Making a Rose Garden

by Henry H. Saylor

The matter of the size and design of the rose bed is of comparatively little importance; what really is vital, however, is that the roses be permitted to have the beds to themselves—absolutely. But recently I read a magazine article purporting to be good advice for the rose-growing amateur. Therein appeared words of regret that the rose must needs have such bare, gaunt stalks, and suggesting as a remedy the growing of some vine about the base of the bush—I am not sure, indeed, that the honeysuckle was not specifically named for the place. I can well imagine that the result might be a very beautiful honeysuckle, but we should look there for the rose in vain.

Keep the roses by themselves; they will not only thrive better, but their beauty seems not to be increased by comparison with other flowers.

The Queen of Flowers will brook no liberties of this kind. She insists upon reigning alone in her glory, and anyone who dares presume to introduce even a low-growing, shallow-rooted ground cover with the intention of making the rose bed seem less bare, will never see his roses at their best. Personally I have never felt that a rose garden need be in the least unattractive. There is one type of beauty that might be represented by a carpet of creeping phlox; there is another that belongs to the rose garden, bearing its single blooms here and there, sparsely, among the green foliage and thorny stems. In the former instance one looks at the mass effect without a thought of the beauty of individual flowers; in the latter case one's glance seeks out instinctively the single bloom to drink in its beauty and fragrance. Ah, but you say, how about the time when there is not a single rose in sight? There need be no such time between spring and fall if you plant your rose garden to best advantage. There is no need nor reason to put all the June-blooming roses together, with the Teas and Hybrid Teas off by themselves in another place. If the remontant types are interspersed throughout your garden you need never, between May and October, look for a rose in vain.

The shape of the beds, too, may be such as to avoid an appearance of "too much dirt" in the rose garden. For my own part I would have a rectangular garden and simple parallelograms for the beds, although the rose garden about a central feature has its strong attractions. But if you arrange the beds in long narrow units—four feet wide for a double row of plants or twenty inches wide for a single row, and as long as your purse will allow, having the paths between the rows of turf rather than gravel or brick, and the beds slightly sunk below this turf, the rose garden need never be less than most attractive. Avoid beds wider than will accommodate two rows of plants, for it is essential that every rose bush in the garden be immediately accessible from a path.

A suggestion for a rectangular rose garden with paths of turf. The beds are about forty inches wide, the paths four feet, excepting the center one, which is five feet in width. A hedge, which might be of rugosa, contributes a desirable air of seclusion.

To those intensely practical persons who object to walking through dew-wet paths in the morning tour of the rose garden, let me point out the obvious impossibility of having gravel paths immediately adjacent to the rose beds, and the continued care required to keep in a presentable condition a narrow strip of sod between path and bed.

Now as to the preparation of the rose bed itself. First of all, dig the soil out to a depth of two feet at least, keeping the top soil and sods and the subsoil in separate piles as they are taken out. Loosen up the floor of the trench with a pick and on this, if the ground needs draining, which it will if it is a compact, sodden surface, put a layer of stones, cinders and other material that will not decompose. On top of this place the best of the sub-soil mixed with a generous dressing of well-rotted manure. Finally, add the sod, well broken up, and the top soil, also enriched with manure. Then fill in the bed with enough good top soil, unmanured, to bring it two or three inches above the adjoining surface. Make sure that the surface of the bed, after it has settled, will be about one inch below that of the adjoining sod in order to retain the moisture from rain. This preparation of the bed should be done at least several weeks in advance of planting time.

In composing the soil for the rose bed, it is well to remember that the Hybrid Perpetuals require a heavy soil containing some clay. For Teas and Hybrid Teas a lighter, warmer soil is better. In his most admirable "Book of the Rose," the Rev. Andrew Foster-Melliar tells an amusing incident in connection with soil. The good rector was dining out and had been served with a generous portion of plum pudding. It was very dark, rich, strong and greasy. Absent-mindedly he sat back in his chair gazing at the dish intently. His hostess, noticing his hesitancy, asked if anything were wrong with the pudding. "Oh, no," replied the rector unthinkingly, "I was thinking what rare stuff it would be to grow roses in."