Chapter 16

General Care

Roses and rose gardens need never be an extravagance, or be regarded as a luxury to be indulged in only by the wealthy members of a community. Actually, it seems that these people enjoy their roses in almost inverse ratio to the amount of money they lavish on them, and the results seldom persuade others to plant large areas under roses. Any garden can be almost a reflection of its owner. A garden of trees can be restful, peaceful, and almost lazy, but still very beautiful. A garden of annuals demands a great deal of minute attention, frequent watering, and exactitude in tidiness.

Most of us find it imperative to consider some degree of economy in upkeep, design, and construction. A garden must be an integral part of a home. Any worry about expense and excessive work will spoil gardening as a hobby or as a source of satisfying enjoyment. The man who owns a garden and never works in it is missing one of the greatest things in life. The more he works among his plants the more he will understand and cherish them. He can spend relatively little money, and get great returns. This is true of rose gardens even more than of other kinds. There are many gardens where the cost of the rose plants has been a small item compared with that of pergolas, arches, rest huts, stone paving, and statuary, most of which are not only quite unnecessary, but often detract from the beauty of the garden.

Fortunate is the man whose daily task is from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. five days a week, for he can be in his garden at the best times of the day and all through the week-end, if he so chooses. He knows every individual plant and its behaviour; he gets to know his roses as changing, living creatures. It is a knowledge that cannot be gained in any other way. He enjoys every bloom, the revitalizing of his plants by the removal of old wood, the stimulating of new growth by removal of flowers and by watering and manuring, the tidying of his climbers, the improvement of his soil, and even the preparing of his compost. It is all enjoyment to him, and for that reason he must never plant so many roses that they become a burden to him. There is always the temptation to add a few more each winter, but no man who attends a daily calling can care for more than four or five hundred plants, and very few can manage more than half that number. Excessive zeal can lead to an excessive number of plants, and then to excessive work, with final loss of interest.

Some rose-growers prefer to have just one or two plants of each of many sorts. They enjoy the variety in colour and form; they like to have as extensive a knowledge of roses as possible. But most rose-gardeners have other ideas, and a garden of under a hundred plants frequently contains less than twenty varieties, while a garden of one to two hundred plants is limited to twenty-five to thirty varieties, and one of over two hundred plants need never exceed fifty sorts. By limiting the varieties one is always assured of several good blooms of each. This limitation will never prove monotonous and will be invaluable to (a) the exhibitor of specimen blooms, for he seldom needs more than eighteen distinct varieties in even the biggest classes; (b) the exhibitor of bunches, vases, etc., for he seldom needs more than six bunches, each of one variety and he has ample plants from which to cut blooms; and (c) the home decorator who wants bowls or vases of one variety or in mixed colours.

Work out for yourself the likes and dislikes of each variety. Do your own planting, pruning, manuring, spraying, and general cultivation. You will get to know your garden and your plants better than any paid gardener will ever know them. You will learn to feed this plant more lightly and to prune that variety harder, and find that this one opens best in dry weather while that one likes misty rain. They will cease to be just mere rose plants.

Grow as many as possible of one sort in the one bed, for then they can be given water and food according to the particular needs of each variety. For instance, Dame Edith Helen, Golden Emblem, and Malar Ros do best with restricted food and water, while Mrs Herbert Stevens, Ophelia, and William Orr are heavy feeders.

Place your order early with a reliable nurseryman who uses the type of understock you find does well in your district. On arrival of the plants trim off any damaged roots and twigs and place the roots in a bucket of water or heel them in. Plant them as soon as possible if they are not heeled in. Never keep them, or plant them, in shady places. In growth, light from the sun's rays is necessary for the formation of chlorophyll and the fixation of carbon for supplying the energy required to effect the many essential chemical changes. Actually, in most parts of Australia, roses suffer from excess of heat and light and, when in excess, they both retard growth.

Moving Plants

When one desires to move old plants it is possible to reduce the shock to them in either of two ways. The simpler is by driving a spade down vertically to its full length of blade about twelve or fifteen inches from the plant and repeating the process in a circular form until all lateral roots have been cut. This should be done in June or early July and the plant should be moved two or three weeks later. Dig a sloping hole leading to the vertical spade-cuts on one side, remove some of the surface soil round the plant to reduce weight, drive the spade under the plant, and gently lift it in a ball of earth. The ball can be made more adherent by wetting and dabbing the outside of it. Slide it into its new hole by way of another sloping cut, fill the spaces round the ball with friable soil and water it heavily. The plant must be pruned and all leaves carefully clipped off to reduce loss of moisture and consequent shrivelling.

The less simple way is to prepare the rose for the move by digging a trench in early spring in a semicircle round the plant at a radius of a foot, or slightly more, from the stem, depending on the size of the plant. This will cut the roots in that part. Fill the trench with loam that is of good quality but does not contain fermenting manure of any type. A network of fibrous secondary roots will form and permeate the rich new soil. After three months, about Christmas time, complete the circle in a similar manner. In the autumn, about four months later, the plant can be lifted with a good ball of earth held together by a mass of fibrous roots. The plant has really been root-pruned in either method of transplanting. This more involved method is necessary only when moving a very large old rose plant.

By cutting any strong root at a reasonable distance from a plant one forces the growth of many smaller ones of the feeding type. Roots feed only through their terminal points, and so the greater the number of small fibrous roots the better a plant can feed from the soil. Soil food consists of water and various minerals salts. These are carried in the sap to the leaves, which, by photosynthesis, manufacture the substance of the plant from the water, carbon dioxide, and minerals. This process fails if the soil nutrients are not in well-balanced proportions.

Rose roots often exceed four feet in length, but this is much less important than masses of fibrous roots. The lighter and looser the soil, the larger the root system, probably because food is more scattered in light soil and because the plant needs stronger anchorage. Fresh rootlets are formed each year. Older roots act merely as conduits for water and soil-derived nutrients. Old plants may sometimes be rejuvenated by root-pruning, by following the second method for transplanting, except that the plant is not moved. Probably the new soil added in the trench round the plant is even more helpful than the severing of the roots.

Mulching

Mulching is advisable in any soil and in any climate. It is most necessary in dry areas for soil-moisture conservation. Research workers have found that, irrespective of all aids, it is impossible to grow roses satisfactorily in areas where atmospheric evaporation from an open tank of water exceeds one-third of the total made up of average annual rainfall and available artificial watering. A mulch acts as a steadying agent of soil temperature, and prevents heavy rain or watering from causing caking of the superficial layers; and most mulches have fairly high manurial value, for vegetable matter of some form is generally used. Straw, dry leaves, lawn clippings, rotted tan bark, seaweed, malt-combings, and sawdust are all good mulching materials. All of them, either as mulches or when incorporated with the soil itself, can produce a temporarily harmful effect on plants by supplying extra food for soil microorganisms, which then multiply and need extra nitrogen, leaving less available nitrogen than usual for the garden plants. The foregoing applies especially to sawdust, which also decomposes very slowly in either the soil or the compost heap. If supplemented with some readily available source of nitrogen, such as urea, sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of soda, urine, or bird-droppings, they can be used without causing any setback to the plants. The nitrogen later is liberated for use by plants together with all the other food contained in the mulch; it has helped to make them available. The texture, water-holding, and aeration of any soil is improved by mulches. Twenty-five pounds of sawdust can absorb fifty to a hundred pounds of water.

In nature, one needs to lift only as inefficient a mulching agent as a stone and see the moisture of the soil under it to realize the value of covering the soil. Most mulches blow away readily in strong winds; a sprinkling of soil over them will greatly decrease this trouble. Continue mulching as frequently as possible right through the summer.

Never manure your roses unnecessarily, and do not overfeed in an attempt to obtain abnormally large blooms, for by so doing you will usually do harm to the plant and will not get the desired result. If you wish for large blooms you must plant varieties that habitually produce them.

If you use chemical foods, do not allow them to touch the foliage except in very dilute solution, for they would damage it, especially the sulphates of ammonia, iron, and potassium. Frequent small feedings in dilute solution into wet soil and the following of each application with further watering is the only safe way. In general, Pernetianas resent heavy feeding.

Roses need large quantities of soil-derived water but very little soil-derived food. This food is, however, of paramount importance and must be in correct balance, each ingredient with each of the other ingredients.

Only pure water is transpired through the leaves. The soil moisture taken up by the roots is of lower concentration than cell-sap. It must be supplied in quantities sufficient to offset the loss of water from the foliage. All this time, with the absorption of soil moisture, more and more food is being taken into the plant tissues, resulting in growth. Rapid growth cannot be made by a plant without ample water supply, ample heat to draw water from the leaves, and ample light to help the chlorophyll to work. Retention of foliage well into the winter indicates good health.

Heavy applications of soluble chemical manures produce a soil moisture of unduly high concentration. The roots shrivel and are said to have been "burnt". The only remedy is copious waterings, commenced before the damage is irreparable and repeated several times at short intervals to wash away, from the reach of the roots, most of the highly soluble salts. Common salt, sodium chloride, is not a plant poison, but it can do great harm by raising the concentration of soil moisture too high. This may occur if seaweed is used as a mulch and not heavily watered before or after being spread.

The function of leaves is equally vital. Each is covered with a layer of flattened cells. The upper surface is glossy, and impermeable to water from without or within. The under-surface is dull, due to its continuity being broken by small apertures, called stomata, which are the all-important breathing pores of the leaf. At the edge of each stoma are sensitive guard-cells that regulate its opening and closing. If the rate of water transpiration exceeds the rate of absorption of soil moisture, these guard-cells collapse over the opening of each stoma, closing it and so reducing the loss of water.

The total moisture-holding capacity of heavy soil is much greater than that of light soil, but the amount of moisture available for plant use is very much the same. For example, plants grown on a heavy soil with a moisture-holding capacity of about forty-five per cent will wilt when the soil moisture falls to about thirty per cent. The available moisture is only about fifteen per cent. By contrast, plants grown on a very light soil, with a moisture-holding capacity of about eighteen per cent, will not wilt until the soil moisture falls to two or three per cent, so that the sandy soil actually holds as much available moisture as the clay. In very many instances a clay holds more total water than a sand, but the available water is much less.

Watering

Percolation of water through soil draws air into the vacated interstices. Excessive watering or inadequate drainage will prevent this form of soil aeration. Light soils, being less retentive, will need watering more frequently than heavy soils. The former need to be watered moderately heavily every four or five days. A soaking once a week will be best for the latter. Excessive watering will wash away small quantities of plant foods; frequent light watering will draw roots to the surface and render them more susceptible to the evils of temperature variations.

Overhead watering will fill half-open blooms with water, rendering them top-heavy, and, in bending over, each flower will tend to open in an ugly, uneven manner. It has been proved that leaves that remain wet for over six hours are rendered more susceptible to black spot and mildew. Hence one should do as much as possible of the necessary overhead watering early in the day, preferably before noon. Nevertheless, Nature waters from overhead. All fungus diseases thrive under moist, humid conditions, such as exist in February and March, when almost every morning the whole garden is weighed down with heavy dews, which deposit much more water on the leaves than any sprinkler. When the weather is showery it is of great advantage to supplement Nature's water with hosing; the atmospheric conditions are then ideal. Dew probably contains minute quantities of plant foods that appear to be absorbed through the leaves.

There are several ways of avoiding wetting the foliage in the course of watering. Some people, using a cultivator or hoe, make small irrigation channels amongst their rose plants and run water along them; others tie a sack over the nose of the hose, lay it on the bed, turn the tap on fully and move the hose from time to time; while a few screw a porous plastic hose on to their garden hose and lay it in between the roses. This is called a soaking hose.

Digging

Digging should never be done in an established rose garden except for replacement of plants and rejuvenation of the beds. Forks should never be used, sharp spades being much safer: they cut any roots encountered, whereas forks drag them to the surface and help to cause suckering.

If digging needs to be deeper than three or four inches, as when removing a plant, always stand with your back nearest to the adjacent plant on each side, so that when the spadeful of earth is lifted and a part of any root is disturbed, it is the part farthest from the plant. This piece will die. The part attached to the plant will not be lifted, will not sucker or be killed, and will throw out several small new roots. Neither will roots of other plants be lifted even though they are cut.

After winter pruning, the spring blooming, and summer trimming, the entire rose garden can be "scratched" to a depth of about three inches. At all times the single-prong cultivator is the only necessary cultivating implement. Even heavy soil should contain enough humus to prevent it setting too hard for the cultivator to be used easily. Surface soil should be friable. It may take several years to achieve this state in a new garden.

Earthworms

Earthworms can never be too numerous nor their value overstated. Sulphates, sulphur, putrefaction, and all other conditions inimical to earthworms are also unfavourable to soil bacteria and fungi. Earthworms are our greatest natural cultivators. Darwin found that worms frequently deposit casts exceeding ten tons in weight on each acre each year when soil is well fed. These casts contain five times more nitrogen, seven times more available phosphorus, eleven times more potash, and forty per cent more humus than are present in the surface layers of that soil. These contents are all in organic form and readily used by plants.

It may be thought that in a well-cultivated garden we have no need for these lowly creatures, but we cannot afford to dispense with any of the workers Nature has provided for us. They help us far more than we can ever realize.

Weeds

Weeds are mentioned on many occasions in various chapters. They are debited with sheltering scale, aphis, thrips, and other pests, and robbing the soil of food and moisture. They are credited with helping, especially during the winter, in soil aeration, and the retention of plant foods round their roots, so that it does not leach away from the level of rose roots. These vices and virtues do exist, and it is necessary to strike a medium. Any soil incapable of producing a crop of weeds must also be incapable of sustaining other plants. This can serve as a very useful guide and assessor of soil fertility.

During the three or four months between mid April and early August, weeds will grow considerably, serve many useful purposes while growing, and later make excellent manure.

Left: Watershoot before summer trimming. Right: The same after summer trimming. Plate 32 Left: Watershoot coming from a standard. Note many-branched head of shoot. It bears flowers and its leaves are similar to rest of plant. Right: Briar growths coming from roots and just below budding of standard. Note absence of both branches and flowers, and long thin leaves. Plate 33

It is of no advantage to turn weeds either into the soil itself or into the compost heap during late autumn or midwinter. After winter pruning they may be turned into the soil by digging the beds over to a depth of about three inches. During the remainder of the year regular cultivation will keep weeds from growing, but, in any case, weeds will never do any harm unless they are allowed to grow tall enough to smother bush roses, especially very young plants, from sunlight or, as in the case of couch grass and other weeds that grow in a creeping manner, they become so densely tangled that it is no longer possible to loosen the soil sufficiently to prevent water from running off the beds.

Ties For Climbers And Standards

Always see that your dwarf roses are firm in the ground, your standards firmly tied to their stakes and your climbers to their supports. These supports should always be wooden; iron ones become too hot in summer. If dwarfs tend to sway in strong winds, drive a short stake into the ground and make the bush fast to it; if necessary, use several stakes, each sloping outwards. Dragging on the root system will do great harm. Ties for bushes, standards, and climbers should be firm but not of a type that will last more than twelve months. Any tie that lasts much longer than that either must be too loose at the time of its application or it will cut into the bark and cambium, reducing the flow of sap to parts beyond the tie. New ties should replace the old ones before they break and allow wind to do great damage. Replacement of ties entails extra work but ensures continuity of good growth. The best ties are light rope or strips of leather. Any material containing wire, like electrician's flex, should be avoided. Sometimes ties of this type are used over a shield of split hose and they are loosened and reried every few months. Unfortunately the shield serves as a shelter for pests, and it is easy to forget to readjust the ties as often as one should. Ties round standard roses and their stakes often slide down to too low a level. They should be kept no more than one and a half or two inches below the budding. If they are allowed to fall much lower than that, strong winds are apt to break the standard off at the level of the tie. A lathing nail driven into the stake under the tie will keep it from slipping.

Fences are often dressed with sump-oil discarded from motor-cars. If roses are trained on these fences they should be untied from them and kept from contact with the oil, for it is sure to kill any part of any rose plant that is smeared or splashed with the oil. Care should be taken to keep any nearby plants from being similarly damaged, and the oil should not be allowed on the soil, for it is very poisonous. Paint is not nearly so harmful on either the plants or the soil. The smeared branches and leaves very seldom die, but usually lose vigour.

Suckers

Amateurs, at times, have difficulty in discerning between basal growths of the rose itself (the scion) and the briar (the stock). This difficulty is most common in roses on dwarf stocks-dwarfs, climbers, and Polyanthas. There, the briar growth, or sucker, can come from the stem of the stock below the budding or from a root. In standards, the stems are much longer and the suckers can come from any part of it at the head of the plant but proximal to the budding, along the trunk above or under the ground level, or from roots. Suckers from stems are from growth-buds of the stock. Most of these buds will have been removed by the nurseryman before the budding was done, but some small ones are missed. Some stocks more than others are apt to throw suckers. Root suckers usually come from roots that have been damaged or turned upwards in planting.

Suckers must be removed as soon as they are detected. If allowed to remain they will soon impoverish and even outgrow the plant itself. Root suckers must be traced to their origin and cut away with a sharp knife. They will grow more vigorously than ever if only partly removed. Removal of suckers from stems is a simple matter, but the eyes should be gouged out cleanly.

Usually briar growth is characterized by leaves with seven leaflets, but some rose leaves have seven leaflets too. The growth of R. multiflora and R. fortuniana is of a thin-stemmed, climbing type with very shiny, pale leaves and narrow leaflets. That from R. canina is a greyish-green. That from R. indica major is more like Hybrid Tea growth but almost constantly has seven leaflets. The most important means of identification is a careful examination of the source of the growth. If it comes from below the budding it is briar.

Fig. 13. Watershoots and suckers (or briars). 1. Dwarf. 2. Standard. A, the scion; B, watershoot; C, budding; D, sucket or briar; E, stock.

It is possible to govern the growth of roses to some extent by constantly watching for shoots commencing to grow in undesirable directions most commonly across the centre of the plant or badly placed watershoots. These will never be useful and, if allowed to continue growing, will only use good food and give poor results. It is best to remove them before they have grown to any extent, and so direct the sap into more desirable channels. They can be rubbed off with the finger before they reach half an inch in length.

Pruning is discussed at some length in the chapters on winter pruning and summer treatment, which possibly may convey a slightly wrong impression, for pruning is really an all-the-year-round proceeding. Uncared-for plants prune them- selves by the death of old parts and by the falling of ripened seed-pods. We attempt to design the lives of our plants in a more orderly fashion. Dead and sickly wood must be cut away as soon as it is seen at any time of the year. Healthy twiggy growth should not be removed except when pruning in winter, for they bear useful foliage. Blooms must never be broken or torn from the plants, but should be cut, by sharp secateurs, with long stems just above a growth-bud pointing outwards. This is part of the continuous pruning. One or two new flowering shoots will spring from the short remaining raised by A. Norman, by crossing Crimson Glory with Southport, this is the best red Hybrid Tea rose for almost all conditions of soil and climate.

Fig. 14. Results of correct cutting in gathering blooms. ENA HARKNESS.     Plate 34 A bunch of SILVER JUBILEE. Plate 35

When this next lot of blooms is cut the plant will have grown and spread as a result of this correct cutting. Only short-stemmed small blooms will come if very long stems are left on the plant.

Removing Old Blooms

If blooms should fade on the plants, remove them in the same way as fresh flowers but with slightly shorter stems. Never allow seed-pods to form, for they take a tremendous amount of food and vigour from the plants, and greatly delay the subsequent crop of blooms. There is no more certain way of stopping the growth of a rose plant than by allowing the pods to form and remain on the plant. In very young plants, or poor growing varieties, or in the few weeks preceding summer trimming, it is advisable to do no more than break off the dead flower just below the calyx. In the last of these instances, the object is to allow any new growth that may form to come in a way that will not interfere with the condition of that branch at the summer-trimming time. This new growth will come from the uppermost growth-bud, and so will leave several lower and better buds for one to choose from later. At summer-trimming time one should cut about a quarter of an inch above one of these buds, selecting one that points outwards.

Many jobs in a rose garden are best done in the mornings, especially watering and spraying. The breaking off of faded flowers is an exception, for, in doing this, one usually grasps the flower in the hand, and before noon it is not uncommon to encounter a bee in amongst the stamens; bees seldom visit flowers after noon. Thus one needs to be watchful for bees, or wait until the latter part of the day.

At all times when pruning or removing faded blooms it will be found helpful to have a large piece of hessian to spread on the adjacent ground. All trimmings can be thrown on to it and easily carried away. It is not always possible to take a wheelbarrow into the midst of the rose plants, and picking up the pieces one by one is very tedious.

Many attempts have been made to intensify the colour of roses, especially reds, by altering the plant sap. We know that when red or pink colouring matter is extracted from petals it can be rendered more brilliant by increasing its acidity, or less brilliant, or even blue, by decreasing its acidity. Attempts to bring about these same changes in living plants have been made by treating the soil and spraying the leaves with various acids. They must fail, for plant sap is so buffered against such changes in its chemical reaction that no change is possible without creating conditions that would kill the plants. There is only one solution of the problem the breeding of varieties with more vividly coloured blooms.

Sickly Plants

In general, it is unwise to attempt to nurse a sickly plant back to good health. Its roots and branches will have become debilitated and can very seldom be replaced by good vigorous new growth. A new plant will soon outstrip it in appearance and production. Never try to force plants to regain health by giving stimulating manures. Copious watering may help, but never feeding.

When an old or sickly plant is discarded always remove some of the soil too, as advised in the chapter on planting.

Disbudding

Disbudding is not the prerogative of exhibitors; all gardeners will improve the quality of their roses by this procedure. If it is not done, the young buds will be wasted by being cut with the main bloom. Roses can be had in larger numbers and in fairly good quality by removing the crown bud and leaving the two farthest developed of the other buds. Wichurai-anas, Polyanthas, and Floribundas should never be disbudded, of course.

It has often been stated that roses need a resting period after each crop of blooms. This applies only in midsummer in our hottest and driest areas. The plants should be kept working by providing them with ample moisture, and they will grow strongly, with healthy foliage, watershoots, and dozens of blooms. No big feeding should be given except after the winter pruning and before the summer trimming. Any manure applied later than August, except in very small lots for forcing spring blooms, would make the summer growth too soft, and liable to be damaged by hot, dry winds; manure applied in large quantities in autumn would be wasted to a great extent and would tend to make the soil very acid.

In Victoria water is usually withheld for at least part of January, to allow the plants to harden in preparation for the forcing that precedes summer trimming. This is done in New South Wales too, but not in Western Australia or Queensland, where the plants are kept growing; their blooming season is longer.

A gardener has not much chance of avoiding plant diseases if he allows his garden to become untidy. Rubbish heaps and general litter are sheltering places and breeding grounds for many pests. These remarks do not apply to a properly attended compost heap. Garden rubbish need not be burnt, though in suburban gardens, where space is very limited, hard woody material and plants badly infested with disease are best dealt with in an incinerator. All rose clippings should be burnt.

Tools

All tools should be kept in good order. Secateurs, saw, and spade should be sharp and clean. There should be at least two pairs of secateurs, so that one can be spared for sharpening. Hoses should be kept under cover when not in use; they will then last for fifteen to twenty years instead of three or four years if left out in the sun and frosts. A couple of good sprinklers, a spade, and a single-prong cultivator are indispensable. A fork is seldom used.

Winter pruning time is cold and often wet, so it is essential for you to be comfortably clad. Heavy clothing, thick gloves, and gum-boots rob winter gardening of most of its discomforts.

You may possibly have spent more of your leisure hours with your roses than your neighbour, who has just as good a showing of blooms. Actually, you may have been too attentive, but you must realize that you are probably just learning what he has already acquired by years of observation, or that he has that well-known intuition with plants. He has, by some means, come to know the many little things that make a gardener. He may spend his days in office work, but he is instinctively "a man of the soil". As your knowledge grows so will your results improve and your enjoyment increase.

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