LANDSCAPE CHANGED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 306, 24 November 1945, Page 4

LANDSCAPE CHANGED

MASSEY COLLEGE STUDENTS PLANTING IN MANAWATU The spacious grounds surrounding the main building at Massey -Agricultural College have this spring been a source of delight and inspiration to scores of visitors .from many parte of New Zealand and overseas. The .25 acres set aside for horticultural activities other than fruit and vegetable growing have provided not only a blaze colour and an object-lesson in. land-sc-ape treatment but also a basis for the P practical training of’ young men and women in many branches of horticulture. These students, who have themselves done all the propagating and planting work, are becoming scattered 15 throughout New Zealand, there to carry practical knowledge into their life’s work in public parks and gardens, nurseries, anu home gardens. The students, working in relays so that they should become accustomed to tending all types of plants, were between lectures and . demonstrations busy recently in bedding out many thousands ot plants which comprised the glorious spring display of narcissi, tulips, wallflowers, primroses/anemones and cinerarias. „ Several thousands of tulips made a brave showing even following, the heavy rainstorms and winds of late October. Polyanthus raised from seed in the college glasshouses included several outstanding British ■ strains, with one Kentish strain which has proved magnificent in form, vigour and range of colouring. One bed ol 1100 polyanthus* still gave, in its fading glory the impression of a massive carpet which only Dame, Nature could have weaved. RICH IN SCOPE.. The college arboretum provides a variety of soil types, ranging from easy-draining, friable loam along the terrace from which the main building looks out on to a magnificent panorama of countryside for many miles to the northward, to heavy soil textures near where the Tiritea Stream separates a bush-clad hillside from the flat below the terrace. The configuration gives scope for sweeping landscape planning, from formal beds to rock gardens on the steeper slopes, and ferns and rhododendron dells along the bushy banks of the stream. Each aspect ot the landscape is being exploited to the full. , - Plans are being made for an extensive rhododendron dell, the nucleus of which has been flowering well tins season, rio doubt due to the moist arid humid conditions of the spring. The already extensive collection has been increased by many species, some of them rare to New Zealand, from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. An equally wide range in roses has been planted in an area set aside for experiments in rose culture, with special reference to disease control. Several thousand rose stocks have been raised for budding work by students, who have been engaged also in the growing of shelter-belt plants for college use, and the raising of a large number of fruit stocks and decorative shrubs. : This comprehensive student effort in developing what will become more and more one of the main pleasure grounds of the New Zealand garden-lover has aroused interest in many parts of the Dominion, as one practical result of which the college has been presented with a large collection of herbaceous plants which will be valuable addition? for future borders, a score of different species of primula, and numerous rod plants which- will help to grace thf steep wall of the drive winding to the top of the terrace.