The Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 978, 28 November 1890, Page 22

The Garden.

THE QROWIN3 OF HELIOTROPE. As to its culture, then. We will recommend that the tops of forward plants be struck in May ; these you will find will bloom earlier and shorter than cuttings taken from side shoots. Afterwards put them in ‘4B ’ sized pots, using for a compost two-thirds of loam and one-third of sand. They may when struck—or even immediately in a genial season—be stood out on boards in the garden path, where they will get both sun and air. Water will be very essential for your young plants, particularly as the compost is somewhat poor vour plants will then be of stunted growth aud ebow early for bloom ; shortly afterwards they can in June bo planted oat in your flower beds, but do not disturb tho ball of earth, merely put it whole as it is carefully in the flower bed, having each plant about six inches apart. When the head has bloomed it can be cut off, and then the whole plant can be carefully pegged down to the soil, just as we do. when bedding out any plant that is at all disposed to grow high. By this means the side shoots will come up, and rapidly fill the bed. Or again, say that you have a pot of heliotrope grown in the ordinary way, you will observe that it has attained a height of perhaps two feet before the top of which the bloom is coming, lias quite fully developed, while all up its sides are to be seen growing young shootings coming out at nearly every joint. Now, if you simply take the plant from its pot and place it almost sideways in a small hole that you make for it in your flower beds, tbe whole length of the plant will, of course, be almost parallel with the surface of the soil. Theu peg the whole length down, and you soon find that every side shoot will push up some few inches and show for bloom.

WHY VINES ARE RESISTANT. The scientific reason why the American grapevine species should not suffer seriously with phylloxera at its roots, while the European species should suffer so disastrously, has only recently been satisfactorily determined. This is now decided to be from the greater depth to which the roots of the American species penetrate—too far down for the little insect to follow. They keep comparatively near the surface. When plants of each kind are dug up, all the roots of the European aro found affected, tho roots being nearly all of a surface character; in the deeper rooted species only a small proportion —those near the surface —are affected. The French have, in a great measure, mastered the enemy. The introduction of the American grape roots did much to check it, but the introduction of sulphates and copper solutions, which destroy insects without injuring the vine, is said by some writers to have dono morel Pipes are introduced as for our Western irrigation schemes, and the solutions are thus led to the roots of every vine. In the mountain districts of Portugal, where most of the port wine is produced, the inhabitants have been driven nearly to destitution by the destruction of the vine through the phylloxera, and, not being readers, as the French are, have quietly suffered, under the belief that Providence is against the culture of the grape. The rocky hill sides are too dry for anything else but grapes, and hence when these fail there they have nothing left to fall back ou.—N. Y. Independent. DONT’S FOR AMATEURS. Don’t plant seeds as small as tho eye of a needle, such as a petunia or portulaca, Under an inch of soil. They should be merely covered, and that with soil as fine as you can make it. Don’t pour water on plants or flower beds out of a pail, or a dipper, or anything else j use a sprinkler, or a hose with a fine spray. Don’t let anyone make you believe that luck has anything to do with success in cultivating flowers, It has not. Unfailing watchfulness, with a mixture of common sense, is worth all the luck in the world in flower gardening, as in other things. Don’t begin with high-priced novelties, or failure will most likely attend your best endeavours. Select for your first venture kinds and varieties of flowers and plants most easily grown. Any friend who grows flowers can tell you what these are. Don’t fuss too much over your plants ; they like to be let alone when they are doing their best, and so do you. Don’t follow everybody’s advice. Select some good authority on plants, and be guided by it. Above all don’t ‘try everything* to make your plants grow. Nothing will kill them sooner than persecution of this kind. Don’t do as the lady did who said that she watered her plants regularly every Wednesday and every Saturday, whether they needed

it or not, because she believed in having * a regular system for everything.’ Water your plants when they need water, and at no other time.

Don’t be too eager to buy seeds and plants where you can get them the cheapest. The best is always the cheapest, and you cannot get the best for nothing or for half-price. I once had a bare, ragged sickly looking flower garden all summer as the result of an experiment witli cheap seedsund plants. Don’t think you can’t have flowers because you haven’t half an acre of garden. Wouders can be done on ten square feet of ground, and I once saw a flower garden in an old washtub that was a thing of beauty from June until October.

Don’t be stingy with your flowers after they have come. Give them to tho poor, the sick, and even to those who love flowers but cannot have them because of living in blocks of flats, or boarding.—Tick’s Magazine. CULTURE OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN POTS. The following paper on the culture of chrysanthemums in pots was read by Mr Edwin Smith before the Adelaide Gardeners’ Society -on November 1: Tlis first object in the culture of these plants is to obtain dwarf specimens and to preserve all the foliage near the base of their stems. To effect this the cuttings Bhould be taken from the old plants from the first week in October to the middle of November, taking the strongest cuttings obtainable, planting seven to 10 cuttings in a 6-inch pot, or what is better a single cutting in a thumb pot. Use for this purpose a free sandy loam mixed with some peat to make it free and light. Place •uttings in a frame or pit and keep close for a few days, watering with a fine rose as required but do not saturate them ; plenty of drainage should be used. As Boon as they are rooted pot off into 4-inch pots, using sandy loam with some old stable or cow manure. They may now be placed in the frame or pit for a week or ten days and attended to in the way of shading and watering. When the young roots have reached the sides of the pole give as much air as possible without allowing the plants to droop. As soon as well established place them out in the open air sheltered from rough winds. By the end of December they may be potted into the pots they are intended to flower in, about 8 or 12 inches according to the size of plants required. Use clean pots and put in plenty of drainage, over the drainage placo about 1 inch of spent hops, which act as a stimulant. The soil I have found most suitable to produce healthy plants and good flowers is one part good sandy loam, one part rotten stable manure or cow manure, one part charred earth (the latter brings out the colours in the flowers to perfection), sufficient sharp sand to make it free, and about half a gallon of soot to a large barrowful of the compost. In potting do not fill the pots too full, only up to about two inches to the top of the rim; this will be found useful for top dressing as the plants progress. When repotted the plants may be placed in the open, nnd I have found it a good plan to level a piece of ground, set the plants a good distance apart, so that they may have plenty of room to grow in. A narrow bed is the best, so that the plants can be easily reached. Put a little soot under each pot to keep the worms from getting into the pots; then pack stable manure firmly between the pots to the top of the rims. This will keep the pots cool and moist, and is, I think, a better plan than plunging in the soil. The above potting will take place about the end of December, or, say, the beginning of January, and the plants will then be making rapid growth, and if yon wish to have firm bushy plants begin to stop as low down as convenient. They will soon send out shoots again, ah(l these may also be* pinched back. At the same time keep the young shoots tied well over the edge of the pots and get them into a good shape. If show or large flowers are required, pinching back should only be done soon after the cuttings are struck, leaving from three to six strong shoots to grow. Staking and disbudding should be attended tc as the plants advance. The object of ordinary decorative plants is to get as much bloom aB possible, so that disbudding is only dono to a limited extent, just sufficient to- prevent the flowers crowding each other. Stimulants should be applied when the pots are filled with roots and one of the simplest ways is to mix with good rich soil some Peruvian guano—one quart of guano to one bushel of soil. . Top dress each plant with a layer three-quarters of an inch thiok; in watering, the manure is gradually taken to the roots. Sulphate of ammonia may be used in the same way, but not in so large n quantity. Tho above stimulants give the plants a dark green foliage and robust habit. Liquid stable or cow manure is also very good, and Borne growers prefer using it, considering it safer than guano or ammonia. I have found it a good plan to water before the

buds are much advanced with soot water overhead about once a week. A good and simple way to grow specimen plants is to plant out the rooted cuttings about the first week in December in a piece of ground in the kitchen garden that has been well manured or any place in rows 4ft apart and tbe same distant from plant to plant. Stop two or three times to make them bushy. As soon a, the flower buds begin to allow carefully lift and pot them ; place them in a pit or frame or other sheltered place for about ten davs when they may be put out in the open and treated as the other plants, on no account allowing them to suffer from want of water The flowers on some of the varieties will begin to expand their blooms about tbe 12th of April, when shelter should be provided in the shape of canvas or placed in the greenhouse giving as much light and air as possible I prefer canvas shelter rather than the greenbouse, but the open situation is better than either if it were not for heavy rains and strong winds.