To review the year's activities in fertilizing: let us put a top dressing of rough manure over the beds in the fall, about three inches deep, with further protection where the climate demands it. In the spring we shall rake off the coa.r.s.e portion of this covering, leaving the finely pulverized manure to be raked gently into the top soil if it needs this additional humus (the manure's food value will have been washed down by the winter's rain and snow). If our soil is clayey the whole top dressing will be hoed off. In May and June come the generous applications of the liquid manure, and for the Teas and Perpetuals that really do continue to flower, these applications may well be continued through the summer at less frequent intervals, leaving off at the end of August, let us say, so as not to encourage unnecessarily the late summer's growth of wood.

Although not many of us, in all probability, will meet the unusual condition of having for our rose gardens only an over-fertilized soil in a long-used garden, it may be well to mention the fact that such a soil will not produce good roses. Treatment with lime will help matters for a time, but if within the range of possibility we should remake the garden with virgin soil.

The use of nitrate of soda and like stimulants may be undertaken sparingly in the spring, but these are better left to those gardeners who have learned, possibly through disastrous experiences, how properly to use them.

PRUNING

The rose is one of those plants that seem to need the firm hand of man to direct them in the way they should grow. If left to their own devices, most of the highly cultivated roses revert quickly to lower types; they need the pitiless pruning-knife to spur them to their best endeavor.

It will readily be seen that severe pruning, as a general principle, tends towards greater beauty of individual blooms, while light pruning is conducive to a better rounded-out form of bush at the expense of the flowers. Or, again, the severe pruning gives quality of bloom as opposed to quant.i.ty of bloom.

Always cut back the plants severely when first setting them out--Teas and Hybrid Teas less than the Hybrid Perpetuals, and the climbers least of all.

Unreasonable as it may seem, the plants of vigorous habit of growth need less pruning than the less active ones.

Pruning may be started with the dwarf Hybrid perpetuals in March--leaving four or five canes three feet in length if large ma.s.ses of bloom are wanted. The result will be a large number of small flowers. If, on the other hand, fewer and larger flowers are wanted, all weak growth should be removed and every healthy cane retained and cut back in preparation for the plant's development. The weakest should not have more than four inches of wood left on the root, while the strongest may have eight or nine inches. Always prune a cane about a quarter of an inch above an outside bud unless the cane is very far from the vertical, when an inside one should be left for the terminal shoot. See that the wood is not torn or bruised in the operation.

The pruning of Hybrid Teas and Teas had better be postponed until the first signs of life appear. The bark becomes greener and the dormant buds begin to swell. Dead or dying wood will then readily be noticeable and it may be removed. Remember that these two cla.s.ses do not need such severe pruning as do the Hybrid Perpetuals; twice the amount of wood may safely be left if it seems promising.

Dormant rose plants bought in the spring will arrive from the growers already partly pruned. In general, from one-half to two-thirds of the remaining length of cane should be cut off when the plants are set out, removing entirely all bruised or dead wood. Bear in mind always, if your conscience revolts at such severe cutting, that the strongest dormant buds are nearest the base of the plant and it is these we want to force into growth to bear the prize blooms.

With the ramblers very little cutting is needed; merely cut back the shoots that seem to be outdistancing their neighbors by too much, and cut out entirely the dead canes.

The _rugosa_ is intended to be a bush rather than a strong, lean plant for prize blooms. Merely cut out old, dry wood and trim back the longer shoots to the desired form.

Use a first-cla.s.s pair of pruning shears in order that the work may be done quickly and, above all, with clean cuts that show no tearing or abrasion of the bark.

PESTS

Once more let me repeat the fact that by far the most effective campaign against the insects and other pests that infest rose plants is to be found, not in sprayings and dustings, but rather in maintaining to the best of our ability a condition of health in the plant itself.

Prevention here, as always, is better than cure. Nor can it be too strongly emphasized that the daily use of a powerful but finely divided spray from the hose will make life on the rose plant miserable for practically all of the parasites.

The following are the chief enemies that we may encounter in the rose garden. They are briefly described so as to be recognizable when found, and for the annihilation or keeping in check of each is given one of the many remedies. Practically every rosarian develops, after a time, his own pet formulae for these poisons, so that rose books will be found to contain a wonderfully varied a.s.sortment of weapons--so numerous in fact that one would think the army of rose pests could never live to continue their depredations another season.

_Aphis or Green Fly_

A small, pale green louse, winged or wingless, with a soft, fat, oval body apparently too big for its legs. A single aphis in five generations may become the progenitor of 6,000,000,000.

Tobacco smoke is an excellent weapon, or, if a spray is found more convenient to apply, a solution of 4 oz. of tobacco stems boiled for 10 min. in 1 gal. of soft water, will do. The same weight of qua.s.sia chips may be subst.i.tuted for the tobacco. If the tobacco is used, the cheapest that can be bought is the best for the purpose. Strain the solution and add 4 oz. of soft soap while it is still hot, stirring well to dissolve the soap.

Another remedy--1 qt. of soft soap boiled in 2 qts. of soft water, adding 1 pt. of paraffin before cooling--is well recommended. It should be applied diluted with soft water to ten times its bulk. The paraffin acts as an astringent which, together with the soft soap, cleanses the plant of honey-dew, which is exuded by the aphis to protect its feet against cold and wet.

_Mildew_

A fungous disease that may appear when the rose plants are in a damp, shady or ill-ventilated location. Although some varieties are more susceptible than others to this disease, the rose garden located out in the open, where the air has un.o.bstructed access, will not be troubled much by mildew. When the disease appears late in the autumn it need not be feared.

Dusting flowers of sulphur upon the foliage, taking care to reach the under side of leaves as well as the upper, and upon the ground about the plants, is a well established remedy. It will be found convenient to shake the powder from a baking-powder can, the end of which is punched with holes, if a regular powder gun is not at hand. Use the sulphur in the early morning, when the dew will help to hold it on the leaves, or else spray the plants with water beforehand.

_Rose Thrip_

A small, yellowish white insect with transparent wings, usually found on the _under_ side of the rose leaves. This pest appears in swarms and in an astonishingly short time turns the foliage yellow.

If the pest appears, spray the rose plants daily with a hose as suggested above. If this does not prove efficacious, dust the under side of the leaves with white h.e.l.lebore in a powder gun. Whale oil soap solution, in the proportions of 5 oz. of soap to 1 gal. of water, is a very good remedy. It is easier to dissolve the soap if the water is hot.

_Rose Caterpillar or Leaf-roller_

Several kinds of caterpillars may appear, varying from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in length, and either green, yellow or brown in color. They have a habit of enveloping themselves in the rose leaves, or boring their way into the flower buds. In the latter case they are very apt to be overlooked.

Powdered h.e.l.lebore will hinder their progress, but by far the most effective weapons are the finger and thumb--gloved, if you insist.

_Rose Chafer or Rose-bug_

This brown beetle, less than one-half inch in length, is one of the best-known rose pests. It is a slow-moving creature that appears suddenly in armies in the blooming season in June, and is the more annoying for the reason that it devotes its attention almost entirely to the flowers themselves.

Paris green, dusted over the plants, will kill the pest, but this poison has a disagreeable way of showing no intelligent discrimination in the choice of its victims. Really the only satisfactory method of attack is to knock the stupid creatures off the flowers into a tin of kerosene and then burn it.

_Rose Slug_

The larvae of a saw-fly which comes up out of the ground in May and June. The female makes incisions in the leaves and deposits her eggs, which hatch out in about two weeks. The slugs will eat an astonishing amount of leaf if not checked. They are about a half-inch long, green, and will be found on the upper side of the leaf.

Powdered white h.e.l.lebore, dusted on the foliage, or the solution of whale oil soap mentioned for the Rose Thrip, will keep it in check.

_White Grub_

An underground enemy that feeds on the roots of rose plants. The withering or sickliness of the plant is sufficient reason to cause a thorough search to be made by lifting it. The grub, which is provided with six legs near the head, and which coils itself into a crescent shape when in repose, is particularly fond of strawberry plants, so it will be well to keep these some distance away from the rose garden.

There is no insecticide that will be effective, because of the underground point of attack. Lifting the plant and removing the grub is the only thing that can be done.

_Bark Louse or White Scale_

This appears when the rose bush is grown in a damp, shady place. It is snow white and individual scales are about one-tenth of an inch in diameter, irregularly round.

Cut off and burn badly infested shoots. Spray with 1 lb. of soap in 1 gal. of water in early winter and again in early spring. Weaker summer applications may be used also--1 lb. in 4 or 6 gal. once in three weeks throughout the season will reach all the larvae.