In the Garden

Hutt News, Volume 6, Issue 16, 14 September 1938, Page 2

In the Garden

PERENNIALS WITH ATTRACTIVE > WHITE FLOWERS

Plants with white flowers are not unusually populaT, but there are some that are. so attractive that they are welcome in most gardens. One is the charming little shrub, Adenandra uniflora, that is such a treasure for this time of year. It is a dainty shrub growing to a height of three or four feet, and kept bushy by an annual and necessary clip over with the shears. The flowers are like large .manuka'flowers, white faintly tinged with pink, and they are fragrant. In well-drained soils in sunny places, adenandra flowers all •through the winter months. It is a good little plant for the garden, the rockery, or a sunny sloping bank. Plants may still be put in. Dig the soil well for them, for 'they appreciate good drainage and give them good soil for a start. Adenandra flowers practically all the year round.

Another charming small shrub with white flowers is ETiostemon nerifolius. It begins flowering toward the end of winter, and goes on over a good period. The flowers are star shaped, very dainty, and fragrant. The foliage, too is fragrant, and one has only to crush a few leaves in passing to draw forth a glorious whiff. Eriostemon likes well-drained soil and a sunny * position awa from cold winds. Bushes should be clipped back at the end of the flowering season.

Then -there are the perennial gypsophilas, and people are so keen about the flowers, for the garden or for cut flowers, that they forgive them being white. Even one well-grown plant makes a wonderful show; a row of them is delightful, and v'eTy suitable for edging a drive or a shrubbery.

Gypsophilas like light,, rich soil, and a warm sunny position, and they like lime. "When they are being planted, they may be started off in sand soil containing a fair proportion of humus. Early every winter the plants should have a dressing of lime pricked in round them; early in summer they like a light mulch of decayed manure ot garden rubbish. Good waterings in dry weather are necessary.

•Gypsophila Paniculata is the old single variety that we have grown ever since we can remember. We now have a very much improved one with double flowers that are well spaced on branching spikes. This is Bristol Fairy. The old gypsophila flowers early in December, but Bristol Fairy seems, to flower for most of the year. Fragrant Brownies The old brown boronia, megastigma, is one of the most sweetly-scented plants that we grow. It likes welldrained soil, -rich in humus,, and not too dry a situation. One often scps it growing on the north side of a house, where it. gets practically no rain, and yet it is a moisture-loving plant. This docs not mean that it likes ground that holds water. It likes well-dTained soil, but it must be given good waterings when it is grown where rain cannot reach it. After a bush has finished flowering, the tips of all shoots should be nipped off, with your fingers, flowers, and B. Pinnata, with rose flowers, is slightly scented. Keep lime away from plants. Boronia lutea has strongly-scented greenishyellow flowers. Plants may Jse bought yellow scented. Plants may be bought now, in flower, and put in. Give them a good hole full of rich light soil ao start them off, and don't, forget good waterings from December until March, the time when we are apt to forget our boronia plants. Delphinium Shoots Slugs are on the warpath already, despite bad weather conditions, and the tender young shoots of our delphiniums arc eagerly devoured by them. One way of protecting the shopts is to scoop the soil away from the crowns until a regular basin-shaped hole is formed, and to fill it with sharp cinders. But even so, it is wise to make the shocrts unpleasant to the taste. They may be sprayed regularly with very weak arsenate of lead solution, or with nicotine wash.