THE GARDEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 288, 2 November 1934, Page 15

THE GARDEN.

Notes are published under this heading, and readers interested in gardening are invited to send in questions relating to matters upon winch they wish expert advice; answers will be published with the weekly notes.

THE FLOWER GARDEN. Hie soil of the flower garden must be kept well worked at this time of the year to keep weeds down and also to keep a good earth mulch so that the soil does not dry out too quickly. If one can manage to do this when the plants are growing strongly it will make a lot of difference to them when it comes to flowering time. A wellgrown, healthy plant will give better and more lasting blooms than a poor, weakly specimen, and, what is more, good specimens will show up better in the garden than poor ones. We know by experience that working the soil has a better effect on the plants than using the hose too often. Once one begins hosing flowering plants one has to continue, and if one has to go away for a while at the holiday season the plants go back very quickly. All spare places in the borders should be filled in with annuals now. There are a lot of. plants suitable for this kind of thing and there are others which look much better when they are grown in beds by themselves. Antirrhinums are one of the favourite bedding flowers at the present time and they are splendid when they are grown by themselves in masses. One of the best beds we saw last autumn was made up with tall zinnias in the middle, grading down to dwarf ones on either side. The bed lasted in flower until the frosts came in the winter, and thousands of flowers were picked from it.

Lupins and delphiniums are good plants to set out together and when m bloom are wonderful to see. A good deal depends on the look of the garden by the w r ay the grass is kept. A well-kept lawn will help to set a garden off to an extent which nothing else can do and it should be mown regularly and the edges trimmed at the same time.

When gladiolus are grown in the herbaceous border they should be grown in good big clumps of six to a dozen corms of one kind planted together. They are easily staked when grown in this way and look much better than single specimens. Of course, for show purposes they are grown in beds by themselves and each spike is staked separately. A friend, when walking round the garden, was rather surprised to see lime dusted over and around some plants of gypsophila. He said he had been told to keep them away from lime. These plants are lovers of lime and it is hardly possible to give them too much. Dust it round them and work it in and they will grow and flower profusely all through the. season. Carnations can be treated in the same way. The latter like a little soot mixed in with the lime and the scrapings from old bricks are the. best if they can he got in any quantity. QUESTION.

“A Gardener” says: “Last season I saw for tlie first time a rather remarkable plant called ‘Sturts .Desert Pea 1 (Clianthus Dampieri) and would like to know liow to grow it. I am told it is very impatient of being moved. Do you think it would grow here? The soil is a sandy loam and fairly rich.” You are quite right. This plant does not like to be moved and when you want to grow it you must choose a

good sunny position that is ''veil drained, and work in plenty of humus in the shape of old manure and Jeaf mould. Fresh seeds are essential to success, and these should be put in hot water for a couple of days. You will find that the fertile seeds will have swollen to at least twice their original size. The infertile seeds do not swell and are not worth sowing. When the seeds are sown, which they should be when swollen, place them about a foot apart in the prepared soil and about half an inch below the soil. Then place some boards round them and cover over the top with glass. As soon as tho young plants come up, remove the glass and keep the soil cultivated until the plants cover it. They do not require watering as long as tho soil has been properly prepared beforehand. Seeds planted now will bloom about the end of February. A few plants of this always attract attention and you will find, if you carry out the above plan, that you will get them to grow quite well.

ROSES. “A Reader” writes in to say tliat his roses ar© well forward and wants to know if there is any way in which he can keep them back. So far this season the weather has treated, the rose grower very kindly and in many cases the buds are swelling fast. In one garden we saw quite a lot of good varieties in full bloom. There is no way in which roses can be kept back except, perhaps, lor a day or two by Hooding the ground with water. On© of the hardest things a rose grower has to do is to time his blooms for shows. This can be done up to a certain time, but even then there are factors which count and which cannot always be taken into account. For instance, a good warm rain, followed by hot sunshine, will bring blooms out in a week when, if the weather had been cold and dry, they would not have come out for some time yet. Those who are growing for showing will have a lot of work this month if they mean to ibring their flowers to perfection. The plants have to he disbudded and watered with liquid manure two or three times a week. These are the little things that count when the extra little bit of size or colour has to be got. Then there is the work of shading which is one of the most difficult. Some colours, particularly reds, do not like shade in any form, but creams and yellows are generally improved by it. Then there is the question of keeping the heavy rains from spoiling the flowers and the blooms -have to be covered whether they are red or cream, but they should only he covered in such a way that the air can get to them, but no extra moisture. Watch for green fly on the plants and clean them up directly you see them, either by spraying or by the finger and thumb method. When cutting flowers, cut them with enough stalk to make it a kind of pruning; cut so that a good strong bud is left at the top of the shoot.

DISEASED PLUMS. Some branches of a plum have been sent in with a request to know what the disease is. The plums are badly infected with a disease known as bladder plum or pocket plum. The plum is attacked by a fungus. The fruits begin to appear swollen very soon after the flower falls and often reach a length of two inches and about one in width. At first they are yellowish in colour, but afterward grey and mealy looking, with the surface somewhat wrinkled, then they turn black and drop from the trees. If the fruits are examined no stones will bo found inside as tho fungus prevents seed lormation, and there is nothing but a hollow bladder. This fungus is a parasite and when the mycelium enters the tissues of the branches it lives there permanently unless the branches are cut away. Mr Masie in his report on this fungus has found that it never grows backwards from the point of attack but forward into thq young shoots to attack the flowers in the following spring. If this disease is left alone it will gradually work all over tho tree which will prevent it producing any more fruit. As soon as an attack is noticed, the branches with the bladders on them should bo cut back beyond the point of infection, and the primings luirnt immediately. Tho best thing to do with a badly infected tree is to dig it out and burn it; but in the case of a mild infection cut the branches and spray with Bordeaux summer formula or lime sulphur. Spraying is only to keep the trees healthy; it will not cure the disease.

Those who have plum trees growing in tlieir gardens would be well advised to look them over and see that they are perfectly free from this trouble. When once it starts it will soon extend to others of the plum family. The Japanese plums seem to he rather prone to this disease and need careful watching. EVERLASTING FLOWERS. The everlasting flowers are plants that are sadly neglected in our gardens, and as seed of them can be sown at any time during the next week or two a' little reminder about them may not come amiss. Acrocliniums with beautiful rose-pink flowers are scarce. Rhodanthe maculata, bright rose with a dark centre and the white typo are good and if room cannot be found for thorn in the garden a reserve bed could ho made up in the vegetable garden. Xeranthemums are very ellectivo when grown in bold groups. There are several different colours in this family, hut all are equally useful when wanted for house decoration. The most useful plant we know of is the Statin Sinuata in its several colours. When the flowers are cut early in the season the plants will return to the attack and give more blooms until frosts come along and check them. The perennial forms of statin are also good and the flowers will dry in the same way as the annual types. When growing these plants one must not forget the sea-holhes. They are perennials and will grow quite well fiom seed sown in the open ground. Once they are established they do not like too ‘much interference at. their roots. They will work in well with any flower that has a certain amount of blue in its make-up. CLUB ROOT. A correspondent lias written asking for ways of curing club root on cabbages and members of that class of plant. When once a cabbage plant has got club root there is no cure as far as we know. The only way to keep it down is to attack it before it gets a hold on the plants. Infected ground is a frequent source of trouble and the infection can be carried from one part of the farm to another on the feet of sheep or cattle. Even gardeners’ own boots may be a source of infection. When sowing the seed use a perfectly fresh piece of land, and use plenty of lime in working the soil down for sowing. If you have reason to suspect club root in the soil use a solution of corrosive-sublimate, one part to 2000 of water, and water this in along the rows when planting. The same treatment can be given to the young plants when setting them out

in til© garden. This stuff is a deadly poison and on© must bo very careful with it. Unco the plants have got club root there is nothing that will do them any good. When club root gets into a garden the only thing to do is to give tlie soil a spell for at least two years and to clean it up by using nothing but the best lime burnt and slackened for preference, and to work this into the soil where this has been found. “ THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Sow seeds of winter cabbages and savoys now for transplanting out in December. It is quite possible that you may not think this worth while, but it is possible to overcome the attacks of the diamond-backed moth and the white butterfly by spraying with arsenate of lead which can be continued until they begin to heart up, when it must be stopped and a nonpoisonous spray used instead. Riant out tomatoes this month. They do not want much in the way of manure to make them grow, and what manure is given to them can he artificial when they begin to fruit. Superphosphate and sulphate of potash will give tli© plants all they want at that time.

Pumpkins, marrows, cucumbers ami pie melons can be planted out now. Given a well worked soil with some manure worked into it they should do quite well. Gherkins are useful to grow for pickles. These are treated in exactly the same way as cucumbers, but are picked for pickling before they get too big. Runner beans can be sown at any time now. They like a rich, deeply worked soil where they can be given some water if the weather gets too dry in the autumn. Some gardeners make another sowing at the end of the year so that the plants do not have a chance of bearing too early, but will keep going when the weather gets cooler. Old roots that are m the ground from last year should he cleaned up and allowed to grow. They will give a good crop and come into bearing before seeds sown now. Continue to sow peas and French beans for . succession. The main crop of carrots and parsnips can he sown now if they have not already been put in. If the short carrots are sown fairly thinly they need not he thinned out because when they begin to grow they push one another sideways in the soil' and do not become twisted and bent. Keep up the supply of lettuces by sowing regularly every fortnight Silver beet can he sown now and will be found useful in the winter when greens are scarce.