THE GARDEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 806, 8 September 1923, Page 9

THE GARDEN.

<h Notes are published, weekly under. thi» heodine, and readers interested in gardening are invited to send in questions relating io matters upon which they wish expert adrico; answers win be publiahed with the weakly notes.

DAFFODILS IN ENGLAND.

(Mr Guy L. Wilson's Letter.)

Mr G. L. Wilson, one of the most noted growers in the British Isles, writes as follows to his daffodil growing friends in New Zealand: This season, 1923, has been a very poor one, and most disappointing in the- matter of weather. March was a very beautiful month, and early daffodils came hi very quickly, and there was every prospect of a very early season, but m April the-weather became very stormy and cold, and flowers got much abused and damaged as soon as they opened, and the necessary warmth and humidity to develop the blooms to their fullest size was never experienced this season. The month of May was even worse than April, being quite the coldest May that I can ever remember. Gales of bitterly cold north wind blew almost throughout the entire month, and for ten days heavy squalls of hail, snow and sleet accompanied the wind. So that late flowers suffered more even than the early ones. Good-flowers were seen at the early ty.H.S. shows from Southern growers, and a very big display of fine blooms at the London show early in April. I reserved myself for the Midland show, and so did not see any of the London shows. Some growers were unable to show at Birmingham as their flowers had been,, ruined by bad weather by that time. Brodie, of Brodie, whose garden is in the north of Scotland, is later than anyone else, and tells me that it has been the worst season in his experience. Dealing with flowers as they opened here, I dare say that most people would think trjat»the most striking thing that I had was Fortune, which opened on March 15th, only two or three days later than Golden Spur, and was at its best before the bad weather began. I had five magnificent blooms from twoyear planted bulbs, and I believe that they were exceptionally well grown; at all events I was simply amazed at its almost incredible splendour every time I looked at it. The largest flower was over four and three-eighth inches across and twenty-seven inches tall. The perianths were of superb form, much overlapping, and perfectly flat, standing at right angles to the great bold crown, and the flowers have great substance and are very lasting, while the colour is simply glorious. I shaded the blooms to preserve the colours as long as possible. I measured a stem carrying a seed pod the other day, and found it three feet in height. It is an absolutely unique plant, and, amongst all the very high coloured ones I have seen this year and last year at shojys and Mrs Backhouse's garden, I have seen nothing like it or to approach it in quality. It is true that the red in many of the Backhouse flowers is much more intense and nearly approaching scarlet, but none of them have anything like such a fine perianth as Fortune either in form or colour. The actual colour of the crown. of Fortune is a wonderful clear- growing redorange that suggests glowing embers in a fire, but is scarcely possible to describe. Mr J. S. Arkwright, who. does not yet possess Fortune, declared with emphasis that he would rather have a bulb of it than all the reds in Backhouse's garden. I must not give the impression that. I am disparaging them, as some of them are astonishing flowers—"staggerers" I have heard them called. Amongst the early flowers here Maximus was exceptionally fine: in fact I have never seen it so good, and a patch of it_ was a most lovely sight. The _ exquisite grace and glorious colour of its flowers and bluejrcen foliage, when it does well, compel me to admit that there are few more lovely flowers. Perhaps the most interesting event to me was .when I (lowered Beersheba for the first time. Even though the weather gave it most cruel treatment, including three or four days' cold stormy rain from the east, heavily charged with soot from collieries across the Channel, which left all my flowers simply filthy, it confirmed all my previous high opinion of its virtues. First of all I was delighted with the vigour of its growth'; then I found that it is really a quite early flower and extraordinarily, lasting, due no doubt to its fine substance, inherited from its parent, White Knight. Then it has great size. I measured its blooms, and found that they were five inches across. It has'beautiful quality and texture and is very white, and I feel that my description would fail to do justice to its stately beauty or form. The great perianth is very clean cut, and stands perfectly flat and at right angles to the slender graceful trumpet right fern the time the flower opens until it is dead'; the flower is well displayed on its tall stein and does not droop like a good many of the whites. I can only say that it is the flower of my dreams, and gives me even more pleasure than Fortune, but the white trumpets are my especial weakness. Tenedos also was wonderfully fine in spite, of the bad weather, and I was able to take twelve of its great blooms (after washing them) to Birmingham, .where it caused quite a sensation, staged in the centre of my non-competitive -roup. I put the flowers up for an award, and. they gained a unanimous award of merit* I also got an awalxl for a lemon yellow trumpet seedling, Honey Boy, which I was able to show in fair condition. In seedlings flowering for the first time I do not seem to have anything very special this year, but of course the weather has been against these; no doubt- some.would have come much finer in' bettor conditions. One of the best was a beautiful white trumpet, which opened in March and was bred from Whito Emperor. White Dame in form, it came nearer to White Dame. . (To bo continued.) ANEMONES. "Anemones" says: "I have a trouble in my garden upon which I should be glad of assistance from you. I recently noticed that some anemones nnd Ranunculus, which had been apparently perfectly healthy and were growing well, began to droop and the leaves became brown and the whole plant .sickly. Upon investigating I discovered a number of small black pests (I. think that they were wire worms) about the roots of the plants, and these I fancy are the causo of the disease. Instead of a lot of healthy plants I now have a very miserable looking lot of sickly ones, with little prospect of any good flowers. I cannot discover any way of killing the pests, and should bo - glad if you would give some advice as to the best method to adopt to improve things. The soil is a heavy loam, with clay near the surface, but has been well worked and partially drained."---We do not think that the insect pests to which you refer are the causo of the trouble, bul are the outcome of it. They are attracted by the decaying tissues of the tubers. The whole trouble is duo to a fungoid

disease known as aiiemoiie rust, and is much more, common in a wet season than in a dry one. It will depend upon how far:.the disease.has gone, but' it may be possible to do some good by spraying the- plants with Bordeaux, using the' formula! Anemone rust attacks. .the leaves. and then spreads down to the tubers, and if it is not' cheeked it will evontuaily destroy them. Another remedy which is said to be good is one teaspoonful of permanganate' of potash dissolved in two gallons of water and sprayed on to" the plants. "We have never tried this remedy, but have seen at used on plants that were not very badly affected witli good*results. It is more than probable that the, tubers will not he any good for another soijon, and we would advise that' they be, dug up as soon as they have flowered and burnt. They are' cheap enough, ,and it does not cost much to get another supply. Do not try and grow the tubers' in the same ground again-for some years, or the Ksime trouble will como again. ' Of course it is quite possible to sterilise the ground by burning it or treating it with commercial formaldehyde, but it would be better tb use a fresh piece of ground and to grow some other crop in the infected area. Some years ago this blight was very had in England, and it caused many people to give up growing anemones on that account, but from some accounts to hand lately there has been quite a revival in favour of this flower. QUESTIONS. "Rockery" says: <! I have a load of round boulders,-and wish to make a rockery with them. Please tell me how to set about it, and also what to grow (not annuals) on it. The one thing that is most essential to rock plants is to see that they have perfect drainage, the rocks of boulders are only a secondary consideration. Most of tlie socalled rock plants do not suffer from cold, but they cannot stand wet feet. The first Jthing to do is to choose a' site for the rock plants that is quite away fronmthe shade and drip of trees. Then set about draining it if the soil is at all inclined to be clayey. Generally speaking rock gardens are raised above the level of the surrounding soil or they are made in a bank so that there is a good deal of difference between the upper and the lower. In your case we shall have to suppose that it is intended to build the rockery on a flat surface, in which case we would recommend taking out about fifteen inches of the clay and-filling the hole up with broken bricks, gravel or stones, and then on top of this putting the earth so that it rises above the surrounding ground. The soil that is used may be made up of anything that is light and fairly porous. Round river bed stones are not the best thing to use for the purpose, but as it is difficult to get the right sort of rock itsyivill do. The bottom edge being raised above the surrounding soil will require an edging of boulders to keep it in position. Back about a foot or so from this put in some more boulders and fill in again behind them with more earth, but do not make the thing regular and formal. Try and adopt nature as much as possible and imagine that the boulders have slipped there without having been artificially placed. Rack plants are the midgets of the plant world, apd some of them delight in a nice cosy nook, and others spread and like a' large area to cover and therefore it is necessary to have all theso places to put the different varieties of plants into. Suitable plants for such work are easy enough to get and must be perennial in character. Campanula Miss Wilmott is a charming djyfcijl' variety which grows about five niches high. Tunica saxifraga is.very pretty; there are several kinds of which are all good;" gipntiana acftulis is one of the prettiest plants imaginable, but it does not succeed everywhere. Rock roses are indispensable and can, be got in a variety of .colours. Lithospernum prostratum is one of the finest blue plants that we know. .If there is a large boulde.r for Ipomea Muritanicn to fall over it is. worth having.. We have seen this plant raised up on a hollow punga and 'doing well. There are so many good plants that it. is impossible to namo many. - ; "Beginner" says, you kindly inform me what plants or shrubs.object to lime? Also I would; like to know about rhododendrons. "It have several and they are not doing well, being more or less at a standstill, while one bush is covered with mildew. The soil is clayey. I have a climbing rose badly infected with mildew; could yoii tell me of a good simple cure?—"There are a number of plants and shrubs that do not like lime in any shape or form. Rhododendrons of any kind, azaleas any kind; the whole of the erica family with one exception perhaps, and that is the ling. All the heaths are more or less bog plants and you may take it as typical of any plant that likes peat bogs that is will not stand lime. Some of the vacciniums are bog plants while there are one or two of them that are known to grow on lime cliffs. The common gorse is not a lime lover but it will grow in soil that has been limed to a certain extent. It is hrfrd>to»say what is wrong with the rhododendrons but it is more than probable that the soil they are growing-in has not been worked to a depth suitable, for them. The hybrid varieties of these plants like a good soil such as cocksfoot grass grows well in. It would be advisable to lift the plants and to trench the ground well and see that it is properly drained; then add some 1 well rotted cow manure to it, or if tins cannot be got use the top two. or three inches of a turf paddock to put them into. Rhododendrons like a moist soil but they will not flourish in a wet cold cloggy one with no drainage, It is doubtful if the disease on your plant is mildew. Try spraying it with red oil emulsion at the rate of one 'of the oil to twenty parts of water and use this preparation two or three times at intervals of about three weeks. The climbing rose may be sprayed with permangiito of potash at the rate of two gallons' of water to one teaspoonful. of the potash. This may want applying two or three times but even then it is not a cure and the mildew is liable to appear at any time. Lime sulphur solution is another good spray .for mildew on roses lint not on rhododendrons. Use it at the rate of one part of tho solution to fifty parts of water.