GARDENING NOTES

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 137, 10 June 1916, Page 10

GARDENING NOTES

(By " Experience."}

THE FLOWER GARDEN.

It is ■ generally considered that the month of June is a bad time for planting, being the month of short days, and usually cold. That, however, depends on circumstances. In some places, in my experience, it is the best month. Where the soil is well drained it is seldom wrong to plant in. June. Hilly places are quite different to places on the flat, where water often ia.ys near the surface In such places it would be wrong to plant now, for the soil would be too cold for the plants to make roots, and when they do not make new roots soon after planting, they usually die. Alany eases have occurred, within my own knowledge where plants would die in. summer because the soil was too wet in winter. In wet soil plants do not make enough roots; they may struggle on and do fairly well while the soil is moist and the atmosphere cool, but have not enough roots to support them when the weather becomes hot. Further, as the roots, such as there are, are near the surface, they ■ are the more affected by the.heat of the sun. Plants in such condition are liable to collapse on an extra hot day. There is nothing brighter in the garden just new thaai the Burning Bush (Euonynrus Enropaeue). A great profusion of scarlet' berries renders this very conspicuous. The most handsome of all the berried plants^ it is quite hardy, and should be grown in every garden. Crataegus erenulata is a somewhat spiny plant, but the intense scarlet berries are very showy. Symphoricarpus vulgaris, with its mass of purple berries, makes a bright showing, well worth growing. These plants move well now, and may be obtained well furnished ■with berries. During the winter months these.' bright berried plants are very pleasing. It would not be- wise to plant out anything raised in boxes. They are better kept till next month. HOSES. Roses may 'still be put out .without cutting them back to any great extent. Be careful not to plant them wihout catting, back damaged roots ; t they are sure to die back further than'they would if cut back, and injury r finite. Pruning bushes that have been >.;entty transplanted may be left till a bit later than the pruning of those not shifted. Roses that are received from a distance sometimes arrive in a withered state. The best way to treat them i6 to bury them in the ground. Dig a trench large enough to lay the bushes in, and cover them entirely with soil. First take off the labels, number the labels, and tie labels of. wood v.'ith Roman numerals to match the numbers on to the bushes. In about two weeks the bushes will have plumped up, and they should be lifted and heeled in the ordinary way, or planted in their proper places. Roses do well with plenty of manure, but it must not be placed in contact with roots. Very few plants can make roots in manure, and none will root; in wet dung. It may with advantage be . placed as a mulch over newly-planted roses. Bone meal at the rate of a six-inch potful to a barrowload of soil may be used, and will not injure the roots, but even this would be harmful if used in excess.

Pruning roses may now be done. It is not absolutely necessary to prune in witer in this country) except in places where frost is very severe. At the same time, winter is the time when pruning is most beneficial. In some places'tea : roses.*in particular, flower freely during winter;, if the flowers are required, there is nothing, against leaving the bushes unpruned till spring. It is not wise to <io this except in the case of those that flower well. Unless there were sufficient reward in flowers it would be best to prune, simply because it brings the bushes to their best at the proper rose season. Bushes left as indicated can be pruned when roses become plentiful, or earlier if they cease to produce. Bushes may be pruned, or cut back more than ordinary pruning demands, at any time up K5 early summer, and they will break again and flower well. It may be said, in fact, that to a large extent, and with particular reference to tea varieties, pruning at the time it is done is largely a matter of custom, and that thinning out the flimsy growths during summer or early autumn might frequently have better results. This- is the way to treat Wichuriana roses. Doi-othy Perkins, Hiawatha, and Alberic Barbier, are of the class just mentioned. These varieties flower most freely from older wood than most, therefore they should not be cut back to any extent, but rather be thinned out, a work best done in autumn after the flowers are past. Other climbing roses flower on young wood proceeding from buds on old wood. Pruning therefore should be with the object of securing a 'sufficiency of such buds as provide acrop of wood for blooming, yet restricted to such numbers as the plant. will !be able to bring to a perfect state. ' The strongest buds are found usually on long rods made- during the past season. These rods should be laid in almost entire, cutting out old wood, that is, wood past the second season, to make room.

One is often asked for advice a* to what to do- with climbing roses that have been allowed to grow into a tangled mass. There is one mode of procedure that is seldom wrong, that is to head them down, and let them make a new start. There is not so much sacrifice in this as might be feared, for j they nearly always start again very i strongly. The plan r then is to lead up a suf - ] Scie-nt number of the young growths to I fill the required_ space, and rub the remainder off while young. Pruning tea. j roses consists in cutting out weak shoots j and immature growths of a stronger character, removing old wood that has become twiggy, leaving younger, sound growths in place, slightly shortening the twigs that are left for flowering, and keeping the whole bush open. When, flowers are wanted for show purposes j they must be more restricted in number, fewer branches are left, and shoots are more shortened. THE KITCHEN" GARDEN. Cabbage, cauliflower, a-nd lettuce j should now be ready to put out. The | plants should be from the autumn sowing, old plants would most likely run to seed, a trouble that is ever sufficiently present without courting it. A little bonemea-1 and superphosphate at time of planting will be a help. Mix together two parts of bonemeal to one part of superphosphate and give ,three ounces per. square yard. Later on, whengrowth has started, give nitrate of soda, two ounces per square yard. Early cabbages are. sometimes planted not more than twenty inches apart in the rows; tor homo "use it is best to give them a. iittie more room, for they will make sprouts that arc quite as valuable its the heads, for they are produced very quickly, so that before msjny heads are used there are sprouts v&i-dy on those first cub; for that reason a smaller lot need be put out, than would otherwise be ii&cessa.ry. Plant two kinds of cauliflower, 'an early and a later kind, so that the later may Vorue in. when the eai'ly kind is done. In dryish places, peas may bo sown, but it is not- advisable to sow generally. Shallots ;>.wd garlic should bs planted. Silver beet is growing very strongly at this'time Keep the largs leaves cut, aven if they art nofc all wanted, as it keeps the plant growing; if tls^M i« no other iwe for the lasves, dug into the soil .they will do gecd there.