GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3395, 9 April 1919, Page 7

GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Bt D. Taxnock.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. THE GBEENHOTJSE AND NTJBSERY. Continue to put in cuttings of geraniums, marguerites, gazanias, and other herbaceous plants. The schizanthus seedlings will bo well up now, and should be placed up near the glass to prevent them from becoming drawn and spindly. Chrysanthemums are coming on rapidly now, and preparations should be made for housing them. In the first place, the house should receive a thorough cleaning, the Wood and glass should be washed down .with warm, soapy water, and all brick work whitewashed with freshly-slacked lime. Permanent climbers, such as fuchsias and abutilons, should be thinned out, and iiny permanent shading on the glass, if not already thinned down by the weather, Should be washed off to admit the sunlight. After washing and cleaning, the ventilators should be opened right up to allow the house to dry before placing the plants in it. Wash the pots, which are usually pretty dirty, lay the plants on their sides, and »pray them with some fungicide, such as bisulphide of potassium —loz in two gallons M water —or Bordeaux mixture, summer formulae. Bordeaux, however, stains the foliage, and on that account is not so suit- - able as the bisulphide of potassium. Allow the foliage to dry before housing the plants; stand them on boards or a stage, keep the ventilators open whenever the weather is favourable, and maintain as dry and buoyant an atmosphere as possifble. Don't damp the paths, and when watering be careful not to spill the water over the Btages and beds. It is necessary to have a dry atmosphere to prevent the petals from damping and the buds from rotting off, and also to keep the mildew from attacking the foliage. All other plants, except zonal geraniums and plants which can stand a dry atmosphere, should be removed to the frames or other houses. THE FLOWEK GAKDEN. Geraniums have recovered in a most wonderful way. and both the zonal and the Ivy-leafed kinds are brightening up the autumn garden. It has been a little bit too dry for tuberous begonias, but the heavy dews at nights will help them, and the fuchsias are proving their usefulness ' in all kinds of weather. They are really Jess trouble than either geraniums or fcegonias; they are easily raised from cuttings, put in when they commence growth in early spring, and by the following season these plants are ready to plant out. The best results are obtained from old pbints, which develop strong, woody stems, and do not need stakes. These are lifted after Sie frost spoils them for the season, and eeled in against a hedge or fence for the winter. In spring, when growth commences, they are lifted, the branches and the strong yoots are pruned back, they are then potted ixp into pots just large enough to admit the Eoots, stood on the stage in the greenouse, and syringed twice a day to encourage the young growth to come away. iWhen hardened-off they are planted out in beds with a suitable undergrowth, such as tuberous begonias, pansies, and violas. Keep dahlias and chrysanthemums tied up, seed pods picked off sweet peas ac.d scabious, and remove all aiuruals as they pass out of flower. Hydrangeas are very ■useful for the summer and autumn garden; their massive heads of blue, pink, or white flowers are much admired, arul when cut with long stalks are useful £ot filling large bowls and vases. In some cases there are a great many small fertile flowers with a few sterile ones round the margin; in others the flowers ore all sterile together, and this is the kind which is most admired. Hydrangea Hortensis is a native of China, and is hardy in and around Dunedin, where ft makes a fine specimen for a lawn or the iuargin of a shrubbery. In order to crood heads it should be pruned baok in the winter, or cut back almost to the ground; but, owing to the

cold weather in the ppring, growth was slow in starting this season, and I am afraid that many of the young ahoots won't flower. Plants which were not cut back have flowered well, and . they should receive plenty of water and applications, of liquid manure once a we 3k. Some gardens produce only pink flowered varieties, and others only blue, and to get them to come blue some people water their plants with sulphate of iron, others top-dress them with iron filings, and others put rusty nails and pieces of iron in tins and water with the rusty water which is drawn off. There are quite a number of varieties, many with Japanese names, and the white variety Thos. Hogg is widely cultivated. Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora is also in flower at present, and when it does well it makes a fine bed <St group in the front of the shrubbery. It likes a moist position and good rich deep soil, and it grows into a small tree up to 25ft high if left alone, but in gardens it is found better to cut back to within lin of the old wood every winter. After pruning the bed or group can be mulohed with well-decayed stable .or cow manure, which can be covered with fresh soil or dug in in the spring. To get large panicles the plants should be well watered during dry weather and given liquid manure once a week until the flowers wither. Hydrangea Hortensis is easily raised from outtiags made from well ripened wood and placed in boxes or the cutting-bed # along with the other hardwood cuttings in the autumn, but H. paniculata is rather difficult to propagate. Hydrangea scandens, or petiolans, is a climbing plant which has the rare merit of dinging to the wall when it is given a good start by nailing it up for the first two or three years. In summer it bears large bunches of white flowers.

Bamboos or giant -grasses are very beautiful and graceful when grown in the shrubbery, in bordor3 by themselves, or planted either by the margins of ponds or streams, or by the woodland walk. They like a good, rich, well-cultivated soil, where _ they can get plenty of moisture during their growing season, and they should be mulched with cow manure or well-rotted stable manure in early spring before growth commences. They are propagated by division, and bits of the old stools, if taken off with plenty of roots attached, will grow at any time except during the winter months. Some kinds ar« prone to spread, and the young shoots come up several feet away from the old plants, but there are others which hardly spread at all. The varieties which don't spread are useful for making hedges and windbreaks; they are always graceful, don't require clipping, and the stems, which can be cut out from time to time, make very useful flower stakes. Some of the varieties which will thrive in Dunedin are Arundinaria Anceps, A. Falconeri, A. Japonica, A. Nitida, Bambusa pn.lmata, Phyllostachys Castillonis, Nigra., Q'..ilioi, P. Viridi-glaucescena. IHE VEGETABLE GABDEN". Continue to dig and store away potatoes, and to plant out cabbage and other greens for the- early spring. All spent crops can •be ceared off, and unless they are attacked by some disease they should be put on to the compost heap to rot. A compost heap is most useful in the vegetable garden, and it is a safe rule never to burn anything which will rot. By building the heap in an inconspicuous part of the garden, where it is screened off with evergreen shrubs or a hedge, dusting off a layer of lime from time -to time, and after it is completed in the autumn covering it with about six inchea of fine soil, there won't be any smell, and it can be dug in during the winter or early spring. Onions can be harvested now, but unfortunately they have not done so well as usual; maDy have thrown up flower stems, and others" have thick necks. Pull them up, and if the weather is drj* leave them spread out on the surface of the soil for a few day*. To hasten ripening they are often bent over, or their necks are twisted. After they are thoroughly dried and ripened they can bo tied up by their top 3 into ropes, which can be hung up in a dry, airy shed, or their tops can be twisted off and they can then be spread out on shelves or trays.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Tussock."—Large deoiduoua trees can

be transplanted quite safely provided they have not been in their present position too long, or if they have been prepared for shifting by having their roots cut round during the previous season. To shift a tree, say, 20ft high, a ball of soil and roots from three to four feet in diameter Would be neoessary; but if the trees have to be transported some considerable distance it would be necessary to carefully removo most of the soil in order to reduce the weight. The largest trees you would bo likely to get from a nursery would bo from 12ft to 15ft high, and these could be transplanted quite easily without soil. To get a ball of soil with the roots it is necessary to dig a trench to three feet deep all round the stem and at least 18 inches out from it j excavate under the ball, to cut the roots which grow straight down, and bind up the ball with sacks or mats to keep it together. 'When preparing the hole, dig it at least two feet larger than the ball and deep enough to place it a few inches deeper than it was before; and if the soil is poor throw it out altogether, and plant in some good turfy top Bpifc soil, but don't mix in any stable manure. Place the tree in position in the middle of the hole, with the worst side next the Bun and if possiblo the best side towards the prevailing winds, for a tree has always a tendency to grow towards the sun and away from the strong winds. If the roots are without soil put in some fine stuff, and shake the tree to work it in among the fine roots, then tramp it firmly, pressing- it inwards towards the roots, but do not tramp directly on top of them, until the soil is nearly all in. Keep on adding layers of soil and tramping them in until the hole is filled • then lovel over and leave, the surface loose. If the soil is very dry, and watering is necessary, this should be done before the hole is filled right up, and it can h& left -"for a day or so before completing the filling to allow the water to soak in. I should also have mentioned that if the ends of the large roots are bruised they should be trimmed with a sharp knife, and if necessary tarred over to prevent decay. A newly-planted tree "should bo staked, and we find we can make a useful tree-guard and stake it at the same time by driving in fovir stout stakes at equal distance apart, and bringing them nearly together at the top with a piece of stout wire. The tree is then tied to the wire in four directions. More than one tie has to give way before it can rub. Where rabbits are troublesome wire-netting can be fastened round the outside of the four stakes. When email trees are planted • for shelter it is better to plant them against the side of the hole than in the centre, and the soil must be rammed as firmly as possible.