The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1881-05-25

these the roses will repay thousand
fold for care bestowed. Not only
will they add to the beauty aud what
is termed homelike appearance of your
grounds, but to those interested in the
commercial growth of flowers your
Florida roses would both bring de-
light and astonishment; for it is with
much labor expended and many diff
culties to surmount that the rose
growers in the frozen North give to
US, through the hands of the florists,
those rare treasures in win ter, whilst
here with little care, and in ordinary
winters no protection, roses flourish
in the open air all winter long.
AS l have before said your climate
is propitious, but if you will add yet
more to the size and abundance of
your roses do not be too cbary in en-
riching the soil, for the rose Is very
fond Of rich food, and the secret of
success depends much upon the soil
being kept rich and moist. The rose,
like all other plants, has its proprie-
tors, usually termed enemies by the
rose grower. The most persistent of
these is the rose slug; he goes to
sleep in a rose leaf, and after pleas.
ant nap, ,awakes to eat his bed.clothes.
But he, with all others, can be over
come by the all-powerful whale-oil
soap; apply in the evening and rinse
off in the morning with clear water.
Next In importance comes pruning.
Now if roses are making strong
growth and bearing we'll little prun
ing is needed, but weakly growing
plants ought to be pruned severely
at the time vegetation is the nearest
dormant, and pruning well will be
found to act as stimulus to the vital
process. AT all times the careful
gardener will remove dead branches
and dry old wood, leaving the fresh
young shoots to take their places !;
tor in al roses it is the young, well
ripened wood that bears flowers.
Roses are usually divided into the
following classes: Moss and Hybrid
Perpetual that blooms only once in a
season, the n oisette developed, by a
French florist of that name, from the
Seeding Musk Rose, impregnated
with the pollen OF the China
Rose thereby combining the
vigorous growth of the Tor.
mer and the clustering property with
the fragrance Of the latter; the Bour-
bon OF roses, more more priced by
the rose grower tor autumn bloom
ers. China roses are excellent, con-
stant and abundant bloomcrs, but are
not equal in beauty to their hybrid
offspring, and, last but not least of
these monthly bloomers, 1 will speak
of the glorious Tea Rose. Origi-
nally of this rose there were but two
varieties-the yellow and the blush
but they have produced very
numerous and superbly beautiful fam.
lily and are, without exception, best
suited to raise it market value is es.
timated by the grower, tor their deli.
cate tints make them invaluable for
decorative devices, u taste for which
at no time has any country been
more famous than our own at the
present. We read in our daily pa
pers an account Of wedding, and
under the pretty English wedding
bells stand the happy pair, while all
around the fragrance and presence of
flowers is so rich as not even bv the
viands to be blotted from the memory
of the reporter. Or side by side, as
1t often meets our eye, Is the death
OF some one, famous for the useful
life Re has spent among us, and here
we are tolo OF the flowers that Low.
ing ones laid upon his bier, and these
many and beautiful devices show our
advance in the artistic and in the ap
probation Of the truly beautiful, and
furnishes branch OF industry that
is healthful, and ever exalting for
what can bring us nearer to the
Eden OF old than following patiently
along the season the bud and blossom
70 their final truition OF the golden
orange, or STOPPING to tend the roses,
spanng the fair and the good, casting
aside the unsightly and the WORTH
less, making the culture of the groves
and gardens an earnest, true work as
that of life, leaving the result with
the ever loving Father.