IN THE GARDEN.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19448, 23 October 1928, Page 7

IN THE GARDEN.

♦ ■ WORK FOR THE WEEK. . '(SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOE the PBESS.). (By J. T. Sinclair.) ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS Black Hamburg.—Tour vine leaves appear to be scorched. There are several causes which, contribute to this. Insufficient ventilation when there is excessive moisture in the house will make the foliage become soft _ and • easily scorched by the sun, Again, the leaves will scorch when the sun is bright and the atmosphere hot and dry, with little ventilation. This does not happen oitpn when'' the foliage is older and tougher. Another ■icause of soft foilage -- is the roots being in a damp, cold subsoil. The laßt is probably the cause of your trouble, and it would pay you to lift them carefully and bring them nearer the surface some time when all the leaves are off, preferably towards spring. In the meantime, give plenty of air to the house as early in the morning as is convenient, but avoid cold droughts, and sprinkle the floor with water in the morning . and, early afternoon on fine days only. To get enough foliage to cover the roof pinch laterals and sub-laterals back to one leaf; when there are plenty of leaves rub all subsequent sublaterals off.

VEGETABLES. j The earthing-up of peas, beans, cabbages, cauliflowers, and potatoes should take place as occasion demands, weeding between the plants before earthing-up. Successional plantations of cabbage and cauliflowers should be made every few weeks. For a small household a few plants set out each planting will be sufficient. Keep the I>utch hoe at work among all growing crops, also through all vacant ground as this makes the soil more fertile. Tomatoes.—The cultivation of tomatoes demands a real understanding of their needs as regards fertilisers. Too much stable manure, owing chiefly to an excess of nitrogen, is not conducive to success. A great growth of stem and leaf takes place when an excess of nitrogen is given. If the ground is at all poor, growers on a considerable scale are well advised to mix superphosphates of lime, nitrate of soda, and sulphate of ammonia at the rate of six pounds of superphosphates to three of potash and two of ammonia to a perch of ground. These ingredients may be U -f* j ? m i x ing, proportionately, with sifted dry soil; this will give a more even distribution. The potash and ammonia are somewhat expensive and n £" 50 easy to procure as superphosphates, but a good dressing of wood will do instead of the potash, ana if lib of soot per square yard is scattered on and hoed in it will supply tne necessary ammonia. Needless to oa*i A are wanted to fruit eariy, the situation must be a .warm ■t.«Sji. BU ri a wa " or fence facing ; mirt 18 a.little too early to set tno plants in exposed situations.

FLOWERS. Pruning.Flowering Shurbs.—There is no doubt, that the chief attraction of: many of our . suburban gardens is the flowering slirubs. The reason that we do not 'find them in more gardens is that their merits are not sufficiently well known. There is a great diversity in the treatment of different kinds of shrubs, especially in the pruning. The sole reason for pruning shrubs often seems to be to keep them in uniform shapes. They are hacked at any leisure moment, generally in autumn or wintter, with the result that they lose their distinctive character and flower badly, if at all. It is essential before any cutting is done that two points should be considered—the natural habit of the species and the peculiarities of the individual. Above all, if the gardener does not know why he is going to prune; he should leave it alone. The majority of shrubs flower in spring, but some' flower in summer, or even later. If early flowering shrubs are pruned in autumn or winter, many of the flowers will be cut away. The removal of suckers, often numerous on plants like lilacs, is a different matter, because they do not flower while small, but the main shoots should not be interfered with. When pruning is necessary it should be done in spring or early summer, after the flowers wither and before the new growth starts, or at least before it has made much progress. If it is postponed until late in the season the growth made by the buds, which are thus caused to develop, has

not time to ripen and produce flowers. A healthy shrub, under favourable conditions, should retain a good shape almost indefinitely, but crowded among others in a garden, with the little air and light, and often-not enough food, it may in time get straggling ?-nd untidy and perhaps too large for its surroundings. That may be a satisfactory reason for pruning it. But, even so, it should not be reduced to a shapeless mass, but every effort should' be made to maintain its natural appearand. Sometimes the shoots are so numerous that some must be thinned out to give the others a fair chance. Again, there are some shrubs, such as danhne, which flower, at the tips of the shoots. In their case, by increasing the number of. shoots, we increase the number oi flowers. This is done by stopping the shoots—as before, after the flowers wither, causing them to branch more than tliev would otherwise do. . If one looks closely, say, at a lilac tree one will find the flowers on the growths which were made last summer.'Therefore. the new growth should be taken great care of. and encouraged as much as possible. The only pruning necessary is that of cutting away_ the growths which have flowered immediately after the flowering period, so as to brine the bushes into the shape required By thus removing useless growths, the new ones have a better chance of developing, and they will flower better next summer. This also applies to most flowering shrubs. Varieties that flower late in the season should be pruned on the same principle, but as they do not form their flowers on wood made | the previous vear, the operation should be performed in the autumn or winter. They should not be cut in summer, as that will mean a loss of flowers.

The important thing to remember is that flowers are produced in every case towards the end of the.growing period, and, owing to the changing conditions of temperature and inoisturej the result is inability to continue growing in the ordinary way. The late-flowering species, not having to spend their energies at the start on floral production, make ana ripen the growths sufficiently early to bear flowers in the same season; the earlyflowering species delayed by their flora) activities, do not make and ripen their growth until so late that the °P €nl , n ,£ of their flowers is delayed until the following season. There are, it is true, some species that flower both in autumn and spring; this, however, means, not that tliey have two seasons, but that their one season is broken into two parts by the intervention of winter. The development of the flowers is temporarily arrested by the low temperature, and is resumed in spring, .in their case, as in others, the rule is to prune after the flowers wither, as soon as all the conditions'admit., in© pruning of roses is postponed, to the end of this suitable time merely to give the new growth, which starts afterwards, a better chance of escaping injury by frost.' , Potting PJants. —All young stock ol plants that have recently been I'aisecl j from seed or by cuttings should be duly attended' to in the matter oi potting. None should be allowed to become root-bound in small pots. m tne first stages of their progress, sucp. treatment invariably stunts growth, and many kinds of plants resent this so much that they never recover their natural vigour. A gooci rule to adopt in this matter w to turn out one or more of a batch of chrysanthemums, for instance, to see what progress they are making ,tn- rooting. If the roots have generally struck the side of the pot and are beginning to wrap up the ball of earth in their network in quest of wider pasturage, is the right time to shift the plants , a pot of larger size. AYe- mention — chrysanthemum merely as being 01 those which are easily spoiled oy neglect of timely repotting i younger stages of existence; bu kinds of plants cultivated for flowers or fruit are liable to be 11 i . by inattention to this important p in the management of plants in P • Large shifts are not necessary* i case of flowering plants of this ' indeed, in many cases they may P injurious. If care in giving w a not observed by the cultivatoi, soil mav be rendered sour by S S too much, or it may become dry impenetrable to roots if the sI JPP J not sufficient to moisten all tha pot contains.