TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 158, 6 July 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

M.H. (Green Lane) writes: I have a breath of heaven shrub which has grown well since being planted about two years ago, but has never flowered. I was recommended to give a good dressing of sulphate of iron, and have done so. The soil is good, semi-volcanic, with a yellow loata subsoil, but is very wet in winter. What manure do they require, and when?—Diosma ericoides usually flowers well, but your plant may be too small. It requires a warm, sunny, well-drained position, and prefers a sandy soil. Do not apply any more sulphate of Iron. This is a soil corrective, not a manure, and. only a little is required, and that very occasionally. Shrubs should have manure, and almost any sort can be used. There are several very good proprietary mixtures offered. If your v plant is in a very wet position it would be best to lift it and replant it slightly higher, say, Gin, and firm the soil well round the j>lant. When finished, the plant will be on a mound of soil. The lifting must be done carefully, and if you have any doubts about being able to do it correctly, do not touch it, but try the manure as above. Diosmas and other similar shrubs make a mass of surface roots, and tlie spade and hoe should not be used close around the stems unless it is very necessary. This digging or hoeing is often the cause of these shrubs not doing well. PLUMBOB (Mount Albert) writes: (1) Tlie leaves of a lemon tree are turning yellow and falling, and the tree is almost bare, though there are several dozen fruit ripening, but no new flowers or n shoots. I have tried lime-sulphur, but to no purpose. Can you advise a cure? (2) Also leaves of Granny Smith apple are diseased and falling?—(l) Due to wet, cold weather mostly; but an application of sulphate of ammonia, say, 3oz or 4oz per tree, depending on the size of the tree, but allow about joz per square yard of ground covered by the spread of the branches. A good proprietary manure could be used, and would be all right. (2) There is mildew on the apple foliage, but the fall of leaf is seasonable. When the tree is bare, sprav with lime-sulphur I—lo. EFPING HUNT (Huntly) asks (1) for some good flowering pat plants that would flower about Christmas. (2) Manure for Ficus stipulata reeently planted. (3) A creeper for a brick chimney. I have a Ficus, but would like another kind. (4) Would bonedust be harmful to an Acacia Baileyana or a Vibrunum (snowball tree), if so, what could be used?—(l) Fuchsias, pelargoniums, 'iliuins, heliotrope, gloxinias, petunias, verbenas, schlzantlius, salvia splendens, primula malacoides, carnations. (2) A little bonedust could be used, but a dressing of leaf soil would be best. (3) The Ampelosis Veitehii, Virginian creeper or Vitis inconstants, as it is now called, is one of the best self-clinging climbers. Bougalnvlllea glabra, Solamim Wenlandii, Bignonia venusta, or wistaria, are fine flowering climbers, a little tender, should do well with the protection of a brick wall. They are not self-clinging, and would have to be nailed or fixed to the walls with wire netting. (4) Bonedust would be suitable for either tree. F..T.8. (Remuera) writes: (I) I have a Winter Cole pear tree, perfectly healthy, | but it bears only a few pears each year. Should I plant another tree alongside of it? (2) I have a good pile of fowl manure mixed with garden rubbish, well rotted. Would it be all right to mulch rhubarb with, or should I fork it in?— (1) Plant a fertility pear. This would act as a fertilising agent. (2) Use it as a topdressing for rhubarb. It would also bo good for cabbages or cauliflowers. F.W. (Dominion Road) asks: What is the objection in planting main crop potatoes now. No matter how much I spray them they get the blight when planted in September. I thought perhaps planted now they would not get the blight.— There is no reason why you should not plant main crop potatoes now. The usual plan is to plant early varieties so that the crop is ready as early as possible. I do not think you will miss the blight by early planting, as spraying is the only I protection against blight.