EXTRAVAGANT DESCRIPTIONS OF ROSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 11

EXTRAVAGANT DESCRIPTIONS OF ROSES.

COLOUR, FORM AND TEXTURE. CULTURAL METHODS IN AMERICA. By J. H. MacFarland, Editor American Rose Annual. In these days the rose catalogues are far more truthful than they were a dozen years ago. Five thousand amateur growers in the United States gathered in the fold of the American Rose Society have not only enforced honesty but made it profitable. The adjectivial monstrosity of a dozen years ago is almost nonexistent in catalogue relations to-day. There are still a few, largely those of concerns selling the pitiful little rooted cuttings sent out as own-root plants in full leaf, who indulge in extravagant language in describing roses they have usually never seen blooming and which they do not themselves ever grow out doors because their operations are greenhouse operations (In fact, one of these growers confessed in my Breeze Hill garden that he never saw roses bloom out doors, and seldom indoors, because it was his business to cut the wood off as fast as it grew and root it again fo more roses. His only criteria of merit were rapidity of growth and freedom from thorns, and when we showed him a splen did, lovely and vigorous rose, one called Willow-mere, he said it would be useless to him because it was too thorny for easy propagation 1)

But most of the growers tell most of the facts most of the time, and the first thing to do, consequently, for the prospective rose garden is to get the catalogues together and decide what roses will be bought. SIMPLIFICATION OF TECHNIQUE. The time has gone by, I am glad to say, when extreme difficulty and large expense are deemed essential in preparing ground for rose-growing. I have, in my library, books advising the preparation of 4ft deep when drainage was included, and quite generally of 3ft deep. A few hardy individuals were willing not to go deeper than 2ft in preparing rcsQ soil. The prescriptions for the composition of the soil are wonderful, and impossible for the most part. Any ground that will grow good corn, or cabbage, or peas, or produce satisfactory zinnias or marigolds or garden asters, will grow good roses. The roses seem to prefer a heavy soil, so that clay is no disadvantage, but none the less *1 have seen them revel in the sands of Florida and in the loose loamy soil of Long Island. They do need reasonably rich soil, but in the method of handling I am going to propose no one need be delayed in starting his rose bed because he has not at hand all the essentials for providing exceedingly rich soil. As 1 have said, good garden soil is desirable. It ought to be deeply dug, and by that I mean to the depth of full ISin, independent of any drainage that may be required, for roses do not get along with wet feet, though they do need a great deal of water passing through their root systems. This 18in preparation is probably most easily made by a modified form of what is called trenching. If the roses are grown in beds, as they can very well bo, these may be 3ft wide, or wider if that is more convenient, and any length that the garden and the pocket book will take care of. T hrow the soil out one-spade depth, then take out the second-spade depth, lay it to ome side and begin to put back the first-spade depth, so that, as'a matter of fact, the soil has been reversed. The better the top and bottom layers, or, ■ as the English put it, the top and bottom “ spits,” are mixed up, the more Tavourable the condition is.

While this is going on, if there is obtainable well-rotted manure of any sort it ought to be dug in particularly to that lower spit. It will be noted that I have said wellrotted manure, by which I mean that jt

is so thoroughly broken up that it will easily mix with the soil. Cow manure is. said to be the best, but I have noticed mighty little difference between that and ordinary stable manure. A substitute;

But suppose there isn’t any stable manure. Sometimes the rose grower can obtain prepared humus, not very expensive, which will help to lighten stiff clay soils, and he can likewise always obtain ground bone or powdered bone, or pulverised sheep manure. All these substances are desirable for admixture with the soil in quantities which will just about make the bone dust show as it is distributed in the soil. When this bed has been thus thoroughly prepared, and when if there is a possibility that water will stand in one of the beds additional depth has been taken into which the water may run, the additional depth being filled with rough material of any sort, like brickbats, stoney, etc., the ground is about ready for the roses. It is altogether better if it has been prepared as long in advance of the planting as possible, but I am so strongly and insistently urging early planting that I would rather put the plants in immediately after the preparation than to delay by a single hours the vital setting of the rose plant into its permanent home. EARLY PLANTING.

On this subject I presume I am a crank. The proper place for the roots of a rose is in the soil in which they grew. Man has managed to mitigate the injury of transfer from one bed to another, but the. less the time the roots are exposed, the less the injury. Everything I say, therefore, must be construed as bearing upon the earliest possible planting. It cannot be too early when the ground is in condition to work. It can be too late, for I have seen failure follow frequently in the nlanting of roses in late spring and early summer, whether they are presumably dormant as they come from the nurserymen or whether they have been grown in pots and are transferred into the soil seemingly without jar or jolt.-