GARDENING CLUB

Evening Star, Issue 19583, 15 June 1927, Page 14

GARDENING CLUB

ANNUAL MEETING The annual meeting of tho Dunedin Gardening Club was bold in the Y.M.C.A. rooms last evening, and was attended bv about sixty members. The president ‘(Mr F. H. Hollingworth) presided. Tho annual report stated that the syllabus drawn up at the beginning of the year was fairly well maintained. Tho attendances at the meetings were very good, and members showed a keen interest in tho various lectures and exhibits. The club put up a stand at each of tho four shows hold by the Horticultural Society, for which it obtained several awards in tho way of first-class certificates. Several members were constant exhibitors at the horticultural shows, and with marked success. This, and the interest taken by members in tho club’s work, was very gratifying to the committee, and it was to bo hoped that more of the members would be seen with their exhibits on tire show boards of the chief society. Tho meetings had been helped considerably by exhibits of plants and flowers brought by members. These had become quite a feature of tho club’s meetings. Tho exhibits had been of a very high standard, and a credit to the club, as well as being of much value to the members. The committee desired to thank those specially who gave lectures during the year. These lectures were of a very high order, and very instructive. The club was to be congratulated on having _so many highly-qualified members willing to give lectures and instructions. Tho Chairman moved the adoption of the report and balance-sheet. Mr W. H. Johnson seconded. Mr J. Passmore said the list of lectures delivered during the year showed that a high standard had been set. He had watched the progress of the club for the past seven years, and he hoped it would continue to progress at the same rate. Mr James Nelson said tho club had continued to grow _steadily._ The fact that the membership bad risen to 150 was an evidence of the progress they were making. This must bo very gratifying to the president and secretary, both of whom were enthusiasts, and had done a great deal for horticulture, The lecturers, too, were men and women of high calibre. Ho suggested to the incoming committee tho necessity of holding social evenings. The President referred to tho death of Mr A. C. Broad, who was a keen exhibitor of pansies, and had on various occasions given a deal of valuable information to the members of the club. Referring to the finances of the club, tho members’ subscription was only 2s Cd per annum. They did not aim at making money, but they had nevertheless a credit balance of £2 9s, which he, the speaker, considered very satisfactory. " The dub was very much indebted to its lion, secretary, Mr Peter Nelson, for tho amount of valuable work he had put into the club’s affairs. The motion was carried. OFFICE-BEARERS.

I The election of office-bearers resulted as follows;—President, Mr F. H. Hol- | Hugworth ; vice-presidents—Messrs E. A. Hamel, John Whyte, Jas, Nelson, and J. Passmore, and Aim Rodger and Miss R. Anderson; committee—Messrs L. Page, J. W. MMntyro, T. Y. Turner, M. Thomson. L. Fraser, R. Moore, W. Walker, I. H. Vickers, W. Blackburn, J. Tait, J. E. Milburn, J. Roy, Mesdames F. H. Hollingworth, A. E. Hamel, Doodeward, Sinton, and Orr Campbell, Misses MMntyro, Cutten, Dippio, J. Burgess, M. Robertson, and Pilkington; hon. secretary, P. Nelson. METHODS OF PROPAGATION. The President referred to tho impending departure of Mr W. H. John- . ston, who purposed taking up residence jat Lower Hutt within the next few j months. Mr Johnston, ho said, had , been one of the hard workers of the , club, and his presence at their meetings 1 would be greatly missed. Mr Hollingworth, referring to the i propagation of plants, said that all i plants were propagated by seeds, _ and all could be propagated by cuttings. I Many wore difficult to strike, and required a great deal of care, observation, and thought. As to the exact time to put in "the cuttings, this could only be attained by working constantly every week or two, till the proper time, when success would come. From ' 1 seed it was not quite so difficult. They ail knew that Nature had made ample provision lor every plant, flower, and ! herb to reproduce itself abundantly. : They also know that Nature did not attempt to reproduce the many beautiful fruits and flowers grown- science and knowledge of tho individual had brought this about. Nature’s aim was merely tho reproduction of the species, and this was done by the ripe flower and fruit seeds falling on tho ground and being covered with grass or a few leaves till the proper tune arrived for the little plants to grow. From this they learned the secret of how deep to sow seeds. They should take 1 any plant growing wild and watch how and when it sowed its seeds, and | then follow the example. Propagating 1 by layers was a common practice in I Nature. To reproduce plants the I branches fell on the ground and got ' covered with soil, and very soon roots appeared, and shortly they had, instead of one tree, a whole mass of trees all rooted, and all that they had to do was to sever tho young plant from tho parent and plant it out. Grafting was another method of propagating by increasing and improving fruit and other trees. They had all heard of grafting apple trees and pears, and many others. This was a very

old practice that had been known for very many years. They could cut down an old apple or pear tree that might hare been growing _ for many years, giving very little fruit or fruit of very . inferior quality, and by grafting on some good variety in a couple of years could have a big tree with plenty 1 of fruit of the finest qualitylt used to be one of the delights of his brother ' and himself when they were boys to nut grafts of pears on a hawthorn i nedge, and it was wonderful the success | they had. Grafting, especially in fruit I trees, must be done in spring, when 1 the sap was working freely in tho ! stock, the scion or graft must be dorj inant, and must have been cut some , time previously and heeled in the soil in a shady place. Mow was a good time to get them, and September was a good month to do the work During the Great War the medical_ profession turned its attention to grafting, and it did some marvellous things in grafting bones and skin, and now it was quite a common practice to graft both bones and skin. Nature here first showed the , horticulturist how trees could be | grafted, and the horticulturist took the ' cue and followed the example. Ho had been fortunate enough to come across one example at least of Nature’s grafting, and he had brought one of them for the inspection of members. The one lie was sending round was a natural graft of a _ variegated holly tree. They would notice that the union of stock and scion was complete. An effort had been made to pull it apart, but without success. The tree he got it from had been planted over thirty years ago, and there lay a lesson. Villen cutting down trees they should keep their eyes open f 'or anything like this. A wound caused it first, and Nature took this remedy of healing the wound on the tree.