SEPTEMBER

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 286, 30 August 1935, Page 24

SEPTEMBER

In the Flower Garden September is a busy month—a time when you must attend to certain jobs or. the season's display will be thrown into jeopardy. There are violas to plant out, for Instance. These plants always do better when removed to their final quarters while the soil is cool. If you det'er the job pntil October drought may set in. and you get very few suckers, with the result that the display is only a fifty per cent, business, because the old stems won't flower more than half the season.

Many are the positions which violas distinguish by their presence—separate beds, path edges, sunny and shady borders, and unoccupied rockery pockets. Make the soil moderately rich, plant Sin. apart, don’t allow the plants to bloom for a fortnight after putting them out, give them abundant moisture and you will have a glorious show.

Hardy annuals loom largely in the month's work. There is still time to sow, though you should get this job done as’ soon as you can, or the display will be late in coming on. We scarcely need to remind you of the infinite charm of the leading annuals, such as calendulas, larkspurs, cornflowers. nigellas, clarkias, annual chrysanthemums and scabious. All these flowers are admirably adapted for massing in beds in self colours, for clumping in mixed borders and for working into a panel scheme in a long border. The latter is a really pleasing idea, for when the blooms appear the border looks something like an outspread floral carpet.

Peas need rich soil, but it tends to send them to foliage without flowers. A slight dusting of freshly-slaked lime, repeated fortnightly, will overcome this tendency. Prick it into the soil after application. Early potatoes have been coming through well everywhere. If your plants are 4in. high you can help them enormously by giving each half a teaspoonful of sulphate of potash, to be stirred in with a hand-fork.