IN A DUNEDIN GARDEN

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 88

IN A DUNEDIN GARDEN

By Makarekaeeka.

In books of the olden days one often sees mention made of the " gilly-flower." There seems to be some doubt as to w.hat flower is referred to, but the consensus of opinion points to the clove pink, of which the pink, picotee, and carnation are all considered varieties. The last-named and the picotee have been improved and developed by the florists, and now rank amongst exhibition flowers. In a picture which, through the kindness of the owner, recently hung on the walls of our Art G-allery, " Asterie," the artist had depicted in a jar on a window sill . a bunch of carnations which would not have disgraced a Dunedin show, whilst others decorated the maiden's hair. The flower being a native of Italy, the artist was correct in selecting it as a feature of his picture, but I fear he was guilty of an anachronism in depicting such perfect specimens. If I be correct, the rnnlt is but venial compared with many perpetrated by some of the old masters, especially of the Dutch school, and it adds to, rather than detracts from, the beauty of the picture. There are two ways of growing carnations —that adopted by the exhibiting florist, whose aim is to produce a »perfect flower; and the other the more natural way. A bed of carnations which would delight an exhibiting grower is to me a melancholy spectacle. It is composed of a miniature forest of sticks, to each of which is tied a single carnation stem, from which all the buds but one have been removed, and the poor flowers resemble a family of small children with their hair carefully brushed, and on their best behaviour, brought into a room, by a fond mother for exhibition to envious and admiring female friends. How different is the appearance of the same children when engaged in happy, careless play. As different as a bed or clump of carnations when allowed to grow freely and riot amonst one another, when, through the mutual support afforded they are not so untidy looking as when plants are grown singly. When grown in the latter way the flowers which are too heavy for their stems require support, and probably the best support is one formed by three wires carrying two or three wire rings of a diameter sufficient to surround the plant, and when the latter is well enough grown to hide the support it loses the untidy or constrained appearance apparent with other modes of growth. The carnation is, I think, more popular than the picotee, yet to my fancy the deli-cately-fringed edges of the latter are the more beautiful. Judging, however, by the last Dunedin show, the taste for the cultivation of the carnatiop must be waning, as the exhibits, though good, . were very meagre.Is it that tlie charms of the sweet pea have eclipsed those of the carnation? Certainly' the' former has sprung into greater popularity. It was always a favourite flower, but of late years so many new and -charming forms of such varied and delicate shades have been produced that its present great popularity is not a matter for surprise. It is rather a wonder that this charming flower should have been neglected by florists so long. In addition to its pleasant scent it has an airy grace of its own which but few flowers can rival. Some of the shades it would be difficult to describe, and as this has long been a difficulty in dealing with flowers the Royal Horticultural Society is introducing a colour chart so as to standardise coloxire. The various colours and shades, which run into many hundreds, are all numbered, so that if a person described a flower as being rose, shade 5, all a reader has to do is to refer to his colour chart, arid he sees not merely the colour but the exact shade of it —a ■ result which could not be attained by any description by the most facile pen. If the chart be generally adopted it will have many users. It is obviously a somewhat expensive book, but if every public library had a copy what a" boon it would be to ladies in the country desiring to match a ribbon or something of that kind! Instead of sending a pattern she would write- to the draper to send her so many yards of the colour she desired, according to the chart, and there are probably many cases where a pattern is not available, so that at present she has . to depend on description only, and may receive something in return which, while answering her description sufficiently to exonerate the sender., will yet be of such a- hue that it will neither match nor contrast with the dre6s or bonnet she desires to trim. The season of the sweet pea may be made a long one, for autumn-sown flowers come in early, and late sowings prolong the time of blossom. Possibly it may be still further prolonged, as the Tulemby sweet peas, recently introduced from Algiers, are winter flowering. In England, in a ccol house, they come in after the chrysanthemums, flowering from Christmas onwards almost as profusely as ordinary sweet peas in summer. I am afraid, however, that even in our more genial clime they will not be hardy enough to stand the rigours of our winter although the blue Algerian iris often flowers at that season, but it might be possible to create & new race by hybridizing them with the ordinary sweet pea, which, when autumn sown, stands our winter. If the , suggested crop produced merely a pea which flowered with the chrysanthemums it would be an acquisition even if a hardier winter flowering variety were not the result. I always think that the sweet pea, rather than the well-known pear, i 3 deserving the name of Bon Chretien, as it continuallv diffuses a sweet smelling savour, an d though it does not literally, when smitten, turn the other cheek, yet it will repay him who plucks its fragrant flowers, for if "one desires to nave 6weet peas long in bloom .the blossoms must be continually picked. We in New Zealand have several representatives of the great pea familv, ,-*nd thoujrh none of them, except the clianthus and the kowb-ai. can be called showy, some worthy of a rJaoe in a srarcVn. Here is one iust past 'As best which flowers so profusely that it has earned the name of arrandiflora, though the individual blossoms are but small, not to sav tiny. Yet its drooping sprays laden with closely set little pea-shaped flowers of a bright purple and white are very prettv. It "is one of the carmichaehas, or native brooms, as thev are called, and it i« one of the best "and most effective in cultivation. Most of them in the adult stage are quite leafless, but this species bears small trefoil leaves on its flattened branches as well as flowers. It "•rows with tolerable rapidity, and forms a contrast with more leaf/ shrubs. A closely allied species, which was Ion? classed as a narmichaelia, but has now been exalted to form a genus of its own. of which it is the sole rcDresentativA va the coral broom,

known to science as Corallospartium crassicaule. The garden contains a specimen which has just flowered, but it finds a place more because of its curious appearance than because of its beauty. It grows on some of our Otago mountains, where its broad, flattened stem and nearly upright branches, with their deeply grooved surface, rising out of the sparse yellow tussocks, present an unusual and strange appearance. It is mora suggestive of a plant which might be met with in the tropics than on a dry mountain side, although the entire absence of % leaves speaks to its adaptability to withstand drought. Perhaps a Mexican desert, amongst columnar cacti, would seem the most fitting home for it. Its flowers, which are whitish and only about a quarter of an inch in length, grow in small bunches out of the thick stein, and it is in every way a most peculiar-looking plant. Autumn is approaching, a* is evidenced by the advent of bulb catalogues and the reddening of the rowan berries. Net being a tree of very large growth, th* rowan is a suitable one for growth in many garden's which could not "afford room for thp.se of more umbrageous habit cr' loftier stature. Unfortunately, this pretty tree has in recent years become afflicted by what is apparently a fungoid blight. The leaves of the affected branches drop, the bark splits, and ultimately the branch dies. In severe cases the whole tree is affected, and/ I have known of one or two tree>s which were killed outright. They were old trees, and one of them had been grafted on a thorn, and in that case, whilst the rowan is dead, the thorn stock is growing vigorously. This shows that the trouble is not at the roots, and rather upsets the theory I had formed, which was, as I had only observed old trees attacked, that the trees were rendered subject to the Disease from th&ir having- exhausted the soil, and that they might be saved by a liberal mulching of manure. Probablv the younger trees escape because of their youthful vigour, for there is no doubt that a weakling, whether plant or animal, is more liable to be affected by extraneous diseases than one which is full of life and vigour. In this garden a large bush of garrya. eliptica was badly attacked by one of the- scale insects. . I was rather at a loss to know what to do with it, and contemplated removing it, but before doing so I cut it back and manured the ground round it, with the result that it has thrown off the enemy and has grown well. But let us return to the rowan tree, and please, dear reader, pronounce its name correctly, for I have noticed a disposition on the part of some people, who were not 'V-ots, to speak of it as the roean. Why they should do so I do not know, for in English we have "row," a disturbancer, as well as " row," to pull an oar. Be that as it may, the name is the Scotch equivalent for the cumbrous English one, mountain ash, and if used it should be pronounced as in Scotland, where this tree is a favourite. Often amongst the hills a solitary rowan would be the sole decorative adjunct to a lonely shepherd's cot. Probably, however, the fashion of planting these trees in such situations arose more from a superstitious fear than from a love of the beautiful, as the rowan was regarded as a protection from witches. A 6 the. old distich has it — "A red thread and a rowan tree

Will keep the witches awa frae me." If this were the origin of the popularity of- the tree its own charms, found their way to the Scottish heart, and the sentiments of many a Scot were expressed by the Baroness Nairne, when she wrote he.r pathetic song, beginning — " Oh, rowan tree ! Oh, rowan tree ! tnou It aye bo dear to me, _ t Intwined thou art wi' mony ties o hame and infancy. " Lady Nairne goes on to refer to many of the charms of the tree whose praise she sings besides those arising from old associations, but she makes no reference to its value as a charm against witchcraft. In his interesting study entitled "The Feeling for Nature in Scottish. Poetry' , the late Professor Veitch traces the development of the comparatively modern appreciation of the beautiful in Nature from the earliest times, when the powerful and mysterious forces of Nature were the features which most impressed mankind and evoked fear rather than love or admiration. "The feeling .for naturaj beauty and grandeur which now exists," he writes, "has come through our past history as the flower comes slowly on the plant." Methinks it is gocd to have been born in an age which can appreciate the beauty of the rowan tree in leaf, flower, and berry rather than in the days when its chief value lay in its thaumaturgical pn-operties. Other autumnal signs are not wanting in the garden. Dahlias, red-hot-pokers, and other late summer flowers are fading. While the former will maintain a succession of flowers for some time, the bright glow of the pokers has crept close to the top and will presently be finally extinguished. They are showy plants, and at this season, when the splendour of the summer flowers is waning, brighten the •garden. I find that the most satisfactory is the common one, known as Kniphofia aloides, or, as it was formerly and is still sometimes called, Tritomia uvaria. The old generic name is the more euphonious, and it is a pity that botanists have deemed it necessary to replace it by the uglylooking kniphofia. All of the genus that I have tried are very similar in appearance, but mostly duller in colouring, though Ccirallina is good and MacOwcni is well worth growing. . It is a dwarfer and less sturdy plant. The flower spikes are smaller and of a bright orange red. A curious species is Cauliseons, which, aa ita name implies, has a permanent stem, or, to coin «. word, trunklet, which, asthe plant gains in age, branches, each branch being orowned with a tuft of leaves similar to thq|e of the common spociee, from the midst of which the stem springs, but the flower is poor in colour, nor does it, with me, flower anything like so freely as the common one. If you want a climber to grow in a fairly moist and partially shady position you cannot do better than procure the coral barberry, as it is called, though it is not a barberrv at all, but is, supposed to resemble some of that genus in its foliage; hence its scientific name Berberidopsis corallina. The former name means " like a barberry," whilst the latter refers to its_ coral-like flowers. These grow on sprays in clusters thiee < or four inches in length, and are of a brijyht yet deep ooral red. The petals are thick and fleshy, and the individual blooms, which are of a globular form, look as if they had been oarved out of ivory, dyed a pleasing shade of red. When estab-

lished it is a strong—almost rampantgrower, and as a climber which will flower in a shady position is a desideratum it is strange that it should be so rare. That >n the garden is on a trellis facing the west, but shaded by deoiduous trees from the full glare of the afternoon sun, and it has thriven well, and when flowering is a delight.