Flowers and Flower-Gardens eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 407 pages of information about Flowers and Flower-Gardens.

Flowers and Flower-Gardens eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 407 pages of information about Flowers and Flower-Gardens.

While flowering, too, it will be well to water with liquid manure at least once a week.  If it be desired to continue the trees in blossom, each shoot should be removed as soon as it has ceased flowering.  To secure full large blossoms, all the buds from a shoot should be cut off, when quite young, except one.

The Sweet briar rose strikes its root low, and prefers shade, the best soil being a deep rich loam with very little sand, rather strong than otherwise; it will be well to place a heap of manure round the stem, above ground, covering over with turf, but it is not requisite to open the roots, or give them so much manure as for other varieties.  The sweet briar must not be much pruned, overgrowth being checked rather by pinching the young shoots, or it will not blossom, and it is rather slower in throwing out shoots than other roses.  In this country the best mode of multiplying this shrub is by grafting on a China rose stock, as layers do not strike freely, and cuttings cannot be made to root at all.

The Bramble-flowered rose is a climber, and though not needing so strong a soil as other kinds, requires it to be rich, and frequently renewed, by taking away the soil from about the roots and supplying its place with a good compost of loam, leaf mould, and well rotted dung, pruning the root.  The plants require shelter from the cold wind from the North, or West, this, however, if carefully trained, they will form for themselves, but until they do so, it is impossible to make them blossom freely, the higher branches should be allowed to droop, and if growing luxuriantly, with the shoots not shortened, they will the following season, produce bunches of flowers at the end of every one, and have a very beautiful effect, no pruning should be given, except what is just enough to keep the plants within bounds, as they invariably suffer from the use of the knife.  This rose is easily propagated by cuttings or layers, both of which root readily.

The China rose thrives almost anywhere, but is best in a soil of loam and peat, a moderate supply of water being given daily during the hot weather.  They will require frequent thinning out of the branches, and are propagated by cuttings, which strike freely.[139]

As before mentioned, Rose trees look well in a parterre by themselves, but a few may be dispersed along the borders of the garden.

Insects, &c. The green, and the black plant louse are great enemies to the rose tree, and, whenever they appear, it is advisable to cut out at once the shoot attacked, the green caterpillar too, often makes skeletons of the leaves in a short time, the ladybird, as it is commonly called, is an useful insect, and worthy of encouragement, as it is a destroyer of the plant louse.

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CREEPERS AND CLIMBERS

The CLIMBING, and TWINING SHRUBS offer a numerous family, highly deserving of cultivation, the following being a few of the most desirable.

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Flowers and Flower-Gardens from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.