News & Updates:

Always see that your dwarf roses are firm in the ground, your standards firmly tied to their stakes and your climbers to their supports. These supports should always be wooden; iron ones become too hot in summer. If dwarfs tend to sway in strong winds, drive a short stake into the ground and make the bush fast to it; if necessary, use several stakes, each sloping outwards. Dragging on the root system will do great harm. Ties for bushes, standards, and climbers should be firm but not of a type that will last more than twelve months. Any tie that lasts much longer than that either must be too loose at the time of its application or it will cut into the bark and cambium, reducing the flow of sap to parts beyond the tie. New ties should replace the old ones before they break and allow wind to do great damage. Replacement of ties entails extra work but ensures continuity of good growth. The best ties are light rope or strips of leather. Any material containing wire, like electrician's flex, should be avoided. Sometimes ties of this type are used over a shield of split hose and they are loosened and reried every few months. Unfortunately the shield serves as a shelter for pests, and it is easy to forget to readjust the ties as often as one should. Ties round standard roses and their stakes often slide down to too low a level. They should be kept no more than one and a half or two inches below the budding. If they are allowed to fall much lower than that, strong winds are apt to break the standard off at the level of the tie. A lathing nail driven into the stake under the tie will keep it from slipping.

Fences are often dressed with sump-oil discarded from motor-cars. If roses are trained on these fences they should be untied from them and kept from contact with the oil, for it is sure to kill any part of any rose plant that is smeared or splashed with the oil. Care should be taken to keep any nearby plants from being similarly damaged, and the oil should not be allowed on the soil, for it is very poisonous. Paint is not nearly so harmful on either the plants or the soil. The smeared branches and leaves very seldom die, but usually lose vigour.