year. Espalier training is the finest possible way of showing off strong dwarf roses, or semi-climbers ; the supports for these, just as the iron pillars, and chains if of metal — wire or iron — must be coated with paint ; otherwise they will be too hot in summer, and too cold in winter for the rose shoots to prosper as they should. 161 L i62 ROSE GARDENING On espaliers the branches can be arranged each in its best place, and there is total prevention of that dashing about in winds that interferes so seriously with the rose's happiness. Pillars have already been dealt with, but the three-cornered brick pillar must be especially advocated. It is made by setting three great bricks to form a triangle, then building on these up to the desired height, cementing them by their corners. Round pillars of brick have a softer effect in the landscape than the square shape more ordinarily seen ; they can be made as large round as a factory chimney, or slender as a drain-pipe (odious examples, for which I apologize). Of course round pillar supports can be quickly and cheaply made out of wire netting, rolled thin round gas-piping poles. A colossal cross of rustic wood — say silver birch, with the bark on — will win the gardener great praise when it is climbed by some rich velvety red rose, such as J. B. Clark, or Climbing Liberty. The point to be remembered is that a cross is only successful when it is of great height, so that the festoons of roses hang elegantly from the cross-beams. I once saw a lawn edged round by semi-climbing roses, each tree of which had a monster ' V ' of green painted wood to support it : the ' V's ' were near enough for their slanting top sides to almost meet. Then there is the Maypole style of training, one giant pole, and cords or wire to represent the garland-covered ropes which stretch from the summit to the ground, on all sides. Ropes can be made weatherproof by dipping them in creosote, or Stockholm tar ; they last long, however, in their natural state, and are much pleasanter and safer for the young shoots of roses. Beautiful arbours are quickly made in tent shapes, by vigorous climbing roses trained up the poles and guy-ropes, and woven and tied, to simulate roofing. The Japanese flat-topped umbrella, copied in wire, with a slim iron pillar for handle, makes a remarkable garden feature SUPPORTING ROSES 163 when rose climbed. The ordinary domed umbrella shape may be copied on a much larger scale than the ones usually employed for the support of specimen weeping rose-trees. A colonnade of arches, to walk under, is always charming, but a row of arches, not to be walked under, set with sides touching, flush with an ugly wall, or paling, two feet or more from it, will become, in a couple of years, a series of lovely arbours, in any one of which chairs can be set, or rustic benches permanently fixed. Difficulty is often experienced in fixing roses to walls. This is cured by studding the wall with the kind of galvanized iron staples that have an eyelet hole in the top of each. Wire threaded through those eyelet holes, stretched from one to another, at yard distances and at various heights up the wall, will provide the trees with something firm to which they can be tied to defy the gales. A lawn may be bordered well by a continuous line of half hoops, or miniature arches, on which strong Hybrid Teas will give a famous show. As to stakes for rose trees, the square-cut deal ones, painted green, are no doubt best. Bamboo rods are convenient and cleanly, especially if the open tops are plugged, and each has driven into the plugging material one of the small screw rings sold for attaching to the backs of picture-frames to hold wire, or string. Bamboos are rather terribly noticeable in a bed or border, but this is prevented by painting them green. CHAPTER XXIX WATERING ROSES ' There is no rose without a thorn ; May it not also be, There is no thorn without a rose, If we had eyes to see ? ' Mary Hampden. SHOULD roses be watered during dry summers ? Undoubtedly, when the drought is threatening their health. It is better to wait till then. To water them to prevent the ill effects of a broiling exhausting summer heat (if rain happens occasionally, but not, as the gardener knows, enough), is little use ; because undue sunheat will open the buds too soon, do what one will, making them into poor flowers ; and buckets of water given to the roots would not avail against this trouble. But if the trees themselves are unsatisfactory, if foliage, and especially young shoots, droop and look miserable, give a pailful of water — two preferably, if the labour is not too great — to each tree after sundown. Next night apply some weak liquid manure, of the animal type. In a few weeks' time, after rain or another watering, give some chemical liquid. After watering has been begun it has to be kept up, but that does not mean every evening ; twice a week is ample, or twice in ten days if the waterings are followed next night by liquid foods, soot water being extremely suitable alternately with others. The great evil to avoid is little-and-often-watering, for this brings the rootlets to the surface always in search of more, and then they become sun-baked, possibly killed. The 164 WATERING ROSES 165 strongest trees will not themselves be destroyed by the loss of rootlets, yet they will soon show that their stamina is materially lessened. Water should be applied slowly, a quarter pailful at a time ; three minutes' pause, another quarter pailful, and so on. Flinging a heavy volume of water on to the soil is not the proper method, it will harden the ground, and wastes most of the supply, which runs off, instead of soaking in. The roses that suffer most, as a rule, from lack of water are wall climbers, especially those on east aspects, as rain- falls seldom reach even their most extended roots. Overhead waterings at the close of blazing, or still sultry days, have saved many a tree. The buds of all but dark roses can be safely wetted with rain-water ; the dark ones are likely to be spotted ; yet they, too, may escape injury if the sun is really off the garden, and, as they are not able to open favourably without some outer moisture, when dews are absent it is wise to try to imitate heavenly yields. Tap water generally disfigures rose petals of the crimson sorts, whether they are furled or open. It is better not to water at all, in a drought, than to do so once, and then weary of the task, and so let the trees go dry again. Watering may be done in really early mornings, before the sun has any power, but syringings, and overhead sprinklings are perilous except in the evenings. CHAPTER XXX PROTECTING ROSES 'Who, that has reason, and his smell, Would not among roses and jasmine dwell ? ' Cowley. I AM no advocate for protecting roses at all, unless the garden is what may be termed a disastrous one. Having left all roses to their fate in all winters, in the Midlands, and other parts of England, I am convinced that the hardier one can make one's trees, the more they do for one, and the likelier they are not to succumb in summer. It seems as though summer tried trees worse than do severe winters, but, of course, for the danger time we must point to the east wind spells of March and April. When the sap is rising, and leaf forming has begun, then the blasts chill most dan- gerously, and the drain on the trees' resources is greatest. Some gardeners bandage up their Tea roses every November, and unwrap them in March, or April, because they cannot well keep them any longer covered, owing to the weak growth that would ensue. The branches would sprout into premature leafage, and buds would develop too early. A lemon-scented verbena, or a myrtle, can be left swathed until May has ushered in quite safe weather, but a rose cannot. That is a great argument against protecting roses at all. Yet there are bleak Scottish and North Country gardens, cold damp valley gardens elsewhere, in which roses so fre- quently die off during bad winters, that garden-owners have to do something to fight against the ravages of cold. The best protecting substance is bracken-fern, because it does not retain wet, or turn mouldy, as does straw ; it is 166 PROTECTING ROSES 167 so light that it does no harm to the most fragile boughs, and it is not unsightly. Best of all its merits, is the fact that it never harbours insects ; at least that is my experience. There is a certain wood-recalling, aromatic, healthy smell about the fronds that pests dislike, and avoid. A chance snail may take up his abode in bracken-fern, but snails really do no mischief to the rose. Dwellers near woods, or common-land on the outskirts of them, can go forth and glean bracken fronds by the hundred in autumn. The stuff had better lie in a sunny room till it is dry enough, then be moulded by handfuls round the lower stems of the roses, and pressed between the branches. A few loose ties of string, from branch to branch, will prevent winds from blowing the fern away. A heap may be built over the roots, drawn up to join the stem covering. In any extra windy spot, the fern can be perfectly secured by throwing a length of rot-proof fish-netting right over tree and all, and pegging its sides and ends down into the soil. The arrangement must be left loose and airy ; no tight casing should be allowed. Gorse branches answer well, but are more clumsy. Heather has a troublesome trick of breaking tender shoots, by being blown against them, still it is an excellent dry, healthy material. Straw is least good. If used, it ought to be often changed — three or four times during winter, at least. Now and then roses are in need of screening from draughts. I remember one case, when a row of newly planted sweet- pea plants, in April, were cut off at just a yard of the end of the row, owing to the way the east wind cut round a corner. A rose-bush there had died, for some reason for which the owner could not account, until those sweet peas afforded an object lesson. Instead of swathing another tree there into a mummy next winter, it proved quite sufficient to make a screen at the end of where the sweet-pea row had begun — a screen concocted in a quarter of an hour, by tying and nailing gorse boughs upon a wooden frame, that was actually a disused clothes-airer from a nursery. The legs of the i68 ROSE GARDENING clothes-horse were sunk six inches in the soil, a stake tied to the main wooden upright, at the bend, and there was a perfectly strong serviceable screen. The rose tree was much Sheltering Screen of Wood and Gorse Boughs. happier in the angle of this screen than it would have been partly smothered in any kind of covering. A November mulch, of dry leaf mould, or loam mixed with cocoa-nut fibre refuse, or swept-up oak leaves, or pine-needles, or beechmast, or spent hops, or hop manure with crushed brick rubble, or mortar, are all suitable methods of keeping the effect of frosts off the ground above rose roots. The bracken-fern, gorse, or heather style of protection for branches is often necessary for the heads of standard trees, and string will be needed to retain any of them lightly among the boughs. When December finds some rose tree in full bud, or bearing, how one longs to safeguard it against the bitter weather that one knows is near. How precious those roses would be if temperature would but let them have a chance to open unspoilt ! Well, all one requires is a hand- light large enough to pop over the entire tree, a miniature span- roof greenhouse sort of thing, with windows to admit a little PROTECTING ROSES 169 air just above the summit of the enclosed tree. Surely carpenters and glaziers would build such a handlight at no stupendous cost ? Beneath the glass, with some venti- lation arranged for, the roses might be gathered unharmed at Christmas. When roses are grown for shows they are protected by special shades, as a former chapter has explained. Drip must not lie on them, nor sun smite wet petals, nor fierce heat scorch and fade. Many a rosery would do better if a shrubbery were built round it, far enough away. But of course many a rosery is rendered stuffy, and weakening for the trees, by being too much enclosed by shrubs or trees. An espalier fencing, rose covered, is generally a capital and a lovely means of giving additional protection to a rose-garden. CHAPTER XXXI CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES ' If in a rose there lurks a hidden worm, Would it be just from roses all to turn ? If in life's web we trace a thread of gray, Wish we our life itself to cast away ? Though worms spoil blossoms, and gold has alloy. Gray grief, for Man, improves the worth of joy.' THE following recipes are offered for the gardener to experiment as to which he thinks best for the specific ill it is wished to prevent or cure. Different temperatures, climates, sites, etc., are the causes of roses in some circum- stances being benefited greatly by treatments that scarcely help roses in opposite, or very dissimilar, conditions. Many are strong remedies — such as are needed for strong evils ; therefore the gardener who employs them in any fashion contrary to those instructions that accompany them, does so at his rose's peril. Great exactness, and scrupulous cleanli- ness and care, are necessary in doctoring plants with powerful chemicals. No. I. A Wash to Remedy Mildew, and Destroy Insect Pests. Dissolve a pound of Cyllin Soap in a pint and a half of hot water. Place a small teacupful of this in each gallon of soft water, and syringe the trees. No. 2. For Curing Mildew, or other Fungoid Diseases. Add 6 pints of water to 8 liquid ounces of strong ammonia. Add three-quarters of an ounce of copper carbonate, and 170 CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES 171 add water till the whole consists of 5 gallons. Apply through a spraying syringe. No. 3- A Cure for Canker of the Stem. Scrape away the affected wood with great care ; paint the wound with a gill of soft water in which a thimbleful of spirits of turpentine has been dissolved ; then cover im- mediately with fresh cow-dung, binding it on with canvas, and leaving this to rot away. No. 4. To Clear Worms from Pot Roses. Dissolve an ounce of mustard in a gallon of water, stir, and water the trees once with this, standing the pots on bricks, after slightly loosening the drainage crocks from the base, that worms may be able to make their exit either below or above. No. 5- To Check Mildew. Dissolve three-quarters of a pound of Calvert's Carbolic Soap in 3I quarts of soft water. Syringe the trees with a wash made of a sixth part of this, in rain water. No. 6. For Curing Orange Rust and Leaf Spot. Half an ounce of potassium sulphide in a gallon of water. Wash, and spray the affected foliage. No. 7. To Cure Rose Scale, and keep the Trees from it. Make a strong lather with Gishurst Soap and rain water. Dip, or wash the affected parts, and use the solution half strength for syringing. 172 ROSE GARDENING No. 8. To Preserve Roses from Greenly all the Season. Syringe every other morning early, or after sundown, with a moderate lather of Lifebuoy Soap, added to three parts as much water as dissolves the soap. Syringe every morning or evening with rain water only, or, failing this, with water in which one teaspoonful of soot has been added to a gallon. No. 9. To Cure Brown Fungus on Rose Trees. If any brown or other fungus is discernible on rose trees in February or March, dissolve 2 ounces of sulphate of copper in 4^ gallons of soft water, and syringe them with this, one morning. No. 10. An Old Remedy for Green^fly and Blight. Whenever roses are infested with blights, take Flowers of Sulphur and Tobacco Dust, in equal portions, and dust the trees with this mixture in early morning, when the dew is on. When the insects disappear, wash the trees with a decoction of elder leaves. No. II. How to Trap Woodlice that are Tunnelling beneath Rose Roots. Obtain some rotting turnips, and lay these on the surface soil, after slightly hollowing them out. Examine the traps in the mornings. No. 12. Marnock's Cure for Aphis on Rose Trees. ' The best season for destroying the aphis is while it remains in the egg state ; as, if suffered to breed, it multiplies to a frightful extent. For this purpose wash the stems and branches of the rose bushes, during winter, with a compo- sition of strong tobacco water and soft-soap ; or, if this be thought too expensive, with water heated to a temperature CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES 173 of 200 degrees ; in both cases cleaning the branches after the composition, or hot water, has been apphed, with a small painter's brush. Should this precautionary method have been neglected, care should be taken to watch for the appear- ance of the first brood, and as soon as the insects are perceived to destroy them with lime or tobacco water, or by fumigating ; taking care to never use the boiling water after the buds are expanded, though it will not do the sHghtest injury before that period. Each succeeding brood being much more numerous than those which preceded it, is more difficult to destroy, till the summer broods, if suffered to appear, completely clothe the young shoots, so as to make them seem nearly three times their natural thickness. In this state, the best remedy is to put half a pound of the best strong tobacco into a gallon of hot water, and as soon as the infusion has become cold, to dip the young shoots into it, letting them remain a few seconds in the water, and, if they are in a very bad state, going over them a second time. After this, the shoots should be carefully washed with clean water, and the insects will generally be found to be destroyed.' No. 13. Cleaning Roses from a Little Green-fly. Use an aphis-brush, very gently, after damping it slightly with water, in each pint of which a dessertspoonful of Flowers of Sulphur has been dissolved overnight. No. 14. To Send Aphis off a Rose Tree. Dust the foliage and branches with fine snuff, some evening when they are moist. Go over the tree with soft water in the morning early, either dipping or syringing. Then scatter carbolic powder on the surface soil beneath. No. 15. To Rid Rose Ground of Ants. Pour on to the ground, when it is damp, a strong concoction 174 ROSE GARDENING of fresh elder leaves, made by boiling them three hours in rain water. No. i6. To Rid Strong Rose Trees of Green-fly. Syringe them by night with a liquid made with one part of ammoniacal liquor, from gas-works, dissolved in seven or eight parts of water. Syringe thoroughly before the sun is on them next morning, with rain water. No. 17. To Clean Pot Roses from Aphis, etc. Dissolve 2 pounds of soda with i ounce of aloes, in a gallon of water, by boiling. When this is cold add 2 gallons of water more. Dip the trees bodily into this, holding a sheet of tin, or a thick cloth, over the soil to prevent the compost from being washed out. Lay the trees on their sides in the pots, on clean pavement, in shade for some hours, then wash them in clean water, preferably by dipping. No. 18. To get Rid of Red Spider on Rose Trees. Take a quarter of a pound each of soft-soap and aloes, dis- solve them in 2 gallons of water ; let it become cold, and use for dipping pot roses, or the branches and foliage of out- door trees ; or dilute the solution as much again, and syringe trees with it. Syringe off, a few hours later. Repeat the syringing operations three times a week for a month. No. 19. To Prevent Rose Trees from becoming Mildewed. Wash, and syringe them every fortnight, from April to November, with a decoction of elder leaves, steeping these in water for many hours previously. The mildew will not be able to form if this treatment is persevered with. CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES 175 No. 20. To Cure Mildew. Pick off all diseased leaves, and dust with Flowers of Sulphur, leaving it on for three days. No. 21. An Old Cure for Mildew. Dissolve 2 ounces of nitre in 2 gallons of water, and water the trees with it occasionally. No. 22. How to Heal Wounds in the Bark of Rose Trees. ' Take five-eighths of black pitch, and one-eighth rosin, one-eighth tallow, and one-eighth bee's wax ; these should be melted in a pan over a slow fire. Apply it to the wounds with a brush, and it will heal them, as well as prevent their dying back.' No. 23. Old Recipe for Destroying Maggot in Roses. ' A bushel of unslaked lime in powder, half a pound of sulphur also in powder ; mix these well whilst dry, then add as much water and boil for an hour ; then add as much soot moistened to the same consistency, just enough to darken the colour ; lay this on with a brush all over, stock and head, in the latter part of February,' No. 24. To Trap Earwigs that are Eating Rose Buds or Shoots. Take some short bits of the stalks of giant sunflowers, which are hollow ; smear them slightly inside with rancid fat ; tie them in the rose trees, so that they are horizontal. Examine frequently. 176 ROSE GARDENING No. 25. Quassia Solution for Syringing, or Dipping Rose Trees to Destroy Green-fly, etc. Infuse an ounce of Quassia Chips in every gallon of water required. No. 26. To keep away the Rose-leaf Cutter Bee. Wash the foliage tenderly with a strong solution of Quassia Chips; or dust with waste snuff, or tobacco powder. No. 27. To keep Caterpillars from Rose Trees. Dust the foliage and stems, in March and April, and later, with strong pepper, after a dew. No. 28. A Wash to keep Maggot from Rose Trees. Dissolve half an ounce of arsenate of soda in a little hot water, and put this into 8 gallons of water, which should be from a rain-water supply. Dissolve i\ ounces of acetate of lead in a little water, and add this to the other. Add enough gum, or treacle, to make the compound adhesive. Apply to all the lower stems of the rose trees, then to the upper branches ; lastly coat the leaves, and the young shoots just before the season when this pest is expected. It is a general rule to syringe, with plain water, twelve to twenty-four hours after applying chemicals to trees. CHAPTER XXXII ROSES IN POTS 'December's rose is fairest of them all.' ROSES do wonderfully well in pots. Personally, I object to seeing the earliest forced blooms with weak long stems and a pallor of petal, a waxen delicacy that tells how they have struggled to endure unnatural conditions. But moder- ately forced roses are, of course, a genuine dehght, and thou- sands of rose lovers will agree with the nameless poet who declared, ' December's rose is fairest of them all.' I feel convinced he was thinking of the hardy venturesome rose we sometimes find opening bravely on some sunny wall out of doors. However, roses at Christmas are so welcomed by the majority of folk, it is necessary to consider how we may gain them. The first processes of growing roses in pots are the same, whether we mean to force highly, moderately, or not at all. The size of pot must depend on the size, not of the tree, but of the roots, with some regard to the habit of the variety. For example, a small-rooted Caroline Testout would flourish in a larger pot at once than it would be safe to give a small-rooted The Bride ; for Caroline is a rampant grower, and would soon cut ahead, helped by good compost. A 6-inch pot is a fair size for a medium rose tree, at first. The compost should be made very carefully. Mix fresh turfy loam with an equal proportion of really rotten cow-manure, or, better still, with old hotbed manure; then add coarse sand, about a quarter part, and as much burnt earth. Potting may be done in spring, if the roses are kept out of doors and 177 M 178 ROSE GARDENING all the buds that show are ruthlessly picked off while in their infancy. But October is better. As to what class of rose to pot, I have not yet come across any kind that cannot be well grown in that way ; though the mosses, and some of the special rose species that are extra hardy, must be mostly in the open air, and will not force. Potting must be done very firmly, over a proper drainage crock system, and with coarse fibrous compost above the crocks, under the finer upper compost. When potted, the roses should be placed preferably in cold p^r\i - Pot Rose, Stood Out, on a Slate, and Two Bricks. frames until January ; they can be wintered out of doors sunk in warm borders, or stood out with plenty of matting fastened round their pots to keep frosts away from the roots. Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas, Bourbons, and Hybrids of these, should be pruned in November, either severely, to within two eyes of their base, or strong stems, or to three, four, five, or six eyes. Any that are wanted to bloom later, after the others, should not be pruned until December or January. This is the way to obtain a succession of blossoming roses ROSES IN POTS 179 in pots, without varying the temperature conditions — a thing it is often out of the question for the amateur to do. From January to May the pot trees should be in the green- house, to bloom, but some success can be gained with them in deep frames, suitably protected, or in sunny room windows where the supply of air can be always liberal. Of course those trees not given the greenhouse heat will be long in blooming. Not that much heat is required, or desirable ; one of more than fifty degrees is unsuitable, and ten degrees less is preferable. After May, out the trees mmst go again, or they will become weakly. They can well be stood each on a slab of slate, along gravel walks, then receive plenty of attention, in the way of watering, soot-water applications, fertilizer, liquid cow-manure-water, bone meal, guano, etc. Their blooms during the summer out of doors will be good, and established trees can be permitted to yield them ; it is only young ones, not having yet bloomed under glass, that must be stripped of all their forming buds. Perhaps the most important fact for the inexperienced gardener to commit to memory is that no rose must be forced at all under glass until it has lived in its pot for a year. Florists often break this rule ; the public admires the results, buys the flowering-pot specimens, and finds them of little, ^if any, value afterwards. The old methods were very slow, and very excellent. Here is a quotation from an old book on the subject. Forcing Early Roses. ' We know that a rose can be potted in January, and made to produce flowers in May ; but those who wish to force should know the best way. A rose, then, for early forcing requires three seasons to be perfect. The first season it should be put into a greenhouse, and from thence into the stove, as early as November or December. ' It is sure to grow, no matter what sort it is ; and let it grow its best, but pluck off the buds if it have any, yet it should not be drawn ; this can be managed two or three i8o ROSE GARDENING ways, but all it requires to prevent drawing is light and air. These will have grown pretty well as large as they can grow, by the time they may be turned out and plunged in the open air. The wood will ripen well in the summer time ; and in October re-pot them into a larger size pot ; prune them by taking off all the weaker shoots, and all the least valuable of those in each other's way ; shorten the best wood to two or three eyes, thinning the inner branches all that may be necessary to give light, air, and freedom to the new wood. Take them into the greenhouse, thence, soon, into the stove. Let the bloom buds, as they appear, be plucked off, and the growth be per- fected again, which will be earlier than the previous season, as they were set growing earlier. Be early in your attendance on them, when they commence growing, so as to remove useless buds, instead of allowing them to form useless branches. When the growth is completed remove them into a cold frame, to be kept from the spring frosts, but where they can have all the fine weather. In this state they are to remain till they can safely be put out in the open air, plunged into the ground, and properly fastened to protect them from wind. In September you may examine the balls of earth, to see if the roots have room ; if matted at all, give them another change. Prune the plants well as before ; removing altogether such of the present year's shoots as are at all weakly, and shortening all the best to two or three eyes. Let them now be taken to the greenhouse, or conservatory, or a grapery, or all in turn, but gradually increase the temperature, till, by the end of October, they may go into the forcing house, beginning at the temperature the house was they came from, say fifty to fifty-five, and continuing it till they are fairly growing ; then increasing it to sixty, and eventually to sixty- five, rubbing off, as before, all useless shoots, and giving plenty of air when it can be done without lowering the temperature. At the least appearance of green fly, syringe with plain water ; fumigate at night, gently syringe again in the morning ; fumigate gently at night, for too strong a smoke would all but destroy the plants and incipient blooms. In this way you ROSES IN POTS i8i will be clear of the pest without danger of damage, and your reward will be a fine show of blossom on every rose tree ; strong growth, healthy foliage, handsome plants, and all that can be desired.' This long extract from the renowned gardener Glenny's book will show how the strong forcing of roses can be done ; the ordinary grower had better keep to cultivating pot roses for the usual type of greenhouse, with moderate temperature, to obtain blooms well in advance of those from the beds and borders, but not in mid-winter. Most gardeners will not allow the stood-out roses to bear any blooms during summer and autumn. While stating forcibly that none can be permitted from trees that are being prepared for their ^rs^ blossoming under glass, I am convinced that the trees, after giving the few early flowers, can gratify us by other yields, without taking any harm. Of course, the best roses for flowering under glass are those specially prepared. And these are the earlier to bloom. Those that have been out, plunged in ashes, or stood along paths, and allowed to bud and bloom, are slower in progress after they have been pruned back in November. But, many masters, many minds, as the old saw goes. It is a mistake to manage all the pot roses on identical lines, for greater knowledge, and varied successes, are reaped by experimenting, year after year. If the surface compost becomes green, slimy, mossed, it should be scraped off and replaced by some burnt earth, with a layer of the usual compost over that. If worms are suspected of having entered the pots, two tablespoonfuls of lime should be dissolved for twelve hours in a pint of water, and the trees watered with this water increased by two parts more. This is almost sure to bring the worms to the top, and if the pots are laid first on their sides — directly the lime water has per- meated the soil, that is to say — the invaders will wriggle on to the path, and make their escape. All the chief rose- tree merchants sell pot roses, either young, to be grown on, or established, ready for putting under glass. l82 ROSE GARDENING The culture of climbing roses under glass is another branch of the art. They succeed best when planted in made borders, at least i8 inches deep, and adequately drained. Trees planted in October should be cut down to within 8 inches of the compost, which should resemble that used for pots. In future years the climbers have to be pruned back to within Pot Rose, Stood upon Wooden Laths, on Border Strewn Thickly with Cinders. 6 or 8 inches as soon as they have flowered ; however, I know many an aged tree, ornamenting a greenhouse wall, that has been let grow with a trunk, and had the branches only pruned back to within 8 or 9 inches of the chief boughs. Very little water should be given during the winter months, plenty during the growing season, and feeding should be generous from April to the end of autumn. ROSES IN POTS 183 Quite unhealed greenhouses can be well used for rose cul- ture, both for pot plants and border-planted trees. The great drawbacks are the quick variations of temperature, and the spring damp. A spell of hot sunshine will send the temperature up high, and perhaps a very cold night will follow. Still, by ventilating carefully, with an eye on the thermometer, and by keeping the house spotlessly clean, and not letting any uncovered water remain in it, these evils can be mitigated. Tender roses, such as Niphetos and Marechal Niel, often thrive magnificently with a glass roof above them, but without artificial heat. China Roses are never out of bloom when well dealt with by this method. A delicate Tea, such as The Bride, or beautiful damask-crimson Etoile de France, are seen in perfection when their blooms do not have to contend with the effects of weather. CHAPTER XXXIII THE MARECHAL NIEL ROSE ' Not a pink rose, though fine its form, Nor white-clad beauty, pure, and sweet, but cold. Give me no rose of red, however warm, I choose a flower supreme, a rose of gold.' THE Marechal Niel Rose is, somehow, a class by itself — at any rate, it seems so. Yellow garden roses have arrived in plenty of late years, and we hear the best described as * almost the colour of a Marechal Niel.' The ambition of the owner of a new greenhouse is generally to grow the Mare- chal Niel. Its scent is unique ; its majestic air is familiar to us all. So a few lines are not out of place dedicated all to this rose, although the advice given as to pot roses and greenhouse climbers, in the preceding chapter, might suffice. True, there is one suggestion that has not been made yet ; it is that the Marechal Niel does best when planted just outside the greenhouse, if there is a sunny wall nook, and if its branches, its main stems, are taken in through a purposely made hole in the wall, so that the roots are outdoor, the tree indoor. It takes away the exotic look that the blooms really ought not to have ; it results in firmer stalks, and blossoms set nobly upon them, without too much of that drooping, heavy-headed e^ect that detracts a little from their grandeur. If this method of culture is pursued there must be constant mulches put above the roots, to prevent their feeling a terribly different temperature to that which the trunk and branches experience ; mulches of the very oldest cow-manure, mulches of leaf mould, mulches of burnt earth, mulches of fresh turfy loam. If the Marechal is grown inside the greenhouse there must 184 THE MARECHAL NIEL ROSE 185 be a real abundance of air, otherwise it will not thrive ; and this abundance must be arranged without disastrous draughts or cutting blasts. Outdoor planting should be done at the end of September, if possible ; indoor planting, in borders, tubs, or pots, in October or November, though it is admissible to defer planting till March, if necessity compels. The border must be 2 feet deep, drained perfectly ; the compost can be reckoned the same for borders or pots ; what is known as good stiff yellow loam is wanted, mixed with a fourth part of thoroughly rotten farmyard, or only cow, manure, nearly a fourth part too of crushed mortar or crushed brick, the whole sprinkled with bone-meal. Prune immediately after planting, cutting the shoots to within 8 inches of the base ; protect the stem if it is not wholly taken through the wall — in any case protect the base. Prune always in the same way, to within 8 inches of the main branches, directly after the tree has flowered. And cut out every atom of dead wood, each March, taking particular pains not to leave dead tips to any shoots. Water ought to be given tepid, from April onwards freely ; not much after September ; syringings are good when the temperature is genial, but must be gently done, and not when buds are colouring, or blooms are open, unless these are somehow covered first. When the tree is a year old, therefore established — has been a year planted, I should say — liquid manures, varied, should be given every week from March to October, if not too strongly compounded. This rose needs a giant pot, or tub, and can be stood out all summer after it has flowered early, against a south wall, receiving much attention, as to syringing, etc. Dead blooms should never be left on the branches. As a rule the Marechal Niel flourishes better trained over the roof of the glasshouse than against the wall, and its pendant blossoms can be best admired so. CHAPTER XXXIV BREEDING ROSES ' I have seen roses, damasked red and white.' Shakespeare. CHAPTER XXV was devoted to the always interesting subject of raising roses from seed, and I pointed out that some marvellous piece of good fortune might so reward the sower that he would find himself in possession of a remark- able variety, about which all Europe would soon be talking. There is that chance. Do not let me be called a wet blanket if I say it is a remote one. The roses the amateur will obtain, by amateurish efforts, will be a few very pretty ones, in which he will delight, of which he will be prouder than of the better roses in his garden that he only bought ; and the rest will be poor stuff. But, if any man cares to go in for scientific rose breeding, why, the whole world lies before him. Firstly, he should decide from which trees he desires to gather the seed. Then he must hand-hybridize one, or two, of the buds, not more, on each tree, and keep all further buds picked off while babies from those trees. He must see that the trees are receiving enough water to enable them to swell the seed-vessels, and also see that the hips, or heps, as some prefer to call them, are exposed to all possible sunshine. How is a bud to be hybridized ? Firstly, it is necessary to remove the stamens, or male organs, from the bud, before the pollen dust is ripe ; to do this the bud has to be slit open a little, when it is showing colour ; a few of the outer petals are stripped off altogether, then the remainder are slit through at one side until the anthers are visible, and can be cut off by a sharp pair of scissors. A 186 BREEDING ROSES 187 muslin bag has next to be tied right over the bud, to prevent insects from approaching it ; and must remain on. When the bud is about three-quarters developed it will be time to apply the pollen from another flower to its now glutinous- coated stigmas. The pollen will be found to be a golden dust, on the rose's anthers, and will be easily lifted by a small camel-hair brush, and so conveyed to the muslin-protected bud, and laid within it. Plenty of pollen should be used. Then the bud is re-enclosed in the muslin bag. When the hep is well swollen the muslin bag should be removed. The seed of specially hybridized roses is usually sown at once ; it is, I think, best to sow each seed in a 3-inch pot, after rubbing it out, because there is then little danger of losing the seed- lings, which should make thek appearance in the following year, in all probability. The pots can be sunk in cinders, up to their brims, in a cold frame ; then the gardener has them always at his command. Of course, when rose breeding is carried on by the thousands, instead of dozens, it becomes necessary to make use of glasshouses on purpose, or the open ground. I have found that seedling roses in pots grow faster if planted out when large enough to fill those pots with roots — that is to say, when the tips of roots obtrude from the drainage holes ; otherwise they may be potted on by slow degrees. The lot of seedlings that appear second are likely to be the best ; the first batch are seldom as good. When at last a seedling tree throws a flower the amateur must not expect to see a triumph ; it is almost sure to be a poor-looking little thing, to the uninitiated eye ; very likely semi-double. But in another year or two the new variety will be able to show its quality, supposing it has been grown well. The old plan of rose breeders was to group those trees together from which parentage was desired ; then florists began to artificially impregnate the flowers, in the manner here described. A famous authority in 1843, editor of the Practical Florist, wrote the following interesting instructions : ' Suppose we wanted a yellow moss rose, having already i88 ROSE GARDENING several very pretty yellow roses, not moss — here we should try a moss, the best in habit and mossy quality we could find, and plant all the yellow roses likely to assist in the operation round it. The Chinese are in favour of the seedlings from the moss coming moss, and the pollen of the yellow roses impregnating it ; but, as artificial impregnation could be performed more easily than with some flowers, we should apply the pollen of the best yellow to every flower that came out on the moss, and see if this did not command success. With a pair of tweezers, a bunch of the anthers from the yellow rose can be taken as soon as they exhibit their fine yellow dust, and apply this to the pistil of the yellow moss rose, having first removed all the anthers from the moss rose away. In short, in all cases the habit and principal qualities of the parent may be expected, therefore the seed should be saved from the one whose habits and characteristics are required, and the plant it is impregnated with should be that whose qualities or character we wish to add.' The methods of to-day are more thorough ; but there is a good lesson in the theory explained by that old writer. After this period it was discovered how disappointing were the results of breeding without being able to ' fix ' the strain ; then the world-famous Abbe Gregor Mendel arrived to guide the scientists, and what is known as Mendel's Law for breeding flowers became generally practised, to the immense benefit of floriculture. Suffice it to say here that Mendel's Law must be recognized as the recipe for obtaining a generation or two of one rose variety, without that variety's character- istics disappearing from its progeny. If an amateur raises a rose variety that he believes, or is told, is really valuable he had better exhibit it at some great show, or take some of its blooms to a noted rose-grower for trade ; then the fixing of that variety will be in competent hands. CHAPTER XXXV ROSES IN ROCKERIES ' Sweet Summer comes, with all her roses, Dearer than Young Spring's pallid posies.' AROSE Rock-Garden is a beautiful novelty. Those who wish to make one should first lay in a stock of rocks — on the principle of ' First Catch Your Hare.' I suppose more abominations have been created in the way of rockeries than in any other form of attempts to improve gardens. The rocks should be old, if possible, at any rate grey, not flecked with all the colours of the peacock. Stones will soon age, but time, albeit so powerful, can do nothing to soften the garish ugliness of coke-waste, and other of the hideous gay materials that are frequently piled high in villa pleasure grounds. The Old Man With The Scythe cannot always compel Nature to hide those in mossy clothing ; they are so crudely rough and scorching that vegetation creeps between, instead of draping them. The right old rocks are to be found in romantic localities, mountainous ascents, valleys at the foot of hills, or where ancient rocky formations peep through in the woods and vales of whole districts, as in the neighbourhood of East Grinstead and Ashdown Forest ; also in the beds of rivers, and the plains that were once sea basins. But, fortunately, there are vast stores of great grey stones under the soil in many counties ; builders' men dig them up by the thousand. Or there are world-famous nurserymen who either sell the rocks, or build rockeries to order, in any part of the kingdom. I have sometimes advocated rockeries of whitened stones, but that is a freak-feature fancy, far from vulgar, charming 189 igo ROSE GARDENING by night or day, suited to Alpine plants, not to the rose. I do implore rose-lovers to give the rose an aesthetic rock- garden, or none at all. It must have giant slabs and peaks, as well as medium- sized rocks for grouping, and small rocks for scattering ; it will be best on a slope, or a series of dips, making different dells and levels ; there should be no uniformity, the wider A Portion of a Rose Rock Garden. the effects the handsomer. The soil must be very rich, because it will have to satisfy the trees for years, except for such extra nourishment as mulches and liquids provide. The site should be sunny ; the ideal thing is to make use of a quarter- acre square of land, build the rock-garden on that, in a round or oval shape, but without mathematical accuracy, then have a paved base of old grey paving-stone — that will be indeed a genial nook for sitting-out in. There may be a ROSES IN ROCKERIES 191 grotto arbour or two, or a hut built of rock in the open, all overgrown by rampant roses. If there are seats let them be of stone, with wooden slabs on them painted so as not to be distinguishable from the stone. The noblest roses should be the companions of the noblest rocks ; a Conrad F. Meyer can embrace a Stonehenge-like peak, or rise between two mighty crags, to veil their angles with its autumn-tinted foHage, and give the eye-dehghting harmony of pink with grey. Dorothy Perkins can clamber up a rockery slant of eighteen feet, or more, or will hang down from the summit level, to carpet the pavement with shed petals of rosy cerise. Yet the little Dwarf Polyanthas will be quite as much at home, springing up in deep pockets of soil anywhere ; jutting out beside the great strong roses, peeping from spaces that will look mere crevices seen from below, or, if massed at the warm valley foot of the steeps, are sure to be flower-laden right into mid-winter. Delicate Teas love those same sheltered nooks ; the pale blossoms of Niphetos (the non-climbing variety) of Devoni- ensis, and Souvenir de la Malmaison, will open to a perfection not often to be gained from them on unprotected levels. Alas ! — the Rose Rock Garden on a fine scale is only possible for the few among rose-lovers, favoured mortals, with acres, and full purses. But there may be a rose rockery in nearly any garden — a rocked border in the smallest, surely ? The stones must not be of the Titanic type, yet some must be much larger than others, or the appearance will be tame. Many an ill-tended rockery, planted with the ubiquitous alyssums, arabises, pinks, and stonecrops, could be cleared to advantage, relaid on manured soil, and given up to roses. A rockery in semi-shade will do for Japanese Briars (Rugosas), China, and Dwarf Polyantha roses, with some of the vigorous Hybrid Perpetuals and Hj^brid Teas, such as J. B. Clark, Hugh Dickson, Noella Nabonnand, Reine Olga de Wurtem- burg, A. K. Williams, Baroness Rothschild, Eugenie Verdier, and Madame Gabrielle Luizet. Even Madame Abel Chatenay, 192 ROSE GARDENING good old red Marie Baumann, of the delicious scent, and pink Caroline Testout, will do well. The roses in the sunniest rockeries can be kept cool and moist at the roots by mulching them in their deep pockets with leaf mould each May. The roses in the coldest rockeries seldom take any harm, because old dry manure can be heaped above where their roots are, and the shelter of the rocks does the rest. Moss Roses are never fairer than in a rock-garden, and, oh, how sweet their mossiness smells, on damp evenings ! Ancient-world roses gain a new charm — the beloved Maiden's Blush, the White Provence, Unique, the striped York and Lancaster, and the inimitable old Cabbage. The Austrian Briar's clear yellow, and orange, will be an appreciable colour note each early summer. The Rose Rock Garden should be maintained in fair order, without ever appearing ' neat ' as though recently tidied. Let the trees straggle, grow Japanesquely one-sided if they choose. Train them invisibly ; paint every bit of stake the green of that special rose's foliage ; and avoid dotting the place with labels. A chart will do just as well, hung up in the arbour. Really, sweeping up basketfuls of petals will be the main work. CAROLINE TESTOUT (_Fale Pink) GRUSS AN TEPLITZ {.Crimson) CHAPTER XXXVI MOATS, DITCHES, AND BANKS OF ROSES ' Is Life discordant ? — Wait a sweeter tune. Though stems be bare, there will be roses soon.' ROSES do surprisingly well on banks, except in bleak places. Perhaps the depth of soil they possess is one reason why they flourish, but the making up of new banks is attended with some risks, unless the gardener knows well what he is about. If they are made of fresh turves inverted, or contain a great quantity of buried weeds, they are likely to heat, which would be bound to kill roots of evergreen shrubs, so naturally spell death to roses. If they have shrub and ivy clippings thrown in, there will be a souring, or poisoning of the soil, that will probably end in the death of the trees. If they are formed loosely, or if roses are planted before they have had time to settle, failure will again result. Banks should be built up on stones for drainage, then of coarse lumpy turfy loam, old inverted turves, by all means ; then of moderately fine earth, mixed with old manure, brick rubble, vegetable ashes, leaf mould, soot or lime, and the finer soil towards the summit should be sprinkled with bone- meal, for roses. As to size, that is immaterial, so long as there is depth and room enough. A mound three feet wide at the top, and four feet high, is an example of a small bank. A series of undu- lating banks, six feet or more apart, along a wide sweep of lawn, will make the foundation of a very charming rosery. The shapes of these banks should not correspond ; some may be almost angular, some almost spherical, some long and narrow, some broad and high. 193 Jl 194 ROSE GARDENING Banks have their uses in a garden, to shut out ugly views, or help to create lovely vistas, to oppose barriers to peeping eyes from roadways, to partition off roseries of differing character, to hide vegetables, to give sheltered nooks for seats, to reheve the monotony of a flat garden, to render the distance mysterious, to separate the tradesmen's entrance- way from the front of the house, to screen beds, and to bring the perfumes and beauties of roses nearer to the visitor. The surface of banks should be mulched heavily with old manure, so that sun heat cannot rapidly exhaust the soil, and of course a mulch is not attractive to look upon, so an outer mulch of leaf-mould and burnt earth will be found a great improvement. One of the merits of burnt earth is that it looks so neat and wholesome. Roses on banks require watering by pailfuls twice a week, during rainless spells of summer. Giant banks are usually made with wooden logs, or stakes, driven into them, to serve as hold-ups for the soil. A grand effect can be gained by letting old tree stumps, or natural logs, protrude in places. Immense banks are very fine when draped by Ramblers and Wichuraianas, which should be so pegged down as to become multiplied. Moats are ditches on a large scale, ditches with broad flat bottoms, in which a little water at least is visible. Or, of course, there is the Dry Moat ; but this is lacking in the chief charm a moat should possess. Roses by water are always roses seen at their best. If the moat sides are high, rampant climbers should descend from them here and there, to dabble their ends in the stream ; other portions may be planted with bushes, others given to pegged-down Teas, others set over with hardy bushes, the little Scotch White Rose, the Sweet Briars, the old Cabbage and Maiden's Blush, the poetic Mosses, being all suitable. Ditches of roses are pretty at the foot of rose hedges, but their sides will not provide spaces for big growing roses, only for Teas, Dwarf Chinas, and Polyanthas. No, the moat is the feature to make in the large garden, not far from some ruined old wall, perhaps, or pagoda built MOATS, DITCHES, AND BANKS OF ROSES 195 of ancient stone so irregularly as to seem to be tottering through age. The Pernetiana Roses, of which Soleil d'Or is a fair specimen, are excellent for pegging down, on bold sloping sides. And, where there is a moat, the gardener is almost bound to make bridges, which afford yet another fashion of showing off some long-armed climbing roses, and of gaining the exquisite association of rose blossoms with water. CHAPTER XXXVII ROSE PERGOLAS AND ARCHES ' There is no sweeter place for dreaming — In slumber that is only seeming — Than where June sunshine soft reposes Upon a canopy of roses.' A PERGOLA can be an atrocity or a triumph — like many another garden feature. When one remembers all the ridiculous pergolas one has seen one is tempted to bid the inexperienced rose cultivator shun the pergola altogether ; yet there is no reason why even a pergola in quite a small garden should not be perfect of its kind. Grand pergolas are to be found in countless magnificently managed gardens of the United Kingdom, gardens, let it be gratefully noted, that are mostly thrown open to visitors on given occasions. The scenes they exhibit cHng long to memory. Originality has been expended on the erection of some of these noted pergolas — we may see one of all white stone and scarlet flowers, perennials below roses ; others of blue and gold only, delphiniums, violas, lupins, alkanets, salvias, lobelias, etc., beside the yellow and orange rose varieties ; there is at least one pergola built of marble ; I have heard of several made of pine trees, silver birch bark figures romantically in some, statuary turns some others into veritable galleries of art. Then the size of pergolas has often been remarkable ; the brick pillars of a walk a mile long may be almost towers, and the roses have to be nailed to them as on walls. The length of a pergola is often much greater than is guessed, perspective lines being deceptive, while the walk may wind 106 ROSE PERGOLAS AND ARCHES 197 about the grounds, and double and turn upon itself. A lovely effect is gained by encircling a lawn by a pergola that is red, white, gold, and salmon, or maroon, on the different sides. An all-white pergola, white as to painted supports, pave- ment, and flowers above and below, is certainly very striking ; there is no colour to clash, no relief to the snowiness but the green of foliage and near grass, and the golden hearts of some of the roses. A pale green painted pergola with simply pale and deep pink roses about it, bushes at the foot, climbers on high, becomes each summer a sort of ecstasy in colour. Golden-rose pergolas, of rustic woodwork stained deep brown and varnished, are one man's fancy ; another likes a blend of all rose colours, with yew hedges as boundaries, and pergola pillars of slender cream-painted iron. Old red-brick pillars tone with all roses but rose pinks and carmine-crimsons ; the pergola built thus would be well finished by an accompanying old brick wall on each side, all planted with such hardy subjects as will live and bloom on little sustenance. Ridiculous pergolas are those too small, either in breadth or height, those that are so thickly covered, so flatly roofed, as to look like mere tunnels, and to have always a stuffy dimness. Then there are pergolas nearly all woodwork and very little bloom or foliage, pergolas of Lilliputian proportions in front of mansions or castles, pergolas of Brobdingnagian solidity of girth, and stature, in the vicinity of bijou cots. I suppose the most essential thing, apart from the artistic choice of a style of pergola, is to see that the structure is firmly put up. Leaning pillars look foolish, no matter their worth, or the lovehness of their climbers. If wood is painted, or if it is peeled, or used in natural state with bark on, charring the poles for two feet of their height, and placing all this portion below ground, will be sufficient to save them from rotting, and from falling, if they are made firm in the soil. Driving stakes against the pillars when putting them in, then 198 ROSE GARDENING sawing the stakes off even with the ground, so as not to spoil the pillar's grace, is a good method. Brick sockets, lined with concrete, are excellent for holding iron pillars erect. The walk under a rustic pergola may be of grass, gravel, or brick ; that beneath a stone pergola may be of any kind but brick, to be artistic. Flagstones would be most in keeping. The path beneath a brick pergola, if not of brick, may be of asphalte, strewn with crushed sea shell, of flagstones, of gravel, of tiles, of turf. I trust all gardeners will beware of tiled walks ; it is so rarely that they harmonize with the flower colours, and there is something new-villa about them always. Ornaments for the sides along pergolas include clipped trees and bushes, figures in stone of nymphs, satyrs, gods and goddesses, crouching fawns, dogs, etc. Of the last I will only say that they are more quaint than a rosery that is in pergola shape really requires ! Vases of stone, or rustic wood urns, are good where their character corresponds with that of the pergola. The question arises whether the roses shall have the pergola all to themselves, or share its environs with herbaceous plants, bedding stuff, or sown annuals, and its arches with clematises, honeysuckles, etc. Well, there is scope for tastes diverse, as the old lady said when she slipped half a basinful of sugar into her cup of tea, and sprinkled salt on her bread and butter. One fine plan is always to mingle merely summer climbers, and bush roses below, with good autumn varieties. Then no stretch of the pergola will be leafage only at either season. The putting up of arches requires the same care, as to making them safe against winds, as do the pergola's pillars. The same means will ensure good results. Charring of wood, and concreting, or cementing, in of the bases, occasional fixing also to stakes, are correct devices. We see far too many galvanized wire arches in gardens, but it seems unreasonable to quarrel with this, since an arch is simply a thing to be covered up as soon as possible, and roses, of the strong types, can be trusted to do this in a couple ROSE PERGOLAS AND ARCHES 199 of years' time. By planting a close-growing climber of another species, at one side, or each side of an arch — say a Japanese Honeysuckle — and placing the two roses on the other sides, or else planting those flush with the broadest portions of the arch, we can obtain a closer-clothed appearance, and probably ... — =^.' ../ <^ ^. - - -^- Pillars, sunk Two Feet Deep, Wedged Round by Stones, ready •FOR Earth to be Shovelled in. the rose trees gain more from the evergreen's shelter than they lose from sharing the ground. Ivy is unsuitable. There are very wide rustic arches, ornamental in them- selves, which we do not erect for the express purpose of hiding them. Trellis-woodwork arches, painted an indeter- minate green, not violent grass-green, or rank myrtle, suit 200 ROSE GARDENING trim villa gardens, but are out of taste in the natural sort of garden, on account of the prim checkboard pattern of their structure, A very praiseworthy arch can be made by stretching wire netting taut between two bean or hop poles, then painting the netting the greyish brown of these supports. These arches are scarcely visible at a little distance. CHAPTER XXXVIII ROSE HEDGES AND ROSE ESPALIERS ' Roses of Autumn, Roses of Spring, Roses of silver, roses of fire. Yet of all roses poets may sing, Gather me just the sweet scented old briar.' IT was a great landscape gardener who said the man who had two hedges of one sort of laurel in his grounds ought to be hung ! Perhaps the man who has a number of common- place hedges, when he might have hedges of roses, is more to be pitied than blamed. For he must be ignorant. If he really knew the loveliness of well-made and well-grown rose hedges he would not rest till he had obtained some. Take a hedge of all China Roses as an illustration. There may be several shades of pink in it, a fiery red-rose, white, and bright crimson ; the flowers will appear very early, and never cease till winter is actually severe. Even then some buds will open, in sheltered nooks of the hedge, and peep out of the foliage to see what frost and snow are doing to other roses. All that a gardener has to do, to gain a hedge of this sort, is to order the common pink China, Ducher, white, Armosa, deep rose, and either China Old Crimson, or Fabvier, which has white centres to its flowers. Leuchtfeur is a magni- ficent blood-red, which might well be included. The planting should be done in November or December, putting the bushes eighteen inches apart, and given three stakes each, one for the middle, upright, one on each side, slanted, for the branches to be slightly stretched out to. This method makes a quicker hedge, with China Roses, than can be gained by training all the growth straight up, I find. There is no need to cut the 201 202 ROSE GARDENING roses down after planting ; the top shoots should be removed, and their own vigour will cause them to grow thick as well as tall. In the spring, when growth is beginning strongly, all the shoots should be stopped again, then the development will be all for thickness. Indeed, the next drawback will be that the hedge will be too thick for its own welfare, then judicious thinning out of branches will have to be practised, removing the weaker bits. The Chinas are wonderful roses. For a high hedge we can choose between one of Japanese Briars (Rugosas) or one of Ramblers or Wichuraianas. The former have the merit of growing in hedge form naturally, not needing to be propped up and wound about as will the rampant climbers. Of course some stakes will be required by the Japanese Briars, but one for each will be sufficient, with strong tarred string, or rope, stretched from tree to tree, to tie the younger growth to ; one string only a foot off the ground, another two feet above that, a third two feet higher, when needed. Tarred string, or rope, can be recommended instead of the wire so often used ; it does not cut the soft new boughs. Rugosas may be said to need no pruning when employed to form hedges ; but there should be a limit to the height of the whole hedge, and every shoot should be ' stopped ' by cutting it when it reaches that level ; which will throw the strength of the tree into the manufacture of side shoots. Ramblers must have exceedingly strong high posts, of course, and, while they can be restrained by stretched ropes, I find it best to build a mock-living hedge of old bean-faggots, for them to be trained over ; before the faggots rot away, or snap, the rose growth will be so dense, between the posts, that the destruction of the foundation will not be of the least concern. In the spring, after planting, the Ramblers should be cut back one half. A Gloire de Dijon hedge was one of the delights of a garden I once loved ; the trees had been planted only three feet apart originally, and the boughs had been turned back on themselves, so to speak, as well as arched over directly they reached the six feet level for the top, and other branches had been stretched ROSE HEDGES AND ROSE ESPALIERS 203 out horizontally, and woven in and out with their neighbours. The solidity of that hedge was a sight at which to marvel. Old wood was cut out each March, and soon after that the whole length of the hedge became crimson with young shoots. A Rustic Wood Fencing for Roses. Hybrid Briar Roses make charming hedges, but the best way to have a close hedge quickly is to alternate a Hybrid Briar with a Sweet Briar, just the old favourite ; the latter can be clipped with ruthless shears into form and the Hybrid Briar Roses be trained over this mass of greenery. For great hardiness the Hybrid Scotch rose called Standwell 204 ROSE GARDENING Perpetual is remarkable, and a hedge of this, three feet high, on average, has a peculiar beauty owing to the fern-like, or cut-out, leaves ; at a few yards' distance the appearance is unlike that of any other rose in the garden, a filmy waving line of foliage, studded all over with large double deep blush flowers. This rose is as generous as the Chinas in beginning early and continuing late. Aglaia, the yellow Rambler, and Felicite Perpetue, white, are roses I greatly admire for hedge making, because of their splendid glossy foliage that is attractive all the year round. When we come to the consideration of Rose Espaliers, we find that almost any rose is suitable, and the choice may be influenced solely by the nature of the climate at that particular place. Teas will form good hedges in warm spots ; strong Hybrid Perpetuals, like the Duke of Edinburgh, answer grandly in less sheltered ones. And that which can be said of hedges may also be said of espaliers. Natural wood is the best of which to build espalier supports ; these should be set at sufficiently even distances, and be kept to sufficiently even level, for it to be apparent that some uniformity is contemplated ; yet there should be no mathe- matical accuracy. Bits of wood should jut out of the sides, and give relief to the uniformity of the top ; parts of the struc- ture should be thinner than others — gaps over which the rose boughs will pass to be tied to a giant network of boughs of the natural wood a little further, will add to the grace of the whole. We do not want to train roses on espaliers as we would train a fruit tree on one, or on a wall ; such primness detracts from the beauty of any rose tree. Bamboo rods are very bad espalier supports really, because they are almost sure to bend, and become permanently bent, under the weight of a wind-blown hedge's boughs. Willow rods have been used, with disappointing results ; not only are they apt to grow, and make trees of themselves, but they take on elegant but tiresome curves. A growing espalia support steals, of course, from the nourishment of the roses. Peeled or stripped oak has a good appearance. ROSE HEDGES AND ROSE ESPALIERS 205 Then there are open fencings, which are somewhat Hke espaliers, either irregular or formal ; they are capable of extra embellishment, as when young fir or other poles are set against them, in front or behind, at long intervals, to support additional roses, climbers, or semi-climbers. This gives a handsome feature ; it can be made more elaborate still by giving the tall poles downward-slanting side pieces, of narrower wood, nailed to the top of the open fencing below. When these are outlined by rose garlands the screen gained will be tall, the floral display exquisite. Rose-covered railings need not be more than two feet high, or may be six feet, or eight. The taller the railing the wider apart should be the uprights, the broader the aperture. A stone railing is often one of the most suitable boundary markers for a stone terrace ; a rustic wood railing is often needed to fence off a pool, or edge some portion of a grass plot over which feet have an obnoxious custom of trampling when taking a short cut. A rustic criss-cross fence is not informal, because it has to be symmetrical, yet it looks in keeping with many a cottage or farmhouse garden, and is so easy to put up that the gardener who is no carpenter can scarcely fail with it. Old grey weather-beaten oak close fences show off all roses beautifully ; but golden varieties, and the flaming orange scarlets, are especially enhanced in charm by the sober ground- work for their brilliance. CHAPTER XXXIX MAKING ROSE GARDENS ' Roses are gifts for a monarch, nay more, No monarch ever gave fairer ; Roses are gems for a princess, nay more, No princess ever wore rarer.' Old Ballad. FORMAL or not formal ? — What an all-important question, and what a supreme decision must be made at the very beginning. I suppose, in our heart of hearts, most of us love symmetry in our gardens ; the well-cultivated look praises us, whereas the best of cultivation given to a ' wild,' or ' natural,' type of garden is almost unrecognizable, and certain to be over- looked by the average visitor. Yes — our friends will vote us mighty clever for being able to measure a La France bloom of many inches from tip to tip and pronounce that it estab- lishes a record, but they will only admire the roses themselves — not our skill — if we show them a thicket of Rugosas, or a Yellow Rambler sprawling over yard upon yard of grass- coated bank. After all, though, would we not rather let the dear roses themselves have the credit ? Our destinies are not determined by our environments; not our soul-destinies, anyhow, let cynic-pessimists prate as they choose ; but our rose gardens must be determined by the circumstances of their case, if they are to be successful — by which I mean now, artistic. It is no use making an ideal rustic-cottage garden round a hideous little villa ; the best we can do with the over-ornate jerry-built homestead pleasure- grounds is to make them look gay and trim, and cover every 206 MAKING ROSE GARDENS 207 inch of the screaming red brick, or staring stucco, with chmbers, mostly evergreen, as soon as we can. The best course to pursue with the villa ground is to make it very neat and gay, I repeat. If there is a dingy scarlet-and-mustard-yellow tessellated tile walk up to the front door, or at the back of the building, what use to imitate beside it the way wild roses fling themselves over hedgerows with their inimitable delicacy and grace ? The two things are so incongruous that they shout at one another, calling more attention to the modern vulgarity of the cheap brickwork. Trim beds of bright salmon, gold, apricot, and bronze roses, box-edged for the sake of the touch of deep green, or edged by unpretentious tiles, will at least harmonize with the colours of the pavement, and a few plants of blue violas, with some blue clematises up the walls, accompanied by slate-blue, ceanothus azureus, and a gleaming berried firethorn or two, will create a blend on which we shall be able to gaze gratefully. Pink and carmine roses must not be visible, only the shrimp of The Lyon, with yellows, scarlets, salmons, sulphurs, black- maroons, creams and whites. A number of dark evergreen trees and shrubs, clipped fancifully, or simply rounded off and some pillars and knolls of beautiful ivies will be other excellent companions for the roses. A grand rose garden is usually called a rosery, because it is but the portion of vast grounds that happens to be devoted to the rose. Formal terraced roseries will always have their votaries, and no wonder. The chief omissions in them are that stone vases are not rose-filled too, the soil is not carpeted with pegged- down roses, and serried ranks of slim pillars are not recognized as being more suitable than hedges, and fairer than stone balustrades, for marking their boundaries. I would have at least one stone vase, twelve feet or more high, and broad in proportion, holding dropping Wichuraianas, and a towering specimen rose, of nearly evergreen foliage, in the middle, as part of every formal rosery. A rosery where nearly all the roses are grown on raised banks, 208 ROSE GARDENING of informal shapes' -and turfed sides, has a simply exquisite effect when matured, and the turf itself just here and there may be planted with pegged-down Teas. A rosery that is really a rose orchard does not come to comple- tion for years, but is magnificent when it does. I like to have many of the trees enormous standards, none kept to a round regular ' head,' none trained to ' weep,' but all allowed to spray about with the branching elegance that every rose can exhibit if left to do so. The branches will have to be limited, the buds too, but the longer, and wilder, the former can be left, the better. When the decision as to formal or not formal design is in no way forced by circumstances, it is sensible for the gardener to reflect that the formal style demands far the most care and attention. Any kind of patterned garden is deplorable when it grows out of order. Better not aim at cultivating fifty roses in one bed, to match in height, etc., if you are not master of the art of pruning so as to persuade trees to all grow evenly and flower together. A mixed rosery is always safe to plant, where great bushes rise from congregations of dwarf trees, an Austrian Briar, or Hybrid Sweet Briar suddenly stretches arms across the flowery heads of little Polyanthas, as though in benediction, a bit of stripped oak espalier supports a brilliant Cheshunt Scarlet, in the midst of an entourage of A Paved Formal Rose Garden. MAKING ROSE GARDENS 209 pale Teas ; and the Chinas, Mosses and Bourbons, in a group, try which can grow tallest. If there can be several roseries, or rose-gardens, there is opportunity to dedicate one to Dehcate Roses, one to New Roses, others individually to Old-time Roses, Darkest Roses, Scented Roses, Rose species. Single Roses, and so on. Colour blending in rose-garden making is not difficult, but the planter, to be at ease in his task, must have a con- siderable acquaintance among roses, or he will know he is in danger of blundering. Catalogue descriptions are admittedly misleading ; the National Rose Society has done its best to make the colour reports official, but best is not much, though far better than nothing ! If the gardener is zealous, he will improve his knowledge constantly by every means at his command, such as visiting shows, nurserymen's grounds, and other people's roses. In making a border in which every rose colour is to be represented, the eye should be feasted first on white, then led through blush and pale pink to deep rose, carmine, and claret. Beyond claret, deep cream will prepare the vision for hues from which the blue-pink and blue-crimson tones are absent ; lemon may come next, deep gold give place to orange, orange to cerise, cerise to flame colour, vermilion and scarlet. Beyond scarlet, more white can be followed by apricot, and apricot by tawny copper. If a darker rose is wanted to place by vermilion, or scarlet, a choice may be made between General Schabhkine, and the old Ben Cant, on account of the coppery tinge in their crimsons. Of course roses are often employed for furnishing, to give colour notes in a garden landscape ; but this is not exactly planting a rose-garden. Their wonderful tints make them, when massed as to varieties, more telling at a distance than are any shrubs except rhododendrons. They are best set so as to form pyramids, if to be striking from afar. To be viewed from the windows of a house, especially the upper windows, slightly sunk beds of dwarf roses are the most showy. o 210 ROSE GARDENING For a remarkable effect, scarlet roses should be planted down a long border in full sunshine, backed by a white painted fence or wall. Separate borders for the earliest, and the latest, blooming roses, are very interesting. It is usually a pity to mix varieties of white roses ; one is sure to kill the beauty of another, so many are the shades in white, when flowers moulded of many petals are concerned. A Novel Red and Pink Rosery, in Grass. A man, or woman, who sets out to make a rose-garden should put much heart and soul into the business ; it is not a selfish indulgence, not a false luxury ; it can be thrown open for crowds to witness, it will be a haven of rest and consolation for all who are privileged to stay long within it ; it will leave sweet soothing memories in the minds of those who have to depart from it, and its blossoms can go forth to sick chambers, hospitals, town tenements, bridals, churches, burials, and hallow many a feast and scene of revelry or rejoicing. CHAPTER XL SOME ROSE PEDIGREES ' The rainbow comes and goes ; And lovely is the rose.' Wordsworth. THE following account of some roses' pedigrees may be of interest to rose-lovers, and most of all to those who are setting about breeding roses, so have to decide on parents for the new races they hope to raise. While claiming that the information given here has been obtained carefully, from the best sources, I do not pledge my faith to the accuracy of every item ; some errors may have been given to the world for truth, some persons may have talked and written on such slender authority that they had no real authority for the statements that they guaranteed as correct. However, the great majority of these genealogical facts can be proved beyond any doubt. We all have our pet roses ; it will please some of us especially to learn what sons or daughters those varieties have be- queathed to us ; we shall order them at once, plant them near their mothers, or fathers, and delight in tracing resemblances as soon as all are blossoming together. SoLEiL D'Angers. a sport from Letty Coles. A sport from Soleil d'Or. Madame Willermoz. Caroline Testout. Seedling Cissie Easlea. A cross between from Madame de Tortres, crossed Madame Melanie Soupert and with Lady Mary Fitzwilliam. Rayon d'Or. Admiral Dewey. A sport from Souvenir de S. A. Prince. A Caroline Testout. sport from Souvenir d'un Ami. Kaiserin Augusta Victoria. Peace. A sport from G. Nabon- A cross between Coquette de nand. Lyon and Lady Mary Fitz- Nova Zembla. A sport from William. Conrad F. Meyer. 211 312 ROSE GARDENING Blakc Double de Coubert. A seedling from the single Rugosa Alba. Juliet. A cross between Soleil d'Or and Captaiit Hayward. Soleil d'Or. A cross between Antoine Diicher and Persian Yellow. Lady Roberts. A sport from Anna Olivier. Hugh Dickson. A cross between Griiss an Teplitz and Lord Bacon. Gloire de CnfeDANE GUINOIS- seau. Seedling from Gloire de Ducher. Mrs. Alfred Westmacott. Seedling from G. Nabonnand. Chin Chin. Seedling from Ma- dame Eugenie Resal. Solfaterre. Seedling from La- marque. Cloth of Gold. Seedling from Lamarque. Isabella Sprunt. Seedling from Cloth of Gold. Isabella Gray. Seedling from Cloth of Gold. The Lyon Rose. A cross between Madame Melanie Soupert and an unnamed seedling of Soleil d'Or. Lady Hillingdon. Generally said to be a cross between Madame Hoste and Papa Gontier. Pharisaer. a chance seedling from Mrs. W. J. Grant. Hon. Edith Gifford. A cross between Perle des Jardins and Madame Falcot. Pride of Reigate. A sport from Countess of Oxford. White Killarney, A sport from Killarney. Merrie England. A seedling , from Heinrich Schulthes. Commander Jules Gravereaux. A seedling from Fran Karl Druschhi. Emperor de Maroc. A seedling from Geant des Batailles. Bridesmaid. A sport from Catherine Mermet. Muriel Grahame. A sport from Catherine Mermet. Lady Faire. A sport from Mrs. W. J. Grant. Joseph Lowe. A sport from Mrs. W. J. Grant. Veilchenblau. a sport from Crimson Rambler. Psyche. A cross between Golden Fairy and Crimson Rambler. May Marriot. A sport from Madame E. Herriot. Killarney Brilliant. A sport from Killarney. Irish Afterglow. A sport from Irish Fireflame. Golden Meyer. A sport from Edu Meyer. Crimson Chatenay. Seedling from Madame Abel Chatenay. C A N d E u R Lyonnaise. One parent is Frau Karl Druschki. George Arends. One parent is Frau Karl Druschki. The Bride. A sport from Catherine Mermet. White Maman Cochet. De- scended from Maman Cochet. Dorothy Denison (or Christian Curie). A sport from Dorothy Perkins. Flower of Fairfield. A sport from Crimson Rambler. Philadelphia Rambler. De- scended from Crimson Rambler. White Dorothy. A sport from Dorothy Perkins. SOME ROSE PEDIGREES 213 Kathleen Harrop. Bourbon. Sport from Zephyr ine Drouhin. Reine Marie Henriette. De- scended from Gloire de Dijon. Karl Druschki. A cross be- tween a climbing Tea and Merveille de Lyon. Madame Abel Chatenay. One parent is Dr. Grill. Richmond. A cross between General Jacqueminot and Lady Battersea, or a sport from Liberty. Marechal Niel. a cross between Isabella Gray and Solfaterre. James Fergusson. A sport from Caroline Testout. Natalie Bottner. Descended from Frau Karl Druschki. Golden Ophelia. Seedling from Ophelia. Effective. Crimson. Seedling from General McA rthur. President Parmentier. A cross between Colonel Leclerc and Le Progres. Mermaid. A cross between Rosa bracteata and a Tea. Cornelia. Hybrid Tea (1920). Ophelia — Mrs. Aaron Ward. Primrose Pirrie (1920). Sport from Lady Pirrie. Madame Leon Pain. Pollen parent is Souvenir de Catherine Guillot. Mademoiselle Charlotte Che- valier. Hybrid Tea. Sport from Arthur R. Goodwin. CHAPTER XLI TOWN AND SEASIDE ROSES 'Where'er a perfect rose unfurls its grace. Is to the poet's soul a holy place.' THERE are certain rose varieties that are always reckoned good for town culture, but experience teaches one that many others of equal merit are overlooked. Hugh Dickson and George Dickson, for instance — Noella Nabonnand, all the children of Frau Karl Druschki, with whose names and descriptions the reader of this book will be familiar, Florence Haswell Veitch, scarlet, shaded with black, Cupid, a single rose of a pretty flesh colour, Amateur Teyssier, yellow, Ches- hunt Hybrid, cherry-carmine, William Cooper, lake-crimson, Suzanne Marie Rodocanachi, silvery rose, Mrs. Crocker, pink, Annie Crawford, silvery pink, very fragrant, and for Teas, Sulphurea, sulphur yellow, and Madame Jules Gravereaux. I believe all the offspring of Caroline Testout are safe to plant, and so are La France, La France of '89, and the deep pink Duchess of Albany, The Pernetiana Roses are said to be reliable in all but the smokiest localities. They succeed admirably at the seaside, as do all the rose varieties mentioned as flourishing in towns. Those generally recommended for town, or sea, are Ulrich Brunner, Viscountess Folkestone, Senateur- Vaisse, Mrs. John Laing, Marie Baumann, Madame Gabrielle Luizet, Johanna Sebous, La Tosca, Gustave Grunerwald, Caroline Testout, Baroness Rothschild, Gloire de Dijon, Madame Pierre Cochet, Victor Verdier, Dupuy J amain, cherry, Duke of Fife and Duke of Teck, both bright crimson. Among new roses whose merits in this respect are not tested, 214 TOWN AND SEASIDE ROSES 215 I expect the following would do well, on account of certain special qualities mentioned : — Raymond. Hybrid Tea. Spread- The Queen Alexandra. Hy- ing and branching habit. A brid Tea. Vermilion and gold, blend of peach salmon and with mildew-proof foliage, orange carmine. Edith Cavell. Hybrid Tea. Mrs. C. V. Haworth. Hybrid Lemon-tinged white. Strong Tea. Apricot buff flamed with stemmed, erect. cerise rose. Stiff Magnolia-like Emily Gray. W ichur aiana. petals. Deep yellow, exceptionally glossy Lilian Moore. Hybrid Tea. foliage. Almost a weather despising rose, Pax Labor. Hybrid Tea. Very of somewhat camellia shape, vigorous and floriferous. Pale colour a tawny yellow. yellow, edged carmine. The Japanese Roses are splendid for all towns ; they will live in a soot-laden atmosphere, where their blooms and leaves have to be washed before they are fit to gather. Many Hybrid Briars will endure town life, but not the chemical- laden air of manufacturing places. Other roses, a mixed selection, that occur to memory as suitable for the bad places, are Standwell Perpetual, Ards Rover, Scotch White, Old Pink China, and the Red and the White Provence. Town roses thrive much better if syringed almost nightly all summer, and even in spring when they are bud-making ; and they soon show appreciation of lime scatterings above their soil, followed by a gentle hoeing. The ground of London gardens is usually more or less sour, and the loosening of it on the surface enables noxious vapours to escape, to the great relief of all living plants or trees. Lime sweetens and purifies. Road grit forked in lightly will render the soil less claggy. Draughts cause the failure of more roses than is generally recognized ; there are so often cold currents blowing down alleys by the sides of houses, or between clumps of shrubs, I believe if half the usual number of evergreens were eliminated from a town garden the roses and herbaceous plants would gain new leases of life. Great solid masses of evergreen leaves are useful as screens, of course, yet they shut away 2i6 ROSE GARDENING sun-warmth even where they do not actually impede the sun's rays ; they throw off vapours, which are conveyed to the flowers near, and their rotting, and rotten, foliage damages the soil. The ordinary wooden trellises, though not aesthetic, are quite unobjectionable in obviously artificial gardens, and for screening off parts, and for lessening draughts without making a garden stuffy, are of real worth. Seaside roses have to contend with great gales, but the warmth of the sunny aspects will, of course, be much greater than the warmth of similar aspects in inland towns. On south walls most of the less robust roses are safe, but east walls are perilous, especially on the East Coast. On the South Coast a south wall is such a baked place that the most delicate roses do best on it, hardier ones not being able to bear the temperature. Seaside roses, except where south- west rains are frequent, require considerable waterings, whereas London and large inland town roses often receive too much wet, and should be mulched round with fresh dry loam, and dry strawy horse manure, to keep the water from forming pools above the roots. Heaping up the ground a little against the stems, though a fatal practice in many other kinds of gardens, does good in such cases as these. A sparing amount of sharp cinders may be dug into the soil of rose beds and borders that receive too much wet, or are damp through airlessness of the locality. Dwarf tea roses are hardy by the sea, will stand a lot of gale-buffeting, but I have never known them do well long in very enclosed London gardens. Growing dwarf perennials over rose beds is of benefit in the coast gardens, but detrimental in the other town ones. A fine white flowering climber that is splendid by the sea is Madame Alfred Carriere. Griiss an Teplitz will run up a house front in no time, and makes a striking companion for the first-named rose. Where gales are extra troublesome pegged-down Teas should be tried, and a few hedges, or clumps, of the Japanese Briar roses are excellent to shelter them. CHAPTER XLII ROSE ARRANGING INDOORS ' A Garden rose is for the birds and bees, My rose within my window dwells.' POT roses will live and bloom well inside windows of sunny rooms where the ventilation can be ample, without draughts. As a rule people do not spend a sufficiently open-air life indoors for roses to dwell with them. But, if there is a sunny staircase window, especially a bay, that can be opened day and night except in the worst weathers and temperatures, opened down to just above the tops of the trees, so that all the rose growth is beneath the draught, then a charming show is sure. I am telling how roses can be kept for months together indoors, and yet thrive ; of course we may have beautiful greenhouse effects in any window for a week or so, by growing enough pot roses to change them frequently, sending the one batch back to the greenhouse, or frames, as soon as they show signs of exhaustion, or are out of bloom. In the same way, groups of pot roses can occupy landing corners, hall tables, marble shelves at the base of mirrors, the fireplaces in summer, tables in the drawing-room, angles between bookcases of the library. Much of the attractiveness of Flower Shows comes from the floral groups sent by skilled florists ; those are the models by which the home gardener, private or professional, should be guided. Too close massing is an error ; a few roses placed among foliage plants show to finer advantage than if the same varieties were largely represented. Nor is it necessary to cultivate a costly range of foliage subjects 217 2i8 ROSE GARDENING of tender nature ; the mossy saxifrages are capital in pots for congregating round the larger pots of roses, and hiding them. Those cushions of vivid deep emerald green will show off the darker hues of the rose leaves, and the ruby young shoots too, and will enhance vivid reds, pinks, and golds. Other hardy plants to grow for the same usefulness are Funkias, Kenilworth Ivy, the familiar saxifrage called Mother of Thousands, Variegated Arabis, the annual Summer Cypress, or Kochia, Homely Musk, and Sweet Woodruff. Several kinds of Beet will be serviceable in summer, when the bedding plants such as Scented-leaved Geraniums, Perilla Nankin- ensis. Cockscombs, Golden Feather, The Ice Plant, Echeverias, and ornamental Grasses, can be included. Shrubs are excellent stand-bys, at all seasons : the miniature hardy Firs, Hollies, Euonymuses, Privets, and Boxes, and the delicate Myrtle, Lemon Verbena, French Lavender, etc. Of flowering plants that may be mingled with roses there are hosts, of course, from Hydrangeas down to trailing Lobelia. One novel fashion of showing off pot roses for special occa- sions is to have a deep window-box, of great length, to stand upon the drawing-room mantelpiece, in place of the usual orna- ments, which will be easily located near. If the box has a front covered by Virgin cork, and trailing plants, greenhouse or hardy, occupy the front line inside ; if the soil of the roses is all covered by moss, and laid-on streamers of Virginian Creeper, and Flowerless Clematises, with Variegated Hop foliage, giant Fern fronds, dainty Ivies, the trees themselves will rise from a bank of greenery. There is no reason why the rose table should not be as usual in a drawing-room as the silver table, why jardinieres should not hold some dozens of blossoming Teas, why the hall doorways should not be banked up at their sides with masses of gay dwarf Polyanthas. It is best to obtain the required height in plant groups by inverting pots, and poising other pots on those ; or green-painted boxes are handy if kept dry so that they do not begin to rot, and smell. Dull green Art muslin is useful to wind in and out among pots ROSE ARRANGING INDOORS 219 to hide the earthenware behind fern and other fronds and leafage, but should be hidden itself as much as possible. Some- times a plant group that is bare, and betrays that it is made of pots, which a fine group should never do, can be cured in a few minutes by the introduction, between or before the plants, of some vases of flowers or foliage. Gypsophila, with field grasses, freshly gathered Statices, feathery plumes of Celosias, Maidenhair and other greenhouse ferns, wreaths shorn from Dog-roses of the hedges, wild Bryony, boughs of Southernwood, sprays of Asparagus, are but some of the suitable additions. Pots of Rambler Roses, trained pillar style, are capable of giving a stately charm to a hall. Pots of trailing Wichuraianas may be stood up the staircase, and the branches allowed to hang down between the banisters, to be admired from below. Roses succeed in glass porches, or even in brick porches if the doors are generally open, or there are side windows. When we think of the myriad fashions in which the Queen of Flowers can be arranged in water, when gathered, we must acknowledge that it is our own faults entirely if our homes are not as rose-adorned as our gardens. Heavy-headed roses look best in massive bowls, held in place by some of the innumerable kinds of wire supports, and surrounded with masses of their leaves. I hope all rose lovers will take care to give each rose variety its own proper foliage ; Marechal Niel loses half its identity for us if sur- rounded by glossy branches from a Yellow Rambler ; The Duke of Edinburgh looks rather absurd among small-leaved sprays of Tea-rose foliage ; a big rose, such as La Tosca, almost as bold as a pseony, must not rise from festoons of Wichu- raianas. Persons who find a difficulty in arranging roses well in bowls should practise the art, and begin by always setting the foliage in first. A pyramid of leafy boughs may be formed ; then some overhanging leaves, with some red-tinted shoots and some bud sprays, not yet opening, if these can be afforded ; finally the rose blooms should be added, one by one. It would 220 ROSE GARDENING be folly to say they should not touch one another, since an occasional group of three, or the association of a couple, a darker peeping from behind a lighter, gives a lovely focus for the vision. Really a rose bowl should be built up as an artist would compose a picture, with due care for the arrangement of light and shade, and avoidance of all heaviness or spottiness. Long-stemmed roses, of elegant shape, never look better than when set singly in tall slender specimen glasses — which are often costly bits of glass now, of course, though the name was invented to signify vases of no consequence, intended just to show off the flower. Gypsophila, Statices, London Pride, and the little silver- leaved, white forget-me-not annual, Venus's Navelwort, are pretty with roses, but I believe there are few rose enthusiasts who would not rather have roses alone than mingled in vases with flowers of greater consequence than those just mentioned, which serve the purpose of grasses. Sweet Peas and Roses mean ruined sweet peas and roses deprived of their majesty, or grace, according to whether they are the stout-stemmed monster blooms, or the long- budded slender Hybrid Teas, the elegant Pernetianas, or the wreathing Ramblers. A table decoration for a feast that I once saw consisted of a centre group of Madonna Lilies, arranged with their leafed stems upright, as though growing ; and crimson and scarlet roses filled hidden bowls all around them, set in tiers, so that the lilies seemed to be coming from among rose-formed banks. This was most beautiful, because the roses had their full complement of buds, and leaves, too, were not wedged together to give a mere colour splash. One way to furnish a fireplace easily and well is to cultivate some trailing Ivies in pots, use these to form an ivy bank, and set hidden vases in the greenery, so filled with branches of roses that they spray about as in Nature. The colour rules that guide the planter of rose-beds can be consulted by the arranger of roses. Suffice it to remind readers that rose pinks and carmine crimsons must be kept ROSE ARRANGING INDOORS 221 out of sight of salmon pinks and scarlets. Yellows and apricots spoil each other, of course, as do buff and strong orange. White roses are singularly well suited by pale green glass receptacles, and trails of deep green smilax. An arrange- ment of white roses, Gypsophila, and silver foliage, such as that of Cineraria maritima, will offer a novelty ; the rose's dark leaves will show up finely. Apricot and copper roses are charming always in silver bowls and flagons. Old pink Cabbage Roses may well be arranged in countryfied-looking baskets, or blue and white china bowls, or ginger jars. Gold plate, or copper, makes a glowing combination with dark crimson roses ; scarlet or flame-salmon roses are always eye-satisfying in silver, pewter, or clear white glass. Is it a barbarism to lay roses on the cloth ? Well, that is a matter for private judgment. I do not like the custom, nor can I take to the newer one of decapitating roses and floating their poor heads in dishes of water. If tracery there must be on the tablecloth, foHage trails should, I think, supply it, and colour be given by a rose bloom here and there, with just one or two leaves, in bowls so small that they can be buried in the foliage wreathings. Or these tiny hidden vases may contain only opening buds. With many of our roses the buds are remarkably lovely, slashed or flushed with brilliant hues. Some roses, those of thick woody stems, last better in water if their stalks are partly peeled in the same way as we do for lilac. The advent of wire flower supports, mostly Japanese models, has made the use of wet silver sand almost obsolete ; it had its merits, though, and any flower arranger who regrets it should try using the crushed sea-shell sold for growing bulbs in, as this is less heavy and, cleaner, it does not stain china. It is not often that long-stemmed roses will last more than a day fresh in water, but if the flowers have their stems cut much shorter as they begin to droop, they will revive again for use in small vases. A lump of charcoal helps to keep water sweet, and receptacles clean. GENERAL INDEX For " Index of Rose Names," see p. 225. Acacias, 81 Andromedas, 81 Annuals, 78 Ants, 173 Aphis, 172, 173, 174 Arabis, 78 Arranging roses in bowls, 219 Ashes, 89 Azaleas, 81 B Bark wounds, 1 75 Berberises, 81 Biennials, 78 Bhght, 172 Blue Flax, 78 Bone meal, 144 Box edging, 105 Brooms, 81 Brown fungus, 172 Buddleias, 81 Buds, Dropping, iii Buds, Hard, 139 Buds, Malformed, 138, 139 Buds with black stems, 139 Canary Creeper, 79 Canker, 171 Caterpillars, 176 Charcoal, 221 Chrysanthemums, 80 Clay soil, 122 Clay's Fertihzer, 144 Cobaea scandens, 79 Colchicums, 80 Convolvulus, 79 Cotoneasters, 81 Crocuses, 80 DahUas, 80 Daisies, 78 Day for planting, 128 Delphiniums, 80 Deutzia, 81 Dipping rose trees, 176 Disease, To prevent, 143 Dog roses, 219 Draughts, 215 Earwigs, 139, 175 Escallonias, 81 Fences, 91 Fireplace furnishing, 220 Forcing early roses, 1 79 Forsythias, 81 Frost, Protection from, 168 Fumigating, 180 Fungoid diseases, 170 Gas lime, 123 Gorses, 81 Green-fly, 112, 113, 139, 172, 173, 174, 176, 180 Guana, 143 Gypsophila elegans, 78 222 INDEX 223 H Hoeing, 125 Honeysuckle, 79 Hop manure, 123, 140 House-wall angle, 92 Hybrid Sweet Briar, 39, 40 Hydrangeas, 81 N Nasturtiums, 78 Neglected ground, 122 Nemesia strumosa Suttoni, 7? New ground, 122 New trees, 127 Iceland Poppies, 78 Insects, 112 Irises, 80 K Kitchen gardens, 124 Labels, 129 Laburnums, 81 Leaf spot, 171 Lilacs, 81 Liliums, 80 Lime-water, 141, 143 Linaria, 78 Liquid manures, 141, 143 Lobelia, 78 IVI Maggots, 139, 175, 176 Magnolia, 73 Manure, After-pruning, 142 Manure for backward roses, 142 Manure, Cow, 143 Manure, Horse, 143 Manure, Pig, 143 Manure, Quick-acting, 144 Manures, 122, 123, 124 Manuring, 125 Mantelpiece decoration, 218 Meadow-saffrons, 80 Mendel's law, 188 Michaelmas Daisies, 80 Mildew, 170, 171, 174, 175 Mock Oranges, 81 Moss roses, 192 Mulching, 124, 168 Multiple Fertilizer, 140, 143 Mustard-water, 171 Pseonies, 80 Perennials, 78 Peruvian Guano, 142 Porches, Roses in, 219 Prunus Pissardi, 62 Quaking Grass, 78 Quassia solution, 1 76 Red Flax, 78 Red Spider, 174 Rhododendrons, 81 Road sweepings, 122 Rock-cress, 78 Roots, Dry, 126 Rose-leaf-Cutter Bee, 176 Rose scale, 171 S Salpiglossis, 78 Scillas, 80 Scotch Briar, 105 Screens for protection, 167, 168 Seed, Raising roses from, 154 Seedhngs, 155 Seedhng buds, 155 Shading, 68, 69, 78 Shrubs, 218 Snow, 128 Snowberry trees, 81 Snowdrops, 80 Soil, Chalky, 124, 144, 145 Soil, Damp, 86 Soil, Light, 124, 143 Soil, Poor, 124 Soil, Preparation of, 122 Soil, Sour, 123 224 INDEX Soot, 123, 141, 144 Sour ground, 123 Spiraeas, 81 Stakes, 129, 163 Standen's Manure, 143 Stimulant, A good, 142 Syringing, 165, 171-6 Table decoration, 220 Temperature, 180 Tiger Lily, 80 Tobacco water, 172 Tonk's Manure, 140, 141 Transplanting, no Trenching, 122 Turk's Cap Lily, 80 Vegetable ashes, 123 Venus's Navelwort, 78 Veronicas, 81 Violas, 78, 80 Virginian Stock, 78 Viscarias, 78 W Walls, 91 Weeping standards, 89 Weeping willows, 89 Weigelas, 81 Woodlice, 172 Worms, III, 171 Yellow alyssum, 78