Parsons on the Rose / A Treatise on the Propagation, Culture and History of the Rose

by Samuel Browne Parsons

Every variety of Rose, in the hands of a skillful man, will grow and bloom well in pots, although the Bengal and its sub-classes, and the more dwarf Hardy Roses, are the most easily managed. The great point in potting is to imitate planting in the open ground as nearly as possible. The soil used should possess all the nutritious elements required in the open ground, and, if possible, in somewhat greater abundance. More manure should be used, because the frequent watering required by plants in pots must inevitably wash away a portion of the fertilizing matter. There is nothing better than one portion of stable manure, and three of turf, or leaf-mould, all well decomposed, and mixed with a little pure peat earth. A portion of night-soil, well incorporated with charcoal, is also very excellent. Charcoal is the most powerful absorbent known; it retains the nutritious elements in the night-soil, prevents their being washed away by watering, and gives them out as the plant needs them. English gardeners should bear in mind that roses require in this climate a stronger soil than in England. Half-gallon pots are the best size at first, from which, by repeated pottings, corresponding with the growth of the plant, they can be shifted to one or two-gallon pots. The size of the pots should, however, be regulated by the extent of the roots; it should be just sufficiently large to allow the roots to go in without crowding. A few broken pieces of pots or small lumps should be put in the bottom for drainage. When the plant is to be taken from the open ground, select one, the roots of which are not too large, and with a sharp spade cut around it a ball of earth about the size of the pot, depriving it at the same time of a portion of its top, as directed in remarks on pruning. It should stand in this state about a fortnight, until the roots have become callused, and the plant is somewhat accustomed to the loss of its roots and branches. It can then be safely taken up at any season, and transferred to the pot, which should then be filled in with earth, firm and solid. If potted in the autumn, after the leaves have fallen and the wood become mature, the above previous preparation is not required, but the plant can be taken up without a ball of earth, and after being pruned of its bruised or broken roots, placed in the pot. It should then be protected from the frost and light until it has entirely recovered from its change of habitation, when it can be placed in any cool spot free from frost, until it is wanted for forcing.

Roses may, without difficulty, by the above previous management, be forced to bloom in the latter part of winter, but where their bloom is desired at Christmas or New-Year, they should be gradually prepared for the space of a year previous. To produce roses the latter part of winter, our own management has been simple and effective, giving us as many flowers as a green-house and vinery full of pots could afford. After putting the plants in pots, as directed above, pruning them down to eight or ten buds, and hardening them in a shady place, they are removed to the vinery before the frost out of doors can have injured them, and cut down to two buds. The house is then kept as cool as possible, while the frost is carefully excluded by a light fire at night, and on fine days the sashes are opened, and plenty of air admitted. They are thus kept in a dormant state until the first of the year, when the heat is gradually increased to about 70° by day, sinking as low as 35° at night. Care is taken to give them sufficient watering, and in their whole management to subject them as nearly as possible to the conditions of open culture. When the green-fly appears, it is immediately destroyed by fumigation with tobacco, and the plants are subsequently syringed with clean water. With this management, they soon begin to show signs of life, the bud commences pushing forth its delicate, light green shoot, the leaves then appear, the plant, soon growing with luxuriance, is clothed with rich foliage, and about the middle of the third month, the house presents a mass of thrifty growth and perfect bloom.

By the means above described, roses may be forced into bloom the latter part of winter; and by observing some care to bring them into the house at different periods, in regular succession, a bloom can be enjoyed through all the spring months, until roses bloom in the open ground. This process cannot, however, be continued two years in succession without weakening the plant; and although, if placed in a shady spot, and allowed to rest during the summer, it may sufficiently recover to perform the same work another year, it is desirable, if possible, to have fresh plants, whose strength has not been exhausted by the unusual effort attending the production of flowers out of season.

The preceding directions apply more particularly to late forcing; and although the same means, with an earlier application of heat, will produce flowers early in winter, yet the true art of early forcing consists in gradually bringing the Rose out of its season; and it is only by this mode that thrifty plants and perfect flowers can be produced before Christmas.

Two years, and sometimes three, should be employed in preparing a Rose for early forcing. Having been prepared by digging around it with a sharp spade some two weeks previously, the plant should be taken up immediately after the first frost, placed in a cold frame a few days, to harden, and then taken to the green-house or vinery. A moderate heat should then be given it, with plenty of light and air to prevent its being drawn. The flower-buds should be plucked off as soon as they appear, and no bloom should be allowed. It will thus make fine growths, and can be plunged in the open ground as soon as danger of frost has passed in the spring. Here it can remain during the summer, to ripen its wood, and will require no care except a little watering in dry weather, and an occasional taking up and examination, that the roots may not push through the hole of the pot, and become fixed in the ground, in which case the plants would make too strong a growth, and suffer on being removed from the new-made root. In October it can be placed in a pot one size larger, pruned by thinning out all the weak branches, and shortening the strong ones down to two eyes. It should then go through the same process as before, carefully picking off all the flower-buds, promoting its growth until completed, when let it be put in a cold frame until all danger of frost is over, and then plunge it in the ground to ripen its wood. As its vegetation was started a month earlier the last year, it can now be taken up in September, repotted and pruned as before, and then taken into the green-house. The temperature should then be gradually raised to about 55° until the plant has commenced growing, and then gradually increased to 65° or 70°, giving as much air as can be obtained without lowering the temperature.

All useless shoots should be kept down, and all the flower-buds taken off that threaten to be abortive. In fumigating for the green-fly, care should be taken not to do it too strongly, but repeated and gentle doses at night are better. We have known many fine plants ruined by fumigation in the hands of an inexperienced person. A good bloom can be obtained the second year by this mode; but if the amateur has the patience to wait until a third, he will be rewarded by a thrifty and compact habit, rich foliage, and beautiful bloom for two months before Christmas; and if there are a number of plants to be brought into the green-house a week after each other, he can have them in bloom until the late forced roses appear. At all periods subsequent to their commencement, care should be taken to give them sufficient moisture, and as much air as is consistent with the state of growth and the external temperature. Without water, they will neither grow nor bloom well. Under glass, every other day, and in some cases, twice a week is sufficient.

The great principle to be borne in mind in forcing roses is, that sudden excitement is fatal, and that a plant should never be taken from the open ground into a heated house without being gradually prepared for it. This principle is particularly applicable to deciduous roses. The Remontant and Bourbon, the Bengal and its sub-classes, which grow and bloom through the whole year, are not so liable to be injured by exciting treatment.

Cuttings of these that are struck in the spring and planted out in the open ground may have their tops slightly pruned, and their buds all pinched off during the summer, to encourage the formation of wood and of a close head.

About the last days of summer, or the first of autumn, they can be taken up and placed in quart pots, with a soil composed of one half loam, one quarter cow-dung, and one quarter peat. After being slightly pruned, and left in the shade for a week, they can be placed in frames, protected at night from frost, and exposed to the air in mild weather for some two months, when they can be removed, a few at a time, into the green-house, and subjected to a moderately increased temperature. They will soon bloom well, and will succeed each other throughout the winter and spring, until roses bloom in the open air. Like the deciduous roses, they require to be protected against the green-fly by syringing, and if that does not answer, by fumigation with tobacco.

The Bengal, however, like the deciduous roses, will bloom better the second winter than the first, by shifting them into larger pots, pruning them, cutting off all the flower-buds, and giving them very little water the latter part of summer. They can then be put into the frames, and treated as before. The Bengal Rose is very easily forced in this way; and if the temperature is at first kept during the day at 45°, and gradually increased to 60°, there can be little difficulty in obtaining beautiful and healthy plants. This temperature can be obtained in any green-house or vinery. The latter is becoming more common, and when it is provided with heating apparatus, there can be nothing better for roses. We have forced them very successfully in one of our own vineries, one hundred and twenty feet long, twelve feet wide, ten feet high in the rear, three and a half in front, and heated by hot water. But as there may be many who desire a cheaper structure, we will give the description of one used by Rivers, (the best rose-grower known), with his mode of managing roses in a structure of that character. “A pit, ten or twelve feet long, and eight feet wide, just high enough to stand upright in, with a door at one end, and a sunken path in the centre, a raised bed on each side of the path, and an 18-inch Arnott’s stove at the farther end, opposite to the door, with a pipe leading into a small brick chimney outside, (a chimney is indispensable), will give a great abundance of forced roses from February to the end of May. To ensure this, a supply must be kept ready, so that, say twenty may be placed in the forcing pit about the middle of December, a like number in the middle of January, and the same about the middle of February; they must not be pruned till taken into the house, when each shoot should be cut back to two or three buds for the formation of strong shoots. The fire should be lighted at seven in the morning, and suffered to burn out about the same hour in the evening, unless in frosty weather, when it must be kept burning till late at night, so as to exclude the frost; and for this purpose, double mats should be placed on the lights. The thermometer should not, by fire heat, be higher in the day than 70° during December, January, and February; at night it may sink to 35° without injury. The temporary rise in a sunny day is of no consequence, but no air must be admitted at such times, or the plants will exhaust themselves, and immediately shed their leaves. When the sun begins to have power, and in sunny weather, toward the end of February, the plants may be syringed every morning about 10 o’clock with tepid water, and smoked with tobacco at night on the least appearance of the Aphis, or green-fly. To ensure a fine and full crop of flowers, the plants should be established one year in pots, and plunged in tan or sawdust, in an open, exposed place, that their shoots may be well ripened; the pots must be often removed, or, what is better, place the pots on slates, to prevent their roots striking into the ground. With the Remontant or Perpetuals, even if only potted in November previous, a very good crop of flowers may often be obtained, and a second crop better than the first; for the great advantage of forcing Remontant roses is, that after blooming in the green-house or drawing-room, their young shoots may be cut down to within two or three buds of their base, and the plants placed again in the forcing-house, and a second crop of flowers obtained. The same mode may be followed also with the Bourbon, China, and tea-scented roses; with the latter, indeed, a third crop may be often obtained. Toward the end of March, when the second crop of flowers is coming on, the plants may be gradually inured to the air, by opening the sashes in mild weather. This will make them hardy and robust. Syringing should be practiced every morning and evening; but when the flower-buds are ready to open, this must be confined to the stems of the plants and the pots; otherwise the flowers will be injured by the moisture. Air must at first only be given about noon; care must be taken to remove the plants from the forcing-house to the green-house or drawing-room before their blossoms expand; they may then be kept in beauty many days. We have not found the check which the plants receive by this sudden change of temperature at all detrimental. During their second growth, the plants should be watered once a week with manure-water, and the surface of the pot occasionally stirred. Two pounds of guano to ten gallons of water forms the very best species of liquid manure; this should be stirred before it is used.