THE GARDEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23707, 14 January 1939, Page 21

THE GARDEN.

for the week|®

notes by TANNOCR, AURHS

GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY Continue to prick out seedlings of the various kinds of primulas such as malacoides, obconica, Kewensis, and sinensis, as well as cinerarias of various kinds. The more forward of the cinerarias should be potted on to three-inch pots. Seedling cyclamen can be potted on to five or six-inch pots, in which they will flower the first year. Fuchsias and hydrangeas which were raised from cuttings in the spring can be pottted on to five-inch pots, which will be large enough for them the first season. Chrysanthemums will be growing away now, and they should be staked out and set out in their summer quarters. It is advisable to stretch a wire fastened to a stout post at each end along the rows and to fasten at least one of the stakes to it, to prevent the plants from being blown over in windy weather. So far they have not required much water since potting, but with drier conditions they will require careful attention, never being given water unless it is required, though wilting should be avoided. Keep a sharp lookout for fly and caterpillars The former can be destroyed by dusting with tobacco powder or syringing with soapy water, and the latter by hand picking. Tomatoes in unheated houses will now have formed as many bunches of flowers as they are likely to set and ripen, and the tip of the stem can be pinched out. Give them a top-dressing with blood and bone manure, 2oz to the square yard, or superphosphate, loz, and sulphate or potash, loz to the same area. Dhst over the surface and water in, but do not apply manures when the soil is very dry. Prepare ground for lining out wallflower seedlings. THE FLOWER GARDEN The lifting of spring flowering bulbs should receive attention at once, for with the moist soil and the heat there is in the ground some of the kinds will be starting to form new roots. Though it is not desirable to keep such bulbs as snowdrops, daffodils, grape hyacinths, scillas and chionoxas out of the ground any longer than is necessary, if these are lifted early and stored away in paper bags or cardboard boxes in a cool, dry, airy place they will not come to any harm for a few weeks. There is nothing to be gained, however, by keeping these bulbs out of the ground if their permanent positions are available now. The seeds of polyanthus primroses will soon be ripening, and as the capsules are liable to burst and scatter the seed, it is advisable to collect them with the flower stalks and place them in paper bags to complete the ripening process. Seeds of anemones and ranunculus can now be sown in beds in the open, or in boxes. Gaps in the mixed flower border can be filled tup by transplanting fibrous or tuberous begonias or salvias which have been grown on in pots or boxes for this purpose. Fibrous rooted begonias are very effective and as they can be transplanted when in flower are very useful. They are easily spoiled by cold weather and are better kept in frames'and grown in pots or boxes until the beginning of January. Dahlias should be securely staked and after they form their first flower not more than three shoots should be allowed on the large flowered kinds. Continue to hoe through the roses and the various beds and borders, and spray roses with lime sulphur or liver of sulphur for mildew. So far there are no signs, of green fly. As soon as the delphiniums are past their best the stems can be cut down_ to 18 inches from the ground, and if seed is desired the lower three inches of the spike can be left. FRUIT AND VEGETABLE GARDEN Continue to dig potatoes as required, and don’t forget to throw out a few medium sized tubers from the best plants for next season’s planting. These can be exposed to light to green them and then stored away in a cool airy shed. The importance of selecting tubers from the best and healthiest plants cannot be overestimated. Continue to plant out celery in prepared trenches, leeks m holes, and winter cabbage, savoys, curly kale, and broccoli in shallow trenches. The soil is in good working order and conditions are favourable for transplanting. If peas are to be sown, quick maturing dwarf kinds should be selected. Provide runner beans and peas with suitable stakes and too broad beans as soon as they have set a satisfactory number of pods. Earth up brussels sprouts, and keep the soil stirred with the souffle hoe or fork among all growing crops. Sow shorthorn carrots, swedes, yellow and white turnips, globe beet, and radish. Also sow lettuce and spinach to provide a succession. Sow spinach beet and winter spinach. Thin out the growths of black currants as soon as the crop is picked, thin out the young growths on the gooseberries and thin fruit crops if necessary. WIRE WORMS The little, brown, worm-.’ike pests which attack the roots of carnations, and many other flowering plants, and eat their way into potatoes are not really worms at all but the grub stage of an insect called the

1 click beetle. This beetle lays its eggs among grass or weeds, and in lime these hatch out into the grubs which, unlike most other grubs, may remain for several years in this stage doing damage to plants. Prevention being better than cure, it is desirable to keep all cultivated land free of weeds which would provide the insect with a place to lay its eggs, and to skim off all grass when laving out a new garden and burning it. Gas lime and other chemicals such as hortnap and i apterite might keep the insects I away, but they would have little I influence on the worms in the ! ground. Baits are the most effective, these consisting of pieces of turnip, carrot; potato or oil cake. Put a , piece of stick about six inches long in each to mark them, and to proj vide a handle and bury them two ; inches in the ground near the plants I which are being attacked. The ! grubs will eat their way into these. They can be examined every few days and the grubs removed and destroyed. SILVER BEET Silver oeet or spinach beet is a very useful vegetable during winter and early spring when green vegetables are scarce. It is so very hardv that it will stand any amount of frost. It is not attacked by any [ insect pest, and so far is not sub- | ject to any disease. To get big, I strong succulent leaves, rich soil is I essential, and it is hardly possible to I dig in too much farmyard manure or compost heap. After the ground has been forked over, drills can be drawn two inches deep and the seed sown thinly in them. Later on the plants can be thinned out to nine inches apart, and if desirable, the thinnings can be transplanted to form further plantations. It requires plenty of water during dry weather and an occasionrl application of liquid manure formed by dissolving an ounce of sulphate of ammonia or nitrate of soda in two gallons of water. This will encourage leaf growth. This is really a two purpose vegetable for the green part of the leaf can be cooked and served as spinach and the white leaf stalk cooked and served as seakale. Seed can be sown now or young seedlings can be transplanted to their permanent positions. STRAWBERRIES Strawberry plants will be making their growth now that the fruit has been picked and if doing well quantities of runners will be coming away from the old plants. Unless i. w plants are required to form another plantation, these should be cut right away as they form, so that the plant may develop a strong crown for next season’s fruiting. If young plants are required, the runners should be stopped as soon as 'one young plant is formed, and this should be pegged down into a small pot filled with light soil, a piece of turf sunk into the ground or into the soil in which it is growing, first forking it up a bit. It should be fixed by pegging down with wire pegs or it can be kept i- position until it roots by placing a stone on the runner behind the plant. Runners should be taken from clean, healthy plants which bear well id never from weak or barren ones. Two or three plants will form on a runner and if the variety is a new c scarce one they can all be pegged 1 down. The old plants should not be neglected, the soil between the rows which has been tramped hard when picking the fruit should be forked up and a dusting of bone meal given. As a rule it is not worth fruiting plants for more than two or three years. RAMBLER ROSES Rambler roses are a feature of many gardens at the present time, and though it is some weks since some of the newer varieties, were listed in these columns, they are still bright and attractive. If a proper rose garden is planted with all the various types of roses, the bright display will last for weeks until the second crop of the bushes comes on. The climbers are first, next the bushes with some of the early ramblers, next the dwarf polyanthus, and then the ramblers. The best of these are hybrids of the Memorial rose, a single white-flowered Wichuriana with glossy, evergreen foliage. The first of the coloured hybrids was i Dorothy Perkins, and it is still one ! of the best, though it has been foli lowed by a number of newer varieI ties, most of which are very dsirable. The rambler roses are useful for covering up a rustic fence, a wire fence, and, in fact, any kind of fence, except a galvanised iron or close-boarded one. They like to have fresh air circulating among their foliage, and unless they can have this they become attackd by mildew and are unsatisfactory. They are also very suitable for arches and pergolas; they can be trained as pillars; they make excellent weeping standards, and can be used for covering a clay or rock bank. They will remain clean and healthy, and flower freely so long as it is possible to renew the wood every year with strong young shoots which arise at the base of the plant. To | maintain this young growth, it is , necessary to feed the plants freely and to see that they receive plenty , of water during dry weather. A , mulch of well-rotted manure during the summer is much appreciated, and if it is covered with two inches of soil it does not look untidy. Unless they are pruned regularly and all old and weak wood is cut out, they soon become a tangle of branches, the new mixed up with the old. Quantities or old leaves 1 lodge among them, thus stopping ; the circulation of fresh air which is so essential. When grcwn j on pillars oi on low rails it is an easy matter to renew the wood every ■ year, but it is not so easy to do this with weeping standards and consequently they deteriorate in time Standards can be budded on to tall dog rose stocks, or a strong tern 1 can be taken up, tied to a stout stake and pinched when it has reached the desk f height, branches being allowed ‘o develop near the top, Half standards budded on to stems about three tc four feet high are also effective. American pillar is the most reliabk of the ramblers | It has clean, shining mildew-proof ■ foliage and bright pink flowers with i ' yellow anthers, u,. to three inches ’ j across, which are borne in immense ( clusters The growth is too stiff to . form a satisfactory weeping stan--1 dard, but for all other purposes it ’ I is most s itable Alberic Barbier ■ has dark green glossy foliage and * creamy-white flowers, shaded yel- ; low. the buds being a deeper j el- ’! low. It is a suitable variety to grow

on a rustic fence to shut out any ugly or undesirable object either in your own or your neighbour’s garden. Dorotuy Perkins is a clear bright pink, and Dorothy Dennison is shell pink with a tendency to salmon and a distinct sort from Dorothy Perkins. Excelsa is a scarlet crimson with double flowers produced in large clusters. Hiawatha is a single scarlet, but not so desirable as Excelsa. Paul’s Scarlet Climber is a hybrid Wich, with vivid scarlet double flowers shaded with crimson, the colour being well retained without burning or fading. This is a vigorous variety suitable for forming standards but not weepers. The stems are too strong to hang down gracefully. Varieties which have already been mentioned and recommended are Bonfire, Breeze Hill, Emily Gray. Mary Wallace, nd Refresher. As soon as the wichurianas are past their best the old stems which have flowered should be cut right out, and the young growths tied in their full length in the meantime. This gives the young wood light and air, enabling it to ripen, which has a distinct influence on next season’s flowering.