In planting, care must be taken to avoid exposing the roots to the drying of sun and air. If dormant field-grown plants have been purchased, all broken and bruised roots will need to be cut off smoothly and squarely. The tops also will need cutting back. The cut should always be made just above a bud, preferably on the outer side of the cane. Strong-growing sorts may be cut back one-fourth or one-half, according as they have good or bad roots. Weaker-growing kinds, as most of the everblooming roses, should be cut back-most severely. In both cases it is well to remove the weak growth first. Plants set out from pots will usually not need cutting back.
Hardy roses, especially the strong field-grown plants, should be set in the early fall if practicable. It is desirable to get them out just as soon as they have shed their foliage. If not then, they may be planted in the early spring. At that season it is advisable to plant them as early as the ground is dry enough, and before the buds have started to grow. Dormant pot-plants may also be set out early, but they should be perfectly inactive. Setting them out early in this condition is preferable to waiting till they are in foliage and full bloom, as is so often required by buyers. Growing pot-plants may be planted any time in spring after danger of frost is past, or even during the summer, if they are watered and shaded for a few days.
Open-ground plants should be set about as deep as they stood previously, excepting budded or grafted plants, which should be set so that the union of the stock and graft will be 2 to 4 inches below the surface of the ground. Plants from pots may also be set an inch deeper than they stood in the pots. The soil should be in a friable condition. Roses should have the soil compact immediately about their roots; but we should distinguish between planting roses and setting fence posts. The dryer the soil the more firmly it may be pressed.
As a general statement, it may be said that roses on their own roots will prove more satisfactory for the general run of planters 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 and the grower is alert, this difficulty is reduced to a minimum. There is no question but that finer roses may be grown than from plants on their own roots, withstanding the heat of the American summer, if the grower takes the proper precautions.
Pruning roses.
In pruning roses, determine whether they bloom on canes arising each year from the ground or near the ground, or whether they make perennial tops; also form a clear idea whether an abundance of flowers is wanted for garden effects, or whether large specimen blooms are desired.
If one is pruning the hybrid perpetual or remontant roses (which are now the common garden roses), he cuts back all very vigorous canes perhaps one-half their length immediately after the June bloom is past in order to produce new, strong shoots for fall flowering, and also to make good bottoms for the next year’s bloom. Very severe summer pruning, however, is likely to produce too much leafy growth. In the fall, all canes may be shortened to 3 feet, four or five of the best canes being left to each plant. In spring, these canes are again cut back to fresh wood, leaving perhaps four or five good buds on each cane; from these buds the flowering canes of the year are to come. If it is desired to secure fewer blooms, but of the best size and quality, fewer canes may be left and only two or three new shoots be allowed to spring from each one the next spring.
The rule in trimming all cane-bearing roses is, cut back weak growing kinds severely; strong growers moderately.
Climbing and pillar roses need only the weak branches and the tips shortened in. Other hardy kinds will usually need cutting back about one-fourth or one-third, according to the vigor of the branches, either in the spring or fall.
The everblooming or hybrid tea roses will need to have all dead wood removed at the time of uncovering them in spring. Some pruning during the summer is also useful in encouraging growth and flowers. The stronger branches that have flowered may be cut back one-half or more.