GARDEN NOTES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 155, 27 March 1926, Page 26

GARDEN NOTES

(By

"Kowhai.”)

IRIS TINGITANA. Ii is Tingitana is one of the most delightful of the bulbous irises. like a largo Spanish iris, and is an exquisite shade of blue. When one sees it in (lower one feels tempted to give up a large part of the garden to it, but it lias one drawback, and that is that, in many gardens, it flowers unwillingly or not at all. In favoured situations where the soil is light, well drained and warm in winter, and where 'the bulbs can ripen off thoroughly after flowering tim?, Iris Tingitana is indeed a success. But it is not every gardener who can give it the situation that it likes. I was told of one gardener who was so disgusted with his plants refusing to flower that he pulled them up and threw them on a rubbish heap, where the bulbs lay, all through the summer, exposed to the sun. The following spring he was amazed and delighted to find his rubbish heap blossom into a veritable bouquet of Tingitana blooms. All of us who love Tingitana and who have heard this story have had our bulbs lying out in (he sun all through the summer, where they must have been baked through and through, and with the optimism of all true gardeners we expect a noble flower this season from every bulb. CAMPANULAS FOR THE ROCK GARDEN. Among campanulas for the rock garden. the dainty Pusilia in its many forms is charming, for it gives a mass of exquisite colour. It is most easily grown and soon becomes established. The Portenschlagiana campanula has purple blue flowers, and the plants so spread over the ground that at flowering time, they give a sheet of colour. Campanula Raddeana, on the other hand, bears its violet bells on thin wiry stems, and the dainty beauty of tly whole plant is best seen when it is grown as a single specimen, or in a small group. Campanula Garganica gives a good splash of colour when the plants are massed.*,'l’llo flowers are like tiny blue stars, and are borne on stems not more than three inches in length. Campanula Carpatica has cup-shaped violet flowers and C. Barbata has lovely silvery blue bells. Campanulas need an open sunny position, and plenty of sharp sand and coarse grit in the soil. They are invaluable for giving a mass of exquisite colour in the rock garden at a time when there is not very much massed colour. BEARDED IRISES. The majority of amateur gardeners are slow about introducing into their gardens these new flag irises, and lovely as the old blue, white, and purple flags are, they are not to be compared with more up-to-date varieties. Those gardeners who have a Tight, well-drain-ed soil may bo sure of growing them most successfully; those with heavy soils can be equally successful if they see that the soil is well dug and well drained. To those who have sandy seaside gardens those irises are invaluable, for they flourish in the sand and give a wealth of bloom. The plants increase so quickly that from a single plant one can "very soon have a whole row of these stately and beautiful flowers. A sunny, position they must have, and , water during the growing season. SWEET WILLIAMS. To got really fine heads of bloom on our sweet Williams wo must lift our plants every autumn, and replant young healthy growths in well-prepared soil. If the plants arc arranged 'in groups of three or five at intervals along the fj’ont of a border, the masses of fragrant pink or scarlet blooms are very effective, especially if they have for near neighbours,' in their background, pale blue delphiniums, salmon pink . perennial poppies, clumps of dainty pink clarkias. or a plant of glor'o.is blue anchusa. Plants of sweet William are now making the new shoots that we want. These should be pulled away with; a fetf roots attached, and be planted in a row in a spare part of the vegetable garden until they are ready for planting out in the borders. If some sand can be put in the drill with these cuttings, growth will be much Quicker.

As soon as the plants have recovered from the move, pinch out the tips to make them bushy.

When planting sweet Williams in the border, remember that good drainage is absolutely essential to them, and dig the soil deeply. Mix a pinch of bonedust with the soil in each hole, and water the plants well in. Seeds may bo sown for next year’s plants. THE ARGENTINE PEA. Those gardeners who are planting new plants of the Argentine pea (Lathyrus Pubescens) this year should have them in as early as possible if they wish to have them in flower this spring. This lovely perennial pea begins flowering towards the end of the winter, anil throughout the spring months the bushes, which beconu covered . with masses of pale blue flowers, are wonderfully beautiful. The flowers are long stemmed when the plants are well grown, and last for a long time in water. ,

As the plant is such a vigorous grower. it is necessarily- a gross feeder, and without a good supply- of food bears only puny flowers. Before planting dip out a hole about two feet deep and two feet’square, half fill it with a mixture of cow manure, leaf soil, and a little loam and grit, and then fill up with a mixture of loain, wood ashes, and welldecayed vegetation. Allow the contents of the hole to settle town thoroughly before putting in the,plant. Old-established bushes should be cut back as soon as they have finished flowering, and the roots should be covered with a mulch of well-decayed manure or vegetable rubbish. Water should be supplied during dry weather. The plant is easily propagated from cuttings, the young lateral shoots being used. VEGETABLES. Now that there is not so much routine work to be done in the vegetable garden an early start may be made with trenching. At this time of the year weeds, pea haulm, etc., may be buried while they are green, and it lis amazing how much can go into quite a small vegetable plot. It is a good idea to open out a treneh two feet deep at one end of the garden, and to put into this all weeds, etc., as they are taken from the garden. Big pieces such as bean stalks should be cut into sunall pieces. Tread this rubbish well down as it is thrown in, and if possible empty washing soapsuds and any waste water into the trench. When the trench is full of green stuff, dig the next trench, throwing the soil from it on to the one that has just been filled. Sprinkle limo over each bit of ground as it is finished, and leave the surface rough. In this way, ground that is not needed for some time is trenched and manured, and by using.the weeds green two purposes are served. First, the weeds, etc., are easily got rid of, and this is a matter of congratulation in small gardens where there is not very much room for rubbish heaps. The other point is that by using the weeds green they net. until they become rotted, ns a drain, and the two feet of soil that is thrown roughly on them has a chance to become sweetened by exposure to air sun. and wind, for rain passes readily through it. By the time the roots of the crops that are sown later are in need of a cool feeding ground, the weeds, etc., will have rotted. 'This early autumn burying of green stuff will often enable the gardener with cold heavy soil to have winter crops when otherwise he could not manage them.