Garden Club Meeting Concentrates On Roses

Garden Club Meeting Concentrates On Roses

Looking toward new achievements in rose growing in Ann Arbor, more than 100 members and guests of the Ann Arbor Garden Club met last night in the Ethel Fountain Hussey lounge of the Michigan League to concentrate on roses under the direction of Prof. William L. Ayres of Henry St., one of the state’s rose experts. Stereopticon pictures in natural colors were shown from the American Rose Society and from the work of members of the club who had their own gardens for subject material.

With the winter season as the beginning of the program, Mrs. Henry A. Sanders of Geddes Ave. told of the winter care of rose gardens and the preparation of the ground. She emphasized the need of working the soil deeply and of using proper materials. In speaking on winter care, she warned that it is not the freezing of Michigan winters from which the rose requires protection, but from repeated thawing and freezing.

The season was continued into spring in a talk by Dr. F. Bruce Fralick of Shadford Rd. who spoke of methods of planting successfully the potted roses as well as the bushes, and who took up the various methods of pruning. With diagrams, he showed the light pruning, which gives many blooms, and the heavy type for large flowers, and he pointed out that one cannot have both advantages.

The many angles of summer care were discussed by Dr. R. Wallace Teed of Highland Rd., who spoke of feeding, of protection from pests, of cultivation and of watering the plants.

Pictures were shown by Prof. Ayres in conclusion, in which he described the varieties best suited to Ann Arbor growing and in which he showed what may be expected of well-selected plants which receive proper care. He discussed climbing, tea, rugosa and polyanthus varieties, and showed some of the achievements in growing them in municipal and private gardens near Harrisburg, Pa.