NEW WAYS WITH RAMBLER ROSES

Evening Star, Issue 21008, 23 January 1932, Page 21

NEW WAYS WITH RAMBLER ROSES

When more rambler roses are required than there is room for on walls and fences, they may be grown on the level with pleasing effect and in a number of ways, one of which might be described as the “cart wheel” method (says ‘Popular Gardening,’ London). The roses are planted in the grass and surrounded, at a distance of 3ft or so (according to the space available) by a ring of stout pegs placed about 18in apart, supporting a circle of strong fence wire. The growths of the rose are thus trained outwards, as evenly spaced as possible, like the spokes of a cart wheel, and cut off short just beyond the wire, forming the rim, to which they should be tied firmly, but not too tightly. When in bloom, the result is a circular mound of blossom, and a row of these mounds in different but harmonising colours is delightful. If this is considered too stiff and artificial (though it does not look so) they can be grown in charming fashion, in portions of hollow tree trunks. Slices of tree should be obtained—they can often be had when timber is being felled—tarred within and on the underside, and placed flat on the ground. The hollow centre is then filled with suitable soil and a rambler rose planted in the centre of each. The plants should be cut back pretty hard to begin with, then allowed to sprawl over the tree trunk and surrounding area. The effect of this, carried out at odd corners of a semi-wild garden on the slope of a hill, is extremely beautiful and graceful. Roses of the Wichuriana family lend themselves particularly well to this treatment. The pruning in both cases is tho method usually followed in dealing with ramblers—i.e., all woocj that has bloomed should be cut away in autumn and the new growths allowed to take its place. In'dealing with the “cart wheel,” judicious selections will be necessary where the rose is a rampant grower, but when grown in a slice of hollow tree the young growths may be left to their own devices.