GENERAL WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

GENERAL WORK.

ATTENTION TO PLANTS.

General work in the flower garden at this season is mostly of a routine and of a most pleasurable nature. It includes attending to the plants in flower and to the requirements of. the chrysanthemums, such as taking the crown and terminal buds, removing suckers from the .roots and superfluous side-shoots, and spraying to keep the foliage free from caterpillars and rust. Dahlias are the chief floral feature of the garden. Disbudding is necessary to impart more vigour into the flowers. All. spent blooms should be picked from dahlias and other flowering plants. Picking off the spent bloorn3 greatly prolongs the flowering and adds tq the appearance of the plants. Dnring dry weather some of the flowering annuals and other plants require occasional good soakings with moisture. Chrysanthemums are benefited by a light manurial watering every week. Some of the bedding plants require cutting back. Now is a suitable time to take off, make and insert cuttings of pelargoniums, mesembryanthernums, crassulas and several other plants, shrubs included. Layering shrubs, notably azaleas and camellias and rhododendrons, may be done. Lastly hoe over the surface of the beds and borders to keep them perfectly clean and free from all weeds. HARDY ANNUALS. The sowing of seeds in the open ground and the planting of a few; varieties of hardy annuals is necessary at this season to provide for flowers for garden decoration and cutting during the time when there is the greatest scarcity. The soil at present is in excellent condition for this work, the previous long period of dry weather and recent copious rains having sweetened it and enabled it to be brought into a good state of pulverisation. The different varieties of candytufts, mignonette, larkspurs, annual lupins, linarias, Virginian stocks, cornflowers, godetia, wallflowers, nemophila, Silene Collinsia, acroclinium, helichrysum, _ calendulas, malope, scarlet linum, viscaria, and a few others may all be sown at once in circular clumps. Seedlings suitable for present planting include Iceland poppies, primula malacoides, antirrhinums, pansies, violas, lobelias, several kind of forget-me-nots or myosotis, wallflowers, giant perfection or beauty stocks, winter-flowering sweet peas, sweet scabious, dianthus, sweet Williams and other hardy plants. TO CORRESPONDENTS. " Border," Timaru.—Will reply next week. A.C., Birkdale.—The pear is named Beurre superfine, one of the finest dessert varieties in cultivation. J.W., Galatea Station.—The apple is th« ■well-known Cox's orange pippin, one of the best dessert apples in cultivation. C.S., Hamilton.—To save seed from your large collection of double-flowered asters and zinnias select Hhe largest and best double flowers and mark and gather when properly ripe. R.W.T., Lake Botoma.—No. 1 is the Parlin's Beauty; 2 and 8 resemble Statesman and Pride of Australia, two late-keeping kinds. They are not ripe enough to properly identify. G.M., Tauranga.—The loganberries may not be the true type. Cut out some of the weak shoots and give them another chance. Prune sparingly and manure early in August. Anemone and ranunculus seeds take about two montha to germinate. L.G., Taihape.—The daisy-like flower on long stem is Arctotis grandifl. The purple flower on the slender stem ia a variety of campanula. It is too much withered to accurately identify. The small blue is Myosotis alpestris, and the yellow is Budbeckia nemannii. D.M.F., Matamata.—To clean barberry seed, mix the berries with some finely-sieved dry sand. Thoroughly mix the two together; place the berries and sand attached in the sun. When quite dry run them through a eieve fine enough to let the sand pass through and retain the seeds. This is much the best method of cleaning the seed. A.P., Waihi.—The large handsome apple is similar to the Northern Spy, from which it is evidently a seedling. The flavour is not equal to that of the parent. The greenskinned, handsomely ehfcped apple belongs to the pippin class. It is almost identical in shape and appearance to the Lord Wolsely, and promises to be a very valuable late-keeper and commercial variety worthy of naming after another year's trial. F.A., Wairarapa.—The best method in dealing with the full-grown furze is to cut it down, run the fire over it, and when the seedlings and shoots from the old stumps come up the following season apply the sodium chlorate, lib. to one gallon of water. Apply with a fine spray to prevent waste. Well saturate the furze. The material is cheap, and if judiciously used a gallon goes a long way. It is also an effective killer of weeds on drives and garden walks. S.J.W., Matakohe.—The apple leaf is affected with the powdery mildew of the apple. Spray with lime sulphur, lin 10, in the winter, and in the spring, as the buds are swelling, with Bordeaux mixture, Blb. of bluestone, 6lb. of fresh lime to 40 gallons of water. Spray with soluble sulphur after the young fruits have formed, l'lb. to 10 gallons of water. The peach leaf is affected with the peach rust. Use the same spray for winter, and in the spring, when the flower buds ure swelling, apply the 8-6-40 Bordeaux formula, followed by the soluble sulphur when the tree is in leaf and fruits set. A second treatntent of the soluble sulphur should follow three weeks later. " Tyro," New Lynn.—To prevent seedling beans being eaten by caterpillars or other insects holing into the leaves, a weak solution of arsenate of lead and Black Leaf 40 should be effectual if applied every ien days. For cabbage fly use two teaspoonsful of Black Leaf 40 and one of arsenate of lead to the gallon of water. Try half this strength for the beans. Carrots, parsnips and lettuce Beedlings need no spraying. They are better without it. Good results have been attained by spraying with time sulphur for slugs. Cabbage and turnip seedlings just through the soil should have a light dusting of lime and wood ashes in the morning when the foliage is moist with dew. Hastings.—To enumerate a list of plants that are partial to lime and those that are not would occupy too much space. Briefly, lime is destructive to azaleas, rhodo-

dendrons and many other hardy plants of a like nature, also to Cape and Australian plants that are hard-wooded. ' Those that are benefited by lime include the different members of the extensive cacti family, aloes, the different species of palms, campanulas, niesembryanthemums, and numerous alpine and bulbous plants, notably the flag irista. Many of the herbaceous perennials and various shrubs require more or less lime in the soil. Lime is injurious to many of the conifers. To prevent mildew on verbenas, spray with soluble sulphur at intervals. " Anxious," Brown'a Bay.—ln planting passion fruit plants by the acre for 'commercial purposes arrange the rows north and south, 10ft. apart and Bft. between the plants in the rows. Erect a trellis with posts a sufficient distance apart to carry two wires, the lower 12in. above the soil, the upper the same distance from the top of the posts, which should be 6ft. above the surface. Interlace tea-tree brushwood for the vine to ramble over. This is the the cheapest and best method of training. The old variety, Passilioia edulis is the best. Early in September is the best time to plant. Select healthy, hardy plants. About six weeks prior to planting apply Bcwt. of blood and bone to the trcre, well mixed with the surface soil.

" Sunny Bank," Birkenhead.—The best shelter trees to plant on a westerly slope should include floribunda, Alectryon excelsa (titoki), Meterosideros tonientosa (pohutukawa), Corynocarpus laevigata (karaka), Quercus ilex (evergreen oak). Eucalyptus obliqua, Ficus Australia,' Cupressua macrocarpa, and Lawsoniana, Pittosporum crasaifolium and Eugenioides, Triatanea conferta, Podocarpus (totara), Knightia excels (rewarewa), Thujia gigantea and Picea excelaa. For ornamental purposes about the extensive grounds, include all of the preceding and also:—Araucaria excelsa (Norfolk Island pine), Cedrtis deodara and Atlanfoca, Cryptomeria elegans, Janiperus sinensis, Dacrydium (rimu), Hoheria populnea, Phoenix canariensia, Eucalyptus ficifolia, Picea Douglasii, Acacia Bayleyana, Pinus canariensis, Bambusia vulgaris, Arbutu3 unedo, Catnphora officinalis, Magnolia grandiflora and Conspicua, Ginko biloba, Erythrina, Escallonia floribunda, Lagunnria Pattesonii, Li(juidaniber atyracflua, Vitax (puriri), Mertya Sinclairii, Sohinus molle, Japanese flowering cherries, Clrevillea robusta, Eucalyptus lejicorylon rosea, etc. Acacia verticilla is the best evergreen hedge that cows will eat. Kkpos.