Chapter 22 (extract 1) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Mr Mawley discusses the methods of greenhouse culture used to produce blooms in the inclement months.
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Illustration: Rose Anna Olivier (Tea)
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CHAPTER XXII
ROSES UNDER GLASS
To the true lover of the Rose it is a great deprivation to have Roses in flower during less than half the year, which must be the case if they be only cultivated in the open ground. It is, however, possible to have Roses in bloom all the year round if they be grown under glass as well as in the garden, although the supply of blooms may be scanty during the most gloomy part of the winter. For it is the paucity of sunshine and its feeble character which render the growth of the Queen of Flowers under glass in this country so much less satisfactory at that season than in America and other lands where the winter sunshine is stronger and more frequent. To dwellers in the neighbourhood of large towns where Roses cannot be successfully cultivated in the open ground, a Rose house is a great boon, as the plants can there be grown in the soil best suited to their requirements, and the foliage kept clean by frequent syringeing.
As roses delight in a free, cool and rather humid atmosphere and in an unrestricted root-run, they do not naturally adapt themselves to ordinary greenhouse culture. If, however, their requirements be understood and complied with as well as the altered circumstances under which they are grown will admit, the cultivation of Roses under glass will not present any difficulties worth mentioning, notwithstanding the fact that the plants will be called upon to flower at a time of year when out-of-doors they would be taking their annual period of rest.
There are two ways of growing Roses under glass, each of which has its own distinct advantage : (i) they can be cultivated in pots, or (2) planted out in specially prepared borders.
Roses in Pots.—This is the simplest plan, and the one most frequently adopted, as any light heated greenhouse will answer the purpose. On the other hand, unless certain plants be specially prepared beforehand for late autumn and early winter flowering, others for forcing in heat so as to bloom in the dead of winter, and the remainder to flower from March onwards, the period of blooming is restricted to about a month or six weeks in the spring. The usual custom is for young plants to be purchased in pots from the Rose nurseries in September ready prepared. The plants when received should be placed under a north wall, and allowed to remain there until they are taken into the greenhouse early in December, so as to keep the leaf-buds in a dormant state. Should severe weather set in before this, some protection from frost must be afforded them at night. When housed, ample ventilation should be given, and but little fire heat, or the leafbuds will begin to push before the plants are pruned at the beginning of January. The pruning of these young plants will be very simple, as the object should mainly be to secure well-developed and strong shoots for another season, rather than to obtain as many flowers as possible the first year. Therefore the weak shoots should be cut clean out, and the remainder shortened back to within two or three eyes.
Cool treatment should still be adopted until the young shoots appear, when the heat may be slightly increased, for it should always be borne in mind that the more gradual the progress the plants make, the better will be the ultimate results. For this a steady but moderate warmth should, as far as practicable, be always maintained. Great care must be given to the admission of air, so that the atmosphere in the house may be buoyant and yet without cold draughts.
For instance, in ordinary weather the top ventilators should be slightly opened on the side of the house opposite to that from which the wind may at the time be blowing. In very cold or rough weather the ventilators must either be kept closed altogether, or a little air be cautiously admitted in the middle of the day for an hour or so, as circumstances may direct.
Another very important point is watering. In the early stages of growth the plants should be kept on rather the dry side, but as the foliage develops the supply of water should be gradually increased. When the flower-buds appear, weak liquid manure may be given at every alternate watering.
Excellent liquid manures may be made by putting half a bushel of either fresh horse droppings or cow manure, or four pounds of soot, into a coarse bag, and suspending the bag in a tub containing twenty gallons of water. The Hquid animal manure may be used for a time, and then as a change the soot water substituted.
Much of the success of Rose growing under glass depends upon judicious watering — that is to say, on giving plenty of water whenever the plants really require it, and thus avoiding the objectionable practice of mere surface sprinkling at each time of watering, whatever the requirements of the individual plants at the time may be. Plenty of room should be allowed between the plants, so that light and air can reach all parts of them; with the same object the best of the new growths when sufficiently long should be secured to light sticks placed near the edge of the pots. At the same time it will be necessary to remove altogether any of the new shoots which may not be required to furnish the plant. Four to six flowering shoots will be found as a rule sufficient for such young plants.
At this stage about an inch of the surface soil in the pots should be removed, and a mixture of well decayed manure and leaf-mould substituted. This surface dressing will tend to keep the roots cool and moist; it should not, however, be thicker than the soil removed from the pots, or there will not be sufficient space left for watering.
On every fine morning, from the time the Roses are pruned, the plants should be syringed until the new shoots are about an inch in length; then stop syringeing and sprinkle the floor to keep the atmosphere fairly moist. It may appear strange that in the dull months of the year this "damping down" should be necessary, when the outer atmosphere is mostly so humid, but few people are aware how dry the air in a greenhouse can become under such conditions, and more particularly when there is considerable difference between the inside and outside temperatures. When the plants are in bloom the house should be shaded during the sunniest part of the day, and air admitted to reduce the temperature inside the house. By this means the flowering period will be extended, and the individual flowers will be finer than would otherwise be the case.
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More: Greenhouse Roses - pests of roses under glass; summer treatment and repotting; forcing roses for winter flowering; roses in greenhouse beds; climbing roses under glass.
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