THE GARDEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1712, 31 December 1919, Page 7

THE GARDEN.

(Specially written for “Standard.”) Notes are published weekly under this heading, and readers interested in gardening are invited to send in questions relating to matters upon which they wish expert advice; answers will be published with the weekly notes.

DAFFODILS. “C.S.” says: “1 have been growing daffodils in a sort of way lur years, but i f am determined to try and do something better m the near future. I have plenty ol ground that I can use, as I have a large vegetable garden, which grows far more than we can use. 1 nave planned to put in two - beds ol roses eighteen feet by six, with six feet grass path all round them, and there is [ another piece the same size I can use , for daffodils. The ones 1 wish to grow i are the trumpet varieties. 1 have I eighteen varieties (list enclosed), and • ..roughly six bulbs ol each, or about one 1 hundred bulbs altogether. How many [ should 1 plant in a bed eighteen feet by six? and what distance apart? Kindly , give me a list of free flowering variei tics suitable for showing or garden and i house decoration, and also does the I ground require any special attention in i the way ol manuring or digging. The ( j.subsoil is heavy clay, but 1 have draini ed it well, amf water does not stand in I I it for very long.”—The soil should be • trenched by taking off the surface loam 1 ; and breaking up the clay below in the } same way as advised for roses. Mix some well rotted farm yard manure with C it. and also a pound of buncmcal to the S square yard, and replace the top soil on !i top, hut do not put any manure with it. • A bed the size you mention will hold 1 about two hundred bulbs six inches apart in the rows, and the rows twelve , inches apart. Your list does not coni lain such good bloomers as Weardale > Perfection, Lord Roberts, Mrs H. J. • Witch, Glory of Soiden. Mona or Van 1 Wavercns Giant. Horsfieldii is a poor ! doer, and is not worth growing; Henry i living is another you could throw out, i and also Ceriums Fulcher, replacing i Hieni with much better stub. Your i whites are good, hut you could add 1 Peter Barr to them,mid there arc other • higher priced ones you can find by referring to any bulb grower’s catalogue. i By the way, you arc missing a great I deal of pleasure in growing only one i section. The incomparabilis section con--1 tains many very fine varieties that are--1 reasonable in price, free blooming, and well worth growing in every way, and I the same can he said of the others.

j QUESTION. 1 “Huso” says: “I was told by a nurseryman that I was showing the rose 1 bought as Miss Stewart Clarke under a wrong name, and should like to know il you can toll mo the colour it should ho. My rose is a beautiful golden yellow, but he said that to be Miss S. Clarke il should he pink; also 1 should be much obliged if you would Jet me know il there is any way in which the colour ot roses can he improved, that is to say. is there any manure that deepens tin colour.'”—We think your nurseryman triend-must have been thinking of some other rose. The following is an extract from the X.H.S. Hose Animal for lOltC Miss Stewart Clarke, a fairly vigorom rose with dark green foliage. The blooms of medium size and globular, are carried singly on stout stems—sweetly scented. The colour is pure golden yellow, which does not fade, reminding one very much of the French rose, “Constance.” The latter seems conclusive enough, as it certainly does resemble this rose. Soot water given as a liquid manure twice a week or one teaspoonful of sulphate of iron per plant will heighten the colour. HOSES. “An Old llosegrower” says: ‘T have read your notes on roses and the garden generally for some years, and have always found them useful and instructive, bin what can one do against such a season as the present one; when it has i not been blowing, it lias either been a frost, or hot and dry, no proper rainfall, only a miserable drizzle now and again. 1 am not in a position to say what the rainfall since August has really been, but I am going to say, from my own observations, that it has not been half as much as last year for the same period. Taking the season so far it has been a disastrous one, and fewer well formed and coloured flowers have been exhibited this year than 1 have ever known. I went to three shows nnself, and was very much disappointed with the quality of the blooms. Half of ihem would never have been looked at in an ordinary season, and the other half were wind battered and soiled. In my own case 1 do not think I have bad more than two blooms 1 should feel at all disposed to pul on a show board.

ami about this time oi tbo year it has generally boon my ouslom to go through my books and tot up tho jkm-

loot roses I have grown. Last season tho total was seventy-nine, and this year two. What a contrast, but it speaks for the. season. Even with plenty and adequate shelter the plants have been knocked about. I bad the luck to be in Oamaru the day the rose show was held, and there I saw some splendid flowers, much bettor than anything I have had the pleasure of growing or seeing up here. The champion. H.T., was a very fine Mrs David McKee, though to my mind it hardly came up to a Florence Forrester on the same board. Mrs Foley Hobbs was tbo champion Tea, and it was a grand bloom. Both these flowers, when well grown, are bettor than Frau Karl Drusdiki, and I am sure that when Lady Bowatcr is better known a great many blooms from her will be shown. A rose friend in England says that there arc two new white varieties that will take a lot of beating; be does not mention the names, but tods me to watch the. new lists and got in early.

WATERING. I ho question of watering is one that oops up every season, and yet bow little is known about it. Some gardeners think that if they get the watering can and go round and sprinkle their plants that they have done enough. \es, they may have done enough to ruin their plants, hut they have in reality done them more harm than good. 11 their garden is situated on a bed of clay it would be better if they were to sink a low pipes on end into the soil and pour all the water they can spare into them; it is the roots that are well down below the surface that want the water and not those on top. In fact if this plan is adopted you will find that you Jiavo very few surtace roots in comparison to those that arc deep down. There is another thing that should always bo considered, and that is the working of the upper surface. Keep the surface soil well watered, and you will require to keep the hoe going every day, I hut put the water well down, and tho surface will keep nice and loose for some

time. Of course a certain amount of Water will come up to the surface in spite*, of anything yon can do, but it will not be a very large, quantity, and hoeing tho surface will stop evaporation, being too rapid. Now. again, there is another question; a man has unlimited water, and can water his garden ad lib. In this case if would be far better to thoroughly soak one part than to give tho whole garden a sprinkling. • After one part has been watered move on to tho next, and when the surface of tho first piece watered is dry enough move on to tho next, and so on. Last season was a very dry one, as you will remember, and we wore shown a very fine bed of dahlias being grown by having rows

of pipes put in the ground four feet apart, and a row of plants between each row of pipes. The whole of the pipes were In id on the level, and water was poured in at one corner until the whole lot were filled. The consequence was that not a drop was wasted, and the plants had all the moisture they required at a certain time. Liquid manure could be given in the same way, and the surface could be kept in perfect cultivation at the same time. VEGETABLES.

Asparagus beds are very olton treated unfairly after the last cutting has been made. The seed stalks are allowed to grow and become choked with weeds, but it you want to have a_ really good bed of heads next season give the plants a good clean up now, and^ cover tiie surface with three or four inches or manure. You may then give it, a good watering if you have the water to spaie, but it is not necessary, being covered with manure in the shape of a sort ace mulch all the rain that falls will soak in, and the wind and sun \ynl little hack except through the plants themselves. It has been said that if this mulch is left on the ground all the winter that the soil becomes sour and sodden, and keeps cold too long, but on tli** other hand von will find that it it is forked in early that the bed will not come away anv quicker than if the finking over 'is loft until the early spring. This constant manuring is a frequent source of weeds, but without it you cannot expect a crop of heads that aio worth cutting. When the tops arc leginning to turn yellow cut them down and burn them, or you will get a crop of young asparagus plants. Now is a good time to plant out leeks and celery for main crops. The latter must ic grown in trenches if it is to be any good, hut leeks can be dibbled into the ground, :ps mentioned in former notes. The main thing is to give them plenty of water until they are rooted, when they can ho left to take care of themselves to a certain extent. Broccoli, autumn cauliflowers and cabbages should be got in at once. It is not much good growing these unless it is intended to sniav them regularly, hut il this is done thov will easily repay one for the labour expended upon them. Both broccoli and cauliflowers do best when planted m new soil from which a crop has not been taken for some years or which has boon in grass. Peas may be sown right up to the end of January with a lan "banco of getting a good crop, hut it is important that when they are. put in the drill that ihe drill should he llior■Highly wnieml hoforc it* is in. By doing this your sisal will come up at mee, and will make good growth.