Making a Rose Garden

by Henry H. Saylor

A dormant Tea rose as it is received from the grower for planting in March. After planting it should be still further pruned.

Before setting the plants examine each carefully and cut off the broken roots with a sharp knife, as well as all eyes that may appear on the root stock, in order to forestall suckers. The plants should be set immediately upon their receipt from the nurseryman, so that they will not become dried out. If they seem dry it may be well to puddle the roots in thin mud just before setting. Make the hole large enough to accommodate all of the plant's roots without crowding, remembering to put the budding point not less or more than two inches below the surface and with the roots spread out nearly horizontally, but inclining downward towards their ends and without crossing one another. This will not be an easy matter, for in shipment the roots will have probably been so compressed that they extend almost directly downward from the collar. After the plants have been firmly set and the earth carefully packed in around the roots, rake the soil to loosen it up over the whole surface. The soil will probably be moist enough at the time to need no watering.

With the pot-grown plants, the moist ball of earth that comes about the roots is carefully retained intact and placed in the hole prepared for the plant. Set the plant firmly in place by pressure with the soles of your shoes, give a generous watering and finally break up the surface of the soil with a rake.

It is absolutely essential to keep the surface of the ground loosened with a hoe and a sharp steel rake throughout the summer. After very hard rain loosen the soil as soon as it is dry enough to work, to conserve the moisture.

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FERTILIZING

In striking contrast to the exquisite beauty of the rose is the food that we must give it in abundance if we would have the most healthy plants. But for the true rose enthusiast the turning over of a muck heap to find manure in just the right form, or the dilution of the by-products of the cow barn with water to make the best stimulant, have nothing about them that is in the least objectionable.

If the soil at our disposal is inclined to be rich in clay, we can probably do no better than incorporate well-decomposed stable manure with it, by raking it, well pulverized, into the surface in the early spring. In sandy or gravelly soils, however, cow manure or that from the pigsty will serve far better. It must be remembered that when properly set out the rose plant is comparatively shallow-rooted, so that this raking of fine old manure into the soil must be just that, and not the deep digging of half-rotted manure into the bed with a spading-fork. The aim in the method advocated is to put the solid manure where the spring rains will carry it in time to the feeding roots, and in the liquid form in which it is readily assimilated.

The theory of this manurial feeding will make clear the fact that a proper application of liquid manure has practically all the advantages of the former method without its drawbacks. For solid manure, if applied to the beds in quantities sufficient to be of real value, has a tendency to keep the needed air out of the top soil, and to bring in its train an abundance of weeds that will be hard to exterminate. So that, with the exception of light sandy soils, where the humus is needed, we shall do well to feed the rose garden liquid nourishment.

The time when this stimulant will be most effective is in the months of May and June, when most of the plants are putting all their efforts into the forming buds. Withhold the liquid in dry spells, for it is most appreciated immediately after a good, soaking rain.