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Hints on Hybridization

In the climate of the Middle Atlantic States, it is not possible to grow some of the roses which succeed so wonderfully in the south of England and in France. However, there is a vast area in the United States in which all of those more delicate roses may be successfully grown, more particularly in the southeast and southwest; in fact in every part of our great country where there is little frost all these wonderful Teas and Climbing Teas and Noisettes may be successfully cultivated. In addition to which the Hybrid Teas will be found fine for garden cultivation, while the Hybrid Tea Climbers and many of the weaker Hybrid Polyantha Climbers will also do well.

In the very coldest climates the best method is to grow in good-sized pots or boxes, and in the autumn when frost comes move to a cellar or building where extreme cold will not penetrate. In the case of a cellar with an earthen floor the pots can be placed beneath the surface. The only thing necessary during the winter is to give the plants several waterings. In the spring the rose pots or boxes should be carried out and again placed beneath the surface of the soil in their old bed and as the rose increases in size a larger pot must be provided. Roses are being grown on the Gulf of St. Lawrence where the temperature reaches forty degrees below zero; they are protected during winter by the device of covering each bush with a small keg, filled with earth. The Hybrid Perpetuals do best in this locality; even the strongest of the Hybrid Teas tried give poor results. In the more moderate climate of the Middle Atlantic States and in approximate temperatures it would be possible to grow many of the more delicate roses with the heaviest winter protection.

One of the best means of protecting roses from the cold and the wind is a good brick or stone wall. It is expensive, but even a low wall will make it possible to grow the smaller Teas, and a four-foot wall would be of great use in protecting low bushes from the heavy winds, while with a six- or eight-foot wall it would be possible to care for the wonderfully blooming Climbing Teas. The tender Cherokee rose is being successfully grown near Philadelphia on the south side of a wall. The ideal exposure would be a wall facing the south or southeast and, as the winter approaches, the climbers could be taken down from their fastenings on the wall and covered over with earth and the smaller roses cut back and heavily covered. In an ideal rose garden, with such a wall completely surrounding it, there would be a great opportunity not only for the proper growing of many of these very beautiful varieties which otherwise one cannot hope to raise, but by utilizing both sides of the wall it would be possible to bring roses into bloom at different times. On the north side only the very hardiest of the climbing roses would do at all well. Wichuraianas and hardy Polyanthas would be roses to try, and if four such roses of the same variety were planted on four different exposures they would come into bloom at various times, thus lengthening the period of bloom.

A difference in soil and situation affects the time of bloom to some extent. A north slope will come in slightly later than a southern exposure; but in colder sections, and particularly in sections where late frost is liable to occur after growth is started, a north slope is a safe exposure. In such a situation the early spring sun will not reach the roses as it would on a southern slope, and they will not be forced into growth only to be killed back afterwards by the late frosts. It has been well proved that high ground will not have as much frost as low, wellsheltered ground, for in the latter the frost will settle in the late spring and cause damage, whereas on the high ground the air will have free access and will The first bloom on two Hybrid Tea seedlings, crosses of Primerose and Duchess of Wellington. Both seeds taken from the same seed hep. These plants Note the difference in color of seedlings of the same breeding were about two months old from germination when the blooms were produced. not allow the frost to remain, as it seems to do in low-lying ground.

Proximity to the ocean or any large body of water often gives a more even temperature than is found in inland sections. Near the sea coast of New England, where cool summers are encountered, wonderful beauty is shown by many roses. There is a very interesting list of roses for the locality of Chicago published in "How to Make a Flower Garden," in which Mr. W. C. Egan gives his experience with roses near Jackson Park, Chicago. From the list which he selects it would seem that the hardiest Hybrid Teas would do well there, as his article included with the Hybrid Perpetuals several Hybrid Teas and Teas which are not among our hardiest varieties.

On the Pacific Coast roses do wonderfully well.