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

by Samuel Browne Parsons

According to De Pronville, a French writer, there were, in 1814, only 182 varieties of roses, and the advantage of multiplication by seed is sufficiently evinced by the fact that there are now more than 6,000 varieties, the poorest of which are much better than any which existed at that day. Among the earliest cultivators of roses from the seed, were three Frenchmen: Dupont, Vilmorin, and Descemet. The former was the gardener of the Empress Josephine. When the allied armies entered Paris, in 1815, the garden of Descemet contained 10,000 seedling roses, which Vibert, in his anxiety to secure from destruction, succeeded in carrying to his garden in the interior.

In England, very little attention seems, at that time, to have been paid to the production of new varieties from seed, and the English relied very much upon the continent for their choice roses. Now, however, they are abundantly redeeming their reputation, and many fine varieties have been produced by English rose-growers, at the head of whom stands Rivers, whose efforts are seconded by Wood, Paul, Lane, and others. They are still, however, compelled to yield to the French cultivators; for to these we are indebted for our very finest roses—for Lamarque, Solfaterre, La Reine, Chromatella, the new white Perpetuals, Souvenir de Malmaison, and others.

The varieties of roses became increasingly great after the introduction of the Bengals, Noisettes, Teas, and Bourbons—all these classes producing readily from seed, and in endless variety. There still remains a willingness to cast aside the old for the new, and however much we may regret this disposition, for the sake of some old and truly deserving favorites, we cannot feel willing to denounce it, for it exhibits a gratifying evidence of a desire for improvement, and the existence of a spirit of progress, which, dissatisfied with things as they are, is continually striving after nearer approaches to perfection. If, in this strife, some of our old favorites have been cast aside, we are more than abundantly compensated for their loss by the new claimants to our regard.

Those who intend to raise new roses from seed should select varieties differing as much as possible in color and habit, and possessing broad, thick, and well-formed petals; their stamens should also be visible, and their pistils perfect; for perfectly double flowers, in which all the organs of propagation—the stamens and pistils—are changed into petals, never yield seed. These should be planted together in a rich soil, and as far as possible from any other roses. If there are among them any two varieties whose peculiarities it is desired to unite in a single plant, place these next to each other, and there may possibly be such an admixture of the pollen as will produce the desired result.

Care should be taken not to affect the proper maturity of the seed by taking off the petals, but allow them to fall by their own decay. The seed should be perfectly mature before it is gathered, which will be immediately after the first hard frost. After the hips have been gathered, the seeds can be taken out with the point of a knife, or, if there is a large quantity, they can be put on a table and bruised with a wooden roller; the covering of the seeds is so tough that they cannot easily be injured. When the hip is sufficiently bruised, it can be plunged into a vessel of water; and by continued friction, the seeds can be easily separated from the pulp which surrounds them, and will generally fall to the bottom. After being dried a few days in the shade, they should be placed just beneath the surface, in pots filled with fine sand, or peat earth, where they can be kept until wanted for planting in the spring. The seeds which are not thus placed in sand soon after they are gathered will not grow until the second, and if delayed very long, until the third year. In this case, however, their germination can be hastened by sowing them in earthen pans, which are placed upon a hot-bed or under a glass frame. The seeds being thus planted immediately after being gathered, the sand should be kept moistened through the winter, and the pots put out of the reach of frost. Mice are very fond of these seeds, and will destroy them unless they are protected. The pots should be kept out of all heat, excepting what may be required to keep the frost from them, until the first of April, in this latitude, and at the South, earlier; this is requisite, in order to prevent their germinating before all danger of frost is past in the open air. At the time the pots or pans are brought from their sheltered place into a warm temperature, beds for the plants should be made in the open air, that they may be ready the moment they are required. For these an eastern aspect is the best, and in our hot climate, on the north side of a fence would answer very well; if they are in an open piece of ground, they should be sheltered by an awning from the hot sun. The soil should be a rich, light sandy mould, with a little peat, if convenient, and should be finely pulverized. The seeds should now be closely watched, and the moment they are seen pushing up the sand, in order to obtain light, they should be taken out singly with the point of a knife, taking a small portion of the sand with them. The bed having been previously watered, and raked fine, drills can be made, half an inch deep and about a foot apart, in which the germinating seeds can be placed, at a distance of six inches from each other, and then carefully covered with finely pulverized soil. Having commenced germinating in the pots, the seeds, now in the genial warmth of a spring sun, but protected from its fiercest rays, will soon show their heads above the ground, and striking deep root in the rich soil, grow rapidly. While the plants are small, care should be taken to keep the ground constantly moist.

We are aware that this process is somewhat new with rose seeds, although it has been long practiced with Rhododendrons and other plants, but we are convinced of its superiority to the old mode. The delicate roots of young plants are very susceptible of injury by change, and many are frequently lost by the first potting; this risk is avoided by transplanting the seed before the first root fibre is formed, and when, being in the act of germination, there can be no possible danger of its rotting, which is frequently a serious objection to sowing seeds at once in the open ground. The trouble and risk of loss occasioned by subsequent re-pottings are also avoided, and the plants have, by this mode, full liberty to grow as luxuriantly as they choose, with only the slight attention required by watering and shading. As the plan of Rivers is materially different, we will give his directions in detail, admitting, at the same time, that, under some circumstances, it may be preferable to that we have presented above.

“The hips of all the varieties of roses, will, in general, be fully ripe by the beginning of November; they should then be gathered and kept entire, in a flower pot filled with dry sand, carefully guarded from mice. In February, or by the first week in March, they must be broken to pieces with the fingers, and sown in flower pots, such as are generally used for sowing seeds in, called ‘seed pans’; but for rose seeds they should not be too shallow; nine inches in depth will be enough. These should be nearly, but not quite, filled with a rich compost of rotten manure and sandy loam, or peat; the seeds may be covered, to the depth of about half an inch, with the same compost; a piece of kiln wire must then be placed over the pot, fitting closely at the rim, so as to prevent the ingress of mice, which are passionately fond of rose seeds; there must be space enough between the wire and the mould for the young plants to come up—half an inch will probably be found enough; the pots of seed must never be placed under glass, but kept constantly in the open air, in a full sunny exposure, as the wire will shade the mould and prevent its drying. Water should be given occasionally, in dry weather. The young plants will perhaps make their appearance in April or May, but very often the seed does not vegetate until the second spring. When they have made their ‘rough leaves,’ that is, when they have three or four leaves, they must be carefully raised with the point of a narrow pruning-knife, potted into small pots, and placed in the shade; if the weather is very hot and dry, they may be covered with a hand-glass for a few days. They may remain in those pots a month, and then be planted out into a rich border; by the end of August those that are robust growers will have made shoots long enough for budding.” Until the plants have become firmly rooted, and, in fact, through the most of the first summer, they should be protected from the heat of the sun; a cheap mode of doing this is to put up rough posts, connect them by pieces of wood, lay rough slats across these, and cover the whole with straw or cornstalks; but a much neater covering is a good canvas awning, supported by posts, which can be taken down when not needed, and will last many years. The Bourbons and Bengals, with the Teas and Noisettes, will sometimes bloom the first season; but as the plant will be weak, a correct opinion cannot be formed of its character until the second summer. The summer roses, or those which bloom only once in the season, never show bloom until their third, and sometimes not until their fourth and fifth year. It is well to let all the plants remain in the seed-bed until the fifth year, as some which prove unpromising at first may result in something really good. All that prove bad the fifth year can be marked for destruction, or cut down to receive the buds of the good varieties. In order to obtain a good bloom as soon as possible, it is well to have ready some strong stocks of the Greville, Mannetti, or any other free-growing rose, into which buds can be inserted of any of the seedlings whose habit and general appearance promise good flowers, and whose growth has been sufficient to furnish good buds. The next spring the stock should be cut down to the bud, which will then make luxuriant shoots, and produce flowers the same season, if an Everblooming variety; but if one of the Summer roses, not until the next season. The third spring let every branch be cut down to three or four eyes, when it will more fully develop its character, and will often continue improving until its fifth or sixth year.

The first winter, the young plants will require protection from the cold by some kind of litter, and the Bengal, Tea, and Noisette varieties will always need it during the winter. Where there are any plants of these latter, whose habit and appearance promise something excellent, they can be potted on the approach of winter, kept in a cool temperature, free from frost, and replanted in the spring.

When it is desired that the young plant should possess the properties of two well-known flowers, resort is had to artificial impregnation.

Although the existence of sexuality in plants appears to have been known to the ancients, and is mentioned not only by Pliny, Claudian, and Theophrastus, but also by Ebu-Alwan, in a work on agriculture written originally in Chaldaic; yet it does not seem to have been generally admitted by botanists, until announced by Linnæus in 1731. From this time the possibility of the existence of hybrid plants was admitted, and Linnæus, with many subsequent authors, published observations tending to show that, even in the natural state, new species were formed by two different plants, the pistil of one having been fecundated by the stamens of the other. This impregnation has been artificially applied, by modern cultivators, to the production of new varieties of fruits and flowers. With the Geranium, Fuchsia, Pæony, Pansy, and other flowers, it has produced remarkable results. The mode of impregnating the Rose artificially has been so little practiced with us, and has been so well described by Rivers, that we prefer detailing the process in his own words: