Gardeners’ Queries

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33252, 15 June 1973, Page 11

Gardeners’ Queries

Could you please tell me how to propagate my cle- | matis (Montana).- I have tried layering and watching for seedlings without success. — Cheviot Gardener (Cheviot). I Clematis species can be raised from seed, which should be fresh. Any good compost will do as a rooting ; medium and seed should be scattered over the surface and very lightly covered with soil and equally lightly watered in. Seed trays should be covered with paper until germination has taken place. The seed must be gathered from the plant as it will: otherwise blow away and is found attached to the base of the feathery achene. Clematis' can also be propagated from semi-ripe cuttings but not; from layering. I have just skinned my gladioli bulbs and find some red and others yellow. Would I be correct in assuming that the red bulbs are coloured? How should I store them, and do I leave the baby bulbs to dry or put them back in the soil? How many years before they flower? Also, how would I rid my verbena of a thick white , powder on the leaves?— lan (Ashburton). The white covering on the verbena is probably powdery mildew, which can be con-: trolled by spraying with lime sulphur plus colloidal sulphur. Cormlets will bloom in the third years and can be treated like ordinary corms, that is, lifting and storing in late autumn and planting out in spring. Corms should be cleaned, dried and dusted with lindane and thiram dust before storing in a cool dry place. The colour of corms is not an indication of flower colour. The enclosed fruit and leaves, I think, are from a type of passion fruit, i Could you please tell me if the fruit is edible. It has 1

an unusual green flower.— R.B, (Christchurch). The specimen is that of a passion fruit, probably Passiflora caerulea. which does not often fruit under local conditions. It is edible. Could you please give me details of lupins and mustard and their beneficial properties as plant food and for general conditioning of the soil. Are are they as good in the long run as, say, compost, chicken manure or horse manure?—F.M. (Christchurch.)

Mustard is one of the quickest growing green manure crops that can be grown other than, in very cold conditions. Lupins belong to the legume family, most of which fix their own nitrogen by means of the nodules on their roots. When turned in this supply is eventually released into the soil, thereby making a valuable contribution both as a source of organic matter and plant nutrient. Generally, however, plant material is a “soil conditioner,” not a plant food, which is more or less the converse of the benefits derived from adding animal manures. These two products could be said to supplement each other but are not a-sub-stitute for each other. Could you please advise whether there is an explanation for the reddish protusions on the enclosed twigs from my apple tree. I ask because they have not been noticed before.— R.K. (Christchurch). The swellings have been induced by the activities of woolly aphids. These are sapsucking insects which can cause considerable “blindness” on young shoots and must be eradicated to avoid further build up and subsequent debility of the tree. Spray with winter (red) oil plus lindane during the winter.