Growing roses for the exhibition is an exceedingly fascinating hobby.
The blue ribbon winners in the show take something more than average care— pruning, feeding, dusting, and spraying keeps the process from being entirely “a bed of roses.”
The use of antibiotics in feeding roses makes the competition in rose shows more complex every year.
The day is gone when you can go into the garden the morning of the show, pick a handful of roses, sock them in a vase, stick a tag on them, enter them in the show with the reds, whites, yellows, or pinks, and receive a blue ribbon for your small efforts.
Rose Growers
Nowadays, rose growers start even a year ahead of a show with much planning.
On a national scale, the rosarians in Kansas City are already making plans for the national convention and rose show of the American Rose Society, which will be held in Kansas City in May 1958.
Ordinarily, a rose can be brought into bloom 70 to 90 days after pruning. Of course, the weather has a lot to do with these figures, but if you know the date of your show, count back 90 days and start your pruning at that time.
Pruning Of Bushes
If you have enough roses, you can vary the pruning of part of your bushes by 10 days. By doing so, not all the bushes will reach perfection simultaneously.
Another practice is to prune the canes back to different heights.
The terminal buds on the longest canes will start growing first, and those on the shorter canes will last.
The reason is that those farther down on the canes are more dominant than those higher up the branches.
Following Three Essential Cultural Practices
After pruning the rose bushes, three essential cultural practices must be followed if prize-winning roses are to be grown.
The number one essential is proper feeding of the roses.
We find that barnyard manure does not furnish enough of the nutrients needed to grow modern-day prize-winning roses —so we use a complete commercial fertilizer as recommended by the directions on the bag.
Make the first feeding as soon as the pruning is accomplished and then at regular intervals suggested on the fertilizer container.
Adequate Watering
Point two in the growing process of roses is adequate watering. Roses should receive an average of one inch of water per week.
When dry weather comes, a quick spray isn’t enough. Instead, turn the hose down to a small stream of water, and let it soak the soil thoroughly.
Disease and Insect Control
Number three in the plan is just as important as the other two — disease and insect control.
A good all-purpose spray or dust used at least once a week or after every rain takes care of bugs and rose diseases.
Don’t wait until the trouble is obvious—start a regular spraying or dusting program for roses as soon as the leaves unfurl.
This three-point program aims to grow long, sturdy stems, good foliage, and beautiful blooms to capture the blue ribbons at the show.
Removing Of Buds
As soon as the buds commence to form on the branches, leave one bud in the center. It is called the terminus bud.
Remove all side buds as soon as they make an appearance. This throws all the strength to the terminus bud.
To remove these side buds, grasp the bud with the thumb and forefinger and pull gently to the side. It will usually snap out cleanly, making a wound that will heal with almost no scar.
Now for a technical trick! Many roses bloom haphazardly, but they are breathtaking if captured at the peak of beauty.
Tying In Stage of Roses
To hold these blooms at this stage, the English exhibitors for years used a process called “tying in,” and this is becoming more common here in the United States.
When the rose has reached a stage where the outer petals are just starting to turn back, just past the bud stage, a length of yarn is carefully pulled around the center of the bud just under the outer row of petals.
Take a hitch in the yarn, and pull it just tight enough to restrict further growth. It is a good idea to practice this on several other buds before you try it on your prize hopeful.
Whenever this “tying in” is used, it is a good idea to protect the rose from sun and rain with a little bag of some sort.
44659 by Lester Satterlee