Enjoy Your GARDEN

Northern Advocate, 17 December 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

Enjoy Your GARDEN

Sferid the Leisure Hours ■i of Daylight with the Flowers

PLANTED by Lord Jellicoe,” I read on the notice below a fine Pohutukawa at the entrance to the Hospital grounds. How a notice like this will take us back over the years! We remember that very pleasant time that Lord Jellicoe spent with us. Now the tree is about to remind us, by bursting into bloom,' that Lord Jellicoe must not be forgotten and let us hope that this Pohutukawa will flower well every Christmas. In years to come the passer-by may say, with true Christmas spirit: Lord Jellicoe is with us once more. The bright red flowers coming at the festive season seem to make the Pohutukawa particularly well suited as a tree to commemorate a great occasion, apart from its noble stature and long life combined with its ability to withstand the weather.

Take the Fiat Look From Your Garden It is sometimes difficult in a new garden to get plants of different heights. Many gardeners fill the garden with plants varying from Ift to 3ft in height. This arrangement may make a very showy garden, but a few high plants are needed to break the flat appearance. Shrubs and trees generally furnish the necessary variety. If these have not already been planted, a few tall-growing plants may be put

Corners of the garden will often look better with tall-growing plants; and a few may be planted at the gate, and towards the back of a mixed border. Clumps of Michaelmas daisies, sunflowers, cosmos, heleniums, tithonias, etc., look well. In a sheltered corner the tree dahlia does well, and it is handsome in leaf as well as in flower, but it is easily broken by the wind. A few tall stakes supporting Mina Lobata cr Nasturtium will make a good show.

Pot Pourri Of Seasonal Hints

Clibran’s hybrid winter flowering begonias have not been tried here to my knowledge. They are tuberous begonias with dark green foliage, and are very vigorous in growth. The flower spikes are thrown up well above the foliage with the flowers in bunches.

The single or double flowers are from two to three inches in width in all the usual beautiful tuberous begonia colouring. Clibans begonias arc shadeloving plants. A mixture of fibrous loam, leaf mould, well rotted cow

manure, and a little oyster shell is recommended for growing these plants. It is to be hoped that these begonias will be on the market at an early date.

Lifting and Storing Bulbs

Spring flowering bulbs have ripened now and may be lifted and stored. When the foliage turns yellow and starts to decay, the bulbs may be lifted. Should it be necessary to lift bulbs before they are ready, take them up with as much soil as possible attached to the roots, and plant in another part of the garden to finish ripening off. The foliage must not be cut off, as next year’s flowers depend upon the ripening of the foliage and dying back of the bulb. Spread the bulbs out in a cool dry place to thoroughly dry, and then they may be stored in boxes or bags.

It is a good plan to sprinkle the bulbs freely with sulphur and with naphthalene to keep insects away. Bulbs that show any sign of blight should be kept separate. They may be soaked in formalin, 1 in 50. for about half an hour; then dried and stored. The formalin may be used again before planting.

Anemones and ranunculi generally, give such poor results the second season that it scarcely pays to keep them.

Tulips, hyacinths and gladioli are best lifted every year. Most bulbs are best lifted every feW years when they become crowded. Hints The following extracts are from “The Home Gardener,” December 1, 1937: “The Waratah.-—A couple of years ago I secured from a friend of mine, who is a nurseryman, a piece of an old root of the New South Wales Waratah. This old root looked anything but attractive, but I was assured that the planting of the old butts was the only practical way of establishing this beautiful flower here. My own plant is now five feet high, and both last year and this has carried a number of its brilliant blooms for some months. The nurseryman in

question has a row of large plants, six feet high, grown in the same year, and new in full flower.

“Petunias.—Last year I recommended the dwarf fringed petunia Setting Sun. This was undoubtedly a beautiful variety, and by its dwarf habit and free flowering qualities made many friends. The raiser of Setting Sun has now introduced the same type in a mixture of colours, and in Erfurt Dwarf Fringed we have what promises to be the ideal petunia for bedding and edging. Erfurt Dwarf Fringed Petunias grew only about six or eight inches high. They are sturdy and branching in habit. without the tendency of some sorts to straggle all over their neighbours. This dwarf habit, combined with beautiful fringed flowers in mixed colours, should make them very popular. “Nasturtiums. —For positions around the base of a large palm ’or tree, the dwarf nasturtium is splendid. It will hold its own against the surface roots of any of these, and provide the same brilliant and continuous display.” Rotation of Crops I wonder how many gardeners consider this question of crop rotation, or the shifting of a crop from section to section of the garden at frequent intervals. Take for example the cabbage cj;op. If you want* to encourage failure, you have simply to grow these vegetables in the same plot year after year. Vegetables are like human beings in that they like a change occasionally. It is well to make a change at least every three years. Another important point in rotation is the following crop. Wherever possible, make the following crop as different as possible from the one it follows. Here are a few examples: Kumaras follow early potatoes, as these two belong to two quite different families. Celery to follow peas or beans, a leafy crop following a fruiting crop. Or cabbages, lettuce, spinach, or* other leafy crop might with advantage follow a leguminous crop such as beas or beans, then potatoes might follow cabbages, and so on.