GARDENING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17942, 22 May 1920, Page 3

GARDENING NOTES.

By D. Tannock.

WORK FOB THE WEEK. THE GKEENHOUSE AND NTTESEBY. Chrysanthemums jre lasting well, and will still be tho main feature in tho greenhouse. Continue to keep the atmosphere dry, and give a little fire-heat on cold nights and dull weather, at the same tiino keeping the top ventilators a littlo bit open to let out the moist air. It ih too early yet to put in the chrysanthemum cuttings unless they are to be grown as bu£h plants, when the frequent stopping keeps tham bank. Two showy and useful plants for winter flowering in tho heated greenhouse are the Euphorbias, E. pulcherrim, tho (Poinsettia) and the more slender E. fulgens. They both require heat to root the cuttings and heat to bring out the flowers, though they can be grown without it in tho warm summer weather, provided tie ventilators are shut early to keep in the sun-heat. Euphorbio fungensisa slender growing plant frequently found difficult to root and establish, but if outtings about three inches long are put into three-inoh pota, throo cuttings. in each, and these . plunged in a mild hotbed about midsummer they will' soon root, and being impatient of .root-disturbance when rooted they should be potted on to their flowering pots without • breaking the ball of soiL The ordinary poinsettias require similar treatment, 'the cuttings being taken with a heel as soon as they are about three inches long, and if rooted in bottom heat they will grow into plants sufficiently strong to flower the first year, but the best results are obtained from plants which are cut back, and then grown on with two or threo shoots on each. Great care has to be taken with the watering and feeding during the autumn and eaxly winter, when the pots are full of roots, and any neglect means that the leaves will fall, off and tho development of the bracts will be arrested. The ornamental part of both plants is the bracts, the flowers themselves being quite ordinary, and apart from their peculiar structure are of little interest, and are certainly not at all attractive enough to be worth growing for greenhouse decoration. _ They are natives of Mexico ,and have milky juice similar to sane of the plants which yield rubber. » Soft wooded or herbaceous cuttings will be in and callused by now, and a start can be made to put in the' hardwood kinds. Soft-wooded outtingß must root quickly, otherwise they will shrivel up, and therefore have to be put in in' the early autumn before the soil becomes cold, or if put jn in the spring, they require to be placed in a warm greenhouse or propagating pit and plunged in bottom heat which stimulates the action of the living matter and hastens the development of toe callus and roots. With hardwood cuttings there is not the same need for haste. They do not wilt, and can take six months to callus and begin the development of roots. Indeed, in some oases they take moje ,and often though they look quite fresh and begin growth in the spring they have no roots at all, and all the growth they make is at the expense of materials which have been stored up in the stem. Hardwood - cuttings can' be put in as soon a& they arc sufficiently ripened in the autumn, and in the case of the deciduous kinds when the leaves drop off. The selection of just the right ikind of wood to put in is the roost difficult part of the operation, and 1 the one which requires the most skill and experience. Merely making them and putting them in the fecal is quite simple. The first essential when selecting the cuttingß is to take thorn from clean, healthy plants, free from\ blight of any kind, and they must also be of the most desirable variety. The wood must be young of the past season's growth, well grown and well ripened, for on good ripening depends the stored up supplies of plant food which is required for the growth of the callus and tho development of tho first roots. A big strong pithy shoot is no good. It is seldom well ripened, and takes a lcmg time to callus, and unripened shoots lose moisture rapidly and shrivel up. Some people prefer cuttings with a heeL The tissue is denser and harder where the branch joins the main stem, and though it may take a long time to heal up it will . not decay or allow the decay to spread to the stem. When preparing the outtings it is better to pull them out than to cut them out. They then ceSme right out ivith a few strands of fibre, which can easily be trimmed with a sharp knife. When hool cuttings aro either too long or too short it is better to cut the stem straight across immediately below a joint or nodo, the tissue is denser there than anywhere else, and the roots usually appear just above it though in same kinds such as rambler rosea, they arise all up the stem, but the strongest ones are at tho node. When preparing or making evergTeen outtings, suoh as olearias, senecios, veronicas, and laurels, the shoots selected are about as thick as a lead pencil, and after removing tho unripened tip they are from 9in to 12in long. Remove the leaves from the ' portion of tie stem which is buried in the soil usually about two-thirds of its length, and if the cuttings are not required for immediate insertion they can be tied into bundlos and almost buried in the soil in a 000 l sheltered position. The outtings of deciduous trees and shrubs root easier than evergreen ones. Theiris little or ~no loss of moisture, and well ripened stems merely require to be cut into pieces about nine to 12 inches long, then tied into bundles and buried until required. In most cases tho stems should not be thicker than a lead pencil or even less, but there are oxoeptions, and tho outtings ot the dookkious native ribbon wood, Gaya Lyallii, havo to be about as thick as one's thumb to get satisfactory results. Roses loot quite readily when tho right kind of wood i 3 obtained, but only ramblers, climbers, and tho strong growing varieties are worth growing in this manner. They can often be obtained with a hcei or a short length, say, half an inch o! the old stem can be left, and as suckers are no disadvantage, ,it is not necessary to remove any of the buds. Dog roses, or others intended for stocks (on which the good varieties are to be budded) can be made in the same way as ramjlere and climbers, but to prevent 6uckers from growing and becoming a nuisance afterwards all tho buds oil the lower nine inchese of the stem are removed, and at the same time the thorns are rubbed off. Gooseberries and red and white currants aro prepared like dog roses, the buds on the lower nine ujches of stem being rubbed off, for it is not desirable to have suckers growing up and choking up the jnidr'lo of the bushes, and it is desirable to have at least six or nine inches of clean stom. In the case of black currents where the fruit is borne on the young wood, and this has to be renewed from time to timo b\ bringing up stems from the base of tho plant, suckers are no disadvantage, consequently all tho buds are left on. The selection and preparation of the cutting bed is important. It should be in an open posi- , tion, where it can bo well drained, and tho soil should be well cultivated, and not too heavy. When tho soil is too heavy it, is bettor to remove it altogether to a depth of 2ft, and to replace it with a nico, light sandy or gravelly mixture. With a spade take out a trench about nine to twelve inches deep, spread a layer of sand or a Trjixtnro of sand and leafmonld in the bottom of it, and place the_ cuttings about two inches apart with their base resting 'on the cutting mixture. Push in tho soil and tramp it firmly. It is most important to bury tho cuttings at least two-thirds to three-fourths of their length in the soil. This keeps thcra fresh until their roots j are formed. | Some of tho conifers can be grown from cuttings, but they are so short that it i? better to place them in boxes. Good deep boxes are provided with drainage and filled

with light cutting soil, which is pressed firmly, and into this the cuttings are dibbled. TUB VEGETABIJS GARDEN. Tho main work in tho vegetable garden at present is trenching and digging and pruning bush fruits. ANSWERS TO CORESPONDENTS. "Phlox" (Lawrence). —Six good phloxes are- Rrchibald Forbes, salmon and crimson eye; Einbarncement, salmon scarlet; Flambeau, orange scarlet • Forto do France, salmon-purple; Ouquillioot. orange-scarlet; and Miss Pomborton. The Miclunlmas daisies I mentioned in these notes can bo obtained ffom any of the Dunodin nurserymen. " J. H. W." (Dtinodin).—Names of plants nro: —(1) Podocarpus totara (totara): (2) Nothofagus apieulata (nativo beech); (3) CiMirina equisetifolia. "F. ,T. M. K." (Oaversham). —The potato is Up-to-Datc, and so long as you select your seed from tho bo.st varieties and green them thev will be s-al isfactory. "A. L. S." (L)uncdiu). —As lime is so readily washed down into tho subsoil it is bettor_to spread it on the surface and to work it in in the early spring before yon pui in any crops. It will not come into contact with the manure you dug in then. "X. Y. R." (Mnrnington).—l would not advise you to put coal ashes on your vegetable_ garden, otherwise the treatment you mention is suitable, and is what is known as bastard trenching. "A. H."—You should place your boxe-a of seedling begonias in a dry frost-proof shed for the winter. It is hardly possible to keep them dry enuogh in a frame, and your Daphne can he raised by placing some stones under the branches]