TRAINING PLANTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 23

TRAINING PLANTS

SOME USEFUL HINTS There are a good many tasks in the garden and greenhouse any day at this' time of year, concerning which one might say they are so urgent that delay will have serious effect, and the training of rapidly-growing plants is one among their number. Clematises and ornamental vines, for instance, will very quickly get so badly tangled that their young branches cannot bo separated without bruising young leaves and Cracking bark. He may feel well pleased with himself who can lo'ok up at a clematis and be satisfied that he has managed to get every young branch neatly secured in a position that will enable it to grow to full extent without breaking away from its support or smothering another equally promising branch. This may be accomplished without great difficulty if a start is made before the young growths begin to intertwine and twist around each other, but leave a nlant until there are trails half a yard or two feet long, left loose and dangling and most likely half the branches will be quite spoiled in the endeavour to get them fixed where they are wanted. The greatest difficulties are confronted when the only means of training is to nail the stems to a wall. In such case, it is advisable to use the special wall nails with soft, pliable flaps at their heads, which can be bent over the growths, than to adopt the old style of cloth shreds. An infinitely better system for training wall plants of soft, slender character is to utilise twine netting with square mesh of three or four inches diameter. First fix horizontal wires at top and bottom in such a manner that the netting may be stretched between and fastened to them a few inches away from the wall. Then proceed to tie the main branches, one at a time to the netting, securing the lateral growths afterwards. MAKE HASTE SLOWLY It is a common failing to be too eager to get the plant to reach as high up the wall as possible at the start. It will not be long before the lower part of the wall is left with bare wood, whilst all the foliage and flowers will be huddled together in a dense mass above. By fixing the original branches in an almost horizontal manner, low down, sap will travel at a slower pace, and the eyes of every joint will be nourished so that they will more readily break into vigorous growth. These may be fastened in a diagonal direction, some to the right and others to the left, eventually giving the plant the appearance of a widespread fan. After this it will be an easy matter to tie-in side shoots at fairly even distances, pinching or cutting out the weakest where there is a tendency to overcrowding. Where climbing roses are trained on walls the same spreading principle may be maintained with great advantage, and we should see less of nakedlooking, leggy branches, surmounted by a thicket of growth, much of which cannot flower through lack of daylight and air space. Far too often annual climbers are but half so effective as they might be if only a little care were exercised in the early stages to direct their main growths. Plants like convolvulus, nasturtium, canary creeper, and Cobaea scandens are planted with an idea of draping an ugly fence or forming a screen. They will do it quite well if strings are fixed at intervals of about a foot, and one main growth is tied, not too tightly, to each string as soon as it is long enough to begin to ascend the string. It is when the young plants are left to struggle for themselves until they get twisted and entangled, almost strangling each other in their endeavours to find something upon which they can climb, that the season ebbs away without that desired curtain of foliage gnd blossom being obtained. TRAINING TRAILING PLANTS Window boxes planted with ivyleaved pelargoniums to hang down the front, will present a much nicer appearance if two strands of string are securely fixed along the top and bottom of the box, and each leading stem of the plants is looped with green twist, or some similar soft and inconspicuous tying material first to the upper string, and later to the lower one. Do not tie so tightly that the growths are bent with an artificial regularity. but just loop them so that ’they are constrained to hang in the position where each will cover its proper portion of box front. Many kinds of plants are capable of making remarkably fine specimens in pots if they are provided with a suitable framework, and are trained to cover it. Asparagus Sprengeri, often used as a basket plant, will make .handsome globes if all main stems are secured to wire frames, fixed firmly into the pots. Here, again, it is better to lead the first runner round the base of the frame, the next going in the same direction at about three inches

higher, continuing until the wnole frame is thus covered. Then leave all laterals to spread loosely out as they will; a delightful mass of greenery will soon result. We have adopted the same plan with Asparagus plumosus, the old climbing type, and in one season a plant, two years old to start with, has made a balloon four feet high, and about double that in circumference. Diplacus glutinosus will make a beautiful pyramid if four pliable canes are thrust at equal distances down the edge of the pot, and then their tips are drawn together, and firmly tied. Run strands of thin twine tightly round from cane to cane at intervals of four inches, and, as the stems of the diplacus reach one of the strands tie it in. It will not take long for the top of the canes to be reached, and the stakes and twine will be hidden by foliage and flowers.

An old-fashioned plan for training plants, when it was customary for every cottager who had a love of flowers s to make the most of every window ledge, was to construct ladders of thin wood laths, fixing the ends firmly into the soil of the pots. Upon these slight but rigid frames the main stems of ivy-leaved pelargoniums, double-flowered nasturtiums, fuchsias, Campanula isophylla, and sometimes even zonal pelargoniums were trained. The work was done by many a keen amateur gardener or his wife so carefully that a plant would soon spread its foliage in such a manner that from the front view no sign of the wooden frame was visible. COVER THE SUPPORT Such plants are not so frequently seen to-day, but the idea of so arranging a plant which is not entirely self-supporting in such a manner that sticks or other accessories are screened from view is one that should engage careful attention, whether the plant is for a room, a greenhouse, or the open garden. Two points need to be considered vital; one is that the support should possess strength without bulk, and the other that training should start from the base at an early stage of growth, so that the lower portion of the supports are covered and well furnished first. The covering of the upper Eortion will then be rapid and simple, ut if everything is led straight- to the top as quickly as possible, there will soon be overloading there, while the lower portions remain sparsely covered, and difficult to fill in.—Domarin in Amateur Gardening.