Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-07-19

There can be little doubt that more
attention will be given to mulchins
hedges, roses and other growing things
Of the garden next Winter.
The sub-zero temperatures Of the
cold months probably ended forever
the lackadaisieal attitude of local gar
deners as 10 Winter protection.
There scarcely will need to be bur-
tapping and other forms Of protec-
ton given plants in very cold ell
mates. but no doubt there will have
to be more than we thought neces-
sary in the past.
The unusually warm Winters. often
amounting to Spring almost. which
prevailed here for a period OF years
did more than make plants tender.
They got home gardeners in a state
OF mind in which they believed that
no possible harm could come to their
plants during the Winter.
Not only much harm has resulted
from last winters freezes, long con-
tinued. but many plants which sur
vived have not done we'll.
Reports continue to come to this
desk of rosebushes which are not up
to standard, although they are very
much alive.
The records in the Fall will show
that this has not been q particularly
good rose season.
In some gardens there seems TO be
as much black spot" as ever. In
others there is a generally unthrifty
look TO the popular bush roses.
Can it be that rose growing, after
all. is more of job than many anna
teurs thought, or ever were told?
1t is one thing to keep bushes alive,
and to get fairly good blooms, and
quite another to keep them growing
as they should grow, and secure scores
OF really fine blossoms.
The latter is the ioeal-but how often
is it achieved?
Any one can see for himself how
far below the ideal the roses of most
amateur growers come. Perhaps this
is true of most flowers, but 1t seems
particularly so with roses.
The time may come when this
queen of the flowers" loses its present
prestige If so. 1t will come about be-
cause Of one reason, that the average
home gardener is not in the position
to give his bushes the care they de-
mand.
We speak, of course, Of the popular
bush roses grown everywhere with
ri HaT
seem better able to take care of them
selves.
The hybrid perpetuals and other
forms OF bush roses need better fer
tilization than they often receive.
They demand more spraying than they
get. They need, in truth, almost daily
attention, If they are to do their best.
And then, too, there are rose years"
and years i'll which roses do not do
very well for anybody, not even the
expert.
1t is a perplexing flower, which
makes it all the more interesting. in
a sense. but which, alas, spoils much
of its charm for many persons. These
last are not lazy gardeners at all, but
simply persons who do not feel that
the beauty Of a rose is so much inner
than the beauty of any really good
flower, after all.
Even the ardent rosarian comes in
time to lose some of his pristine en-
thusiasm in a more general respect for
the beauty of other flowers.
The most ardent of rose lovers. of
course, is the newcomer, the rose con-
vert, as it were. He has not attained
to that wisdom which says. Eyes, the
rose is charming. but so, too, is the
gladiolus, the tulip, the iris, the peony
the dahlia. even the lowly zinnia and
the little petunia.'