GARDENING NOTES

Grey River Argus, 11 February 1938, Page 8

GARDENING NOTES

THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Tuberous begonias are now making a good display in the greenhouse, and attention should be given to staking, removing the female flowers from the double varieties, and supporting the large flowers. The cyclamen, which have been resting, should now be watered, and when growth commences shake them out and repot in pots a size larger than they occupied previously. The seedlings should now be in their flowering pots and should be stood on a bed of ashes in a cold frame, where they can be syringed twice a day, damped between the pots frequently, shaded from strong sunshine, and left open on still, warm nights. Primulas of the malacoides, Kewensis, and obconica types should also be in their flowering pots, and the seedlings of P. sinensis should be pricked out into boxes of light soil. As soon as cinerarias are large enough they should be potted up into three and four-inch pots and grown under cool conditions.

Pelargoniums, which are now past their best, should be stood out in a sunny frame to ripen the wood with a view to taking cuttings. Grapes are colouring, and they should now receive a little more air, avoiding draughts at all times. Tomatoes, which have now set a full crop, should receive a topdressing of Humber Fish Manure or other suitable fertiliser, with plenty of water at the roots at all times, but maintaining a dry atmosphere.

Ferns and palms will now have exhausted the available food in their pots, and they should be top-dressed or repotted. THE FLOWER GARDEN, Dahlias are growing rapidly, and the shoots should be securely tied up to the stakes. Thrips have been troublesome this year, and spraying with soapy water to which a tablespoonful of blackleaf tea 40 has been added to each gallon should be carried out regularly. It is also necessary to spray roses for mildew, which is rather troublesome this year. Stake and tie up herbaceous perennials, water where necessary, and keep the surface soil cultivated. Plant out daffodils, snowdrops, scillas, grape hyacinths, crocus, and chionodoxas Continue to keep the old flowers of sweet peas picked off, the side shoots removed, and tendrils picked off, and if the plants have-reached the top of their supports they can be cut loose, lain down on their sides, and the growing tips taken up stakes some distance away. THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDEN. Continue to dig potatoes, selecting nice, medium tubers from good, healthy plants for next season’s seed. Plant cabbage, autumn cauliflower, broccoli, savoys, kale, and leeks, giving the newly-put-out plants a good watering, and spray overhead in the evenings until they take to the new soil. Make a sowing of silver beet, or better still, plant out young plants, but make a good sowing of spinach to stand through the winter, thinning out the seedlings to eight inches apart. A sowing of white and yellow turnips and shorthorn carrots can still be made. Earth up the early celery and give the later crops plenty of water As onions show signs of ripening, twist or bend over the tops to assist the process, or cut the roots half-way through with a scuffle hoe. SHRUBS SUITABLE FOR AUTUMN EFFECTS. Among the shrubs in flower at the present time are the two species ot Caryopteris, members of tne verbena family, and sometimes known as blue spiraeas. C. Masticanthus is a deciduous shrub four to eight feet high, of spreading habit. The flowers, which are borne in cymes, are bright violet-blue. It is a native of China and Japan, and is easily grown from cuttings, either in the sand frame or in the open. C. tanguticus is also a bushy deciduous shrub, with violetblue flowers crowded on terminal and axillary corymbs. It is a native ot China, and differs from the former species in its leaves being much smaller and not so sharply toothed. This plant, has also a pleasant aromatic scent.

Ceanothus.—The Ceanothus are a genus of evergreen and deciduous shrubs or small trees natives of North America. The flowers,, which are usually some shade of blue or white, are individually small, but they are so plentifully borne in a crowd of fascicles or umbels that they form a dense and often showy panicle. C azureus and C. divaricatus are useful species, but the hybrids which have been raised in Europe are the most useful. C. Gloire de Varsilles has large clusters of rich blue'flowers, and is one of the hardiest and most desirable. C. Burkwoodi is also a hybrid, forming a bush five to six feet high, with shiny green leaves, greyish and downy beneath. The flowers are a rich, bright blue, and borne in panicles opening from now until April. Plants can be grown from half-ripe cuttings placed in the sand frame or well ripened put out in the open in early winter. Another remarkable shrub in flower at the present time is Desfontania spinosa. It forms a dense shrub up to 10 feet in height, with holly-like leaves and funnel-shaped flowers of firm texture, crimson scarlet, with five rounded, yellow, shallow lobes. It is a native of Chili, is perfectly hardy, and is recommended for a small garden where choice shrubs are appreciated.