Preparing to Grow Roses, or Laying the Foundation
Preparing to Grow Roses, or Laying the Foundation by Adrian Kennelly
Having chosen the location and decided upon the size and shape of your beds, you are next ready to prepare the soil. Rev. F. Page-Roberts, an ex-president of the National Rose Society of England, has said: "After years of rose-growing in places far apart, I think it is not so much the soil and the climate, as the care and skill of the cultivator that wins success."
A very successful grower of roses in New York state once remarked to a meeting of his rose society: "I would rather plant a 15-cent rose in a 50-cent hole than plant a 50-cent rose in a 15-cent hole." He was wise. The author recalls visiting a successful private rose-garden in New England one day when the roses in one bed were being moved. Those roses had well- developed roots 3 feet long, because the bed in which they were growing had been prepared to that depth, and the top- growth and bloom had been luxuriantly magnificent, testifying to the value of deep and thorough soil-preparation.
When Noah laid the keel for the ark, the placing of those foundation timbers was relatively not more important than is laying the foundation for future years of rose-growing, for those periods - not only of flood but also of drought - through which your roses must pass and later come up smiling.
Now ample drainage is one thing that must be provided, if you are to court success. "Wet feet" are no more conducive to health and happiness for roses than for children. Examine your soil; if there seems a need, provide drainage. Remove the soil from your bed to the very bottom. Place there a layer from 4 to 6 inches deep of stones not larger than your fist, broken bricks, clinkers, or other suitable material that will readily "take" the water from above. The soil is seldom so retentive as to require tiling to take the water away and, indeed, nine times out of ten no artificial drainage at all will be needed.
As to soils, the good loam so often found directly beneath the sod is excellent, but is greatly improved by being broken, even pulverized, to a depth of at least two spades and thoroughly mixed with about one-third its bulk of rotted manure. Fresh manure must never be allowed to touch the rose roots. Indeed, the more thoroughgoing way is to make sure of the nether layer of soil by removing the upper one.
First of all, peel off the sod (it will produce excellent compost; see section on "Fertilizers" that concludes this chapter); next take out the top layer of soil to the depth of 1 foot and pile it nearby. If
the soil below that is good, rich loam, or a fair mixture of clay and loam, it may remain. Loosen this with a garden fork to a depth of another foot, preferably not upturning it, and mix with it well-decomposed manure, and then put back the top layer of loam in which to plant your roses.
If, on the other hand, you find the subsoil poor, barren, and unproductive, you may have to remove it altogether. Haul it away and put your chopped-up sods in the bottom, grass-side down, to rot and make future plant-food. If you have ready from the previous year a compost made by mixing one-half or two-thirds of sod with the balance of manure from the cow- stables, use it in the bottom of your bed, and thus insure a future storehouse of rich nourishment for your roses.
Another hint: A few broken bones may be mixed with the soil in the bottom of the trench, say a peck for a bed holding a dozen roses. These will decay slowly and furnish plant-food for three or four years to come.
Not all roses like the same soils. The Hybrid Perpetuals, for example, love a heavy clay or loam; so do the heavier-growing climbers; whereas the Teas, Hybrid Teas, Bourbons and the like, revel in a lighter soil and a warmer one, with less than 50 per cent clay or loam, and more sand or leaf-mold. Rugosas thrive even in quite sandy soil.
It is difficult to give the roses too rich soil. If your soil is light and sandy, and you cannot well replace it entirely, it may be greatly improved by mixing a little clay or rich loam with it when trenching. If your soil seems too heavy, it can be made lighter and more open by adding sand, or even coal-ashes. To be good for roses, the soil must be such as will not quickly transmit to the roots sudden surface changes of temperature. The roots should be kept cool. If it be possible, after the soil in your bed has been prepared, give it time, say two to three months, to settle before planting your roses. If this be out of the question, press with your feet each layer of soil in your bed, as you proceed to fill it in.
The subject of fertilizers is important. While manure from the cow-stable is best, you can draw upon the horse-stable, sheep-pens, or pig-sty with expectation of good results, and "night soil," mixed with dry soil, or sand, and well composted is excellent. Chicken manure may be used with caution. Well- rotted leaves are fair, but too light except for heavy soils. Commercial fertilizers, such as ground bone or guano, may be used to advantage if handled with discretion. A rule to remember is never to let any "green" or "raw" manure come close to the roots of your roses, but see that it is buried well beneath the root reach, or applied as a top-dressing. After your roses have been planted, the best time to apply manures is just as the ground begins to freeze in the autumn. Let it serve as a protection over winter, and dig it in next spring, being careful, however, not to disturb the roots.
Far better than surface-coating is the ample supply of fertilizer placed well under the roots in the bottom of your beds before you plant your roses, because roots travel toward their food-supply. By thus enticing them downward, you develop a strong, deep root-growth down into the reservoir of stored-up food and moisture, so that, when dry weather comes, they will not hunger and thirst, as they would with only surface roots. Surface application of manure-water is quite a different matter, as that will percolate down to the deepest roots.
It is said that roses draw most upon the soil when blooming, and we find we can almost see the results from application (when the flower-buds begin swelling) of liquid manure, concocted by catching the drain from the manure-pile, or from one-third of a bushel of manure placed in a bag and soaked in a barrel of water. Apply this as a weak tea, not too strong, but frequently, say twice a week. When it is more convenient, a sprinkling of bone-dust on the surface before a rain will answer the same purpose. Even with the best care, it may prove necessary in some locations, say after six or eight years, to renew the soil or move the bed, adopting the principle of crop rotation.
This is an extract from the ebook, "How to Grow Beautiful Roses". Visit How to Grow Beautiful Roses to purchase the full ebook.
Article Source: http://articles.directorygold.com
For more articles on Landscaping And Gardening visit the DirectoryGold Article Directory
For links to sites on Gardening visit the DirectoryGold Web Directory
Having chosen the location and decided upon the size and shape of your beds, you are next ready to prepare the soil. Rev. F. Page-Roberts, an ex-president of the National Rose Society of England, has said: "After years of rose-growing in places far apart, I think it is not so much the soil and the climate, as the care and skill of the cultivator that wins success."
A very successful grower of roses in New York state once remarked to a meeting of his rose society: "I would rather plant a 15-cent rose in a 50-cent hole than plant a 50-cent rose in a 15-cent hole." He was wise. The author recalls visiting a successful private rose-garden in New England one day when the roses in one bed were being moved. Those roses had well- developed roots 3 feet long, because the bed in which they were growing had been prepared to that depth, and the top- growth and bloom had been luxuriantly magnificent, testifying to the value of deep and thorough soil-preparation.
When Noah laid the keel for the ark, the placing of those foundation timbers was relatively not more important than is laying the foundation for future years of rose-growing, for those periods - not only of flood but also of drought - through which your roses must pass and later come up smiling.
Now ample drainage is one thing that must be provided, if you are to court success. "Wet feet" are no more conducive to health and happiness for roses than for children. Examine your soil; if there seems a need, provide drainage. Remove the soil from your bed to the very bottom. Place there a layer from 4 to 6 inches deep of stones not larger than your fist, broken bricks, clinkers, or other suitable material that will readily "take" the water from above. The soil is seldom so retentive as to require tiling to take the water away and, indeed, nine times out of ten no artificial drainage at all will be needed.
As to soils, the good loam so often found directly beneath the sod is excellent, but is greatly improved by being broken, even pulverized, to a depth of at least two spades and thoroughly mixed with about one-third its bulk of rotted manure. Fresh manure must never be allowed to touch the rose roots. Indeed, the more thoroughgoing way is to make sure of the nether layer of soil by removing the upper one.
First of all, peel off the sod (it will produce excellent compost; see section on "Fertilizers" that concludes this chapter); next take out the top layer of soil to the depth of 1 foot and pile it nearby. If
the soil below that is good, rich loam, or a fair mixture of clay and loam, it may remain. Loosen this with a garden fork to a depth of another foot, preferably not upturning it, and mix with it well-decomposed manure, and then put back the top layer of loam in which to plant your roses.
If, on the other hand, you find the subsoil poor, barren, and unproductive, you may have to remove it altogether. Haul it away and put your chopped-up sods in the bottom, grass-side down, to rot and make future plant-food. If you have ready from the previous year a compost made by mixing one-half or two-thirds of sod with the balance of manure from the cow- stables, use it in the bottom of your bed, and thus insure a future storehouse of rich nourishment for your roses.
Another hint: A few broken bones may be mixed with the soil in the bottom of the trench, say a peck for a bed holding a dozen roses. These will decay slowly and furnish plant-food for three or four years to come.
Not all roses like the same soils. The Hybrid Perpetuals, for example, love a heavy clay or loam; so do the heavier-growing climbers; whereas the Teas, Hybrid Teas, Bourbons and the like, revel in a lighter soil and a warmer one, with less than 50 per cent clay or loam, and more sand or leaf-mold. Rugosas thrive even in quite sandy soil.
It is difficult to give the roses too rich soil. If your soil is light and sandy, and you cannot well replace it entirely, it may be greatly improved by mixing a little clay or rich loam with it when trenching. If your soil seems too heavy, it can be made lighter and more open by adding sand, or even coal-ashes. To be good for roses, the soil must be such as will not quickly transmit to the roots sudden surface changes of temperature. The roots should be kept cool. If it be possible, after the soil in your bed has been prepared, give it time, say two to three months, to settle before planting your roses. If this be out of the question, press with your feet each layer of soil in your bed, as you proceed to fill it in.
The subject of fertilizers is important. While manure from the cow-stable is best, you can draw upon the horse-stable, sheep-pens, or pig-sty with expectation of good results, and "night soil," mixed with dry soil, or sand, and well composted is excellent. Chicken manure may be used with caution. Well- rotted leaves are fair, but too light except for heavy soils. Commercial fertilizers, such as ground bone or guano, may be used to advantage if handled with discretion. A rule to remember is never to let any "green" or "raw" manure come close to the roots of your roses, but see that it is buried well beneath the root reach, or applied as a top-dressing. After your roses have been planted, the best time to apply manures is just as the ground begins to freeze in the autumn. Let it serve as a protection over winter, and dig it in next spring, being careful, however, not to disturb the roots.
Far better than surface-coating is the ample supply of fertilizer placed well under the roots in the bottom of your beds before you plant your roses, because roots travel toward their food-supply. By thus enticing them downward, you develop a strong, deep root-growth down into the reservoir of stored-up food and moisture, so that, when dry weather comes, they will not hunger and thirst, as they would with only surface roots. Surface application of manure-water is quite a different matter, as that will percolate down to the deepest roots.
It is said that roses draw most upon the soil when blooming, and we find we can almost see the results from application (when the flower-buds begin swelling) of liquid manure, concocted by catching the drain from the manure-pile, or from one-third of a bushel of manure placed in a bag and soaked in a barrel of water. Apply this as a weak tea, not too strong, but frequently, say twice a week. When it is more convenient, a sprinkling of bone-dust on the surface before a rain will answer the same purpose. Even with the best care, it may prove necessary in some locations, say after six or eight years, to renew the soil or move the bed, adopting the principle of crop rotation.
This is an extract from the ebook, "How to Grow Beautiful Roses". Visit How to Grow Beautiful Roses to purchase the full ebook.
Article Source: http://articles.directorygold.com
For more articles on Landscaping And Gardening visit the DirectoryGold Article Directory
For links to sites on Gardening visit the DirectoryGold Web Directory
Labels: Gardening, Landscaping
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