GARDENING NOTES

Grey River Argus, 14 March 1939, Page 9

GARDENING NOTES

THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY.

This is the month for putting in cuttings of bedding, herbaceous, and alpine plants. The shoots are fairly well ripened without becoming hard, and the temperature is suitable for the formation of roots without artificial heat. Continue to cut over the pelargoniums and geraniums and to put in the cuttings. The cuttings of the bedding geraniums can also be put in now. Cuttings of pinks, carnations, alyssum, lithospermum, mossy phlox, pentstemons, verbenas, and many other herbaceous and alpine flowers can also be put in now, either in boxes or specially prepared beds in a cool shady place. Though still a little early, cuttings of violas and pansies can be put in, but it is better to cut away the old flowering shoots of the varieties it is intended to propagate, and to put a handful of a mixture of sand and leafmould in among the young growths. This encourages the development of roots and when the cuttings are taken off they are already live roots. Continue to take the buds of the large flowering chysanthemums, and to give a little feeding as soon as the buds are taken. Those intended for cut flowers should be allowed to go past the first bud and go on to the next. It is better, however, to reduce the shoots to three on each stem. Watch the cinerarias for green fly and leaf miner, and fumigate them once a week as a preventive. It is really a good idea to fumigate the greenhouses and propagating house once a week with “X.L. All” or some other suitable material. Pot up the small primulas and prick out calceolarias as soon as they are large enough to handle.

THE FLOWER GARDEN. Continue to clear off annuals as soon as they are past their best, and to cut over herbaceous perennials. I do not mean to cut them right down to the ground, but to cut off the flower stems and allow the foliage to ripen off gradually. To keep the dahlias and sweet peas flowering the old flowers and seeds should be picked off regularly and they should be well watered once a week during this dry, warm weather, and should receive a top-dressing of well rotted manure or lawn mowings to keep the moisture in. Liquid manure once a week after watering is also appreciated by the dahlias. Seed saving should be carried out regularly now, for there is no seed like one’s own saving for getting a good germination, and if it is saved from selected plants the strain will be kept up and possibly improved. It is really advisable to mark the

plants when in flower and to collect the seed vessels before they are quite ripe, retaining the flower stalks, Io label them, put them in a bag or cardboard box and hang up or place in a cool airy place to complete the ripening process. Many seeds have means of flying away, and some jump out when ripe, so it is better to collect them before they are quite ripe and when they are ready the seed will fall out into the bag or box. Seeds of sweet william, nemesia, calendulas, and marigolds of various kinds, antirrhinums, viscaria, nasturtiums, lupins, poppies, dianthus, and in fact all hardy and half-hardy annuals can be collected. Hardy annuals can be sown now for spring and early summer flowering, when they come in useful after the spring flowers proper are over. Cut off all the old flower stems on the alpine plants, cut back the more rampant kinds which would overrun and smother the weaker and more choice kinds, remove all weeds, work up the surface soil and give a topdrcssii\g of open soil composed of one part clean loam, one leafmould, and one of sand or fine screenings with lime rubble for the dianthus and other plants which like it. VEGETABLE "GARDEN.

Continue to clear off spent crops, to dig and store second early potatoes, and to lift and store onions and shallots. It is most important that the winter and spring broccoli, cabbage savoys, brussels sprouts, leeks, and celery be kept growing. During the present dry weather watering will be necassary in most gardens. Spraying overhead and moistening the surface soil is little use—you must give a good soaking to reach the lowest roots and then bottle it up by maintaing a loose surface mulch by scuffle hoeing or mulching with strawy manure, leaves, or lawn mowings. It is also an advantage to give runner beans some food as well as water, and the surface can be dusted by some fertiliser such a fish manure, blood and

; bone, or superphosphate with a little I sulphate of ammonia. If liquid man- ■ ure made from bow, sheep, or fowl 1 manure is available, a good applica- ' tion after watering would encourage ’ growth and the development of the • pods. Collect the ripe pods of peas I and spread -them out in a dry place I with a view to saving the seed for the 1 next season’s sowings. There are . always a number of pods missed when i picking. It is not too late to plant ’ leeks and sow winter spinach, beans, ' and peas to stand over the winter, ’ also onions and lettuce. ‘ Continue to collect apples and pears 1 as they mature, the test being to lift > them up and if they part from the 1 stem they are ready to collect. They I should be spread’out on clean shelves J in a cool airy place, where they will keep for quite a long time. Strawte berry runners can be planted, the old

canes of raspberries should be cut off and the young ones reduced to a reasonable number, say, from six to nine. Continue to root prune fruit trees which are making too much wood and not forming fruit spurs, and prepare ground for new plantations.

AUTUMN FLOWERING CLIMBING PLANTS. There are quite a number of autumn flowering clmbing plants suitable for covering walls or fences, growing over trellises or arches, or for growing up through other trees and bushes. One of the best of the climbers for growing in a house is the clematis, and those of the Jackmani and large flowered hybrids are in flower at the present time. C. Jackmani was raised from seed said to be obtained by crossing C. Hendersoni and C. lanuginosa. It has flowers four to five inches across composed normally of four sepals of a rich velvety purple. Some of the later varieties have six sepals and are six inches across. It is a vigorious grower, commences to to flower in January and continues until April, and as it flowers on the young wood, is cut back to within a foot of the older stems every spring. C. lanuginosa, the large flowered clematis, is the source of most of the large flowered hybrids, and as it is not such a strong grower as Jackmani it should not be pruned so hard in the spring. Some of the large flowered clematis are Henri (white, Lord Beaconsfield (light lavender blue), Nellie Morer (slivery white shaded mauvre). Each sepal has a distinct rosy-carmine bar. Tropaeolum speciosum (Flame Nasturtium or Scotch Creeper) is a desirable creeper with long elegant annual shoots. It likes to grow up strings against a wall or fence, and it also does well when planted among shrubs such as rhododendrons, over which it will clamber without doing them any permanent injury. It is said to like to have its roots in the shade and its foliage and flowers in the sun. It is propagated by means of fleshy roots.

Polygonum balschuanicum is a vigorous climber suitable for draping trees and shrubs or for growing over scrub fences or rustic pergolas. Its sprays of rose flushed flowers are effective in late summer and autumn.