Mohave County miner. [volume] (Mineral Park, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1882-1918, 1916-07-15
nor TOO HOT TO
GROW ROSES EVEN
IN MIDSUMMER

/ Nearly everyone remarks about the
beauty and profusion of our roses in
the spring. They begin to blossom
when the last violets and narcissus are
fading and continue until June, when
we often hear it said, at is too hot for
roses" Rarely do we find beautiful
roses in the autumn and even rarer
are roses in midsummer. Most of the
ever-blooming roses will bloom nearly
every month of their growing season
if given proper care; they should most
certainly blossom in profusion in the
fall and even well into the winter, but
they will not do this if abused and ne
elected in summer. Roses, generally,
are vigorous growing and require rich
soil with good depth, and moderate tc
heavy irrigation with proper drainage,
| if they are to flourish. During the
( summer season roses should be wa
tered heavily once every seven or
eight days and it is we'll to loosen the
soil about them as often as once a
month. Better yet, however, for the
/ summer season, is to give roses a
heavy mulch of leaves, lawn clippings,
weeds, or old rotted manure. This
should be four or six inches deep and
can cover all the ground about the
plant. It may be moved little from
the plant at each watering and after.
wards raked back in place. Such a
covering helps very much to retain
the moisture and besides it keeps the
soil cooler and helps enrich it.
/ Roses should be grown by them
selves in a small bed or in rows whre
they can be given such care as tley
need. They will not thrive when ove5~
grown with weeds or choked with Ber-
muda grass. They have no place in a
lawn or in the front yard, as they re-
quire frequent cultivation and fertili-
cation. When given such care as sug-
gested above they will bloom much of
the summer and make a good strong
growth. Of course, the flowers will
not be as perfect nor last as long as
those grown in spring and fall, but
they will be a welcome addition to our
rather limited summer bouquets.
When roses are not cared for in
summer, and particularly when they
are not irrigated regularly and abun-
dainty, they make little or no growth
and the foliage often partly scalds,
withers and sometimes drops off. The
stems may also die back in part and
the whole plant receives a severe set /
back. The rootlets, however, have
been damaged more than the parts
above the ground, as a brief exami-
nation will show, for many of the ten
der feeding ones have died. 1t re-
quires several weeks or even months .
of good care to bring such a plant
back into a good growing and flower
ing condition. The plant must grow
new rootlets, then foliage, stems,
flower buds and finally flowers. One
might just about as we'll start with a
new plant. Therefore, if the rose plant
is not cared for in summer, nearly the
entire fall is necessary to build it up
for poisoning the coming spring.
This is why the everblooming rose,
which is so much grown, requires
nearly constant care throughout most
of the year. 1t needs as much atten-
ton as a lawn, and it will repay one
equally as well. Give your roses care
throughout the year and enjoy an
abundance of flowers at every season.
Roses that are neglected in summer
will not be in condition to blossom in
the fall, and often they are imperfect
boomers in the spring. This explains
partly why the first lot of roses in
early spring are occasionally imper-
feet. The plant does not have enough {
vitality to bring them to perfection.
If one desires roses only in spring
or if one does not have time to care
for roses in summer, then by
all means plant the old fashioned
kinds that our grandmothers grew.
These were represented by the French
damask rose, single and red or white,
the common white rose, the common {
spiny yellow rose, often called cold
lady rose" the old fashioned double J
pink rose, the manetta rose, with
small flowers, the dog rose, the sweet I
Drier rose, the Castilian rose, a favor
tie in Tucson and a good bloomer in I
spring, gold of ophir and Sherakee T