Use of Glass Frame Sashes

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

Use of Glass Frame Sashes

are some plants that receive a bnd name through some little peculiarity which passes unrecognised. The plants are thus given wrong treatment and fail to thrive. Ostrowskia magnifica is a good example. There are few more distinguished perennials, and ,yct how seldom is it seen. The main peculiarity of this maghificent belldower is that it has large tuberous roots in which food is stored for the winter. It is essential to get these roots properly ripened by winter. This they often fail to do in a wet autumn. The remedy is to cover the plant with any glass frumo sashes that may bo available, as soon as it has finished flowering. Thero is no need to leave the sashes in position all winter, for tho plant is quite hardy. It is just a question of increased warmth at a critical period when tho tubers are ripening.

Some delphiniums have an annoying habit of fading away during winter, and this is often put down to a lack of hardiness. Actually it is a lack of ripeness, and a glass sash put over them at tho ripening period will make P the dilferenco. Tho brilliant orange searlot D. nudicaule is a caso in point. Much has been said of tho poisonous effect of an excess of linio to some plants, and gardeners arc apt to forget that lime in considerably quantity is the essence of success in other plants. No better example could bo found than the lovely Caucasian scabious, a plant which everyone wants to grow. Few, however, succeed. The cause is almost always to be found in lack of lime, and a free application of this will soon put matters right. So great is thy love of Scabosia Caucasia for calcium, that the soil can be freely dusted with air slaked lime around tho plants every week from September till February without any harm. Tho wetness of our climate is the downfall of many alpine plants, particularly thoso with woolly foliage. Hero again, tho remedy is right at hand in nothing moro difficult than covering with a pane of glass, supported a few inches above the plants during tho winter season. Some of the newer kniphofias give growers a lot of trouble, not because they will not grow, but because they refuso to form perfect flower spikes, persisting in the production of spikes with brown, undeveloped tips. This is simply due to lack of moisture at the time when the spiko is being formed. This can be cured by making up a bod with plenty of humus, then if tho weather is dry during December and January, give liberal soakings of water. There are other plants which protect themselves naturally by growing deeply in the soil. This is all very well in the case of woll-cstaWished plants that have gradually worked themselves down into the soil. But it does not follow that a transplanted specimen will have sufficient strength to send up shoots through six or seven inches of soil. Iho wise planter will be content to plant four or five inches deep to start with, then annually topdress with a niixturo of loam, loaf soil and sand. This, combined with tho natural aptitude of tho plants to pull themselves down into the soil, will result in natural protection for tho vulnorablo roots.