Rose hedges

Chapter 10 (extract 2) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Miss Jekyll gives an account of the ways in which a visually effective rose hedge may be created.

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Illustration: A hedge of Psyche

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Roses of the free-growing kinds adapt themselves readily to the form of hedges. One has only to choose a Rose of more or less vigour, according to the height required. The hedge or screen way of growing them has the merit of ease of access for training and pruning as well as that of giving close enjoyment of the living walls of flowers. The tendency of nearly all strong growing Roses is to rush up and leave bare places below. A Rose hedge should, if possible, have a free space on both sides, when this defect can be remedied in two ways; one by training the shoots in an arched form with the tips bent well down, and the other to tip some of the outer strong young shoots that spring from the base.

If in July these are shortened about a third, instead of continuing their growth in length, their energy goes to strengthening the shortened piece that is left. This will then, the following season, be thickly set with flowering laterals that will clothe the lower part of the hedge.

Many of the newer rambling Roses, the old Ayrshires and the stronger of the Teas, are admirable for this way of growth, while there are Roses to suit every height. The height of the Rose hedge, as in all other matters of garden design, must be determined in relation to the proportion of the space it is to fill and the size and distribution of whatever may be within view. Nothing is gained by carrying it up to a great height. Eight or nine feet is in most cases the limit of desirable height, while anything from four to seven feet will be likely to suit the wants of most modest gardens. A charming hedge four feet high can be made with the old favourite Madame Plantier.

It is all the prettier if there is a short standard of the same at regular intervals. Another pretty hedge of the same class can be made with this good Rose in combination with one of pink colouring, such as the old H.P. Anna Alexieff. I know a pretty Rose hedge where the two are mixed; not planted alternately, but two or three of one kind and then one of the other, and so on in irregular sequence. Or it would be charming to have short standards of Anna Alexieff rising as just described from the low hedge of the white Madame Plantier.

No one would regret some planting of these two excellent old garden Roses. This one example is given as a type of this kind of planting. Any one who tried it and had enough garden sensibility to feel its charm, and enough garden fervour to wish to practise it in varied forms, would soon invent other combinations.

It would be easy to name many such desirable mixtures, but it is more helpful to show one simple thing that is easily understood, and that awakens interest and enthusiasm, and to leave those wholesome motive powers to do their own work, than it is to prompt the learner at every step, fussing like an anxious nurse, and doing for him, what, if his enthusiasm is true and deep and not mere idle froth, will give him more pleasure in the doing, and more profit in the learning, than if it were all done for him.

For the very essence of good gardening is the taking of thought and trouble. No one can do good decorative work who does it merely from a written recipe. The use of such a book as this is to describe enough to set the Rose pilgrim on his road, not to blindfold him and lead him all the way by hand.

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More: Rose screens