Top soil from an old pasture, if it be a moderately heavy loam, taken with the grass roots and chopped very fine, will do excellently for the Hybrid Perpetuals. For the Teas and Hybrid Teas, mix with soil of this kind about one-quarter of its bulk of sand and leaf mold to lighten it. Remember that all the manure that is used should be incorporated with the lower two-thirds of the bed; the upper third should not contain any recently added manure as it is apt to harm the roots of new plants.
PREPARATION AND PLANTING
In the vicinity of New York and further north, I think it will be found that spring planting is best. South of Philadelphia many roses are set out in the fall, for here they become well established before cold weather sets in, and are therefore ready to start active growth at the first touch of spring.
If spring planting is chosen the plants must be put in the ground early—at the very first opportunity—so that they will have time to become firmly established before hot weather. Pot-grown plants from a greenhouse cannot, of course, be set out until all danger from frost is past. Roses that are planted so late cannot be expected to show really satisfying results in bloom the first year. Roses that are planted early in the spring, if field-grown stock as explained below, will with proper cultivation give at least a reasonable amount of bloom the first year, though not so much as in later years.
One hears a great deal of argument on the question of whether roses are best grown on their own roots or when grown on a sturdier stock, such as Manetti for Hybrid Perpetuals and brier for Hybrid Teas, which are probably the best rose stocks for this country. It seems to be the general consensus of opinion that roses budded on these stocks will thrive much more luxuriantly and give much better blooms than those which depend upon their own root systems. It is necessary, however, to set the point at which the shoot is budded to the stock about two inches beneath the surface; otherwise there is the constant danger that suckers will spring from the root and, if overlooked for a time, these will kill the more desirable shoots.
Several kinds of roses are offered by the dealers for setting out in the spring. There are the pot-grown roses mentioned above—the only form in which many of the climbers may be readily obtained. Mail-order houses make a practice of sending out the Hybrid Perpetuals, Hybrid Teas and Teas also in this form of very young plants grown from cuttings under glass during the winter. Costing more, and surely far more dependable, are the field-grown roses that have originally been budded on Manetti or brier and, usually in two-year-old form, taken out of the ground the previous fall while dormant, to lie in cold houses until ready for planting. Such roses as these will surely bloom the first season and are far better equipped for the shock of being set into the open ground again than the pot-grown plants that have never had a taste of real garden life.
A word of warning might profitably be uttered against the cheap roses budded on multiflora stock, grown in Holland and sold in some of the department stores. They are short-lived and very poor in comparison with plants on brier and Manetti. Multiflora has been entirely discarded as a stock by English and Irish growers.
Roses on their own roots have the advantage of being cheaper, due to the saving of labor in striking cuttings rather than budding—one-year-old plants costing a dollar for six to a dozen; two-year and three-year-old bushes, which are, of course, far more desirable, cost more in proportion. Dormant, field-grown budded roses cost, in the two-year-old size, from thirty-five cents to a dollar each.
