Best roses for greenhouse cultivation (1902)

Chapter 23 (extract 3) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which the best roses for greenhouse use are listed.

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Illustration: Rose Ulrich Brunner grown as a potted standard (from Foster-Melliar "The Book of the Rose" 1894).

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THE BEST ROSES FOR GROWING UNDER GLASS

• Anna Olivier (T.).
• Baronoss Rothschild (H.P.)
• Bridesmaid (T.).
• Captain Hayward (H.P.).
• Catherine Mermet (T.).
• Caroline Testout (H.T.).
• General Jacqueminot (H.P.).
• Innocente Pirola (T.).
• La France (H.T.).
• Liberty (H.T.).
• Madame de Watteville (T.).
• Madame Hoste (T.).
• Madame Lambard (T.).
• Marie Van Houite (T.).
• Merveille de Lyon (H.P.).
• Mrs. John Laing (H.P).
• Mrs. R. G. Sharman - Crawford (H.P).
• Mrs. W. J. Grant (H.T.).
• Niphetos (T.).
• Perle des Jardins (T.).
• Souvenir de S. A. Prince (T.).
• Souvenir d'un Ami (T.).
• S. M. Rodocanachi (H.P.).
• Sunrise (T.).
• The Bride (T.).
• Ulrich Brunner (H.P.).
• Viscountess Folkestone (H.T.)
• Anna Olivier.

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See also:

Best roses for exhibition (1902)

Best roses garden and decorative roses (1902)

Best climbing roses (1902)

Full list: Best roses now in cultivation (1902)

Greenhouse Roses - roses in greenhouse beds

Chapter 22 (extract 4) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Mr Mawley notes that beds rather than pots have several advantages in greenhouse culture.

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Roses in Beds.—This is really the most natural way of growing Roses under glass, and if the choice be restricted to the most free-flowering of the Teas and Hybrid Teas, they may, if properly managed, be kept in bloom from the beginning of November till the end of May, or during the entire period that no Roses are obtainable from the open ground, although, as before stated, there may be but very few blooms to be had during January and February. In order to make this method of growing Roses a complete success, a house should be specially built. A span-roof house running north and south will be best, as the sunshine will then be more equally distributed over it. The walls on the east and west sides should be about three feet high, and the eaves be raised only about a foot above them so as to admit as much light to the plants as possible.

The roof should be constructed so that the lights between the main rafters can be entirely removed during the summer months. This is very important, for without some such arrangement the growth of the plants during that season will be arrested by the hot and dry atmosphere within the house, and red spider will with difficulty be kept in check. The beds down each side should be three feet six inches wide so as to allow of two rows of plants; the stronger growing varieties being placed at the back. If the house be sufficiently wide to allow of a central bed of the same width as the two side beds, this might with advantage be planted with half standards. Ventilators should be inserted in the centre of each light near the ridge so that air may be admitted on either side of the house, as circumstances may direct, and to the extent required.

The spaces allotted for the beds should be cleared out to the depth of two feet eight inches. In the bottom should be placed a layer of stones six inches deep, and above this a layer of gravel or other small stones to the depth of another two inches in order to ensure perfect drainage. The spaces should then be filled up with the compost, consisting of six parts turfy loam rather finely chopped, two parts welldecayed manure, one part leaf mould, and the remaining part half-inch bones and coarse sand in tqral quantities. The inner walls supporting the beds need not be more than half a brick thick. The Roses should be planted two feet six inches apart, and in the same way as recommended for outside planting (p. 96). It is advisable to begin with young plants from the open ground, either procured from the Rose nurseries early in November, or taken up in that month from the Rose garden. Any kinds of Roses can be grown in such a Rose house, but Teas are especially recommended on account of their naturally perpetual flowering habit, and also because, more than any other class of Rose, they appreciate the shelter from all adverse weather conditions. Very little warmth should be given, and when young leaves appear at the ends of the shoots these shoots should be cut back half their length.

The first winter must necessarily be a barren one, but there may be a moderate number of small blooms in the spring. The same routine of treatment advised for pot Roses under glass should throughout their growth be adopted (see p. 135). In the summer the lights should be entirely removed from the roof, so that the plants, during the hottest part of the year, may be virtually growing in the open air. At the end of that season, if the plants have received due attention as to watering, &c., they should have made good growth. In September the lights should be replaced on the roof, but ample ventilation should be given, and water entirely withheld, in order to give the plants as far as possible a period of rest.

In October they will require pruning—that is to say, some of the weak and crowded shoots should be removed, and the remainder shortened back about one-third of their length. After a week the plants should be well watered with clear water and syringed every morning, the floor of the house at the same time being freely wetted. Should the nights a little later prove cold, some fire heat should be given, but only enough to keep the plants slowly growing. On all bright days the top ventilators may be opened on the side opposite to that quarter from which the wind happens to be blowing. On the appearance of the flower-buds, very weak liquid manure should be given liberally once a fortnight.

As the weather becomes colder more heat will have to be given, but the temperature should not be allowed to rise above sixty degrees in the daytime or to fall lower than forty-five degrees at night. In this way a fair number of flowers may be obtained until about Christmas, and a flower here and there until March. If the plants be again lightly pruned in January, with the help of increasing sunshine there will be a goodly number until nearly June. The lights must once more be taken from the roof and the same routine as before followed in preparation for the third year's crop of flowers, in the late autumn, winter and spring.

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More: Greenhouse Roses - roses in pots; pests of roses under glass; summer treatment and repotting; forcing roses for winter flowering; climbing roses under glass.

Greenhouse Roses - forcing roses for winter flowering

Chapter 22 (extract 3) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Mr Mawley notes the difficulties of producing roses in winter and gives tips on how this may be achieved.

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Illustration: Rose Eclair (from Foster-Melliar "The Book of the Rose" 1894).

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Forcing Roses.—If the plants be required to flower towards the end of the winter instead of in the spring more skill and care will be necessary, for Roses naturally object to much fire heat, and the lack of sunshine at that season is another drawback.

For this purpose plants should be selected which have been grown as previously directed for at least one year under glass, with the pots well filled with roots; or, if preferred, Roses specially prepared for forcing may be purchased. If any repotting be required, it should be done in May. After they have been placed in the house in November very little heat should be at first given, but it may be very gradually increased as the new growths appear.

The ventilation should also be gradually lessened. As before recommended, the plants should be frequently syringed until the new growths are about an inch in length; but after this the floor should, instead, be sprinkled freely with water on all but dull, damp days, or mildew may result. Indeed the great enemy to guard against is mildew, which is a certain sign of some defect in the treatment, either in watering, the admission of air, or the exposure of the plants to sudden changes of temperature.

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More: Greenhouse Roses - roses in pots; pests of roses under glass; summer treatment and repotting; roses in greenhouse beds; climbing roses under glass.

Greenhouse Roses - Summer treatment and repotting

Chapter 22 (extract 1) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Mr Mawley describes how plants in the glasshouse are rested and revived during the summer months.

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Illustration: Rose Paul Ferran, pot grown (from Foster-Melliar "The Book of the Rose" 1894).

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The Summer Treatment of Pot Plants.—When the plants have flowered more air should gradually be admitted and the temperature gradually lowered so as to prepare them for removal from the house. The middle of June is quite soon enough, as the plants should be encouraged to make new growth before being placed outside. An open spot, handy for watering, should be chosen for the summer quarters of these pot plants, and the pots plunged to their rim in ashes in order to keep the roots cool and to check evaporation.

The endeavour at that season should be to obtain strong new growths which will become well ripened by the autumn. For this purpose the wants of the plants should receive frequent attention in the way of watering, the destruction of insect pests, and dusting with sulphur on the first appearance of mildew. All the flower-buds will also require to be removed as they appear. It is to the absence of reasonable care of pot Roses during the summer months that much of the want of success in growing them may often be traced. Occasional waterings with weak liquid manure will be found of much service.

Repotting.—As soon as the plants have flowered, the roots and drainage should be examined. If any plant be found to require moving into a pot a size larger, this must be at once done, taking care to disturb the roots as little as possible, and to ram down the new soil firmly with a potting stick between the pot and the old soil. A suitable compost would be one composed of one half fibrous loam, one quarter old cow manure, and the remaining quarter leafmould, sand, and bone meal in equal quantities.

Where it is found that the roots have not made sufficient growth to warrant the plants being repotted, they should be returned to the pots they previously occupied after the drainage has been seen to; in that case some of the surface soil should be replaced by some of the above-mentioned compost. All the plants may then be well watered. Until the roots have found their way into the new soil and fresh growths have been made, the plants should remain in the greenhouse.

In order to make these instructions as clear and simple as possible, they have been so far confined to the first year's treatment of young plants purchased in the autumn from the nurseries and grown to flower in the following April or May, because, for any one commencing Rose culture under glass, this plan is the easiest and the most satisfactory to follow. There are, however, two other methods which may be afterwards adopted with pot Roses. The plants can be raised from cuttings struck in the way recommended on p. Ill, or young plants may be potted up from the open ground, which is far preferable, particularly for H.P.'s and H.T.'s; in the latter case the plants may either be taken up from the Rose garden, or maiden plants obtained from the Rose nurseries.

But whichever plan be adopted, the earlier they can be potted in October, while most of the leaves are still on the plants, the better will be the result.

Having selected a pot of a suitable size, and it should not be larger than will allow reasonable room for the roots, say, from eight to ten inches across, according to the vigour of the plant, all the stronger roots should be shortened, but on the other hand all the fibrous ones retained and without any curtailment.

For compost it would be well to use that advised under the head of "Repotting" (p. 140). Do not plant too deeply, as the tendency of the new roots will be to strike downwards, and yet sufficient space must be allowed above for watering. Very firm potting is advisable; in fact the soil cannot well be made too firm for Roses. When potted the plants should be well watered and then placed under a north wall. After this, until they are taken into the house in December, but little water will be needed. Early in January the plants should be pruned rather hard — that is to say, all the sappy, weak, and crowded shoots should be cut clean out, and the well-ripened ones that remain shortened back to two or three eyes.

After this time the plants should be treated throughout the winter, spring, and summer in all respects as has been recommended for young plants purchased in pots from the nurseries (see pp. 135 to 138). The fire heat given should be very moderate^ as these Roses have been so recently potted, and therefore but a small proportion of their roots will be as yet in active growth.

Whether the plants are purchased plants, raised from cuttings or potted up from the open ground, they must in the second and following years be submitted to the same routine of treatment as in the first year, except that the pruning should be less severe. A little experience with pot Roses will show that with their roots thus confined the annual growth made is very moderate indeed compared with that of the same varieties in the open ground.

Consequently, if pruned as hard, most of the shoots made during the previous summer would be entirely removed; whereas it is important that as many of these shoots as possible should be retained. After the dead wood and any weak or crowded growths in the centre of the plant have been cut clean out, the remaining shoots of the past season's growth should be pruned from one-third to one-half of their length, according to their strength, the stronger growths being left the longer of the two. The aim should be to obtain a well-balanced plant with a moderate number of good shoots as equally distributed round it as possible. In order to obtain this, it will be advisable after pruning to fasten a wire round the rim of the pot, and to tie out any shoots that may require it to the wire with raffia, taking care not to break any of them in so doing; or light Hazel sticks may be inserted at intervals round the pots and the shoots secured to them. In the case of very vigorous growers, the leading shoots should be bent spirally round the ring of sticks.

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More: Greenhouse Roses - roses in pots; pests of roses under glass; forcing roses for winter flowering; roses in greenhouse beds; climbing roses under glass.

Greenhouse Roses - roses in pots

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.