ROSES.
In the very midst of the wealth of bloom with which we are surrounded, the scent of the roses wafted to us on every passing breeze, it seems exceedingly appropriate to enjoy a little talk with our readers about roses. There is no need to tell of their beauty. Acknowledged to be the queen of the flowers, the rose holds a position of pre-eminence that requires no words of praise from us to establish; ours shall be the humbler task to tell her admirers how best to care for their favorite, so that she may be able to put on her royal apparel, and come forth in all her loveliness.
There is required for the growing of roses in their perfection a something that is not to be found in books. “Poets are born, not made” it is said, and there is somewhat of the same truth in this matter of growing roses. The perfection of the art is the outcome of a devotion that ever burns but never consumes. Deep down in the secret chambers of the heart it is continually glowing, and when to other eyes the rose is no longer a thing of beauty, in the days of the “sere and yellow leaf,” it waits tenderly and lovingly upon the object of its devotion. To such care she most generously responds, arraying herself in gorgeous beauty, putting on her most lovely tints and beaming with most bewitching smiles.
We have some obstacles to overcome in the cultivation of the rose which are quite unknown to her devotees in England. Our mid-summer suns are so scorchingly hot that our roses soon lose the richness of their fresh tints. To enjoy the full beauty of the rose, to see it in the freshness of its coloring, while the delicacy of the tints is yet unimpaired, one should stroll through the rose grounds at sunrise, before the dew-drops are exhaled, and see the flowers unfolding to the morning light. Could we shade our roses from about ten o’clock of the morning until four in the afternoon, the lustre of their beauty would be preserved much longer. But that is almost an impossibility in our latitude, where the sun at mid-day is so nearly vertical. The best thing we can do is to cover the ground over their roots with a thick mulch, so as to keep it moist and cool. Again, the severity of our winters is very trying to our rose trees. Usually the shoots are more or less killed back, so that they require to be cut down in spring almost or quite to the ground. Some protection can be given to them by sticking evergreen boughs around them, so as to hide the rose trees from sight during the winter, while other kinds that are tenderer must be taken up in the fall and heeled-in in the cellar, where they will not be exposed to much frost. Yet, notwithstanding all these difficulties, we can grow roses of great beauty, and that too in the full blaze of our vertical sun, and fully exposed to the severity of our winter frosts.
It is very desirable to have a strong soil in which to grow roses, a rich clayey loam is the very best. And this should be well enriched every year, indeed there seems no danger of making it too rich. An excellent fertilizer is made by composting sods from an old pasture with barnyard manure in about equal quantities. And the ground should be well drained, not merely on the surface, but the sub-soil, if tenacious and wet, should be thoroughly relieved of all surplus water by means of sub-soil drains, having a good outlet, so as to carry off the water rapidly and fully. Nevertheless, where clay loam soil cannot be conveniently had, cultivation and liberal fertilizing will largely compensate for its absence, indeed some of the finest roses have been grown on a sandy loam which had been stirred to a good depth and liberally supplied with compost, the best of all composts that of the farm-yard, where the sweepings from the stable are mingled with the litter of the bedding, and thrown out to be trampled by the cattle, and worked over by the pigs.
The planting may be done either in the fall or spring, as may be most convenient; and whatever time it may be done, after it is completed, the surface should be deeply mulched with a heavy covering of strawy manure, thick enough to keep the ground cool and moist in the hot days of summer, or to keep out the frost in the cold winter nights. If the trees are on their own roots, that is, have not been budded nor grafted, they should be planted so as to stand at the same depth in the ground as before, when the soil has become settled. But if they have been grafted or budded upon another stock, the rose trees should be planted deep enough to bring the point of union two or three inches below the surface. This is desirable for several reasons, but especially that in case the plant is killed back by unusually severe frosts quite to the ground the tree might not be wholly lost, which would be the case if the point of union with the stock be above the ground; for though sprouts might come up from the stock, the roses that would appear would not be the roses desired; whereas, if the union be a few inches below the surface, there is a possibility that a sprout may be thrown up from the part above the union, and thus the desired variety preserved.
In pruning roses, attention must be given to the habit of the variety. Those of a very vigorous habit should be moderately pruned, for if they are severely cut back they will make a large growth of wood, and give but little bloom. But those which naturally grow feebly should be cut back more severely, so that the supply of sap may be sufficient to make the flower-buds that are left grow vigorously, and the roses to be fully developed. The form best suited to our climate is that of a low bush, for the cold of our winters and the heat of our summers bear very injuriously upon tall standards or tree-roses. For this reason it is a waste of money to buy these tree roses and weeping roses which are sold through the country at from three to five dollars each. They are produced by grafting upon tall stems of the Dog-rose, but in two or three years, at best, they succumb to the peculiar extremes of our climate. The so-called Weeping roses, are made by grafting some slender growing variety, sometimes two or three sorts of different colors, upon tall Dog-roses, and frequently the sorts that are grafted upon them are tender varieties, wholly unable to endure our winters; and if they live through the first summer are sure to perish during the first winter, unless carefully housed on the approach of winter.
The rose has also some insect enemies that will require to be watched and treated according to their works. One of the most annoying and injurious is the Rose-slug. It is a small light-green shiny creature that eats the soft green portions of the leaves, so that they have almost the appearance of having been skeletonized, making the rose-bush look brown and very unsightly. The Slug usually makes it appearance as the roses are beginning to bloom, preying first upon the more concealed leaves near the ground, and ascending as its food is exhausted to the higher branches; and as the number is usually very great, in a short time the leaves are all destroyed. The writer has found white hellebore, applied by putting a large table-spoonful into a pail of water, and sprinkling the rose bushes with the water by means of an ordinary watering can, a sure means of destroying them. It is perhaps a better plan to stir a handful of the hellebore into a pail of water and allow it to stand over night until the next evening, and then stir it up thoroughly and add about a pint of the mixture to a pailful of water, and with this sprinkle the rose bushes. It is a very cheap and easy way of getting rid of the Slugs. In some seasons the Green-fly or Aphis are very abundant, covering the ends of the shoots, and sucking out the juices. These are easily destroyed by dipping the ends of the shoots in a strong decoction of tobacco, or by sprinkling the plants, if very badly infested with them, with the tobacco water through a watering can. But a more determined and obstinate insect pest than either of these is the Rose-leaf-hopper, insignificantly small in size, yet making up by infinitude of numbers for all lack of individual magnitude. Entomologists call these little scamps Tettigonia rosae. They are, when full grown, not more than three-twentieths of an inch long, the body is of a yellowish-white color, the wing-covers and wings are white, and the eyes, claws, and piercer, brown. They begin to hatch out about the middle of June, and appear upon the under side of the leaves without wings, but with an exceedingly sharp piercer or proboscis with which they pierce the skin of the leaf and feed upon the juices. This operation they keep up, increasing in size, casting their skins when their jacket becomes too tight for them, and sucking the juices out of the leaf all the more vigorously as they grow larger, until it assumes a pale sickly appearance, and no longer is able to perform its proper functions. The cast off skins of these insects may be found in great numbers adhering to the under side of the leaves, and likewise the little creatures themselves, manifesting their vitality by hopping about with great agility. Their hind legs are made somewhat like those of a grasshopper, which enable them to leap very briskly. After a time their wings appear, and then they seem to be more active than ever, and spread about till they find every rose-bush in the garden. The writer has had considerable experience in fighting these little pests, but cannot say that he has succeeded in winning any great victories. Sprinkling the bushes with hellebore and water or with tobacco water from a watering can, is a useless expenditure of labor, for the little hoppers have only to keep their place on the under side of the leaf and use it as an umbrella to shield themselves completely from the shower. The only way of reaching them is with a garden syringe. At one time it seemed as though the hellebore in water applied to them in this way, when they were quite young, was effectual in killing them, but later experiments have suggested the question whether they were not washed off by the force of the shower thus directed against them, and were unable in that early stage of life to find their way back again. If the latter be the correct solution, there need be neither hellebore nor tobacco in the water. The Rose-bug, macrodactylus subspinosa feeds on the leaves, and when numerous are very destructive. Thus far the writer has never been troubled with this insect. They pass the larvæ state in the ground, and come out in the month of June as perfect beetles, remaining about a month to carry on their destructive work. The only certain method of combatting them, known to the writer, is that of gathering them by hand and crushing, burning, or scalding them. They are perfectly proof against whale-oil-soap and decoctions of tobacco; whether they can digest hellebore is not known, but probably they would succumb to paris-green. Should they not appear in too great numbers it would not be a difficult task to pick them off by hand, for they are very sluggish creatures, and easily caught.
Having given these hints on the cultivation of roses and the means of preventing the ravages of these insect enemies, we have but a few words to say concerning the different varieties. These all naturally fall under four heads, the summer, autumnal, climbing, and monthly roses. By summer, is meant those hardy kinds which bloom in the early summer only; the autumnal sorts not only bloom in the early summer, but also again more or less in the autumn. These are also called Hybrid Perpetuals, and Remontants. They are indeed hybrids, but the term perpetual is only calculated to mislead, for they do not bloom perpetually, and many of them give but few autumn flowers.
By climbing, is meant those hardy, free-growing, rambling varieties which can be trained to climb over a trellis or cover the side of the house or verandah. It is not intended to embrace those tender climbers, such as climbing Devoniensis or Marechal Niel, which can be grown only in the house, and are grouped under the head of monthly roses, which includes those known as Bourbon, Tea, and China Roses, which bloom almost constantly during their growing season.
It is not proposed to give anything like an exhaustive list of the roses which are classed under these different heads, that would be wearisome, but only to name a few of those which have been well tested and are likely to become favorites in every rose garden. Of the summer sorts we name first of all one that is probably well known to every one of our readers, one that has been the companion of our childhood’s happiest hours, and fraught with many, many memories, the Cabbage Rose. It is yet one of our very prettiest roses, double to the perfection of fulness, and its petals suffused with blushes. Very like this, only with an added beauty, is the
Common Moss Rose, which is believed to be a sport from the old Cabbage Rose. A German writer has ventured to tell us how it happened:
The angel of the flowers one day
Beneath a rose-tree sleeping lay;
Awakening from his light repose,
The angel wispered to the rose;
‘Oh fondest object of my care,
Still fairest found where all are fair,
For the sweet shade thou’st given me,
Ask what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.’
‘Then,’ saith the rose, with deepened glow,
‘On me another grace bestow.’
The spirit paused in silent thought,
What grace was there that flower had not?
’Twas but a moment; o’er the rose
A veil of moss the angel throws;
And robed in nature’s simplest weed,
Could there a flower that rose exceed?
There is another variety of this which is known as the
Crested Moss Rose. The calyx is most beautifully edged with a mossy fringe, which gives to the buds a very attractive appearance.
Madam Plantier is the best white, a most abundant bloomer, and very hardy.
Persian Yellow is the richest and most desirable, as it is the most double of the yellow roses.
Kean is a magnificent, rich, velvety purple, with scarlet centre, making a most delightful contrast with the light-coloured roses.
In the autumnal class there is an almost endless list of names, and every year more are added, some of which are no improvement on those we already have. The few names that are given comprise some of the most desirable that thrive well in our climate. It should be borne in mind that the autumnal display can be considerably increased by cutting off half of the summer bloom as soon as the buds appear, and when the flowers that are suffered to remain have faded, cut back the shoots to three or four buds, so as to throw the plant into a vigorous new growth.
Boule de Neige, a beautiful pure white that also blooms freely in the autumn.
Madame Alfred de Rougemont is white delicately shaded with rose, a most charming flower, also blooming well in autumn.
Duke of Edinburgh is a brilliant scarlet crimson, shaded with maroon, large and full; a most gorgeous flower.
Fisher Holmes, reddish scarlet, shaded with deep velvety crimson, large and very brilliant.
Lord Macauley, a rich clouded crimson, large and full, with petals of great substance.
Le Rhone is dark vermillion, very rich and brilliant, one of the very best.
Souvenir de William Wood is a very dark maroon, shaded with scarlet; a large and showy flower, and blooms well in autumn.
Xavier Olibo is velvety black, shaded with amaranth, blooms freely in the fall, and is one of the best.
Madame la Baronne de Rothschild is most magnificent; the color is a clear rose, shaded with white, the petals are of a shell-like substance, and each flower of great size.
Madame Fillion is another large, finely formed flower, of a salmon rose color, one of the best.
Madame Rival has a beautiful clear satin rose color, of large size, most handsomely cupped, and blooms well in the fall.
Madam Marie Cirodde, has a large and handsomely imbricated flower, of a most beautiful rosy-pink color, and is certainly one of the best.
John Hopper is a very attractive flower, large and full, of a clear rosy crimson deepening in color at the centre.
Comtesse de Chabrilliant is handsomely cupped, the color is a bright pink, and it is richly perfumed.
Mademoiselle Annie Wood blooms very abundantly in autumn, and is a large flower of a fine, clear red color.
Duchesse de Vallambrosa, when it first opens is of a light peach-blow color, but gradually changes to pure white, the flowers are large and globular in form.
Madame Lacharme is another beautifully clear wax-like flower, white, with a light blush in the centre.
Triomph de France is an extra large flower of perfect form and of a beautiful, bright rosy carmine.
These eighteen by no means exhaust the list of beautiful remontant roses, but they are sufficient to give some idea of their great beauty, variety and richness of coloring. Our climate will not admit of the use of any but the most hardy of the climbing roses. There is something indeed very enjoyable in a climate that will admit of festooning the verandas with climbing Devoniensis, or that glory of yellow roses, Marechal Niel; but we must content ourselves with those that will bear severer cold, and though lacking in perfume are by no means wanting in beauty.
Queen of the Prairies is probably the best of the hardy climbers; color bright rosy-red, globular in form and somewhat cupped, of good size, and produced in great profusion.
Baltimore Belle is a most delicately beautiful flower, white, suffused with a soft blush, quite double, and borne in very full clusters.
Gem of the Prairies proves to be quite hardy, the flowers are large, perfectly double and fragrant, though not in a high a degree, color a light crimson.
The Ayrshire Family is not so hardy, yet may be used to run over a bank, or upon the ground, where they will be protected by the snow.
The Queen of the Belgians is the best of this class, a pure white rose, flourishing even in a poor soil.
The Monthly Roses are too tender to bear the cold of our winters. They can be planted out in the summer, but must be taken up in autumn, and either potted and kept in the window, or the roots may be buried in earth in a cool cellar, and the plants kept there until spring. They bloom almost continuously, and it has been by crossing with these that our autumn blooming section has been obtained. We name a few of these that have been thoroughly tested, and are general favorites.
Gloire de Dijon is a very beautiful tea-scented flower, yellow, shaded with salmon, very large and full.
Marechal Niel blooms best when it is allowed to ramble; it makes a splendid green-house climber, and is the best deep yellow rose, very large and full, and delightfully scented.
Souvenir D’un Ami is a favorite flower, rose color, shaded with deep salmon, large and full, excellent for pot culture.
Cheshunt Hybrid proves to be a large, cherry-carmine rose, very beautiful in bud, and the plant a strong grower.
Hermosa is a valuable light pink, a most profuse and constant bloomer.
Those who wish extended collections will consult the lists of our florists, which are indeed perplexing because of their abundance, especially to those who wish for only a few of the best. The hints here given we trust will be found helpful to our readers, who we feel sure enjoy nothing more than a bed of beautiful roses.
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