THE-ROCK GARDEN

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 136, 5 December 1935, Page 30

THE-ROCK GARDEN

UNSEASONAL WEATHER

(By T. W. Attwood.) Rain and wind have done a good deal of damage recently in and about the gardens of Wellington, but after all, the losses are not to be compared with the gains. All through the wet spell all plant life has been busy consolidating its root system and will be in a far better condition to withstand a long dry spell if and when it arrives, and the garden is now in fine condition for planting out seedlings of all kinds. USEFUL PLANTS. For hot, dry, rough, and gritty or sandy situations Portulaca is indispensable. It may be sown from now on till Christmas. It is low growing, forming close compact mats and in the autumn is covered with many coloured Eowers. In very dry weather feed with weak stimulants. Of late years polyanthus, beautiful early spring flowers, have been improved beyond all recognition. Those who remember the polyanthus of sixty years ago can best appreciate the wonderful advance in its development. The best results seem to be obtained by treating them as annuals sown between now and Christmas, and kept growing right away on to the flowering stage. "Lithospermum prostratum," is a real gem for the rock garden; its gentian blue flowers are in evidence, practically all the year round. Many have difficulty in rooting cuttings, with others it is simple. We are told by successful raisers to use cuttings 2J inches and insert half their depth in sandy soil, preferably against the shady side of a rock. Care must be taken in lifting the rooted plants; at first they make much more root than top growth. Cuttings should be put in between now and Christmas. In the late summer cut away the outside straggly growth. SEEDLINGS. To get the best results from seed sown in the open, drastic thinning must.be carried out; give every plant room to do its very best. Crowded in the seed bed they soon get starved and spindly and die before their time, j

Millions of hours of work for women in Britain have been saved by the substitution of gas for raw coal, states the president of the British Commercial Gas Association.