GARDENING NOTES

Northern Advocate, 2 July 1927, Page 9

GARDENING NOTES

■ ‘ (BY "TAINUI."

LARGE FLOWERING SHRUBS AND . SMALL TREES. y ” (Continued.) The cassias number about a, dozen species, and all of the best known have bright yellow flowers. C. floribunda, or C. eorymibosa is the most common. It is widely grown in iWhangarei where it is conspicuous just now with its clusters of yellow flowers. It is a serviceable shrub, but it does rather too well here. C. artemisoides is .a bushy shrub, greyish all over, and bearing sulphur-yellow blooms: an Australian native. The cassias delight in a sunny situation. The Erythriuas have already been referred to this year. They are chosen for their large and showy , brilliantrod butterfly blooms. The magnolias are woody plants grown chiefly for their showy white, pink or purple flowers, and also for their handsome foliage. The flowers are often fragrant, as, for example, in magnolia fuscata. This is a shrubby plant carrying brownish yellow flowers edged with light carmine, and exhaling a strong banana fragrance: a much esteemed shrub. This, with M. stellata, M, purpurea and M. eoiispicua, previously mentioned, are the most favoured. There are over twenty species. The Tamarisks are distinctive looking shrubs with conifer-like foliage and bearing light sprays of highly decorative white or pink plumes. They stand exposure and will do well in almost any well drained soil. The genus, prunus is one of the most interesting of all genera. It not only includes important orchard fruits, such as peaches, plums, qjierries, apricots and almonds, but it is also a prolific source of ornamental subjects, as dolnble-flowered, variegated leaved, coloured leaved, and weeping forms. The Japanese flowering cherries are conspicuously beautiful and attractive, and deserve to be more generally grown. The waratah Telopea speciosissima, is a distinctive plant with remarkably showy blooms of crimson. It is a tricky subject to grow, but it has shown that it does well here when once established.

Other exotic plants that have been previously mentioned are stereulia, for its conspicuous red blooms; camellias, for their showy white or red flowers; grevillea robusta, for its orange sprays of bloom and its fern-like foliage; Benthamia, arbutus, aemona and cngenia mainly for their fruit; and the photinias, viburnums, and liriodendron, the tulip tree, for their blooms. The cornuses are recommended for their attractive flowers and fruits; but with the possible exception of benthamia, which is a eornus, these plants have not yet been properly tried out in our district.

There are many native flowering shrubs and trees that must command our favour, and I shall mention a number of these next week. (ROSE PRUNING. Rose pruning is not the complicated operation that most people imagine it to be. The general principles are the same for all roses, and the special treatment necessary for some roses can be learned only by experience and observation. Roses that arc in a sheltered position away from cold winds are generally the best for early bloom, and are therefore generally pruned first. In pruning roses, it must be borne in mind that the flowers are produced on the young shoots that spring from the buds of thb previous season’s growth. One of our main objects, then, should be to encourage the development of this new wood. It is necessary to cut back the shoots in

OPERATIONS FOR JULY ] I THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. | j Plant out early sown onions. | I Prepare new asparagus beds. | I Plant , cabbage* quick-maturing cauliflower and lettuce; also | I shallots, potato onions and tree onions. | j Sow early peas, broad beans, lettuce, and cabbage. j I Put out a few early potatoes. | j Plant out rhubarb. I • aMaa * s 1 j I THE FLOWER GARDEN. | ! Continue to prune roses; also deciduous shrubs and trees. I | Lift chrysanthemums, and plant in poor, well-drained soil. j | Put in hard-wooded cuttings of shrubs and climbers. j | Dust carnations with lime. ‘ I I Divide Japanese irises and peonies. I | The following seedlings may be planted out how: Pansy, viola, I I stock, nemesia, Iceland poppy, lobelia, scabiosa, calliopsis, \ I cineraria. I I Roses, deciduous, and hardy evergreen shrubs may be planted. | I Less hardy plants should not be planted until spring. | I Tender plants purchased from a nursery should be hardened off j ! before planting. 'Put in a box for a few weeks, and keep i j in a sheltered position. Another plan is to put a little tea- \ j tree about each plant, as a protection against frost and j j wind, j \ ..Newly-planted roses and shrubs should be carefully staked so | | as to steady the roots until the plants have become properly J i established. I | In situations liable to frosts, tecoma hedges should not be j f planted until spring. | f Many of the newer varieties of roses wear themselves out in \ j .time; they vail not keep on and develop large bushes like j | some of the older varieties. When they keep dying back j \ and become very blighted, they are best pulled out and slips \ I or cuttings taken from them; or new plants may be purchased. \ I Rose? that die back are said to be better if the cut edges are | \ well rubbed with charcoal after pruning.- |

order to throw greater strength into the remaining buds, so that we may have good strong flowering shoots. It l is a common-sense practice, then, when dealing with a weak grower, to prune back to four or flve buds, whereas a really strong grower may have perhaps sixteen buds left. Newly planted young plants should be cut well back the first season, the object being to produce a strong and well shaped bush. From four to seven buds should be left, the topmost bud pointing in an outward direction.

For the older bushes, more work will be necessary. In regard to these established plants, the following points should be carefully noted: — (1) Remove all dead w - 6od, for this is of no use to the bush, and is always a possible source of fungoid disease. (2) Out away as much of the old wood as possible. It will be necessary to remove some of this right down to the base of the plant in order to make room for new shoots that may arise from this point.

(•?) Remove thin twiggy shoots that’ look too weak to bear the weight of the blooms.

(4) Remove all ingrowing shoots as well as those that cross one another.

(5) Having now the desired number of shoots, it is only necessary to cut these back to the desired number of eyes.' This operation, as stated above, depends on the strength of the plant.

All cuts should be made near a bud, clean cut and in a slanting ■direction, font the angle should not be tooacute. . The topmost bud should point outward.

Climbing roses are pruned lightly. Dead and useless wood should be removed. The vigorous shoots should be cut back generally to about a quarter of their length. The lateral shoots may be cut back to two eyes. All shoots should be firmly tied in position. This may be done now if it has not already been done. DON ’TB IN PRUNING. Don’t use blunt tools; they would leave a ragged edge that would invite decay. Don’t cut too far above a bud; the length of extra wood would simply decay.

Don’t cut too near a bud or the bud will die.

Don’t cut straight across or too slanting. Gut just above the bud with a slight slant inwards. Don’t bo in too groat a hurry to get the job finished: be deliberate, and concentrate on the work.

Don’t prune tea roses as hard as perpetual or hybrid teas. Don’t forget to collect all blighted leaves and diseased wood, and bum. Don't leave your pruning too late; now is a good time to prune. ,

July is generally a cold month, when there is little noticeable growth, anti when possible cold rains may make it hard for the loss resistant varieties of plants. Nevertheless, we must keep busy during this month, and we must take risks, more particularly with planting than with sowing optrations, for germination is slow r and uncertain in a cold soil. The early potato crop may be put in, and early onions may be planted out; and in excepionally favourable positions a tew tomato plants may lie put in. ( These early plantings are well worth the risk, and we aie always pleased to get our ripened erops as early as possible. Shelter, sunshine and good drainage are the three physical essentia in present plantings for no self-respecting plant will tolerate a cold sodden condition in the soil. It is wise to keep the soil lightly stirred whenever the ground is in a fit state to work.