The raising of roses from seed is an occupation of so much interest, that few who have fairly entered upon it have ever willingly abandoned it. Many choice roses have been raised by amateurs; and those who have the time and means to enter on a large or a small scale upon this pursuit will find it a source of abundant enjoyment. In the next chapter, we shall point out the combinations from which the existing classes of Hybrid roses have sprung; and hereafter, when we come to the description of these classes, we shall add a few suggestions as to other combinations likely to produce good results.
Some roses bear seed freely, while others can hardly be induced to bear it at all. The hybridizer should take note of their peculiarities in this respect, or he will throw away much labor and patience; for it is a thankless task to hybridize a rose, which, after all the labor spent upon it, will not produce a single seed-vessel. Fortunately, many of the best roses bear seed abundantly; and La Reine, General Jacqueminot, Jules Margottin, Madame Laffay, and many others as good as these, may confidently be relied on. It is a good rule, that no seedling-rose is worth preserving, or at least worth propagating, that is not, in some one point, superior to or distinct from any other rose existing.
Roses should be hybridized immediately after they open, or they will become thoroughly fertilized with their own pollen, and the object of the operation will thus be defeated. The best time of the day is about ten o'clock in the morning, as soon as the sun has dried the dew from the centre of the flower. The pollen of the rose whose qualities it is wished to impart may be applied to the pistils of the maternal or seed-bearing flower with a camel's-hair pencil; or one rose may be held over the other, and tapped with the finger till the pollen falls upon the pistils of the seed-bearer. Roses are uncertain as to the production of pollen. In some seasons and some situations it is abundant, while in others it is produced very scantily. The impregnated roses may be marked by strings or labels tied to their stems. The seed should not be gathered till the first frost; and, to insure its ripening, the plant should stand in a warm, sunny exposure. The pods should be laid in the sun to dry, then broken up, and the seed separated by means of a sieve.
We have found the following mode of sowing a successful one: A frame—a shallow hot-bed frame answers perfectly—should be prepared by making within it a bed of loam, old manure, leaf-mould, and sand, at least eighteen inches deep. These materials should be thoroughly mixed, and the surface layer for an inch or two in depth sifted through a moderately coarse sieve, and then levelled and smoothed. The seeds may be sown broadcast; that is to say, scattered over the surface. They may be sown thickly, as not a third part will germinate; and, when sown, they should be pressed firmly into the soil with a board or the back of a spade. Then the same soil should be sifted over them to the depth of half an inch, and pressed down very lightly. Some will prefer to sow them in drills, which should be about six inches apart; the seed in no case being more than half an inch deep. Now leave the frame open, and exposed to rain and frost. Just before the heavy snows begin, and when the whole is hard frozen, cover it with boards and mats, that it may remain frozen till spring. The object of this is to protect the seeds from mice, which are exceedingly fond of them. When the mild weather begins, open the frame, and allow the ground to thaw: keeping, however, a close watch upon them; for, though these depredators like to do their work under cover and in darkness, there is still some little danger of their attacks. As the soil warms, the seeds will begin to come up. Some of the ever-blooming roses may blossom the first season; but the Hardy June kinds will not show bloom before the third, or even the fourth year. If the plants are too crowded, pull up some of them when the ground is softened after a rain, and plant them in a bed by themselves. In the autumn, take them all up, and heel them in a mouse-proof frame for safe keeping through the winter. In the spring, plant them out in rich soil, a foot apart. They might, indeed, be wintered safely in the frame where they originally grew: but this is attended with one disadvantage; for many of the seeds will not germinate till the second year; and, in removing the plants at that time, these infant seedlings would be destroyed; whereas, by leaving them undisturbed, a second crop may be obtained. Care must be taken throughout to keep the frame free from weeds.
The eminent English rose-grower, Mr. Rivers, recommends a method of raising seedlings, which we have not tried, but which we have no doubt is a good one, though not applicable to raising them on a large scale. We give his directions in his own words:—
"The hips of all the varieties of roses will, in general, be fully ripe by the beginning of November: they should then be gathered, and kept entire in a flower-pot filled with dry sand, carefully guarded from mice. In February, or by the first week in March, they must be broken to pieces with the fingers, and sown in flower-pots, such as are generally used for sowing seeds in, called 'seed-pans;' but, for rose-seeds, they should not be too shallow: nine inches in depth will be enough. These should be nearly, but not quite, filled with a rich compost of rotten manure, and sandy loam or peat. The seeds may be covered to the depth of about half an inch with the same compost. A piece of kiln-wire must then be placed over the pot, fitting closely at the rim, so as to prevent the ingress of mice, which are passionately fond of rose-seeds. There must be space enough between the wire and the mould for the young plants to come up: half an inch will probably be found enough. The pots of seed must never be placed under glass, but kept constantly in the open air, in a full sunny exposure, as the wire will shade the mould, and prevent its drying. Water should be given occasionally in dry weather. The young plants will perhaps make their appearance in April or May; but very often the seed will not vegetate till the second spring. When they have made their 'rough leaves,' that is, when they have three or four leaves, exclusive of their seed-leaves, they must be carefully raised with the point of a narrow priming-knife, potted into small pots, and placed in the shade: if the weather be very hot and dry, they may be covered with a hand-glass for a few days. They may remain in those pots a month, and then be planted out into a rich border: by the end of August, those that are robust growers will have made shoots long enough to take buds from. Those that have done so may be cut down, and one or two strong stocks budded with each: these will, the following summer, make vigorous shoots; and the summer following, if left unpruned, to a certainty they will produce flowers. This is the only method to insure seedling roses flowering the third year: many will do so that are not budded; but very often the superior varieties are shy bloomers on their own roots, till age and careful culture give them strength.
"It may be mentioned here, as treatment applicable to all seed-bearing roses, that, when it is desirable the qualities of a favorite rose should preponderate, the petals of the flower to be fertilized must be opened gently with the fingers. * A flower that will expand in the morning should be opened the afternoon or evening previous, and the anthers all removed with a pair of pointed scissors: the following morning, when this flower is fully expanded, it must be fertilized with a flower of some variety, of which it is desired to have seedlings partaking largely of its qualities.
* "It requires some watchfulness to do this at the proper
time: if too soon, the petals will be injured in forcing
them open; and in hot weather, in July, if delayed only an
hour or two, the anthers will be found to have shed their
pollen. To ascertain precisely when the pollen is in a fit
state for transmission, a few of the anthers should be
gently pressed with the finger and thumb: if the yellow dust
adheres to them, the operation may be performed. It requires
close examination and some practice to know when the flower
to be operated upon is in a fit state to receive the pollen:
as a general rule, the flowers ought to be in the same state
of expansion; or, in other words, about the same age. It is
only in cases where it is wished for the qualities of a
particular rose to predominate that the removal of the
anthers of the rose to be fertilized is necessary: thus, if
a yellow climbing rose is desired by the union of the Yellow
Brier with the Ayrshire, 'every anther should be removed
from the latter, so that it is fertilized solely with the
pollen of the former. In some cases, where it is desirable
to have the qualities of both parents in an equal degree,
the removal of the anthers need not take place: thus I have
found by removing them from the Luxembourg Moss, and
fertilizing that rose with a dark variety of Rosa Galliea,
that the features of the Moss Rose are totally lost in its
offspring, and they become nearly pure varieties of Rosa
Galliea; but if the anthers of the Moss Rose are left
untouched, and it is fertilized with Rosa Galliea,
interesting hybrids are the result, more or less mossy. This
seems to make superfetation very probable; yet Dr. Lindley,
in 'Theory of Horticulture' p.332, 'thinks it is not very
likely to occur.'"
To exemplify this, we will suppose that a climbing Moss Rose with red or crimson flowers is wished for. The flowers of the Blush Ayrshire, which bears seed abundantly, may be selected, and, before expansion, the anthers removed. The following morning, or as soon after the operation as these flowers open, they should be fertilized with those of the Luxembourg Moss. If the operation succeed, seeds will be procured, from which the probability is that a climbing rose will be produced with the habit and flowers of the Moss Rose, or at least an approximation to them; and as these hybrids often bear seed freely, by repeating the process with them, the at present apparent remote chance of getting a climbing Moss Rose may be brought very near.
"I mention the union of the Moss and Ayrshire roses by way of illustration, and merely to point out to the amateur how extensive and how interesting a field of operations is open in this way. I ought to give a fact that has occurred in my own experience, which will tell better with the sceptical than a thousand anticipations. About four years since, in a pan of seedling Moss roses was one with a most peculiar habit, even when very young: this has since proved a hybrid rose, partaking much more of the Scotch Rose than of any other, and, till the plant arrived at full growth, I thought it a Scotch rose, the seed of which had by accident been mixed with that of the Moss Rose, although I had taken extreme care. To my surprise, it has since proved a perfect hybrid, having the sepals and the fruit of the Provence Rose, with the spiny and dwarf habit of the Scotch Rose: it bears abundance of hips, which are all abortive. * The difference in the fruit of the Moss and Provence roses and that of the Scotch is very remarkable, and this it was which drew my particular attention to the plant in question.
* "It is more than probable, that, if the flowers of this
rose were fertilized with those of the single Moss Hose,
they would produce seed from which some curious hybrid Moss
roses might be expected."
It was raised from the same seed and in the same seed-pan as the Single Crimson Moss Rose. As this strange hybrid came from a Moss Rose, accidentally fertilized, we may expect that art will do much more for us."
Some of the more hardy kinds of climbing roses, as, for example, the Queen of the Prairies, may be induced to wear borrowed robes, and assume beauties beyond those with which Nature endowed them. At the proper season, they may be budded here and there with some of the most hardy and vigorous of the June and Hybrid Perpetual roses. As these varieties bloom earlier than the Prairie roses, the period of bloom of the climber will be greatly protracted by this process, while at the same time it will be made to bear flowers incomparably finer in form and color than its own. It will be necessary, however, in our Northern climate, to protect it by nailing mats over it, since otherwise many of the buds will be winter-killed; and, as it is expected to yield more than its natural share of bloom, it should be stimulated with more than the usual manuring, and pruned more closely than the ordinary climbing roses.
We have before spoken of the difficulty of cultivating standard roses, or roses budded on tall stems, in our climate. It is possible, however, to produce a kind of standard without a resort to budding. We may choose some of the most hardy and vigorous of the June roses,—we may find such especially in the class known as the Hybrid Chinas,—and encourage the growth of a single, strong, upright stem, removing all other shoots from the base of the plant as fast as they appear. The stem should be kept straight by tying it to a stick till it has gained strength enough to hold itself erect. Thus, in a single season, we shall have, with some varieties, a stem five or six feet high. Early in spring, prune it down to the first healthy and plump bud. During the following season, allow no shoots to develop themselves, except at the top; and, in the succeeding spring, prune back these top-shoots to two or three eyes. All of these eyes will, in their turn, develop into shoots; and these, again, are to be pruned back like the first. Thus, in two or three seasons, we obtain a thick bushy head at the top of a tall upright stem; in short, a standard, capable of bearing even a New-England winter.
It is always better to prepare beds for roses in the autumn, that they may have the benefit of a thorough exposure to the winter frost. With this view, the soil should be thrown up into ridges as roughly as possible. It will then be thoroughly frozen through, and subjected to all the changes of temperature during the season. This will not only tend to destroy worms and noxious insects, but it will separate the particles of the soil, and leave it light and pliable. Soil thrown into ridges can also be worked earlier in the spring than that which is left at its natural level.
The cardinal points of successful rose-culture are a good soil, good pruning, and good cultivation. By cultivation, we mean a repeated digging, hoeing, or forking of the earth around the plants, by which the surface is kept open, and enabled freely to receive the dew, rain, and air, with its fertilizing gases. Plants so treated will suffer far less in a drought than if the soil had been left undisturbed; for not only will it now absorb the dew at night, but it will freely permit the moisture which always exists at certain depths below the surface to rise, and benefit the thirsty roots. For a similar reason, the process of subsoiling, or trenching, by which the earth is loosened and stirred to a great depth, is exceedingly beneficial to roses, since the lower portions of the disturbed soil are a magazine of moisture which the severest drought cannot exhaust.
With newly-planted roses it is well to practise "mulching" with manure; or, in other words, to place manure on the surface around the roots of the plants. This keeps the ground moist and open, while every rain washes down a portion of nutriment to the roots.
Roses may be planted in clumps, on the lawn, with far better effect than when arranged in formal beds. They may be separated according to their classes, as June roses, Bourbons, Hybrid Perpétuals, Mosses, &c.; and the effect will be vastly better, if, instead of mingling colors indiscriminately, each is placed by itself. Thus the pure white of Madame Plantier will form a rich contrast with the deep crimson of General Jacqueminot, the vivid rose of Jules Margottin, the clear flesh-color of Ville de Bruxelles, and the pale rose of Baronne Prévost, each massed by itself; while all these varied hues are beautifully relieved by the fresh green of a well-kept lawn with its surrounding trees and shrubbery.