It is usually during the winter that many people buy or receive as presents flowering house plants such as cyclamen and azaleas, which give a gorgeous display of color for perhaps two months, looked after carefully. When these plants fade, their owners wonder what they should buy to take their place. It is always possible to acquire another azalea, but even that will only last a few more weeks. Perhaps roses are the best plants to follow in. it is not always appreciated how easily these popular plants will grow in containers both indoors and out of doors. In some ways they are more beautiful than ever if grown in green house or in the house, particularly when compared with roses in the open garden , because their blooms are completely unblemished by ravages of pests and diseases and the effect of bad weather. Greenfly can generally be kept at bay by spraying with clean water, caterpillars can be easily picked off by hand, and black spot seldom seems to attack roses might be affected by mildew, which can be dealt with by spraying with a commercial fungicide.
If the roses are to bloom in spring, a start must be made in early autumn. There are quite a number of both floribunda and hybrid tea roses that respond quite well to this treatment. In fact, it might be said that almost every variety is satisfactory. So there is no real problem of selection. There are two approaches. The first is to buy a bare root plant from a nursery and, after trimming away any unruly roots, to plant it in an eight – inch pot in compost, to which has been added a small quantity of fertilizers, both of which are fairly easily obtained from garden supply shops or through mail ordering. if a clay pot is used , a one-inch layer of crocks should be placed at the bottom to assist drainage, which is not necessary in the case of plastic pots. The soil should be tamped down and filled to about an inch from the rim to allow space for watering. The alternative is to go a garden centre and select a container-grown rose, which has a root ball of such a size that it will fit comfortably into an eight- inch pot. Any space around the outside should be filled with compost so that the soil is fairly tight. After planting, it should be well watered. It is then allowed to stand outside for about a month, when it should be brought indoors.
Provided the soil is moist, little more has to be done until mid-winter. If it is not, it should be moderately watered. At this time the rose should be pruned. This is done by first removing all the dead, weak and diseased shoots and any that are growing toward the centre. After this the remaining shoots are hard pruned, that is, cut back to an outgrowing bud, which is the second or third from its base. Incidentally, at the same time every year, potted roses should be similarly treated.
During the next few months, temperature control is important. When producing roses in pots, it is a good idea to be guided as far as possible by the rules laid down by the growers who raise them in greenhouses, which is to keep them at a temperature which is equivalent to that outdoors two months a head in time. This might be regarded as 50F (10 C) by day and 46F (8C) by night towards the end of winter, 60F (15C) and 50f (10C) respectively in early spring, and 65F (18C) and 55F (13C) respectively later in spring. while it might not be possible to adhere strictly to these levels in a house , where there are no strict controls as there are in greenhouse , to get the best results an endeavor should be made to do so . What it really amounts to is that it is necessary to move the rose from a cooler to a warmer spot as the weeks pass by . Remember that no roses want to be molly- coddled but it is important to see that they are kept in a well-lit place, where there are no draughts, although ventilation from slightly open window on days when it is extremely cold is welcomed by them.
Late in spring, the most perfect blooms will appear. Apart from their decorative value, flower arrangers appreciate them very much, because they can impart an unusual, out of season look to their arrangements.
When they have ceased blooming, all the dead flowers should be removed and the pots put outside in semi-shade in early summer. Here they can remain until autumn
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