THE GARDEN

Evening Star, Issue 18021, 15 July 1922, Page 13

THE GARDEN

Work for the Week. Our contributor, a well-known gardener, mill be glad to answer questions, which '■nnet be received not later than Tuesday of each week. VEGETABLES. The work just now must depend upon the weather. If the ground is wet, keep oii it, and find other jobs, such as preparing pea stakes, sorting over potatoes, or any inside work. When the weather improver. and the ground becomes in a fit state to work lots of little things may be done. Taka advantage of fine days to dig any vacant ground not already turned up. lha wont her must also be considered in sowing seeds or planting potatoes, and such as rhubarb, sea kale, asparagus, and horse radish. t’ctatocs of the early kidney kinds should be got in now where the soil and situation are favorable; but do not plant vet on wet or low lying ground where frosts are severe. Prepare a. good plot for rhubarb by trenching and manuring quite two spades deep, 'the more liberal one is to this crop the better will be the return. Like other permanent crops, it has to remain for quite a number of years iu the one place. It never pays to be sparing with such crops. Plant the crowns of strong sorts—such aa Giant Victoria and Slot's Monarch—-at least 3ft apart in the row and Alt from row to jow. Smaller sorts should- he a foot less each way. Plant so that the crowns are just visible. On no I account should rhubarb sticks be pulled ■ the first season. Let them grow at will ] and ripen off the tops naturally. If the j tops are pulled off the newly planted crowns cannot make root for a future supply of sticks. Sea* kale is a fine vegetable, but little known and very little grown. It is easily crown, and is lasting and profitable. It K raised from seed or by divided crowns. Seed should be sown in drills, and the young plants thinned out 2in or Sin apart to make crowns for planting out the following year. The crowns may be forced 1 for an early supply of kale, or they may i bo planted' 'in clump of a dozen crowns or j so, according to the size of the covering ; used for bleaching. The proper covers ! to use for this bleaching are -sea kale ! pans made for the purpose. Any rich soil will grow it, but rich peaty sandy loam suits it best. Plant horse radish in" any deeply-dug ground. Make holes with a crowbar or stout pointed stick, and deeply drop in straight pieces of roots or crowns 6in to Ift each way. Any nice piece of root will grow and form crowns. It should bo. grown in ah out-of-the-way comer, as it is inclined to encroach, upon other crops if planted close. Sow peas, bread beans, lettuce, radishes, and other things, as advised! in last week’s notes. FRUIT. Continue pruning and! planting fruit, trees to be in readiness for spraying. -Whore trees are badly affected with scale, particularly mussel, San Jose, or ovster scale, there is nothing better than an early winter spray of lime, sulphur, and salt. This is very sure in its effect if properly applied. In moot cases of ordinary spraying to lceep_ down pests a later spraying with red oil or Bordeaux will be advisable just before the buds burst in spring, as scale and other pests a;e then on the move and scales are hatch--1! t'o make 55gal of the mixture, which will afterwards have to bo reduced to 1 in 13 of water for a winter spray, take 501 b of best unslaked' lime and 1001 b powdered sul; fmr, and add Water to’ make sSgal. Put lOgal of water into an iron bouer, bring it to the boil, then add 101 b of fine slaked lime, next the whofo of the sulphur. This is best mixed into a paste with hot water before placing into the boiler. Boil for thirty or forty minutes until the liquid becomes a blood color or deep brown. Thoroughly stir, and add sufficient water to make 55gal; then add 101 b salt and the remainder of the lime, and bring the whole to a vigorous boil for about sCmin. Strain off and keep the liquid in a barrel. If the barrel is not quite full pour in a email quantity of kerosene to prevent) a crust forming. Then this liquid may be drawn off'as required, adding one paft of the liquid to twelve parts of waiter for a winter spray and one part of the liquid to thirty parts of water tor summer ueo. Copper boilers must on no account be used. Care should he taken not to stir up the lime or sediment when drawing off, or it may block the spray, __ Biroe sulphur and salt wash may be made in small quantities in a kerosene tin for small gardens,: la this case take 7 A lb unslaked lime, 7j,lb powdered- sulphur, Vjpb salt, and 2Qgal of water. Boil Jgal

of water, adding tote sulphur, half tho I'm© after being slaked, and half the salt. Boil this for i?rty or fifty minutes; then have a large tub, and mix the whole or remaimfer of the limo and salt, stirring briskly and adding itho remainder of boiling water to make 25ga.1. Let it settle, and strain and use as required. This is for a winter wash only. For red spider end red brobon, which attack the frLogo of apples trees in summer, and, also for apple scab, etc., the solution must be diluted to one of the liquid to twenty paais of water (rain or soft water preferred). Spray well in and all over the foliage. ANSWERS. ’’

“ Climber.”—You should select honey- t suckles, which are very charming against c a wall, with clematis jackmoni, and otlier i clematis, roses of the pillar or climbing kinds, such as Mrs W. L. Grant, Caroline ( Testout, Lemon Pillar, Lady Glencolvin, s and Mrs Marion Manifold. These are all i good sorts. Also jasmines, particularly the i winter flowering variety, J. Nndiflonun, 1 which, bears a profusion of yellow blossom i on the naked shoots during the winter J months. These will all succeed in the c position mentioned. f —You may cut down 1 your rhododendron to any height you t like. The lower you cult it the harder i the wood will be, consequently the longer it will take to start into growth. Old wood ( makes very feeble shoots the first year, i and does not quite recover until the third c season. Something depends, however, f upon the condition of the roots. If these 1 are well established in good, deep, and i natural soil tho growth, will be fairly j strong tho second season. After cutting e down, loosen up the surface and give a ( good top-dressing of turfy loam and old, ( well-rotted manure. Deter cutting back your bushes for a month yet. ] “Graft.”—lf you wish to iregxaft your j pear tree, cut it back near to whore it ( has to be grafted very soon. It is ) much more likely to succeed than cutting j an old tree hack at the time of grafting. ( It is always better to cut an old tree bad? | whilst the sap is down than when it is I j in full which is tho proper time 1 ] to graft. The scions should be cut off ] now and heeled in in a cool situation to ] keep them fresh until grafting time. Tho ] time to graft is when you see your other j trees beginning to swell their buds. ] “ Pear.”—The pear forwarded is a poor , sample of Winter Nelis. The cause of , its not ripening is at the roots. ' The situation does not suit it. I advise | digging a trench around it and underneath i it to cut any strong roots that may be thing down into water or wet day; then U an with some light loam and a little old manure mixed in. An , earlier and more easily ripening kind would suit .your locality and ground better. If this treatment does not effect its ripening better, I should cut it hard back and regraft it with a more suitable kind. “ Inquirer.”—lt is too soon for yon to sow tomato seeds in a small tomato-house unless yon have a little, frame in which you could get a load of hot bed manure. Slake a little hot bed inside the house to sow tho seeds in. I advise you to purchase sufficient plants from a reliable raiser; it will be cheaper and better. Sunrise. Hipper No. 2, and Leader are all good sorts. - H.C. NOTES. For the next meeting of the Gardening Club, to be held on July 25,- Messrs Tannock and Errington are to lecture on roses and sweet peas' respectively. These popular subjects will bo sure to draw a full house. Tho Dunedin Horticultural Society, at its committee meeting on Tuesday evening next, will take in hand the construction of its schedule for 1922-23. Exhibitors and others interested should take the opportunity of sending any suggestions to the secretary as soon as possible, so that if suitable they could bo inserted. An investigation into the question of “Apple Polling >n ” was recently held at the Wirfsy Laboratory, England, and the following conclusion was arrived at and ■ published The remedy for the faulty pollination of apples, and its consequent loss of crops, is in the hands of the grower, and' lies in the intelligent mixing of varieties, the choice of yhich must depend upon the normal time of flowering and the grower’s own preferences or economic requirements.” An interesting contribution in a recent ‘R.H.S. Journal’ was ‘Notes on the Origin of the Moss Rose,’ by Major C. C. Hurst and Mabel S. G. Breeze. _ The authors have been able to trace this rose back to the year 1696, when it was apparently in cultivation in the South of France; but its actual origin appears to bo obscure. DUNEDIN GARDENING CLUB The fortnightlv meeting of the above club was held on Tuesday evening, and in spite of the unpleasant weather conditions ther was a good attendance. Mr B. G. Goodwin, orchard instructor of the Department of Agriculture, was the lecturer for the evening, the subject being the pruning of fruit trees and small fruits. The lecturer dealt very fully imd clearly with the subject, giving practical demonI strations of the various prunings necessary | for the different variet.es. The lectin© j proved to be very interesting and instrucj live. Several questions were asked, and i answered by the lecturer, and at the close he was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. Mr Hollingsworth presided over tho meeting. FERTILITY OF SEEDS. Some seeds, of course, are ol poor orovvbh if over a year old, but when stored under proper conditions > sound seeds of most plants are quite reliable for at | least two years. One of the kinds I ! have found not to ho depended on for I more than one year after being harvested ; is the auricula. I will not say that it ■ never germinates when two years old or upwards, but it is certainly a precarious business to place any reliance on it after one year. Begonia seeds are among tlhe smallest of all seeds, but aro perfeetly | safe to grow when two years harvested. I Beyond that I would not go, unless stored under specially favorable cdhditions. Cineraria is good for three years, and ' gloxinia for two. Seeds Which Germinate Best When Old. —Many growers suppose that seeds of the Persian cyclamen germinate best immediately after they are ripe. This is not the -case, which anyone may prove by sowing now and old seed under similar conditions, and watching the results. Last August I sowed seeds of this plant that j had been in my possession for five years, and they grew splendidly, tho resulting 1 plants being vigorous and healthy. _ A ! friend tells mo these are perfectly reliable for seven years. Primula obconica, the seeds of which aro much smaller than those of P. sinensis,, are good for three ' years while the last-named will germinate j freely even when seven years harvested. I Stocks quickly lose vitality, and are not I very reliable even in the second year. It is \ impossible, of course, to go over every flowering plant grown in gardens, and that are ordinarily raisocl_ from seeds, and to state tho length of time these retain vitality, but the following seeds are good for two years. Aquilegm, antirrhinums, delphinium, .geum, lobelia, lupinus, marigold, mignonette, pansy, poppy, echizan- - thus, viola, and' wallflower. There are others, of course, but as a rule new seeds ■ are safest of most other plants. Among vegetables seeds of the cabbage ■ tribe are good for three years if properly 1 stored j beet, two years; broad beans, 'thtoo or four years; dwarf beans, three i years; carrot, two years; lettuce, two years; celery, two or three yearn; leek, ■ i two years; onion, two years; melon, six ' or seven years; tomato, five years; peas, • two or three years; turnips, two or three ■ years. It must be understood that all , these 'times aim approximate, for under , poor conditions as to storage tho bedt i seeds qujtsklv deteriorate; while the same i seeds carefully put by in proper quarters ■ may retain thar vitality a year or two i longer than stated. A very Warm storet room is bad, and so is a damp cold one, i If perfectly dry, cold does little ham, and is, indeed, quite safe for most kinds i of seeds. If very warm and dry tho i vitality is quickly lost, while a warm. ! moist place causes premature growth, and , & cold, damp spot causes the seeds to 1 rot.—C. Blair, in ‘Popular Gardening.’