The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1895-06-20

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much skill. A great deal of this may
be laid at the door of our older-school
gardeners and florists, who, from mar
row -mindedness more than anything
else, have tried to envelop everything
pertaining to Horticulture in mystery,
and to spread the belief that to grow
even the commonest flowers required
their skill and superintendent. Ger
tainlv no more mistaken idea regard
ing the culture of the roses could pos
sibly exist. The main factor required
is good plain common sense, which, II
rightly applied, cannot fail to make 1t
very easy to grow successfully the
choicest kinds of roses.
What to Avoid. Never attempt to
grow roses under the shade of q tree,
or even where the roots of nearby
trees can reach the rose bed, and re-
member that the roots of established
trees will travel far beyond the spread
of their branches in search of new and
richly MANFRED soil, and when once
they reach it they will soon monopo-
lie the whole, leaving the proper &C.
cupants o very scant proportion OF
food to exist upon. No rose can
thrive under such conditions. Never
choose place to plant roses that is
very wet or undrained, as extreme
moisture will rot the roots, and the
poor rose will soon die of rapid con-
sumption. Neither should gravel or
sand heap be selected, for the simple
reason that such positions are SO
porous that all the fertilizing given
will be washed away by every rain
that falls upon it. These are the prin-
cipal extremes to avoid in selecting a
place for planting roses.
Preparation of the Rose Bed. Dig
up the soil to the depth of eighteen to
twenty inches, thoroughly incorporat-
ing q liberal proportion of well de-
composed manure, and if the natural
soil is of a heavy clayey nature the
addition of three or four inches OF
sand will help it materially; on the
contrary, if the soil is of light, sandy
or gravelly nature the addition of a
liberal proportion of heavier or clay
soil will be very beneficial. Where
the bed has to be entirely prepared
with new earth I would advise select
ing a good, fresh, loamy soil-the sur
face five or six inches deep from an
old pasture is the best. First remove
the natural soil altogether, to the
depth given above, replacing it with
the new soil, adding one load of
manure to every five or six of soil,
thoroughly mixing the whole, and
when the bed is filled up little
higher than the original soil, to allow
for settling, it Is ready for the rose
plants.
Planting and Care of Roses. Place
the plants about eighteen inches apart
each way, and should dry weather set
in give them liberal soaking of water
once week as long as dry weater con-
tinues Do not give water in homeo-
pathic doses, for roses are like robins,
they like the best there is and plenty
of it. 1t will also very greatly help
them to produce continuous bloom if
they are heavily mulched with short
manure or chopped straw; even coat
of coarse, dry grass is better than
nothing. In the following spring,
after all frost is past, go over them,
shorten back any long shoots and cut
out any dead tips that may appear;
keep all weeds cleared out at all times
as soon as they show themselves, and
renew the mulching in the spring as
pruned. When the plants have
started into new growth go carefully
over them, and as soon as the first
green worm or caterpillar is seen on
the leaves, syringe the leaves both
under and above with water, then dust
them with hellebore powder-a large
pepper box or flour dredger is good
thing for this purpose. Repeat this
three or four times before the flowers
open, and these pests will all disap-
pear, and you will be rewarded with
such crop of beautiful flowers that
you will wonder why you had never
tried rose growing before. You will
find it both a pleasure and II profit
pleasure in the beauty and grace it
will add to your home, and profit in
giving you employment and recrea-
ton in the open air, thereby often
saving doctors bills and disconnected
minds New England Homestead.