AHTIRRHINUMS

Evening Star, Issue 21974, 9 March 1935, Page 3

AHTIRRHINUMS

For providing a continuous display of bloom throughout the summer and autumn months, the antirrhinum is probably ono of the foremost subjects for bedding purposes, especially as it will thrive in most soils, and can be obtained in such a yariety of colours. As a rule, the seed is usually sown during the latter part of July or early in August, the plants being ready-for bedding out about the end of October and coming into full bloom during January. One difficulty experienced almost every year was that the spring, or late winter, sown seedlings -were inclined to clamp off badly, and if a care ful watch with regard to watering, temperature, and ventilation was not kept, certain varieties would almost be totally destroyed within a few days. This trouble occurred year after year, and every expedient that was resorted to, such as mixing ground charcoal with the compost, dusting with flowers of sulphur, and so on, proved of little avail. To overcome this disease, it was decided to try autumn solving. The seed was sown in a moderate temperature towards the end of April, and the young seedling plants kept hard and 'sturdy over the worst of the winter and then pricked off about July. Damping off was practically negligible, ami the plants Inns raised were particularly sturdy, being ready for planting out towards the end of September. Flowering commenced about December, and the plants were in full bloom for the Christmas and New Year season, when one naturally desires to have as bravo a show as possible in the flower garden. It may bo said that the disadvantage of such a scheme would be that the plants would be ready before the beds of spring flowering subjects could be cleared to receive them. Bub by giving the seedlings as cool a treatment as possible, and by pricking off at the rale of 54 to the box instead of the usual 70 odd, as is often the case, the plants can be safely held until early November, by which time most springflowering plants will bo over. That autumn solving is carried out by some growers we arc well aware, but its general adoption might assist large numbers of amateurs, and save a considerable amount of anxiety through damping-off * disease. Where damping off occurs, it is usual to dust the seedlings with flowers of sulphur or water with Condys’ crystals, but this is not really a remedy, and servos to check, rather than to cure, the disease.

In respect to diseases amongst antirrhinums, it appears that the rust is oven more serious than we reported a few weeks ago. ft lias made its appearance in New Zealand gardens, though the writer lias not yet experienced it. In Great Britain there is considerable alarm, ft first made its appearance in Kent, and has spread** with alarming rapidity over wide areas. So serious has it become that reference is persistently made to it in English horticultural journals, and the only remedial measures recommended are complete and wholesale destruction by burning and the raising of a completely new crop by seeds, and their cultivation in fresh ground, not previously used for antirrhinums. A very dose watch should he kept for it here.— ‘ Napier Daily Telegraph.’