Pruning Roses Sitemap

Foreword - Mr. A. Norman has a rare distinction among present-day amateur rosarians. He is not only a most successful grower and exhibitor of roses but also one who has succeeded in breeding two of the best red roses of our times. Ena Harkness and Frensham are outstanding by any standards, the one a hybrid tea so shapely and free that it is as capable of winning prizes on the show bench as it is of filling the garden with richly colored bloom; the other a floribunda which seems to have no hidden weakness of constitution or character to mar its popularity.

Preface - About forty years ago I took possession of my first garden and was able to gratify a wish to grow roses. The garden was a tiny one, half over-shadowed by an enormous black Italian poplar, and composed of the most unpromising material in which anyone could attempt to grow roses.

01. Purchasing Roses - The rose is, by general consent, the queen of flowers. This is acknowledged even by those who specialize in such flowers as dahlias, chrysanthemums, sweet peas, carnations and many others. Why this should be is not easy to explain because, after all, most flowers seen through the eyes of those who grow them have an equal claim to be the most beautiful, and yet who would deny the pre-eminence of the rose?

02. Soil Preparation - Come my spade. There are no ancient gentlemen but gardeners. Shakespeare (Hamlet, Act V)

In using the word 'planning' in the heading it is not my intention to give elaborate designs for rose gardens (or, in fact, any at all). For one reason, where designs are needed by the very few who, nowadays, are in a position to allot the whole or a large part of their gardens to the cultivation of one type of flower, this need can be met by those whose business it is to carry out such work.

03. Planting Roses - The great variety of Roses is much to be admired, being more than is to be seen in any other shrubby plant that I know, both for color, form and smell. I have to furnish this garden thirty sorts at the least, every one notably differing from the other, and all fit to be here entertained...JOHN PARKINSON, 1629

04. Pruning of Roses - Here are few things connected with Rose culture so little understood by amateurs and gardeners generally as pruning . . .

Of all the garden operations that bedevil the novice there is none I think like rose pruning, and yet its importance is grossly overrated. here is a general impression that if it is carried out by an expert, the bushes will not only grow well, but bloom profusely. Let me say at once that pruning has nothing whatever to do with promoting growth, the only thing which will do that is good cultivation.

05. Budding + Grafting - I am convinced that by far the greater number of the most perfect Roses may be, are, and will be, grown and shown from our indigenous British Briar, taken from the hedgerows, struck from cuttings, or raised from seed.

06. Budding of Roses - It is surprising that in a simple operation like budding there should be so many variations in the methods adopted by different budders. It is true that the differences are slight, but each budder maintains that his is the right method and all others are wrong.

The operation of rose budding consists in lifting the bark where there is no bud, and placing a bud or eye cut from the bush which we wish to increase.

07. From Cuttings - For those who think the budding of roses is beyond their power, or who perhaps lack the room to grow the stocks, growing roses from cuttings may have some appeal. The only thing one can say against roses on their own roots is that it takes rather a long time to produce a plant of a decent size, but if one has the patience, the ultimate result can be superior and longer-lived than a plant with foster roots. One drawback is the uncertainty of the rooting process, especially with many varieties of Hybrid Tea.

08. Roses Seed - To very many, the idea of growing roses from seed is rather surprising. I suppose it is owing to the fact that, since nearly all woody plants are propagated by means of grafting, budding, layering or cuttings, growing from seed is seldom thought of. The growing of roses from seed is done purely with the intention of raising new varieties.

09. Cultivation - The great charm that the Rose possesses over most other flowers for exhibition purposes is that it is a true amateur's flower.

Gertrude Jekyll And Edward Mawley
'Roses for English Gardens', 1902

Under this heading it is proposed to deal with the general cultivation and care of the plants.

10. Under Glass - There are few flowers that can be grown in a greenhouse which can give as much pleasure as the rose—nor one that will continue to do so for so long. A rose in a nine-inch pot can be made to give good service for anything up to ten years or more. Few other flowers can ever hope to compete in giving such lasting pleasure. Only those who have seen the glorious clean and healthy foliage and the superlatively beautiful blooms during the month of April can appreciate the joy of growing roses in a greenhouse.

11. Without Garden - There are doubtless many who through circumstances or from choice are without a garden and yet would like to be able to grow a few roses. Where there is access to an open space such as a roof or balcony, growing roses is quite within the bounds of possibility. Obviously, such a project will entail growing the plants in boxes, tubs, pots, etc., but there is no reason, provided certain cultural rules are observed, why a fair amount of success should not be obtained.

12. Autumn Roses - One of the outstanding qualities of the rose is its continuity of flowering. Many of our popular garden plants can, if the weather is bad at flowering time, give a very mediocre display. A late May frost may be severe enough to destroy the whole of the iris crop of bloom, also peonies, with no hope of anything to follow, and a similar thing may happen to many of the flowering shrubs. Fortunately, while roses are susceptible to the effects of frost, all that happens is that blooming is delayed for a week or two.

13. Pests + Diseases - Read, ye who run, the awful truth, With which I charge my page...A worm is in the bud.

It is a very curious thing that the indigenous roses of this countryside, when growing naturally in the hedgerows or their usual habitat, act as host plants to very few of the many insects which attack other kinds of tree and plant. For instance, the caterpillars of most of the moths found in this country show a decided preference for the foliage of one plant over another, and many, if deprived of that particular plant, would become extinct unless there was another closely allied plant near at hand.

14. Hybrid Tea - The development and perfecting of the form of the Rose is a comparatively modern occurrence. The change that has been effected is from a small, flat-topped flower with numerous petals, but a confused centre, to a flower of important size with a high centre formed of petals symmetrically curving to the point.

15. Noteworthy Roses - Experience has taught me that restraint is necessary in recommending new varieties on brief acquaintance. In discussing some of the most recent ones in this chapter I am therefore not especially recommending any, though I have selected those varieties which I consider to be among the best.

16. Hybrid Polyantha - The use of the term 'Floribunda' is fairly recent. It was felt that the continued use of the words Hybrid Polyantha was no longer applicable as so many of the new cluster roses had no polyantha strain in them, and so the new term has been adopted, while still retaining the older name for the earliest varieties. With the introduction of so many new varieties it is very possible that this will eventually drop out altogether.

17. Hybrid Musks - The climbers as a group have not received the same full attention of the hybridists as have other types, nevertheless, a few new ones have appeared on the market in recent years. Being grown in smaller quantities than the Hybrid Teas and Floribundas their introduction in consequence has passed almost without notice, yet several are a great advance on the older types.

18. Reminders - October may be said to be the beginning of the year for rose-growers, for what is done from now on determines success or failure in the coming season.

It is quite likely that a sharp frost some time during the month will have spoilt the chance of seeing any good blooms again that season, so any transplanting that is to be done can be carried out quite safely without the sacrifice of any good flowers. Remove the foliage and cut back the soft growth, thus preventing the wood of the plants from shriveling.

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