GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3400, 14 May 1919, Page 9

GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Bx D. Tamnock.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Encourage the growth of primulas, cyclamens, and cinerarias, and keep a careful lookout for insect pests. Green fly is very troublesome on both cinerarias and calceolarias, and as it is difficult to get at them on the undersides of the hairy leaves by means of spraying, it is better to fumigate with X.l*. All. To do this they should be shifted into a close house, or a frame which can bo covered over with sacks, where the fumes won't escape until the insects have all been killed. The leaf miner is also troublesome on the cinerarias; the fumigating checks it, and it'can also be destroyed with the point of a knife. A little microecopic mite attacks the cyclamen, causing the young leaves to curl up and the flower stalks to become so brittle that the buds drop off when touched. Spraying with X.L. All spraying liquid or nicoticide" will keep it in check.

As the weather becomes colder it will be necessary to keep the atmosphere in the greenhouse drier, and as the fuel supply is quite a problem it will be necessary to maintain the necessary growth with the minimum of fire heat. Continue to put in cuttings of violas and pansies and other, herbaceous plants. Carnation layers can now bo lifted and planted out in their flowering positions, if these are available, or they can be heeled in in a fairly dry sheltered oosition until spring. There is some doubt as to the advantage of autumn planting; but in and round Dunedin it is quite safe, and to be preferred unless the soil is very wet and heavy. In districts where there is very hard frost it may be advisable to pot up the rooted layers into 4in pots and to winter thorn in a cold THE FLOWER GARDEN. It is wise to undertake any proposed alterations and extensions earlv in the autumn; the soil is fairly dry and easy to handle, and plants put out in the autumn have a chance to commence root action, to heal up all bruised and cut roots, and to become to some extent established before the cold wet weather sets in. The renovation and extension of the rose garden should receive attention at once. New beds and borders can be trenched, and some of the older ones renewed. Even where it is possible to make room for the new varieties, which have to be added to the collection to keep it up to date, by forming new beds, it is wise to lift and replant a section of the rose garden every year-. The soil becomes exhausted after five or six years, and the old plants when, lifted, cut hard back, and replanted in the newlytrenched and manured beds and borders, renew their youth. When renovating an old border the plants should be lifted, the shoots can be cut back to about a foot to 18 inches according to the vigour of the plant; the roots can be trimmed a bit, all bruised and damaged ones being cut off, and they can then be heeled in until the soil is ready. Trenching is necessary either when renovating old or forming new beds and borders. Turn the soil over to a depth of from two feet six inches to three feet deep, break up the soil in the bottom of the trench, and add a liberal dressing of farmyard manure, which should be placed on top of the bottom spit, about 18 inches below the surface. If the soil is very light and sandy it is better to throw it out to a depth of two feet and to fill up with a good heavy loam. Some growers put in a layer of clay before adding the loam; it helps to retain moisture during dry weather, and roses like clay. When the soil is moderately good, it is advisable to throw out a portion of the lower layer or sub-soil and to replace it with good, heavy loam. It is well worth going to some considers!blo trouble when preparing the beds and

borders in the first instance; it saves a lot of time and trouble later on, and renders the objectionable practice of mulching with manure during the summer quite unnecessary. After trenching, the beds and borders can be levelled and left for a fortnight to allow the soil to settle before planting. It is necessary to order your plants early; in fact, they should have been ordered long ago; you then get the pick of the plants and also the chance of getting the varieties you desire before they are sold out. The best of the newer varieties are usually limited in number, and there is always a good demand for them.. Mark out the borders with sticks, allowing a distance of from 27 to 30 inches between the rows, and 24 to 27 inches between the plants in the rows. Open holes about a foot square and 18 inches deep; keep the roots of the plants wrapped up in a piece of wet sack or wet grass, to prevent them from drying up rapidly; trim off the bruised ends of the main roots, and place the plant against the back of the_hole and with the union of the stock and scion about two inches below the surface_ level. Fill in a little fine soil, and shake it in among the fibrous roots; then add the rest of the soil,, and tramp it firmly. If the soil is very wet and sticky it is better to use some fine loam or old potting soil for covering the roots ,and it is most important that the soil be tramped firmly. After planting, the soil can be levelled, and if pansies and violas are to be grown among the roses a little well-rotted stable manure can be spread on the surface and dug in lightly, to provide them with food when they are planted out next spring. Carnations are suitable for growing among newly planted roses, and after applying a light dressing of basic slag or bone meal then cay be planted out. Where frost is very severe, it may be pecessary to protect newly planted roses by sticking a number of pine branches in among them. The best of last year's new roses were Lilian Moore, Mrs C. E. Shea, Henrietta, Clarice Goodacre, Mrs Bryco Allan, Crimson Chatenay, Red Cross, W. C. Gaunt. No doubt some of the others would do well in an ordinary season, but the cold, wet weather in January was too much for them. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. The earthing up of late celery can still be undertaken, and as the asparagus stems will have ripened off now, they can bo cut over and the beds weeded and cleaned up and mulched with about two inches of well-rotted stable manure It is usually wise to cut over the stems before the berries ripen and scatter their seeds; otherwise you will have seedling asparagus plants coming up all over the garden. Rhubarb is a most useful kitchen garden crop, and one which it pays to treat well. It is not wise to leave the plants undisturbed for too long, even when they are well manured every year • the crowns become crowded, and the leafstalks are weaker and less succulent. In ordinary soils four years is long enough to leave the plants in the same position, though on rich heavy moist soil they can bo left another year or two. As it is not desirable to pull any leaves during the first year after planting, where a fairly large area is cultivated a portion, about a third or fourth, should bo lifted and replanted every year, so that the crop may be continuous. Rhubarb will grow quite well in. a cool moist part of the garden, but it should not be shaded either by trees or tho house, and it shoxdd not be too near the roots of trees or hedges. When preparing the soil it should bo trenched to a depth of from two to threo feet, and a very liberal dressing of manure added to each layer of soil, cow or pig manure being better than horse manure. The old plants can be lifted carefully and separated out into singlo crowns, and these won't hurt, though they are left lying about until the newly-trenched soil Bottles. After levelling tho bed, the plants can bo put out at a distance of 3ft apart each way, placing them with the top of the orown or bud just under tho surface of the soil, then press the soil firmly round tho roots. The crowns left over can either bo used for forming new plantations, or they can be lined in ajtid used for forcing later on.

Topp's Improved Winter is a very useful variety, for even though its stalks aro thinner and shorter than many of the other varieties, it is a good colour and flavour, and in a good position it -will produce crops, of leafstalks all winter and light on to about midsummer, when it will ripen off, and take a rest when the other kinds are still growing. .It should receive a liberal mulching of fresh strawy stable manure when growth commences in the autumn, and of course it should be lifted and replanted much earlier than the other kinds. Other good varieties are Mitchell's Early Albert, Myatt's Victoria, Linnaeus, and Hogan'ft Shillelah. Jerusalem artichokes can bo lifted now and stored .away in a cellar in moist sand, or they can be pitted in sand or light soil near a path where they aro easily got during wet weather. They will be all right if left in the soil until required, however, though it is usually better to get out the root crops or trench the soil before winter sets in. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Prickly," South Dunedin.—The leaf forwarded is from Solanum marginatum, a native of Abyssinia. It belongs to the same family as the potato, and the egg plant, and though the fruit is of no value, the plant, which has very handsome foliage, is usually grown by us for subtropical bedding. It is not quite hardy, though it may come through the winter when grown on the hils, with a little protection. M.H.—Potato Onions: In England these are usually planted on the shortest day and taken up on the longest: They are a kind of onion which produces neither seed nor bulblets, and is propagated only from the. cloves or bulbs which are formed underground. . If small cloves are planted they will produce a single bulb of a fair size, but if large bulbs, are planted they will, break up into a number of bulbs of various sizes. They can be planted in June. The tree onion produces bulblets instead of seeds on the end of the stems, and from these it is propagated. " Small bulbs, when planted in the spring will form large ones by the end of the season. This year I planted some Ailsa Craig onions to produce seed, and these formed quite a lot of bulblets among the seed capsules. In mild districts they can be planted in June. Clematis.—Gipsy Queen belongs to the Jackmanii type, and should be cut back in the winter to the growth of young wood.