If one desires to go to the trouble, he may protect these and also the tea roses even in the northern states by mounding earth about the plants and then building a little shed or house about them (or inverting a large box over them) and packing about the plants with leaves or straw. Some persons make boxes that can be knocked down in the spring and stored. The roof should shed water. This method is better than tying the plants up in straw and burlaps. Some of the hybrid teas do not need so much protection as this, even in central New York.
The selection of kinds should be made in reference to the locality and purpose for which the roses are wanted. For bedding roses, those that are of free-blooming habit, even though the individual flowers are not large, are the ones that should be chosen. For permanent beds, the so-called hybrid perpetual or remontant roses, blooming principally in June, will be found to be hardy at the North.—But if one can give them proper protection during the winter, then the Bengal, tea, bourbon, and hybrid teas or everblooming roses, may be selected.
In sections where the temperature does not fall below 20° above zero, any of the monthly roses will live without protection. At the South the remontants and other deciduous roses do not do as well as farther North. The tender climbers—Noisettes, climbing teas, bengals, and others—are excellent for pillars, arbors, and verandas at the South, but are fit only for the conservatory in those parts of the country where there is severe freezing. For the open air at the North we have to depend for climbing roses mainly on the prairie climbers, and the ramblers (polyanthas), with their recent pink and white varieties. The trailing Rosa Wichuraiana is also a useful addition as an excellent hardy rose for banks.
For the northern states a choice small list is as follows: hybrid perpetuals, Mrs. John Laing, Wilder, Ulrich Brunner, Frau Karl Druschki, Paul Neyron; dwarf polyanthas, Clothilde Soupert, Madame Norbert Levavasseur (Baby Rambler), Mlle. Cecile Brunner; hybrid teas, Grus an Teplitz, La France, Caroline Testout, Kaiserin Victoria, Killarney; teas, Pink Maman Cochet, White Maman Cochet.
The following classified lists embrace some of the varieties of recognized merit for various purposes. There are many others, but it is desirable to limit the list to a few good kinds. The intending planter should consult recent catalogues.
Free-blooming monthly roses for bedding.—These are recommended not for the individual beauty of the flower—although some are very fine—but because of their suitability for the purpose indicated. If to be carried over winter in the open ground, they need to be protected north of Washington. In beds, pegging down the branches will be found desirable. Those marked (A) have proved hardy in southern Indiana without protection, although they are more satisfactory with it. (The name of the class to which the variety belongs is indicated by the initial letter or letters of the class name: C., China; T., Tea; H.T., Hybrid Tea; B., Bourbon; Pol., Polyantha; N., Noisette; H.P., Hybrid Perpetual; Pr., Prairie Climber):—
Free-blooming monthly roses for summer cutting and beds.—These are somewhat less desirable for purely bedding purposes than the preceding; but they afford finer flowers and are useful for their fine buds. Those marked (A) are hardy in southern Indiana without protection:—
Hybrid perpetual, or remontant, roses,—These do not flower as freely as the groups previously mentioned; but the individual flowers are very large and unequaled by any other roses. They flower chiefly in June. Those named are among the finest sorts, and some of them flower more or less continuously:—
Hardy climbing, or pillar roses.—These bloom but once during the season. They come after the June roses, however,—a good season—and at that time are masses of flowers. They require only slight pruning.