Hybrid Tea Rose
The Tea Roses have proved more disappointing to the amateur than any other. No one can resist the temptation to try to have a few of these highly perfumed, richly colored Roses, but unless one has a conservatory or an especially favored location in the house, the results do not pay for the trouble. A few blooms may be had outdoors with plants set in the spring, but on the approach of winter they must be taken up and protected by more secure means than is taken with other Roses. If potted and grown in the house, they are the first plants to become infested with red spider; or if grown cool enough to escape that pest, they will be subject to an attack of mildew. Still, the results are well worth striving for, and a few persons will find the proper conditions; but the Tea Rose is essentially a florist’s flower.
All Roses are heavy feeders and require rich, moist soil. A clay soil, if well enriched and having perfect drainage, is ideal. Pruning should be carefully done, preferably in the spring. All weak growth should be cut out and the balance well cut back. The flowers of all Roses, except the Yellow Persian and the Harrison’s Yellow, being borne on the new wood, the bushes should be cut back half or more of their growth.
In the majority of cases, Roses on their own roots will prove more satisfactory than budded stock. On own-rooted stock, the suckers or shoots from below the surface of the soil will be of the same kind, whereas with budded Roses there is danger of the stock (usually Manetti or Dog Rose) starting into growth and, not being discovered, outgrowing the bud, taking possession, and finally killing out the weaker growth. Still, if the plants are set deep enough to prevent adventitious buds of the stock from starting, there is no question that finer Roses may be grown than from plants on their own roots.
The summer insects that trouble the Rose are best treated by a forceful spray of clear water. This should be done early in the day and again at evening. Those having city water or good spray pumps will find this an easy method of keeping Rose pests in check. Those without these facilities may use whale oil soap, fir-tree oil, good soap suds, or Persian insect powder.
Roses in Winter. Although the growing of Roses under glass is a business which would better be left to florists, as already said, the following advice may be useful to those who have conservatories:
When growing forcing Roses for winter flowers, florists usually provide raised beds, in the best-lighted houses they have. The bottom of the bed or bench is left with cracks between the boards for drainage; the cracks are covered with inverted strips of sod, and the bench is then covered with four or five inches of fresh, fibrous loam. This is made from rotted sods, with decayed manure incorporated at the rate of about one part in four. Sod from any drained pasture-land makes good soil. The plants are set on the bed in the spring or early summer, from 12 to 18 inches apart, and are grown there all summer.
During the winter they are kept at a temperature of 58° to 60° at night, and from 5° to 10° warmer during the day. The heating pipes are often run under the benches, not because the Rose likes bottom heat, but to economize space and to assist in drying out the beds in case of their becoming too wet. The greatest care is required in watering, in guarding the temperature and in ventilation. Draughts result in checks to the growth and in mildewed foliage.
Dryness of the air, especially from fire heat, is followed by the appearance of the minute red spider on the leaves. The aphis, or green plant louse, appears under all conditions, and must be kept down by syringing with tobacco-tea or fumigation with tobacco stems.