My Shady Rose - Garden

By WHITMAN CROSS, Chevy Chase, Md.

Editor's Note.--Dr. Cross's experience with roses in shade ought to open many opportunities to do likewise. The garden was surely most attractive.

FOR the past two seasons we have experimented by growing many roses in beds screened from direct sunlight the greater part of the day by high trees. The idea was suggested to me by seeing several rather delicate roses growing and blooming very well at Breeze Hill in partial shade, while they had failed miserably in full sunlight a few feet away.

The site of the test-beds will be described with reference to the illustration (Plate III, facing page 24). The photograph was taken looking northwest. On the right, just out of the view, is an open grove of oak and hickory trees like the one in the center. Behind them the sun rises, but not until 10 o'clock, in midsummer, do its rays find openings to reach the rose-bed. Back of the camera a tree shades the beds until nearly noon-about the time of the photographic exposure.

The hickory tree on the left shades much of the garden until 2 o'clock (in July), and from that time until 4 o'clock a large part of the garden is in full sun. Then a high locust intervenes and not much more direct light strikes the beds.

It is to be noted that the trees are pruned quite high. There is abundant general light, free circulation of air, and no long near-surface roots of such trees as elms, locusts, and maples can invade the rose-beds. Protection from storms is good.

The ground where the garden and buildings of the view now are was forest-covered thirty years ago. Several large trees have been removed within ten years from places all around the rose-beds. The ground had never been cultivated.

In January of 1980 the rose-garden was laid out. In February the beds were dug, only 18 to 20 inches deep. Beneath a few inches of furnace ashes and clinkers there was found a thin and variable top-soil. Below that was a sandy clay containing many irregular fragments of rock, mostly white quartz, some so large as to be handled with difficulty. The beds were then made with a thin layer of clinkers, small rock-fragments, top-soil, and sandy clay, followed by fresh, dark sandy loam, mixed with well-rotted manure, in abundance

The plan of the garden is simply two concentric semicircular beds and a group of 18 plants at the center. There are 118 bushes of normal garden Hybrid Teas of 91 varieties and 60 seedlings. The central group consists almost entirely of Australian roses-Sunny South, Salmon Spray, Mrs. R. M. Finch, Australia Felix, Sweet Seventeen, Squatter's Dream, and Borderer. The bloom being examined in the illustration is a Sunny South growing on a stem reaching up over 7 feet.

The smaller semicircular bed contains roses of kinds grown elsewhere in full sunlight. The outer bed is filled with a miscellaneous lot of roses, mostly newer varieties and a group of seedlings of new crosses fresh from the greenhouse.

It is essential to note that four-fifths of all the plants used were dormant, home-buddings on Multiflora stock of 1929. The remainder consisted of buddings, grafts, and potted, purchased plants from the greenhouse. A few were new plants and half a dozen were transplanted from other beds.

Now as to results: Excluding the seedlings, although they have done well, only four or five roses have died and' as many replaced, in two full seasons. The average height for 180 plants is nearly 4 feet, and canes from near the ground number from two to six or more. Some varieties have been reaching up for light but scarcely any are spindling. The vigor is near or equal to the best of the roses in full sunlight.

Foliage has been almost universally good. Black-spot has not seriously affected a single plant and has rarely been noticeable on these roses although present at times on other plants a few yards away to the south. Brown-canker has not been observed. Mildew has hit hard a few times in the two seasons but has been overcome, with no permanent injury. Foliage and bloom remained good through October and November, while in the beds exposed to the sun only a few plants here and there were equally well preserved.

As to quantity of bloom, the shaded beds have done nearly, or, in many varieties, quite as well as those open to the sun all day long. In summer's hottest weather the quality of the flowers was higher, and in the fall notably so. In fact, superior blooms occurred later in the season, no doubt due to the lasting foliage. There have been some good roses almost to mid December in this freakish season.

The effect of shade in preserving color at its best and holding the blooms for days longer than usual in the sun is undoubted. This effect certainly varies greatly among different varieties.

Of the roses distinctly benefited by the conditions of this shady garden, I specially note Mrs. Pierre S. du Pont, Mrs. Erskine Pembroke Thom, Feu Joseph Looymans, Ville de Paris, Mari Dot, Ariel, Irish Fireflame, Isobel, Dainty Bess, Mme. Albert Barbier. In the reds the following apparently enjoyed the situation most: Jean C. N. Forestier, Director Rubió, Wilhelm Kordes, Charles P. Kilham, Cuba.

The delicate pink shading of W. A. Bilney and the early faint rose edging of Abol were more fascinating and better preserved than I have ever seen them in the open.

The trellis in the background of the view, (Plate III, facing page 24), was built at the time the Shady Garden was made. It is nearly 50 feet long, is shaded half the day, and its few climbers enjoy the protection, if their growth is any indication. There are six climbers on this trellis, the star performer being Bloomfield Courage, one of Captain Thomas's best creations. This rose, singularly ignored in the eastern United States, here has found a place to its liking where it has grown for five years with little attention. It covers about 40 feet of trellis and fence beyond. Breeze Hill, at extreme left end of the trellis, has in two seasons sent a low-trained shoot to meet Bloomfield Courage near the center.

Between them a vigorous plant of Kitty Kininmonth protects its less sturdy sister, Daydream, both of Australian origin. The latter has large, semi-double blooms of lovely delicate shades of light pink, very fleeting in the open sun but preserved in this situation for two or three days.

To sum up, this Shady Garden has been a decided success through two unusually dry seasons in general health, growth, and bloom. It remains to be seen what the results may be in wetter seasons.

*Mr. Cross tells me in a letter written later that the beds were made according to Hole's directions in "A Book About Roses", a copy of which he had presented to gardener.

From the 1932 American Rose Society Annual pgs. 22-25

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