THE GARDEN

Evening Star, Issue 18157, 23 December 1922, Page 4

THE GARDEN

WORK FOR THE WEEK.

VEGETABLES. With a lew exceptions, such as the Peninsula and other warm, sunny, high positions, where ’ frosts do not occur until late, the final sowing of peas should now he made, and they should be the dwarf early marrowfat kinds. It would in all probability be a waSle of seed and labor to sow tall late kinds. Celery will probably be in condition for the main planting. Celery is generally considered a gross feeder, requiring a rich and highly-manured soil and abundance of water. It certainly cannot be grown to perfection without both. Choose showery weather to get it planted without delay so as to get it well established in trenches before the heat of the summer. Plant leeks in deep drills to permit earthing up. Sow a good breadth of turnips now. They will come in useful in autumn. French beans may still be sown for succession. These like good rich soil, but avoid giving them fresh manure. _ If the final solving of broccoli is not already in, sow at once to come in in late sprlng'hext season. Plant out from earlysown seeds. Never allow broccoli to be drawn up in the seed bed. Such plants are not worth planting. Plant cabbage, autumn giant cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. The latter must have rich soil ana plenty of water. Lift early potatoes as soon as they become fit. The ground they vacate is very suitable for planting broccoli or any of the brassica family.

FRUIT. The occripants of the fruit garden will be "Either dwarf standards of apples, pears, plums, or cherries, and those for walls and paling fences, such as peaches, apricots, and nectarines, all of which_ have undergone a special course of training. This is a period when trees are too often neglected. The skill of the gardener is now best displayed in selecting the shoots to be retained or encouraged for extending the trees. Shorten back or remove altogether useless or overcrowded growth. If the leading shoots of peaches and nectarines are growing too vigorously shop them in order to encourage lateral shoots by pinching out the points; if ,on walls tie or nail them in before they become too ripe, or they may snap off in the process. With Voung apples, pears, and plums it often happens that one or two shoots grow away quite out of proportion to the rest. Finch out the points, of these now. By this you divert the flow of sap into other channels, consequently by the end of the "season those left unchecked will have nearly caught up on the strong stopped shoots and give a more evenly-balanced tree. Neglect of this often causes badlyshaped or lopsided trees, a point yery much to be guarded against. Continue the thinning out of fruit, particularly peaches and apricots. Gooseberries will he considerably improved by summer stopping of the young Wood and the removal altogether of surplus or excessive growth. Hoe and keep down suckers of raspberry canes. THE VINERY. Continue stopping and pinching back laterals and sub-laterals, also the thinning of the fruit. When the fruit is in the stoning stage be very careful to keep ventilation on, particularly in the morning o! hot_ days, so as to have both leaves and fruit dry and free from moisture, or the berries may scald. This is a very frequent occurrence, particularly in careless ventilating. I have seen crops of fine fruit practically spoilt through scalding. If one has forgotten to open the ventilators on a hot day he should not rash all the ventilators open to cool the house quickly. That is the worst thing possible. It gives vines a severe chill, and is often the means of bringing on mildew, besides scalding the fruit and perhaps the leaves •s'well. . Continue thinning the fruit until this work is completed. It is advisable to look over the fruit & second time a week or two after the first thinning. Those inexperienced in the work will then see better where bunches are likely to become overcrowded.

am TOMATO-HOUSE, The growth of the tomato is very rapid just now, and this, of course, entails a lot of attention in picking or cutting out side shoots, watering, and ventilating. All must be attended to if the best result is to be got. Ripening of the fruit will soon be in full swing. As this advances air must be increased, and as the heat of tbs day strengthens night air should be given. Avoid a stuffy atmosphere. Fortunately, the dreaded tomato mildew has not been prevalent the last year or two. On the very first appearance of the trouble spray at once with Bordeaux mixture, summer formula, 3-5-50 strength. If there is suspicion of the trouble spray at onco._ It ia a good practice to spray early with a light formula, even if there is no sign of it.

Green aphis may be controlled by fumigating the house with M'Dougal’s fumigators. These aro about Is each, and one will fumigate a house of 1,000 cubic feet. Black spot in the fruit is a very bad fun§oid disease, and is best treated with Boreaux spray, 'Wherever fruit is so affected pick it off at once and destroy it. The trouble generally attacks the fruit on the point and spreads until the whole fruit is a black mass. , ANSWERS. - ! ”* Eunonymns.”—Strongly advise you to clip your eunonymns hedge at once. It is a mistake on the part of many amateurs to allow hedges to grow tall before dipping, with the idea of getting the hedge 1 up quickly. It may get the nedge up a little quicker, hut it will certainly be at the expense of a thick hedge from the base. The sides and points of all young hedges should he clipped when young, or about 18in to 2ft. If they are left too long they are nearly all inclined to lift up at the base, like so many email trees planted together. “Potting.”—lt is a mistake to put any foung plant directly into a largo pot. ome plants would succumb under such treatment. It is almost like feeding a baby on that which would suit a strong man. To attempt to root cuttings in very large pots would be to court failure. The chief object aimed at is rapidity of growth, and thus obtain a beautiful specimen in a short period. A general guide in potting is to shift on a plant into a pot two sizes _ larger than that in which it was srowing5 rowing—say, from a 3in pot to a Bin. or to 6. One size larger does nob allow sufficient room to push fresh soil all around the ball of roots. I shall be quite pleased to give a few words both upon potting and soils. Will reply shortly. fi.a

DYED TUBES. Experiments are being made In the Weser district, in Germany, with a view to producing colored trees, and a striking initial success has already been reported An area of several acres has been set apart for the purpose in a largo forest near the town of Uslar. Every tree in this area is hung with a receptacle containing red or blue coloring matter, which is directed by means of a rubber tube into the roots of the tree. Electricity also plays a part in the coloring process. The coloring matter mates its way within about four weeks to the uttermost ends of the branches and the smallest twigs, in some cases up to a height of 20yds. The tree then dies off and is felled and out into timber. The wood thus obtained is used fox various purposes, especially for the malting of furniture. The part of the forest where the •xperiments a-re being carried on may already be noticed-from afar off, by the red or jjkq tint of the ipliagCj

our contributor, a well-known gardener, will be glad to answer questions, .Which must be received not later than Tuesday of each week.

THE WORLD IN OUR GARDENS. [By W, B. Tuurii.l, M.Sc., I/ondoti.] IVo all love .i. garden. And when we wander round.our.garden in the quiet evening to find tne fresh flowers that are blooming every day wo revel in something that wo call characteristically English. But if the flowers cc-uld break out and tell us of their own birth — the sweet peas, and the. roses, the rhododendrons and the calceolarias, the geranium and the iris and cyclamen, with many others—they would talk cf origins in Sicily 'and' South "America; in'Persia and Palestine, in Africa,and.the.Caucasus. The commonest of the flow’ers found in English gardens •are often aristocrats, in the sense that' their origins can frequently be traced back through the centuries to the introduction of some noteworthy ancestral form from a distant land. Of course, many of the choice modern blooms have been obtained By long years of patient artificial selection, and by the crossing of various species which are naturally distinct one from another. Surprise is felt when one first learns how the world has been ransacked in order to provide us with our favorite garden flowers. Naturally, it is impossible, in the brief space of this article, to do much more than indicate how we have obtained a few’ of the plants which are so generally grown in this country for the pleasure we find in their form, color, or scent.

The' rose is the emblematic flower of England. Yet none of the inhabitants of our gardens lias had a more cosmopolitan origin. The genus (or group) Rosa is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, and contains several hundreds of distinct species or kinds. One authority even asserts that there are twenty species of dog roses in Britain. About twentysix different, kinds of wild roses have been utilised in the production of our garden forms, and in original habitat they represent Europe, Asia, and North'America. Nearly all of our modern garden roses are of very mixed hybrid ancestry. Contrasting in many respects with, the roses are the sweet peas. The sweet pea is one of the favorite and most easily cultivated flowers, and it would be difficult to name any plant with greater decorative value when used in the form of cut flowers. ' Unlike the' roses, the ' sweet pea has had a very simple beginning. It grows wild in the island of Sicily, and was introduced into Holland and England via Italy in 1699, being first illustrated in a work published in 1700. ’ The wild Sicilian sweet pea has flowers with, reddish purple standards and light bluish purple wings, From this modest beginning there has been evolved flowers of over 600 entirely distinct colors, tints; shades,' and combinations, besides variations, in .shape and modifications of the general habits of the plant.

Our knowledge concerning the rhododendrons has been more extended during recent years than that of most other classes of flowers. Linmeus, the great Swedish botanist of the eighteenth century, knew only four kinds; now well over 400 are known, and in addition numerous hybrid forms are in cultivation. The commonest rhododendrons of our parks and gardens is a native of the Caucasus, parts of Asia Minor, and Portugal; but many of the more beautiful forms were obtained originally from .the Himalayas, through the activities of Sir Joseph Hooker.’ In recent years most of the new kinds which, have been introduced have come from_ the mountainous districts of Western China, which would seem to be the headquarters of this group of plants. In some parts of Yunnan, for example, every valley seems to have its own distinct kind of rhododendron. Tile chrysanthemum is the flower of the East, as the rose is the flower of the West. There are over 100 books about the garden chrysanthemum, and its magazine literature is probably exceeded in bulk only by that of the rose. It is tire national flower of Japan, though, like many other Japanese garden plants, it probably originated in China. Our largeflowering, or autumn, chrysanthemums are said to he the blended products of two species of plants, that grow wild in China, and, possibly, also in Japan. The outdoor, hardy chrysanthemums are ap--1 patently deriv ed from the same two 'parents, being less developed forms. The calceolarias, which we commonly use as bedding-oat and pot plants, are natives of South America, excepting two which occur in New Zealand. At one time or another a considerable number of distinct kinds have been grown in our gardens, but most of those now found, and especially the ones used so commonly as summer bedding plants, have been raised as artificial hybrids. The earliest record which has been traced by the writer of calceolarias in England concerns one with sulphur colored flowers which was introduced in 1773 from Peru.

The scarlet, ivy-leaved, and other kinds of so-called geraniums reached us in their original forms from South Africa. They belong to a group of plants allied to oiir own common Herh-rohert, and, indeed, some of tho close relatives of this plant which occur wild in the British Isles aro well worthy of a place in gardens. Most of the kinds of South African geraniums, or, as they are more accurately called, pelargoniums, were introduced by English and Dutch merchants, settlers, and'explorers. One of the dominant parents of the florists’ pelargoniums was known in England as early as 1690; while the two originals of the race of zonal, or bedding, geraniums were introduced into England m 1710 and 1714. In 1753 only twentyfive kinds of pelargoniums were known to botanists, but now over 230 wild ones have been recorded, and this excludes the many scores of horticultural varieties.

The saxifrages are found nearly all over the world, favoring especially mountainous regions. Many kinds are cultivated in rock gardens, and the common London Pride is really a saxifrage. The oult of rock-gardening has increased considerably of late years. Naturally, rock gardens are less expensive to keep up than greenhouses, and are decidedly more natural in their effects. The charms of even a email garden are added to by a rockery, and there is now a very large choice of plants from the Alps, Pyrenees, Andes, Caucasus, and from the mountams of far-away New Zealand, which can be obtained from the big seed firms and successfully grown by amateurs over, on, or between the stones and boulders of a small rock garden. Many primulas make charming rock plants, but to give a detailed account of the primulas to be found in gardens would require a volume to itself. Well over 300 species are known in the wild state, scattered over the north temperate, Arctic, and sub-Arctic regions. Like the saxifrages, they especially favor mountain districts, and, like the rhododendrons, they are found in great abundance in Western China and the Himalayas, whence many have been and are being introduced into tliis country. The primrose, cowslip, and oxlip, and several other less-known kinds are favorites of our own countryside; but, beautiful though they be, they give little idea of the graceful charm of many ,of the exotics. The irises have long been known in cultivation, but these plants were first considered as tire source of drugs, and not as garden plants. The earliest known picture of an iris is found in a well-known work of Dioscorides, which was written and illustrated at the beginning of the sixth century. Various kinds of irises are found over most of the northern temperate zone from the Pacific Coast of North America in the west to China and Japan In the east, and from Alaska and Labrador, Siberia and Kamscl\atka in the north to Florida and Hongkong in the south. Many plants from different parts of this large are now, to be, found

dens. The so-called “ German " iris is one of the commonest and most variable members of this group of plants. Its original home is unknown, but one suspects it to be a native of Southern Europe or the Near East. The beautiful cyclamens, which are usually cultivated as indoor plants in this country, are the offspring of a, species which is a native of the Eastsaii Mediterranean region, and which was first introduced in 1731. The old Eiiglish name, sow-bread, is derived from the tubers being sought by swine. Some twenty different kinds of cyclamens are known, in the wild stale, most of them occurring in South Europe or the Near East. These wild kinds have much smaller flowers than the usually cultivated varieties, which have been obtained only after long years of careful attention and selection; but they have a beauty and a grace of their own, and a number of them are hardy out of doors—at least, in the sout h of England. ■The most popular of all pot bulbs is the hyacinth, not merely because of the beauty of its flowers, but also on account of their delicious scent. It is a native of the Levant, whence it was introduced to England in 1596. The derivation of its name is uncertain, but it is certainly of very ancient date, some authorities deriving it from Hyaointhus, the beautiful boy who was killed by Zephyrus, and from whose blood the flower sprang into existence by the command of Apollo. It belongs to the lily family, to which also belong the tulip, fdtillary, lily, squill, and many other attractive flowers. Of these, we may make brief reference to the tulip. Excepting for some wild kinds, tulips were unknown in Western Europe before 1554. In this year Busbequius, Ambassador of the Emperor Ferdinand, noticed some tulips in a garden between Adriano pie and Constantinople. In 1562 a merchant at Antwerp received a cargo of bulbs from Constantinople, and in 1571 tulips were introduced into Holland, and about 1680 info England. Probably few flowers (have caused more excitement than did. the tulip soon after its advent from the East. Extraordinary prices were paid for its bulbs, especially by the Dutch. Thus in 1625 3,000 florins were offered for two bulbs; hub the owner would not part with them. About 1634, in Holland, there was a speculative mania in tulip bulbs which developed along much the same linos, and to almost as great an extent, as the South Sea Bubble in England. It is said that all classes of the community, even sweeps and servant girls, joined in the gamble to get rich quickly. As we know to he the case with so many flowers, the development of the numerous horticultural varieties of tulip took place after the original plants reached the gardens of Western Europe. Now shapes and colors to please all tastes are obtainable, and, although wc have no “tulip mania,” the flower retains a place as a general favorite.

The different kinds of narcissus, under which name is included the common daffodil, grow naturally in Central Europe and the Mediterranean countries, and eastwards to China and Japan. In some Imglish woods and pastures tho daffodil appears to be truly native, hut moro often it occurs as an escape from gardens. Some of the narcissus forms have been known for over 300 years to British cultivators, but numerous varieties are of recent production. Fow plants aro more easily cultivated than blue lobelias, and few aro more commonly used as annual edging plants, particidarly for early season effects. The ordinary blue lobelia reached us from South Africa" in 1762. In its own homeland it grows in stony places on tho mountains or on flats. Various interesting and beautiful kinds of the same group are found occasionally in greenhouses in this country, and often these have a very different appearance from the dwarf blue hardy kind. The lobelia is ono of tho brightest flowers of the .summer, but in the autumn months tho dahlia wins first place on this count; in /act, few flowers can vio with it for brilliancy of coloring, and it is also easily grown. Tlio first dahlias received in Europe were sent from Mexico to the Royal Botanic Garden at Madrid in 1789. "The name dahlia vyas given in honor of a Swedish botanist named Dahl. Apparently 1802 is tho correct date of tho introduction of this plant into France and England. •Space does not permit any detailed references to our orchard fruits and vegetables. Many of our choicest fruits came from the East, a large number probably originating in China. The kitchen garden, too, has attracted its inhabitants from, almost as many countries as the flower garden has. "From European or Near Eastern plants have been derived the beet, carrot, parsnip, the various cabbage allies, pea, broad bean, celery, and rhubarb; from Asia came the spinach, garden cress, cucumber, and probably the onion; while from America we have obtained the aJI-iraportapt potato, scarlet runner bean, vegetable marrow, and tomato.

And plants of strange species still come in from far and varied dimes.—‘ Outward Bound.’