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Two Plants of Climbing Hermosa

Both received from the same grower and planted in the same kind of a bed at the same time and under the same conditions. The large plant gave extreme growth with practically no bloom; the small plant gave continuous bloom with dwarf growth. Shows the necessity of careful testing of a number of plants of each variety before ultimate conclusions may be drawn Japanese Multiflora. There may be other firms who are using this stock, but at the present time these budded plants may be secured from George H. Peterson, Fairlawn, N. J.; Bobbink & Atkins, Rutherford, N. J.

The budding of roses by American firms is certainly a great advance in rose culture and of inestimable value to our rose growers. Where it is possible to secure the varieties desired, we recommend American field-grown plants, budded and grown outof-doors by any well-known firm of nurserymen. For all large collections when American fieldgrown stock cannot be obtained, it is suggested that foreign budded stock be ordered through the nearest nurseryman.

In closing, a few words should be added regarding the different times of the year in which planting may be done. The temperature of the ground is as important as the time of the year, and the condition in which the plant is received has more to do with future success than either. Unless the growing season has begun and is well under way plants must be received in a dormant condition. We have planted roses at all times of the year and have found that if the plants were in proper condition and properly handled they have nearly always done well; if plants were not in proper condition, no matter how much care was used, failure practically always resulted unless plants received greenhouse care.

The advantage of planting roses in the autumn is that if they are dormant, i.e., if growth has stopped for the year prior to their shipment, and if they have not been subjected to heat during shipment causing growth to recommence, they will when planted become more or less fixed in their position, and little fibrous roots will have in most instances commenced growth before spring. Roses so planted and which have become so established will start off well in the spring, much better than a rose which has only been in the ground a short time.

This has been found equally true with own-root stock; in fact, if such stock is planted during the growing season little may be expected until the following year, and many deaths have resulted. Only a few own-root growers supply dormant fieldgrown stock, as most of them strike their cuttings inside. Own-root stock, field-grown, and two years old, is much stronger and better than greenhouse ownroot plants, but even then only the very strongest varieties do well.

Our advice to all planters with whom the expense of replacing dead plants is not of much moment is this: From October to May plant your roses as soon as you have decided that you want them. Undoubtedly, you will lose some if you plant after the growing season has begun; perhaps if you plant the last of the winter you will not secure as good roses as if you set out perfectly dormant plants in the late autumn, but no doubt a great many of them will come through and be better plants the following year than if you had waited, say from the early spring to the following autumn. In addition to this there is the pleasure of having the roses.

LET jus suppose that the beds are ready, the shipment has been ordered, and on one eventful morning it has arrived. You naturally take great pains to unpack carefully and to see that the varieties received check off properly with the order given. Sometimes one or more mistakes may be made in a large shipment, but as a usual thing great care has been exercised both in the selection and packing of the order, and it should arrive in good shape and the varieties should be as ordered. Very often the nurseryman will add a plant or two for good measure. The plants should be unpacked inside some building, unless perfect weather conditions prevail, viz., a damp, moist day-neither cold nor hot. After having been checked off, the plants should be carefully covered so that the roots will neither be frozen nor dried out by too much wind or heat. Usually the roses come packed in moss which should be left on them. If there is no moss, cover the roots with damp earth, and when taken outside keep them protected with any kind of wrapping, such as burlap or gunny sacks; or, better still, keep them in buckets or tubs of water, except in freezing weather, when you should not plant. This is most important so that the roots may be placed in the ground in proper condition. Before taking the roses to their beds a small plan should be made of just how they are to be planted; if for a formal or landscape effect this has no doubt been all arranged beforehand. If, however, they are to be grown in the ordinary form of bed it is a very simple matter to have the bed arranged for their reception.

Knowing what roses are coming, and the distance apart in which they should be planted (covered in the lists), decide on the order in which they should be placed; planting alphabetically is the easiest way of telling where any particular rose is located.

The bed should be three and a half feet wide for the best Hybrid Teas and Teas; for Hybrid Perpetuals and the very strongest growers four feet is better; while for smaller growing roses a three-foot bed is sufficient. For all beds plant the roses ten inches from the edge and the proper distance apart. There should be two rows of plants, each row ten inches from the side of the bed. With one row plant the first rose ten inches from the end of the bed; with the other row plant the first rose twenty inches from the same end of the bed. This does not bring the plants opposite one another and gives them a trifle more room in which to grow, making them nearly the same distance apart each way. These beds as given are the most convenient and economical and give fine results. The most perfect results are obtained with a single row of plants in an eighteeninch bed, but the difference is so slight that except where room is of no moment this is not advocated.

When it is desired to form masses of color by planting blocks of roses in specially shaped beds, a trifle more room should be given to the inside plants because they will not receive the same amount of ventilation which they do in the beds as advocated. For our own beds a drawing is made, as indicated by sketch below, which is found very easy to correct from time to time if a rose dies or is taken out for any reason and another substituted. Suppose, for example, it is decided to put in four roses each of the E N W BED