GARDEN NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 221, 14 June 1930, Page 30

GARDEN NOTES

Treatment of Lilacs

(By

“Kowhai.”)

Nowadays people do not wait seven years for lilac bushes to flower; they buy ones that arc guaranteed to flower the first season after planting. Very often, when they come from the nursery, good plants have flowering buds on them, but it is wise to pinch these out as soou as they begin to expand, so that the plant may not be overtaxed before it is well established. , , . , That bushes should flower freely m future years, depends largely upon the treatment accorded them by their new owners. Before they are planted, the ground must be thoroughly prepared. Heavy soils should be trenched, and should have grit, coarse sand, or builders’ rubbish mixed with it. The top soil should have decayed manure or garden rubbish thoroughly worked in. Light soils need plenty of decayed rubbish, and it is a good plan to lay a couple of turves, grass-side down, in the . bottom of each hole. An open, sunny position is necessary. Bushes should not be pruned in winter. If they are, most of the flowering buds are cut off in the process. As a matter of fact, lilacs need very little pruning, and what is necessary should be done in the spring just after flowering. The only pruning that is necessary is to snip off faded flower trusses, and to thin out young shoots. Where the bushes are overcrowded, cut out all thin and weak shoots to allow sun to penetrate right into the bushes. This is very important, for lilacs do not flower unless their wood is well ripened. Very often, too, a mass of suckers has been allowed to spring up, shutting out light and air from the main bush. Sometimes the reason of lilacs not flowering is that they are starved. Some gardeners seem to think that, ouce planted, the bushes can look after themselves. This is fatal, for although the plants are hardy, and willing to do their best, they are unfortunately possessed of good healthy appetites. Every year, as soon as the flowering is over, the soil should be given a dressing of well-decayed manure or garden rubbish. Early summer is an important time iu the cultivatioii of lilacs, for it is then that they are' making their next year’s flowering buds, and to do this successfully they must have food in the soil for the roots to draw upon, and sunshine flooding their stems to ripen and mature the food. There are delightful varieties to be had (imong lilacs, and the wonderful fragrance of their flowers makes them popular. Charles X has wine-coloured flowers; Michael Buchner is rosy-lilac and double; President Carnot is pale lilac and double; Wilsonii is a new Chinese variety with mauve flowers; Ella Wilmot is double pure white; Lamartine is early flowering with rosy-mauve flowers; Madam L. Baltet is salmon pink; Madam A. Buchner is late flowering and has enormous spikes rose tinted lilac; Mathieu du Dombaole is wine-red; Olliver de Serres is double and clear aure lilac; Souv. de Louis Spathe is very dark red; Souv. de Touissante is single red; Alphonse Lavallee is double, blue shaded violet; Maurice de Vilmorin is double azure blue; Ludwig Spathe is dark purplish-red. Pruning Autumn-flowering Shrubs. Autumn-flowering shrubs should be pruned as soon as they have finished flowering. Among them are caryopteris mastacanthus (blue spiraea), leonotis, plumbago, genista tragrans, ceanothus glolre de Versailles, and the autumnflowering tamarlx. Caryopteris may be cut to within a foot of the ground. Leopotis should be cut to within two or three feet of the ground. Ceanothus glolre de Versailles should have long shoots shortened. Tamarlx trees should be eut down to within five feet of the ground. Plumbago capcnses should have old wood cut back to strong new wood. Genista fragrans should be clipped into shape, its long splkes being cut o££ just below the old llowcrs. Asclepias curassavica, although not strictly autumn-flowering, needs cutting back at the end o£ autumn to strong Shoots. Cestrum flowers during the autumn and into winter, and can be ent fairly hard back as soon as the flowering Is over. Flowering Brooms. Flowering brooms are gay in the garden, and by having a selection, one can have brooms In flower throughout the year. They are very hardy, standing a fair amount of wind, and will grow successfully on a dry. sunny slope, where very few other shrubs will. Dorothy Walpole, the new flowering broom, is very delightful. The flowers are rich crimson, and produced on quite young plants. , , , „ Other varieties are: Andreana, crimson and gold; alba, white; fragrasn, long spikes of large yellow flowers; gracilis, small yellow flowers; praecox, cream flowers; rosy moonlight, a dwarf-grower with flowers cream tinged with pink; aethnesls, a weeping broom with Icmoncolourcd flowers. Have Tou 1 ? Have you finished planting springflowering bulbs, anemones and ranunculuses ‘f . Have you lifted, broken up, and replanted in rich soil polyanthus primroses, doronlcums, double daisies, violas, and forget-me-nots? Have you cut back and attended to delphiniums, perennial poppies, perennial phloxes, helenlums, michaelmas daisies, golden rod, rudbeckias, salvia patenS, pentstemons. geraniums, etc.? Have vou cut back plants of gypsophila paniculata, and given them a good topdressing of lime? Have you cut. back and restaked carnation plants? . , , , . ‘ . Have you trimmed hard back borders of pinks and allwoOdll? Have you put your violet borders In order, and have you started giving tbo plants weak soot-water? Have you lifted clumps of dahlias, and settled them In for the winter in welldrained s«lil_? Have you top-dressed Illiums with cow manure? Have you planted oyt seedlings of primula malacoldes and cinerarias for early fiprlfig flowering? Have you cut hard back such spreading plants as catmint, sun roses, convolvulus maurltanlcus, gazania to prevent their making splenflid winter shelters for slugs and sualls? Have you planted out wallflowers, forget-me-nots, aqulleglas, subtleties, pansies, violas?

Have you trenched and made ready the ground for new roses and shrubs? Have you sown seeds of sweet peas and other hardy annuals? Have you lifted corms of late-llowering gladioli, and planted corms of early ones? Have you used lime on beds that are not being manured just now? Have you weeded, banked over, and made tidy all beds in readiness for winter? VEGETABLES EARTHING-UP WINTER GREENS. Winter greens that are earthed up are much stronger than those that are not. Apart from the support that the plants receive, it is not long before the roots penetrate this fresh supply of soli. If the soil was well-enriched in preparation for the crop, no extra feeding is necessary for plants that arc being, regularly earthed up.