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Expert Opinions: Hybrid Teas

While the section bordering Lake Michigan from Chicago northward, called the North Shore district, is not a rosarian's paradise, we can have roses from early June until frost. This we can accomplish with but little care, except in the case of the Hybrid Teas, which require proper attention. Given this, they flood us with a shower of bloom that makes them worthy of cultivation, even if we treat them as annuals, and plant fresh stock each year. "Expensive!" you say. Well, yes, to a certain extent; but so are bedding-plants, and babies, and automobiles; but the results in all cases are worth the money. Some spend money lavishly for winter decorations that fade in the night. The same amount, spent for Hybrid Teas planted out early in the spring, gives one pleasure all summer. They are easily cared for, if the instructions given in this work are carried out. For those who possess small grounds and have but little time to attend to them we have that poor man's blessing, the Rosa rugosa, and its hybrids. This Japanese rose does not know how to "catch cold," and will stay longer with you and give far more pleasure than any poor relation. It blooms profusely in June and scatteringly all through summer, ripening its bright red, cherry-like berries during the late summer months. Its foliage is unusually fine and insect-proof. This feature alone should be highly appreciated, for the beauty of foliage is more than half the beauty of any plant. This rose was known to rosarians as early as 1845, but its beauty and hardiness and its value in hybridizing were not appreciated until some forty years afterward, when Mr. Robert C. S. Carman, of New Jersey, and M. Georges Bruant of Poitiers, France, gave us the hybrids, Agnes Emily Carman, and Mme. Georges Bruant. While the former was produced first, thus giving the honor of producing the first Rugosa hybrid to an American, it was delayed in its propagation, and the French rose was the first on the market. In all of Mr. Carman's experiments the Rugosa rose was the mother plant, and it is a singular fact that the Agnes Emily Carman rose, bearing flowers having the color and scent of the General Jacqueminot rose, should have Harison's Yellow as the male parent. The success of these hybridizers caused others to enter the field, and we now have a host of good forms, all hardy and reliable. Where these hybrids possess some Tea blood, unusually cold winters may kill them back somewhat. The handsome Rugosa hybrid, Conrad F. Meyer, is sometimes "cut back" in winter. This type and its hybrids are splendidly adapted for forming entire hedges or large groups, and may be depended upon for flower and foliage.