The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-27
Birmingham Girls Impressions
 of Lafayette Statue
CHAT ABOUT ROSE GARDENS
Notes and Personals of Movements of We'll Known People-Announce- ments and News of the
 Women's Clubs.
By MYRTLE MILES.

on the trees is rapidly changing from the
 green to brown and soon there will be
 nothing left to remind us of the spring
 and summer sunshine. It is well to con-
 sider putting something in the place of
 the Virginia creeper, the maple and the
 oak the sweet elyssium and the geran-
 ium. To keep the city city beauti-
 full all the winter is quite possible if
 little time and work and expense are
 used right now. The fall has been an
 unusually dry one and the planting of
 blue grass which will remain green all
 the winter has been displayed by many
 on account of the drouth. It is time,
 however, to plant the bulbs. Many homes
 here have flowers from bulbs of the lily
 variety and they come at time when
 nature needs them to beautify the gar
 dens and the windows. One planting of
 narcissus will last three years They are
 inexpensive and give world of gladness when they come. A Birmingham woman
 puts her Christmas bulbs in pots in De-
 tober She places them in the dark, cool
 cellar two weeks, then sits them in the
 window where they will have sunshine
 and when Christmas comes her windows
 are full of the beautiful blooms Violet
 beds, too, are always lovely, purple and
 green until they are frozen completely
 out, then with the first sunshine, even in
 winter, the violets peep out and the beds
 are the admiration of the world. There
 is no reason, with the climate Bir-
 mingham has, why it should not be city
 beautiful. Then the soil A horticulturist
 said once, We have the best rose grow
 ing soil and rose growing climate in
 the world. I have lived in the east and in
 Chicago and have never seen such roses
 as can be grown here in the open al-
 most every month in the year"
 A Cincinnati man was dining with Bir-
 mingham friends Sunday. In the center
 of the table was cluster of gorgeous
 pink roses. When told that they had
 just been cut from a bush in the kitchen
 garden of roses he was amazed. In this
 same garden there are TO bushes, all | producers of as perfect specimen of roses as can be found in any hot house.
 The cities of the country are looking to
 Birmingham's civic and horticultural side.
 It is being watched by many who pass l this way and Birmingham homes and 1 housekeepers cannot afford to be criti- cized for falling short of expectations. If
 it is not city beautiful those owning
 and occupying the homes will be blamed,
 because the entire city administration l are trying to make 1t a beautiful city. ] They are willing to use every effort to | that end and 1t now remains with the | housekeepers The city is having pub
 lished 8 book which will be sent to every
 housekeeper in Birmingham the latter
 part of the week, and is published for the | purpose of helping to carry out plans l to make this the most beautiful city in | the country. Extracts from a letter in
 regard to the cultivation of roses may
 be of interest to many who have, or
 contemplate making, a rose garden at 1 home.
 1 It is not convenient nor perhaps de- sirable to attempt the formation of l rose garden in all gardens, even when
 they are extensive; but beds of roses may | generally be Introduced into flower gar
 dens and pleasure grounds. and any quan- | tity of plants, so far as circumstances
 and space admit. may be put into other 1 positions without any fear being enter- l tained of having too many. For cutting purposes, in private establishments it is
 found a good plan to devote a portion of the kitchen garden to rose growing where | the ground can be trenched previous to
 planting, and enriched with manure at any time when it Is considered neces- sary. For a rose garden, an open situa- ton is desirable, with south or south
 eastern aspect, and sheltered from other points, particularly north and east.
 Transplanting of all the more hardy roses may best be done from October to March. Tea varieties and any others of | tender nature are generally not safe to withstand the winter unprotected, and are consequently planted in spring. Dwarf | plants should be allowed a space of from two feet to three feet clear between them, standards not less than three feet. Some- 1 times both are planted alternately in beds Roses are better arranged by themselves | in this way than intermixed with other l plants; and this remark also applies to the flowers when cut. It is so customary | to find roses mixed with well-nigh every | thing in the way of cut flowers that many | do not keep them by themselves; but 1t | is only by doing so that their full beauty as cut flowers may be seen. The foliage. | too, that belongs to plants from which | the flowers have been cut seems to suit | each so well individually that some of it should always be used; the foliage, for | instance, from the tea roses does not 1 look we'll with hybrid perpetuals
 The pruning of different roses depends good deal on the class to which they i are trained, etc. Autumn and spring pruning are practiced the latter most ex- tensively, especially since the springs of
 late years have been so precarious If shoot is shortened back in autumn the eyes that are left with the intention of their remaining dormant until the follow growth during the winter, because of the prevalence of mild weather; they then succumb to the first frost Spring prun- ing may generally be performed from the | middle to the end of March, but the sea- son varies according to the weather and the state of the trees. The young shoots will frequently grow out several inches at the top; and although this growth will | have to be sacrificed, it would be unsafe l to prune, unless the season were suffi-