PRACTICAL GRADENING

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

PRACTICAL GRADENING

PROLIFICATION.

THE ROCK WALL.

VEGETABLES AT SHOWS.

THE ART OF EXHIBITING,

At tlife majority of shows one frequently sues collections of vegetables simply tTirown on the tables, one variety hiding' another, and very often good specimens are hidden from view and their true quality is seldom seen. Now, what looks more attractive than a good collection of vegetables staged to advantage, with the different varieties speak" ing for themselves? It is very surprising how frequently cleanliness is neglected. Take root crops, for instance, such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, beet, etc. These are often seen on show with soil still adhering to them. The novice often forgets that cleanliness and freshness add .value to their exhibit. The exhibitor should remember when selectin"' specimens of vegetables for exhibition or competition that coarseness is very often detrimental. Essential points to bear in mind are: Quality, with symmetry, freshness, uniformity, cleanliness and * colour, which render vegetables comely and attractive. Cleanliness is a virtue in the preparation of vegetables for exhibition. Itoot crops should be carefuly washed and rinsed in clean water several times. Hard scrubbing brushes do more harm than good, as they make bruises and abrasions on the delicate skin. What is wanted is a very soft cloth, and this must be used lightly. After washing the roots, wrap them up separately in soft white tissue paper- or any other soft white material. This keeps tliem fresh and clean. This takes a lot of time and trouble, but the result is well worth while. What is the use of growing good vegetables and not showing them to advantage? Arrange your exhibit so tliat the large specimens, such as celery, cauliflower, cabbage, etc., are at the back, with turnips, carrots, beet, parsnips and onions, etc., in centre, and cucumbers, tomatoes and small stuff in front. First of all, get a ground work of parsley, carrot

tops, or any such like material. In the case of cucumbers and tomatoes, they may be effectively staged on a ground work of cotton wool. The exhibit must not be arranged flatly; have it sloping upwards from the front to the back; do not overcrowd; have each, variety distinctly separate from its neighbour. Cauliflowers must have their flowers neatly trimmed, stems cut oft'. Arrange them on their sides facing the front of exhibit. Root crops must also have their tops neatly trimmed, not too close, and any parts of tops that remain should be neatly tied with green raffia. Retain as much tap root as possible. When/ selecting specimens for exhibition, discard all cracked, scabby or fork-rooted root crops, which are blemishes. Always bear in mind that a gfiod "little un" will always beat a bad "big un." The above remarks refer to the staging of collections of vegetables, and not single dishes. When showing such things as cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, or anything that carries a natural bloom, do not rub it off, but, try and retain it. Frequently people will be seen polishing tomatoes, pea pods, etc., thinking they are increasing the beauty of their specimens. Growers frequently find to their sorrow that many fine specimens, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans, etc., are past their best on the day of the show. This can be remedied by various methods. The best results are obtained by cutting the various vegetables, fruits, etc., when they are at their best and wrapping them in tissue paper and laying them on wood wool, and placing them in suitable tinlined boxes with lids, afterwards placing the box in a cool place or burying to the depth of two feet, in a dry cool spot, in ashes or sawdust. Be very careful that anything so buried must be absolutely dry, otherwise you may find them in a putrid mess when exhumed.This does not imply that vegetables can be buried for months, but they will frequently keep good for a few weeks. If cucumbers, tomatoes, and peas are treated in this way, handle them carefully, and cut them with a handle to them. 1. Stage your stuff early, carefully and correctly. Be quite ready by the time judges are ready. 2. Stage exactly the specified number in collections or dishes, as one more or less may disqualify an exhibit. 3. Do not mix large and small specimens. Aim for evenness and quality. PRUNING FLOWERING SHRUBS |.As a general rule, the A best time to I prune flowering shrubs is after they have finished flowering. This practice enables the shrub to form nfew wood in time for it to ripen well and produce an abundance of flowers the following season. This is particularly important in the case of spring flowering shrubs, as winter pruning would result in destroying much of the wood that should flower, and 110 fresh growth would have been made to take its place. Flowering currants, Forsytliias, double peaches, flowering plums and apples, lilac and cherries should be attended to .as they pass out of bloom. In many eases all the cutting that is necessary is such jas will keep them within bounds, .but the desired shape of the bush should ' also be borne in mind.

THE WEEK'S WORK. —« > THE FLOWER GARDEN. Any Dahlia roots in store should be brought out and started. The roots can be divided and the divisions planted in the open ground. Chrysanthemum and Dahlia beds can be prepared. Planting out of Dahlias and Chrysanthemums can be done now. Make further sowings of hardy annuals in the open ground. Use hardy annuals to fill the vacant spaces in the border. Make sowings of Cosmos, Sunflowers, Asters, Zinnias, Celosias. Tie in the young growths of Rambler Roses. Do not let hang loose so'.as to get threshed by wind. Dust or spray Roses with sulphur to control mildew. For aphis either use one of the derris dust or pyrethrum sprays. Do not cut the foliage off the bulbs that have flowered. Tie it together loosely and sow annuals between. , THE GREENHOUSE. Shading will be necessary. Dampen the benches and floor two or three times daily. Pick off decaying foliage and wash the outsides of pots occasionally. Handle seedlings as soon as they require it. Make sowings of Celosia, Salvia, Peppers, Egg Plants, Cape Gooseberry. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Prepare ground for Kumaras. Tomatoes can be planted, Sow Dwarf Beans in sheltered position. Prepare ground and sow Runner Beans. Sow main crop Carrots. A sowing of Shorthorn variety is advisable in shallow soils. Sow Parsnips. These need a long season of growth. Sow Cabbage, Cauliflowers, Broccoli and other winter greens. Sow Spinach, Lettuce, Radish, Celery and Celeriac. Prepare all vacant plots and have them ready for cropping. Sow more Peas. Stake those that are through the ground. Sow Beetroot. These appreciate a little salt applied when the plants have made two leaves. Sow Onions and also a patch of Pickling Onions. These latter need no thinning out. Plant Potatoes. Earth up those planted earlier. Spraying is advisable. THE FRUIT GARDEN. Mulch the Strawberry bed. Use pine needles or rushes if possible. Spray Peaches for leaf curl and Plums for leaf rust and shot-hole fungi. Spray Apples with arsenate of lead as soon as petals fall. Spray Gooseberries with lime-sulphur. Dust Raspberries and Loganberries with derris dust to control insects.

MANURING LARGE TREES. When manure is to be applied to a large tree, such as an apple or pear, there is not much use in spreading it on the ground merely close around the trunk, for this would not be of much benefit. Every plant has its receiving stations, where it takes in all its food supplies. They are not situated, as might bo supposed, at the tips of the roots. Each tip is covered with a mass of loose tissue, called the root cap, whose function is not to gather in food, but to lead to the places where it is to be found. For some distance behind the tip the root is clothed with hairs —these are the actual gatherers. • Food is taken in by them and nowhere else. The rest of the root, by far the largest part in the case of a tree of any size, is merely a channel through which the supplies are passed on to the stem and thence to the leaves. If, therefore, manure is to benefit the tree, it must be applied within reach of the tips of the roots, and that may bo a long way from the trunk.

It is a curious fact that in the Middle Ages England was liortieulturally much behind the continent of Europe. In Chaucer's time the English larder was very meagrely supplied with vegetables, and but indifferently with fruits. Onions, leeks, nettles, peas and mustard were the only articles which then figured as English vegetables. There is no trace of the existence of cabbage in England at this period. In the contemporary accounts of orchards there is no allusion to plums; only once to damsons. The pears were poor, but the tipples were good.

ROSES. This is one of the most anxious times for the enthusiastic rose grower, especially so if he has pruned early. Warm days and cold nights are a nightmare to him, for he knows that the time a late frost does most harm is when the bud is forming at the point of the shoots. The inexperienced gardener may wonder why a sharp frost this month often spells ruin to the first crop of flowers. We all know that a fairly hard frost will do little harm as long as the shoots contain no bud, but from now on the buds are being formed. When these are frosted the growth is arrested and the bud is useless; when partially frozen the flower will develop but will bo deformed. It is not only the loss of the first crop of flowers that the grower has to contend with, but a perhaps greater trouble arises from the fact that a check opens out the way for the entry of various pests to the tender growths. These pests, or many of them, do not attack a healthy bush to any appreciable extent, but -should there be a weakly bush it is almost an impossibility to keep it clear of pests. Therefore wc watch our roses as anxiously as we watch the weather. Greenfly is one of the first pests to appear. There arc various preparations sold for the destruction of this pest, most of which will be found efficacious. It is, however, not so easy to deal with rose grub. Practically and quietly it waits in a curled up leaf until the bud is fairly advanced. Then it steals -from its temporary home, there to do its deadly work. It is almost impossible to kill the grub with insecticides, for it is so encased in the leaf that nothing can touch it, and one way is to pick it off the bushes. Spraying with arsenate of lead will keep the pest from the leaves if applied in time, but the arsenate must be applied early. VIOLETS FOR NEXT WINTER. Violets should be planted out to get healthy young stock for autumn. If the plants have several crowns they can be split into pieces of moderate size,

selecting the youngest and most vigorous, with roots attached, for planting. If stock is scarce the small pieces or young runners can be planted more thickly by themselves to grow into flowering material. v Select a good piece of soil, and manure it before planting.

UTILISING SLOPING GROUND.

A sloping garden enables one to liave terraces, which means stone walls and also rockeries. To a garden lover this affords the presence of many flowers which grow only, or at their best at any rate, in rock gardens, and would otherwise he absent. When making these walls one starts, of course, on the ground. Put in a line about 18in from the existing earthy wall, or, alternatively, exactly where you wish the front of your wall to be. Place your largest stones at, roughly, even distances apait in their correct permanent places, just immediately behind the line, with due regard to "tlio face they present to the world." Then start from one end and build up your wall of stones, fitting each in neatly and sloping the wall back gradually about Ift in 4ft. Earn the soil in quite tightly behind the stones as you go along. Some recommend planting as the building proceeds, and if the plants are available it is a very good idea, but one is not always lucky enough to have the plants at hand. Sometimes at a certain height a more gradual slope than a wall is required, so a sloping bed, or pocket, or a range of such can be made, in addition to getting more plants of one variety together and giving a much bolder display it has an advantage of not using so many stones. In such a position plant masses of verbena, erigeron., geraniums, sweet Alyssums; in fact, tilery is a whole host of suitable plants. The rock wall and rock> garden finds a home for many a little flower which will grow happily nowhere else. The walls, too, if properly planted, beautify a garden in a manner all their own.

HOW TO MAKE A GARDEN BASKET. A trug basket of the type illustrated will be found very useful in tlie garden and not at all difficult to make. Procure the end of a wooden barrel and cut the two sides of the trug out of it, afterwards nailing on the bottom, which consists of wooden laths, say, lAin to 2in wide by Ain thick. A sttip of hoop iron should be nailed underneath the bottom of the trug each side as shown at A and the ends be turned over and nailed

on the top of the sides. The upright parts of the handle should bo notched on to the sides as shown at B and screwed, and the cross piece, which may bo a pieco of ordinary brush handle, bo fixed bctwown, and a good screw driven

through each side piece to secure it in position. Two coats of paint will give the trug a finished appearance. TO CORRESPONDENTS. HOPEFUL (Ivlng Country) writes: I enclose some pieces of my plum tree. It was loaded with blossom and looking lovely till about two weeks ago. Quite suddenly tlie blossoms went brown and liave dried up without setting fruit. We had a frost or two, but I am wondering if it is some blight as a few flowers are coming, but the foliage does not look healthy. The late flowers are setting a few fruits. Jt had a caustic and nitrate wash as advised for fruit trees in the winter, and has been sprayed with lime sulphur':— Due to frost. The later blooms mnv set. There also appears to be shot hole fungus on the foliage; for this give a spraying with lime-sulphur, 1-VM. M. (Eltham) asks: (1) The best way to train climbing plants on a newly painted house. They were planted last year and are growing nicely, but are still awaiting their supports? (2) Rhododendrons bought In bud last year, flowered nicely, but this year are not going to llower at all. What is the explanation. Another I have had about four years always looks sick and lias never flowered. 1 spray it occasionally with white oil spray, and gave it somo weak sulphate of ammonia last month. What would you advise? —ll) A wooden lattice or trellis would he best and could be made locally, and if the wood is treated with creosote before being erected it would last for many I years. (2) It is difficult to know just 1 why tlie plants do not grow, better. The reason for not flowering is because the plants do not make enough growth the previous season to produce flower buds. A good mulching of half-decayed cow manure would bo the best treatment so as to encourage a free growth, the plants would then bloom as a natural consequence. WEEDS (Parnell) asks: How to make a weed killer, one that will kill short grass, ayd non-poisonous preferred?— Most of the weedicides are poisonous. Your best plan would be to obtain some sodium chlorate and sprinkle a little on the weeds and then water it in or apply it during rain. C.M. (I'arnell) ask«: What sort of plants are: (3) Myrica; (-') Cynthia?—(l) Myrica is an aromatic evergreen shrub. This Is the true Myrtle. (l>j Do not know this. I do not think tills is the correct name. X ASSAY AN (Grafton) asks re treatment of a grape vine: (1) There was a lino show of grapes last January, and altliougli the vine i.s in leaf now there are wide spaces without any new shoots. I think I may have been too late in removing dead wood? (2) Should the bark be treated with lime? (•'!) Should leaves be thinned when berries are formed. (4) How can mildew and pests be prevented from attacking the vine?—(l) Late pruning may account for some of the buds not breaking, but this will correct itself inter on. (2) Not at this season. Any application to the bark should be done wLcn vine is dormant. (3) No. The point of the bunch carrying shoots should be pinched out about three or four leaves beyond the bunch after flowers have set. Tliis will cause "sublaterals" to he'produced from the axils of the leaves, and these should be stopped or pinched at about two leaves beyond the main lateral. This goes on until the berries are fully sized and begin to colour, when the vines are allowed to grow on without ' any further stopping. (4) Dust the foliage every week with flowers of sulpliur. AMATEUR (Titirangi) asks: Can Cliff's Kidney potatoes dug at Christmas time be used for seed, and when could I plant them?— Yes, plant now.

AYONDALE asks: Would you advise wliat to do for curly leaf on peachy trees? Leaf curl can be controlled by spraying before buds burst. Those leaves already attacked cannot be cured, but a spray now will prevent the disease spreading. Use lime-sulphur 1-120. Any very badi.v curled leaves shouui be piekeij ofE and burnt; if they arc left they will only fail and produce spores to carry on the disease.

W.I!. (Titirangi) writes: My potatoes have a lot of tops, would it be any Rood to remove some of them?— No. I would not advise you to remove any tops. Usually a good leaf surface means a good crop.

A correspondent sends along a flower of a calendula which has produced from the faded flower head quite a number of individual blooms smaller but perfect and similar in every other "way to the parent flower. He wishes to know why this is so ? It is due to prolification,a term denoting, in its widest sense, the reproduction of plants by means of buds, as opposed to reproduction by means of seeds. It is accordingly employed to denote the formation in many plants, e.g., the houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum), of offsets of stolon, of which the terminal bud becomes a new plant, and the connection with the parent is severed. It is also employed in cases where buds are formed along the edges of leaves, either on uninjured ones as in bryophylluin, or in those that have been injured or cut, as in the propagation of begonias from the leaves. The is, however, frequently restricted to denote certain alterations that are often met with in the inflorescences and flowers of cultivated plants, in which leaf or flower buds are produced where they do not naturally occur. If prolification affects the inflorescence, it consists in the formation of leaf buds, or of an unusual number of flower buds. It is often well seen in such plants as clovers and plantains in which the flowers are

arranged naturally in a close lidad or spike. The hen and chicken daisy, in which the flower head bears a number of smaller ones around, is a well-known example of prolification of tlie inflorescence. When a single flower is affected, the flower stalk may be prolonged through and beyond the flower, and may bear leaves or a flower bud on it. This form of prolification, known as "median," is occasionally seen in many plants, especially the rose. It is peculiarly frequent in double flowers, that is, flowers in which the stamens have been replaced by petals. Occasionally the prolonged flower stalk bears several leaf buds or flower buds. Another form of prolification called "axillary," consists in the growth of leaf buds or of flower buds from the axils of one or more of the parts of a flower, and it is this form which has produced the specimen in question. In this form, as in tlio last, the buds may develop into branches bearing several flowers. Such buds are most frequently situated in the axils of stamens. Axillary prolification is far more frequent in plants in which all parts of the flowers are free, than in those in which they are united; and the flowers most liable to it generally have the top of the flower stalk, or receptacle, naturally prolonged between the whorls of the flower, or possessed of a glandular disc, or are otherwise peculiar in structure.