THE GARDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22628, 20 July 1935, Page 24

THE GARDEN

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS ‘'Learner," Lawrence. —You cannot graft a rose on to a plum tree. September or October are the best months for grafting. "Tree Lover,” Roxburgh.—lt should be possible to transplant a tree 9ft high and six years old._ You can shorten Lack the top a bit, and also prune the roots, but do not allow them to become dry, and pack in moist hay or moss while it is being transported from one garden to another. “A. 5.,” Henley.—l dealt with spraying for brown rot a few weeks ago. You can prune back one side of your macrocarpa hedge very hard and also reduce its height, but it will not break out into growth again. It will not kill the hedge, however, so long as there is one green side. ” G.,” Palmerston. —I am afraid Ido not know the plant you mention as it is spelt. You can transplant your three-year-old asparagus plants next month. “Holly,” Lovell's Flat—You can transplant hollies at any time except during June and July. If the self-sown seedlings are lifted carefully with as / little root disturbance as possible, they should grow well. • " Laurel,” Ripponvale.—Laurel _ cuttings can be put in now. and it is better to take them with a heel. Put a layer of sand in the bottom of the trench, bury three-parts of the length of the cuttings, and tramp the soil

firmly. 1 “Inquirer,” Roxburgh.—The weed la a Euphorbia, sometimes called mils weed on account of its milky juice. It is not of any value, and is a

troublesome weed. “Hedge," Alexandra.—Thuya gigantea could be obtained from any of the Dunedin nurserymen or seedsmen. It is not difficult to grow from seed, and the seedlings grow rapidly.

•r THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY S Continue to make sowings of stocks, s ’ antirrhinums, nemesia, lobelia, alyssum, > pyrethrum, verbenas, Phlox Drummondu, ’ violas, pansies, and carnations. * Sow tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, and s cauliflower. £ Seedlings of some of the quicker-grow-v ing of the annuals sown some time ago will be ready to prick out. Use a richer soil than that for eeed sowing and allow the seedlings a. space of from one and i a-half to two inches in the boxes. Damping off is usually troublesome so early • in the season, and this can be checked to some extent by soaking the seed' pote or boxes in Cheshunt compound. Continue the potting of' palms, ferns, and other foliage plants, and give cinerarias and primulas weak liquid manure ! once a week. The various primulas are' making a good display in the greenhouse, and one or two of each kind should be set aside . for seed saving. It is necessary to hand-pollenate them with a little brush. The cuttings of all kinds of chrysanthemums can be put in now and the earlier ones, if rooted, can be potted up into three-inch' pots. Prune grape vines, clean the rods and the house, and top-dress the border with an approved fertiliser, and .mulch it with well-rotted farmyard manure. Force rhubarb, sea-kale, and ohickory. THE FLOWER GARDEN , Growth is starting in trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, and all planting and transplanting should be pushed on as i quickly as possible. Continue to plant roses, and commence • to prune the bushes and standards. Moss is again very troublesome in „. lawns, and it should be raked out. After- •> wards give the lawn a good liming, a dusting of superphosphate, and a light dressing of fine soil. "Birds are very destructive in the spring, * pulling the buds off primrose polyanthus and destroying the young growths of car-

ffirOßK FOR THE WEEEg NbTESBY TAN NOCK. A.H.R.H.S.

nations. Clean all leaves from round the plants, fork up the soil a little, and fix a few strands of black cotton over them. THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDEN

Place potato seta up on end to sprout, and make small planting of sprouted sets on a well-drained warm border. Make a sowing of dwarf peas, broad beans, shorthorn carrots, white turnips, and radish. Plant out cabbage and cauliflower. The planting and pruning of bush and tree fruits should be completed as soon as possible, and winter spraying should also be carried out. Plant rhubarb, and force sea-kale where it is growing by covering the crowns with boxes or pots and heaping fermenting manure and leaves over them. Carrots, beet, and parsnips left in the ground should be lifted now and stored in heaps in sand or soil. PRUNING ROSES

Rose pruning can now be undertaken in all but the gardens where there is a danger of late frosts, which would cut down the young, tender shoots and spoil the first display. There is no doubt that, in a normal season early pruning means early blooming, and it is a very exceptional frost which will damage roses in Dunedin. Some may wonder why roses are. pruned at all. Why not let them grow at their own sweet will, like the briars in.the hedgerows? They flower well every year, and are seldom or never attacked by blights. Roses must be pruned, however, to keep them within reasonable compass, to keep the growths low so that they will not suffer so much from strong winds, to remove all dead and decaying wood which will harbour pests, or probably decay that will spread to the living tissue, to remove all thin and twiggy growths, which will never produce satisfactory blooms and which choke up the

centre of the plant; and, lastly, to reduce the number of dormant buds to such a number as are expected to grow into satisfactory flowering shoots. It has to be understood at the beginning that the rose flowers on the young wood produced during the current season and the buds which develop into the flowering shoots are well developed dormant ones which are found on well-ripened shoots of last season’s growth. If it were possible, gardeners would like to eliminate all the old wood every year, and, with some strong-growing varieties, this is the case, but in most one or two of the old stems have to be retained and the young wood should be shortened back on them to three or four buds. Growers like the strong, young growths, which arise at or below the ground level or low down on the bushes. By retaining these strong, young growths they are qble to remove the older ones, which gradually become weaker and weaker until they fail to croduce floweping shoots at all. The first operation when pruning will be to cut away all dead shoots, dead snags and those which are old and no longer satisfactory. Next, cut away all thin, twiggy growths, which could not produce satisfactory flowers and which would fill up the centre of the bush with leaves, which make satisfactory spraying Very difficult. Before shortening back any of the healthy, well-ripened young shoots, it is necessary to determine whether you want a limited number of flowers of exhibition size or a reasonable number of flowers suitable for cutting for house decoration or for a display in the garden. If you desire a limited number you cut back to two, three .or four good buds of each stem. Take care to cut about half an inch above a bud pointing away from the centre of the bush or in the direction in which you want the strongest shoot to grow, for the top buds invariably produce the strongest growth. If you want quantity as well as reasonable quality vou should leave a greater number, of evident buds on each stem, the number being determined by the strength of the shoot.

When pruning, it is desirable to beep the centre of the bush as open as possible, and to remove shoots which grow inwards or across one another and also to have as well-balanced a bush as possible, though shape is not very important. "There is also a general rule that one should prune week growers hard and strong growers lightly, but if the plants have not made any satisfactory growth or if they are decaying and hide bound it is much better to dig them out, and, after manuring the ground, replace with young plants. There are so many vigorous, good varieties that, unless there is some sentiment attached to an old plant, it is not worth while trying to nurse it back to health again. It will be seen that rose pruning is a commonsense operation which anyone can undertake and with a little practice perform satisfactorily. The tools required for pruning are a pair of stout leather gloves, preferably the gauntlet kind, a pair of sharp and strong secateurs or pruning shears, a small saw for cutting out old and strong branches, which would be too much for the secateurs, and a sharp knife to trim smoothly the saw cut. It may also be advisable to have a pad to kneel upon and to have a spade handy on which the soil which sticks to the boots can be scraped off.

These remarks apply to the bush plants, no matter which kinds or varieties they are. But to obtain a lot of flowers from strong-growing kinds instead of cutting the young growths back they are just tipped and pegged down in a more or less horizontal position. When this can be done the old wood is cut out entirely. Pegs are driven into the ground and the young wood tied down to them. By keeping the buds about the same level, they all get an equal supply of sap, they all grow into flowering shoots, and quantities of flowers are the result.

The dwarf polyanthus roses have become more popular of late as a result of the introduction of new and fashionable colour combined with dwarft, compact growth. They are very useful for bedding schemes and can take the place of bedding annuals or biennials. They are Very liable to sport or revert back to originalocoloura, and these branches should be cut out as soon as they show their character. At the present time their pruning consists mainly of thinning out the slim and twiggy branches altogether, opening up the bushes a bit and then shortening back the stronger branches a little, but not very much. The thinning out is the most important part of the operation. After thinning, the primings should be gathered up and burned, the borders or beds given a dressing of wood ashes and burnt soil if this is available, and then a good dusting of bone meal or a mixture known as Tonk’s, which is applied at the rate of four ounces to the square yard. Should the soil be inclined to be sour, a dressing of lime at the rate of five ounces to the square yard can be dusted over the surface. Well-rotted stable or cow manure can be spread on the surface and dug in, but, if the beds or borders were well prepared and liberally manured in the first place, farmyard manure will not be necessary. The beds or borders are pointed over lightly, care being taken

not to dig deeply close into the plants for fear of damaging the roots. As sprays can be applied much stronger while the plants are at rest than when in growth, advantage should be taken to spray the bushes immediately after pruning with lime sulphur at winter strength. As the spray is liable to damage the labels, these are taken out and laid face downwards beside the plants to protect the writing. This spraying will destroy the spores of mildew, which may be sticking to the bark, and keep the plants clean until the first crop of flowers is over. 1