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Joseph Hill (Smaller plant shows the growth)

The smaller plant shows the growth in the regular bed. This plant is well established and considerably older than the larger plant, which is grown in the special bed, and is only two years old. Note spray on foliage in the ground by protecting it from the sun's absorbing rays but also greatly reduce the actual temperature of the bed. In July and August the ground temperature of beds covered with this mulch is several degrees lower than adjacent beds. Later, when the average ground temperature is below seventy, there is little if any difference. In addition to this it prevents some seeds of weeds from germinating, so that this cover practically eliminates constant weeding. It also gives the beds a neat and most attractive appearance.

The best time to put on this peat moss is when the flower buds commence to form, except in very cool damp seasons, when it should be withheld until the ground surface becomes dried.

This peat moss may be secured from any nursery, and it should be ground fine by a machine, then sprinkled with water before it is placed on the beds, to keep it from blowing about. By putting on a sixinch blanket you will secure the finished depth required of from three to four inches.

In order to avoid breaking the rose canes the safest way to pack the moss properly into place is to trample on it carefully. It will be found that the roses so covered will give bloom about as early as plants left unprotected by moss, and during the hottest weather the covered plants will thrive to a greater degree, while the moss renders watering less necessary, and thereby somewhat prevents the likelihood of mildew. The beds tested with and without moss show that the covered plants bloom only one day later, but hold the bloom much longer.

In some of our beds we are putting a four-inch layer of peat moss at each side of the bed and at the ends, which should still further act in keeping the temperature low. We do not think this necessary, but in districts where dry, hot weather of long duration occurs, and in seashore planting, where soil must be imported, and where the existing extremely sandy soil surrounding the rose bed becomes very hot, such side protection should be of great benefit. The moss should go from the surface to the bottom of the bed and make a four-inch wall between the bed and the hotter ground around it. Where cement or boards have been used to keep out tree roots, this side protection is, of course, unnecessary.

Under normal conditions peat moss is worth about fourteen dollars a ton by the carload and one ton will cover over one hundred yards of rose beds, averaging three and one-half feet in width, the finished level of the moss being over three inches; in other words, two hundred pounds, at a cost of less than two dollars, would protect ten yards of rose bed, or about forty plants. The hundred-pound price is a little more expensive than the carload rate. Since the European War the cost of peat moss has naturally increased.