THE GROWING OF THE ORNAMENTAL PLANTS
INSTRUCTIONS ON PARTICULAR KINDS - Continued
Tender climbing, or pillar roses. For conservatories, and the South as
far north as Tennessee.--Those marked with (A)are
half-hardy north of the Ohio River, or about as hardy as the hybrid
teas. These need no pruning except a slight shortening-in of the shoots
and a thinning out of the weak growth.
Yellow--Maréchal Niel, N.
Solfaterre, N.
(A)Gloire de Dijon, T.
Yellow Banksia (Banksiana).
White--(A)Aimée Vibert, N.
Bennett's Seedling (Ayrshire). White
Banksia (Banksiana).
Red--(A)Reine Marie Henriette, T.
James Sprunt, C.
Roses in winter (by C.E. Hunn).
Although the growing of roses under glass must be left chiefly to
florists, advice may be useful to those who have conservatories:--
When growing forcing roses for winter flowers, florists usually provide
raised beds, in the best-lighted houses they have. The bottom of the bed
or bench is left with cracks between the boards for drainage; the cracks
are covered with inverted strips of sod, and the bench is then covered
with 4 or 5 inches of fresh, fibrous loam. This is made from rotted
sods, with decayed manure incorporated at the rate of about one part in
four. Sod from any drained pasture-land makes good soil. The plants are
set on the bed in the spring or early summer, from 12 to 18 inches
apart, and are grown there all summer.
During the winter they are kept at a temperature of 58° to 60° at night,
and from 5° to 10° warmer during the day. The heating pipes are often
run under the benches, not because the rose likes bottom heat, but to
economize space and to assist in drying out the beds in case of their
becoming too wet. The greatest care is required in watering, in guarding
the temperature, and in ventilation. Draughts result in checks to the
growth and in mildewed foliage.
Dryness of the air, especially from fire heat, is followed by the
appearance of the minute red spider on the leaves. The aphis, or green
plant louse, appears under all conditions, and must be kept down by the
use of some of the tobacco preparations (several of which are on
the market).
For the red spider, the chief means of control is syringing with either
clear or soapy water. If the plants are intelligently ventilated and
given, at all times, as much fresh air as possible, the red spider is
less likely to appear. For mildew, which is easily recognized by its
white, powdery appearance on the foliage, accompanied with more or less
distortion of the leaves, the remedy is sulfur in some form or other.
The flowers of sulfur may be dusted thinly over the foliage; enough
merely slightly to whiten the foliage is sufficient. It may be dusted on
from the hand in a broadcast way, or applied with a powder-bellows,
which is a better and less wasteful method. Again, a paint composed of
sulfur and linseed oil may be applied to a part of one of the steam or
hot-water heating pipes. The fumes arising from this are not agreeable
to breathe, but fatal to mildew. Again, a little sulfur may be sprinkled
here and there on the cooler parts of the greenhouse flue. Under no
circumstances, however, ignite any sulfur in a greenhouse. The vapor of
burning sulfur is death to plants.
Propagation of house roses.--The writer has known women who could root
roses with the greatest ease. They would simply break off a branch of
the rose, insert it in the flower-bed, cover it with a bell-jar, and in
a few weeks they would have a strong plant. Again they would resort to
layering; in which case a branch, notched halfway through on the lower
side, was bent to the ground and pegged down so that the notched part
was covered with a few inches of soil. The layered spot was watered from
time to time. After three or four weeks roots were sent forth from the
notch and the branch or buds began to grow, when it was known that the
layer had formed roots.
Several years ago a friend took a cheese-box, filled it with sharp sand
to the brim, supported it in a tub of water so that the lower half-inch
of the box was immersed. The sand was packed down, sprinkled, and
single-joint rose cuttings, with a bud and a leaf near the top, were
inserted almost their whole length in the sand. This was in July, a hot
month, when it is usually difficult to root any kind of cutting;
moreover, the box stood on a southern slope, facing the hot sun, without
a particle of shade. The only attention given the box was to keep the
water high enough in the tub to touch the bottom of the cheese-box. In
about three weeks he took out three or four dozen of as nicely rooted
cuttings as could have been grown in a greenhouse.
The "saucer system," in which cuttings are inserted in wet sand
contained in a saucer an inch or two deep, to be exposed at all times to
the full sunshine, is of a similar nature. The essentials are, to give
the cuttings the "full sun" and to keep the sand saturated with water.
Whatever method is used, if cuttings are to be transplanted after
rooting, it is important to pot them off in small pots as soon as they
have a cluster of roots one-half inch or an inch long. Leaving them too
long in the sand weakens the cutting.
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