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Where On My Place Can I Grow Roses?
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First consider what kind of rose-garden you will plan. Roses seem to enjoy being arranged in countless ways. Will the first show of bloom to burst into view, as one approaches your home, be on your pergola, or arbor, or rose-covered summer-house? If none of these furnishes appropriate setting, probably your banks or fences will be clothed or beautified. A variety of types, shown on the following pages, is available, and choosing from these will become a delight.
Perhaps your fancy may picture prosperous beds, abounding in a wealth of bloom, to be seen across a sweep of level lawn, or from your favorite room in the house, or even hidden beyond the curve in your garden-walk. The formal rose-garden, too, is important, especially on the larger place. There are excellent reasons why the rose-garden should have a domain all its own. These fastidious creatures that so well repay your thoughtful care may well be grouped and with greater resulting effectiveness. In no other case, perhaps, does careful planning pay so well as in the formal garden. (At this point it may prove helpful to turn to pages 29 and 30.) In these brief suggestions of rose-garden possibilities let us recall vividly the value of the rose in the landscape. Here again a knowledge of varieties is important. Landscape architects are recognizing more and more the noteworthy species which are valuable in mass-plantings for showy effects, for retaining embankments, for bordering driveways, or even for certain types of hedges. Or you may wish most for a garden of roses from which to cut bouquets, so that "the glory of the garden" may be reflected in your home. Good taste will suggest the right roses—one for this vase, a bunch for that bowl, a spray for the guest-room, still others for the hallway or the dining-room table, then surely some for boutonnieres, and at times for "state occasions." Surely anyone who has experienced the exquisite thrill welling up in the soul from the presence of choice roses well arranged will be eager to develop the skill needed to make the best use of nature's garden-gifts. Several available spaces for the rose-bed are usually to be found on the average home-grounds. The author has had the good fortune to visit a number of rose-gardens that are famous—and others that deserve to be—and this may be said of nearly all: that they lie on the genial, sunny side of a generous group of trees or copse, but are open to the gentler breezes, and are not shut in or shaded. When buying a new property, the selection of the most suitable spot upon it for the house is scarcely more important than the selection of a site for your rose-garden. You will choose a sunny room, if possible, for the indoor nursery, where the little fairies in your home may romp and play on a wintry day; and so, too, will you wish to provide for the happiness and well-being of your rose-children, because only a few of them are prairie-born. Only a small section of this large family has been reared to bear the rigors of gusty, sweeping, or whipping winds at any time of the year, and from such, for the best results, they must be protected. It is not only the severe, cold winds of winter, or the raw, cutting swish of spring, but the hot, withering winds of summer, too, that may ruin the opening buds and spoil the almost ripe fruits of your labor. Choose a place, therefore, or establish one, protected either by trees, a hedge, a wall, a building, or by some other wind-break. Even a hedge of roses, or climbers, upon a substantial trellis will avail, although a denser screen is more effective. Choose, too, a place where the sun will shine for not less than one-half of the day, preferably the morning. By this you will see that a space opening away to the south or southeast is to be preferred. We have noted equally successful rose-gardens entirely surrounded by hedges. Avoid the too close shade of trees, or the proximity of tree roots; they are ravenous robbers. If the roots can possibly reach over to your rose-beds, they will do it and steal away the nourishment you have provided. Therefore, either keep entirely away from them or, if you must dig your bed near them, put in a partition on the tree side to keep back the roots. Boards will do for a time; a concrete or brick wall, about 4 inches thick, will last longer. Another point to remember is that "roses do not like wet feet." They seem to resent the ignominy of being subjected to standing in undrained ground. Avoid very low ground for this reason, and also because it is more subject to early or late frost, and that here roses will have greater tendency to mildew. Try to combine in your choice as many of these conditions as possible, because, while no point is absolute, all are important. Don't stop or give up for the lack of some one of them. Be earnest about it, and you will soon provide the essentials. Mr. Chapman, the ornithologist, asked Theodore Roosevelt how he continually accomplished so much. Mr. Roosevelt answered that this had been his motto: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." That motto will prove most useful for the rose-grower. "Make a picture of your lawn." This is the first principle of landscape-gardening. Leave open the center spaces and plant about and along the edges. Allow this rule to guide you, then select places for your roses where they will do best and give you the most pleasure. Some varieties, as for example the Rugosas and the "rose species," serve a very useful purpose when planted among the shrubbery. The bush roses, however, including the Teas, Hybrid Teas, and Hybrid Perpetuals, will prove most satisfying if segregated and not mixed too much with other plants. The location will help to decide the shape of your bed, and it is mainly a matter of taste as to whether it shall be straight, curved, oblong, round, or square. The essential point to remember is this: You will want to get within arm's reach of every rose in your bed, many times in a year, without stepping on the bed. Not over 5 feet in width, therefore, and preferably 41/2 feet is a good rule to follow. Arrange the roses 18 inches apart each way, unless they are very vigorous growers, in which case allow 2 feet for spread. In warm countries, where the growth is most luxuriant, and for the big bushy sorts, even more room will be required. Again, there is the other extreme as, for example, in making a border or edging of Polyantha roses, a fine continuous effect may be had by spacing them in the row at only 12 inches apart. The young garden in the picture on page 22 is well done. Note the avenue effect produced by the double row of Standard or Tree roses on each side of the walk, set from 4 to 10 feet apart. They remind one of the beautiful rose-gardens in England. Up the wall on each side climbing roses have been started. The front bed on the left in the picture is 41/2-2 feet square, and contains nine roses. The front bed on the right, if 41/2 feet wide by 6 feet long, would contain twelve roses. The rear bed on the right of the walk, if 41/2 feet wide by 13 feet long, would contain twenty-four roses; and the long bed in the rear on the left, if 41/2 feet wide by 20 feet long, would contain thirty-six roses. The actual distribution of plants within the rose-garden is a subject which needs more careful thought and study than is usually given by the average gardener. By way of suggestion, we are reproducing two designs, one a formal rose-garden, the other an informal rose-garden. In the formal design there is shown by numbers the suggested distribution of the various forms of roses, with the idea of producing a pleasing composition and at the same time including a balance of form or habit of growth in a rose-garden. The design of the garden is drawn up more or less as an illustration and does not represent an existing garden. The boundary lines are shown with rose-poles connected by chains on which would be grown the many kinds of climbing roses. According to the various conditions, this boundary-line might be a low wall or hedge or fence. Number 1 represents the location for species such as Rosa Hugonis; No. 2, the tall and vigorous-growing Hybrid Perpetuals and, possibly, Hybrid Teas; No. 3, the vigorous and bushy kinds of Hybrid Teas; No. 4 Hybrid Teas of medium height; No. 5, Hybrid Teas of dwarf habit; No. 6, Hybrid Teas of dwarf and spreading habit; No. 7, Dwarf Polyanthas. The space indicated on the plan would possibly contain more Polyantha roses than the average garden of this sort would warrant. Places could be found for growing perhaps a few of the unusual roses, and even some of the dwarfer growing species, without breaking up the continuous line and mass of color obtained from the dwarf Polyanthas, which act as a kind of frame to the garden. Number 8, climbing roses; No. 9, Hybrid Teas in standard form; No. 10, weeping Standards or Standards with Wichuraiana hybrids budded on them; No. 11 might be dwarf Standards with the Dwarf Polyanthas budded on them. In the informal rose-garden, the rose enthusiast has a greater possibility of growing all kinds of roses. For example, a small lot of approximately 100 feet wide, with an imaginary house thereon has been used. It has been taken for granted that the owner would plant a background of various flowering shrubs and small flowering trees. In front of this background would be formed irregular shaped beds in which space could be apportioned for the various species and other kinds of roses, as will be described later. Additional beds could be cut in the lawn, making interesting vistas from various parts of the garden and from the house. In a garden of this kind, one has the opportunity of growing many types of roses which ordinarily one is unable to use in a formal garden—some of the old-fashioned roses, such as the Mosses, the Gallicas, etc. Extracted from "How To Grow Roses" |
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