GARDENING NOTES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 3 September 1926, Page 6

GARDENING NOTES.

(By “Waratah.”)

CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

These plants may he propagated from offsets from old plants, or from cuttings. They are also often grown from, division, of the old clumps, hut the plants grown from cuttings produce tlie finest flowers. Cuttings may be tAken now from, the shoots, of plants which are sufficiently, advanced in growth. In selecting these, preference should be given to shoots about three or four inches long from the roots of parent plants free from the disease known as “rust.” The shoots should be out just below an eye or bud with a 'sharp knife, And the buds or eyes removed from the portion to be inserted in the soil. A single cutting may be placed in a three-inch pot, or four or five cuttings in a. five or saxinch pot. The soil used should be light and friable, with a. fair quantity of shArp sand added to it. The cuttings should be made very firm in the soil and the pots bedded .in .sand or ashes in a 1 dose frame. If no frame he. available, a box should be half filled.' with ashes or eAnd and glass .placed over the top. Give water sparingly until the cuttings are well-rooted, which will he indicated by new growth being made. As soon as. tlie young plant® are well rooted, they should be repotted singly into five-inch pots, filled With gO'Od soil, hut not too rich, and plunged into ashes or .sand in. jA-> shelter ed position in the open garden, or they may lie planted out .in the positions they are to occupy in the garden as soon as they have been “hardened off.” Plant ISin.' apart in well-trenched soil, to which well-decayed animal manure or compost from tlie rubbish heap has been added. If these materials he not available add a liberal quantity of bonedust to the soil. Tread the. soil very firmly about each plant; this is an important point in the culture of chrysanthemums. In loose foil the plants grow soft and rank, but in wedconsolicfated soil the stems grow with short joints and are hard. After planting, add ,a considerable quantity of lime to the 'Surface 'soil, pricking) it in lightly with ft fork. Tins will help to .strengthen the constitution of the plants, and enable them to resist, better any attack of the fungoid disea.se known, a® “rust,” one of the worst enemies the chrysanthemum grower has to contend with. As a . precaution agAinst attack by “rust-,” it is. advisable to spray the plants with lime-sul-phur solution, one’part to one hundred parts of water, three or four times during the growing iscason, commencing when the plants are quite small. SULPHUR. Tnose who grow strawberries wid be interested in tlie following copy of a .letter which"was addressed to the editor of the “New Zealand'Fruitgrower,” and appeared in the-current’number. “Sir, —I read air- article last October or November in one of my journals on .sulphur for strawberries. One of tlie largest growers was Asked how ho was able to produce ®ueh large strawberry plaints, 4 and why they. produced' nearly three times as many and finer henries than any other. He told them it was due to the large quantity of sulphur be 'spread Along the rows. Well,, as the writer trios out .anything lie reads that- promises improvement, 1 .gave two rows of Melba .strawberry .plAnts a dose, equal to about 4cwt per acre. The result is amazing. I kept the runners off, and the young plants have developed into very large strong plants, with not a blemish from diseA.se. Score® of people have been to see them. Mr Hoodie, the instructor for the Canterbury Education Board, lias ween them ■several times, and lie tells one that a number of people are interested, Mr W. K. Dallas earn© out to see me before going back to Dunedin, arid his opinion was .that to ,see plants equal to these one .would have-to go to Florida, where the idea originated. I thinlo if your growers -were to give part of their strawberry teds ,a good dressing of sulphur a.nd a medium dressing of the other fertiliser,s they usually use, they will he well repaid for doing .so. Torn, etc., G’-eorge X*e-e. Templeton. Those who wish to experiment with sulphur should apply it at the rate of one and a half ounces per square yard, which is equivalent to about 4cwt per acre. The usual ' artificial fertilizers applied to strawberry plants in winter or early .spring are .superphosphate 11 ounces, bonedust or hone and blood loz, .sulphate of potash three-quarters of an ounce per square yard. Nitrate of soda, loz per square yard may he applied evenly .round the plants, half of it a little while before flowering, and the rest when the fruit i,s farming, or it may he applied dissolved in water. Earlier and larger fruit may thus be obtained. ROUTINE WORK.

Sow peas at intervals of about throe weeks to maintain a regular .supply. Sow when weather conditions are favourable broad beans, beet, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, cress, lettuoe, mustard, onion, i>arslay, parsnip, spinach, radish, turnip. (Onion, parsley and parsnip seeds are weak in germination, and should not be sown in wtet, co d soil). , Sow under glass Cape gooseberry, cucumber, melon and tomato .seeds, also seeds of .liAixly and half-hardy varieties of flowering plants. Plant -sprouted stets of .seed potatoes. Plant Jerusalem artichokes. Plant cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce plants. Transplant autmn-sown. onions. Small birds usually cause’ trouble At this times of the year by eating seeds pulling .up seedlings. To prevent this stretch a double row of black cotton two inches from the surface along the rows. Begonia tubers may b© stArted now by placing them slightly buriedl on the -surface -of light sandy soil -in pot® and boxes.