GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3584, 21 November 1922, Page 9

GARDEN & ORCHARD.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. Bj D. Tahxock. THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. To provide cinerarias and primulas for greenhouse decoration next winter and spring, seeds should be sown now, and as there are never a great many seeds in a packet it is better to sow them in pots or pans. Cinerarias are also very useful for garden decoration during the spring months in positions wheie there is very little frost, and any plants left over when potting up can be planted out in the late summer or autumn. Six-inch pots will be large enough, and these should be washed clean both inside and put, and half-tilled with rough crocks to provide good drainage. The soil mixture should be sweet and clean, with sufficient fibre to encourage root development, but not rich enough to enoout age soft, sappy growth of the leaves. A suitable compost will consist of fibrous loam one part, ieafmould one part-, and half a part of sand. Put this mixture through a jilt sieve, and for topping the pots and covering the seed pass a little through a fine sieve. Fill the pots up to within an inch of U e top with the ordinary soil mixture, making it fairly firm. Add about half an inch ot fine topping, and make it 'both firm and smooth. How the seeds thinly and evenly, and just cover with a little fine soil, which is pressed down and made quite level. It is most important to have the surface of the soil smooth and level to ensure an even distribution of moisture when watering takes places. For those who are not accustomed to watering, or who have no't a watering can with a line rose, it is better to soak the pots up to the brim until the water rises to the surface. Cover the pots with a sheet of glass to keep in the moisture, and with sheets of brown, paper to provide shade until the seedlings appear. Stand on a bench in the warm house, and as soon as the germination takes place shift to a cool house. There are two distinct types of cinerarias—the stellate or starry kind, which grows fairly tali, and the large flowering kind which does not grow so tall, and which has large shapely daisy-like flowers, with very distinct and bright colours. Of the stellataa, Sutton’s Tall Star is the best, and Feltham Beauty is somewhat similar, but dwarfer than the true star. Superb Single, mixed, will provide quite a good range of colours in the large-flowered section. There are also two types of primulas j sinensis—one tall-growing and loose in ! habit, called stellata, of which Coral Pink, j \\ hite. and Crimson Star are the best, but | quite a good selection can be obtained from | a mixed packet. Of the dwarfer, more compact, and larger flowered section, The ' Duchess has pure white flowers, with a zone i o f bright rosy carmine surrounding the I eye. Crimson King. Reading Blue, and j Royal White are also' good. Seeds of hardy perennials and trees and shrubs which have not yet germinated should be put outside in a frame or sheltered border, where they can be kept moist. It is not safe to throw out a pot of seed in less than 12 months, for many kinds take ! quite that time to come up. Continue to j pot up tuberous begonias, and a start can he made to pot the chrysanthemums in their flowering pots. Prepare beds for sowing seeds of wallflower and Canterbury bells by digging in some well-retted manure.

TIIE FLOWER GARDEN. Continue to plant out the summer and autumn bedding plants, and as we expect to get better weather after this, the tender kinds, such as salvia bonfire, tuberous and fibrous rooted begonias, zinnias, irisene. maize, and castor oil plants, can now he put out. Roses are coming on rapidly and will require constant attention in the way of thinning out the buds to one on every slyoot. squashing and syringing green fly. applying Hquid manure and keeping the surface soil stirred up with the scuffle hoe. The ramblers will also require some attention. Young shoots are springing up from the base of the plants, and these should be reduced to the number required to furnish the pillars or fences again, not more than five being retained on each plant. These young shoots should be tied in from time to time to prevent tile wind from breaking them. Carnations are throwing up their flower stems and should receive support of some kind. The most satisfactory method is to use twisted or spiral wires, which are neat and tidy, and it is easy to wind in the stems from time to time. Another satisfactory method is to use neat bamboo si ikes to which the flower stems can be tied with raffia. Herbaceous plants will else, require stakes before the stems fall down and lieconie bent and twisted. It is letter to provide good permanent stakes at once, and for large groups three or five can bo put round the outside, and strings tied across from stake to stake to prevent all the flower stems falling to one side. Twiggy branches can be used for medium growing I hints, and if a few are stuck in among the flower steins as well as round the outside they are kept upright with little display of stakes. Sweet peas will also require to Ire tied nn to their supports from lime to time, and if reasonably good flowers are desired the stems should lie reduced to from three to five on each plant I he licarded iris are coming on rapidly now and are making a good disp ay in the flower garden at a time when flowers are scarce If the plants are mixed and without names, it is advisable to mark the best varieties so that, they may he used when replanting or extending the beds or borders later or>. Perennial lupins are also very useful in the mixed borders at the present time. I he new colours a.re so varied and so much superior to the old kinds that it is desirable to get them Fortiinalelv they are easily raised from seed, which comes fairly true, and the plants flower when quite voung. Another verv satisfactory hardy plant, in flower at the present time is Geurn. Mrs P.-adshaw It is a true hardy perennial and when ! planted in a bed by itself or in la r e,, groups in the mixed border is very effect ire. There is a beautiful new geum called L "lv Htratheden. which is a golden yellow companion to Airs Bradshaw, and which is q u*e as robust and as free flowering and e , bit n s useful. 1 1 can lie grown from tv 'i' ,s so"* !>y Baker’s Godsall. clyerhampfon —(he same firm which sent! out the Sunbeam poppies. G™ as growing very rapidly during this | _?L weather, and it is better to run tho | m ° wer " VPr lf tv. i-,.. a week than to allow it 1

to got long, when it has to be raked up or collected in the grass box. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Continue tho usual work of scufflirug up the soil among growing crops whenever the soil is dry enough to work upon. Make further sowings of peas, French beans, lettuce, turnips, radish, and spinach, and plantings of cabbage and cauliflower. Earth up polices as they require it, and draw tho soil up round the young cabbage and cauliflower plants to steady them. during windy weather. A sowing should now be made of savoys, winter cabbage, broccoli, and curly greens to provide plants for putting out in January after the early potatoes have been dug. A little seed bed should be made up in a sheltered place, near a path, and though the soil should be well cultivated it should not be manured with fresh stable manure unless it is very light and very poor. Make the surface jirm and level with the rake. Mark off i into sections, a space loin to 2ft by 3ft ; being large enough to supply plants for an | ordinary garden and sow each kind on a | section. Label and cover with not more ! than half an inch of fine soil. To protect the seeds from birds they can be coated with red lead or the seedbeds can be covered with pieces of twiggy branches. As soon as the seedlings appear remove the scrub and fix some black cotton over them to keen away the birds which are very fond of young cabbage and cauliflower plants. Tomatoes can be planted out now, and if a warm sheltered border is available they should do alright and a considerable portion of the crop should ripen. They can either be planted out in the soil or placed in tins which can be sunk in the soil, and 1 consider the tin is the most, satisfactory way. T*hey are then better under control when planted out, and their supplies of water and food can be regulated according to the grow til. They can also be grown on a verandah or placed on a path against a wall, in fact anywhere where they will get plenty of sun and where they will be sheltered from the co ] d south-west winds. I usually like to put them in five ca* six inch pots and to keep them in a frame or in the greenhouse until they show their first bunch of flowers. After planting tie them to a good stout stake and give one good watering.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “A. H.. ,? —It is more than likely that the heronias which you planted out" about two months ago were grown under glass, and the sudden change was too much for them. It is also possible that the had been allowed to become dry at the roots, which is fatal. The beronias are quite hardy with us in Dunedin, and I have plants which were raised from seed which have stood several winters. I do not care for jadoo fibre at all, and if you wish to use Jt in your potting soil use it instead oi leafmould. R. YV., Miller s Flat.—The specimen you sent was not in flower and I cannot say definitely what it is, but it looks like a small native pimelia. Balclutha, X our native clematis will proMfuly flower better when tied in a horizontal or pendulous position, and it wl ll n ot need any manure. C. F., Roslyn.—-The specimens have not arrived, but probably the vellow organisms which spoiled your forget-me-not e n T S J W) , re ? mls ' They are very difficult to deal with, and the best method • to P*J ce ba*G> near your plants such as pieces of potato,, carrot, or oilcake These are just buried under the ground and should be examined from time to time, the worms being pulled out and destroyed.

W( in dee FUL EOSES. FRAGRANT DELIGHT The National Rose Society held the most wonderful autumn show in its history cfn September 21 m the Royal Horticultural !1 firSt thou S nt of many visitors on the masses of blooms was of the tune when there was no autumn show be cause tho rose itself, as it was then known would not permit: it. ’ On this occasion roses were almost in too gieat profusion 1 hey occupied more space toTee them ° P<X>B,e who I 1 ragranre of roses drifted out with the overheated air into \ mcent square. It was not always so, even in recent years but Hie quest of. periu me now weighs at least as much with growers as that of form and size, and almost that cf colour. There was one point in the hall where the aroma of rose-muslr was a sheer deli<dit An Essex vicar, the Rev. J. H. Pemberton', ot -Havering atte Bower, is not the least of tne large company of clergyrnim-rosarians and ~e has a pretty fancy for these old scented roses Also he has some notable new ones to his name, and a hybrid musk called Nur Mahal, a flower full of soul which he displayed among the novelties' won him a certificate of merit. The rose of the day came from Ireland Air Samuel M'Credy. of Portadown, who m the past lias given rose-lovers many of their choicest varieties, came with a bevy of new seedling roses cut in his nursery gardens They travelled well (reports the Daily Alail), and among them was a hybrid tea of the clearest, brightest yellow coupled with perfection of form and beautiful dark glossy foliage on reddish-purple stems When full spread the hue of the petals resembled that of tho cowslip, but in the heart of ihe flower there was a ridh, deep gold. He lias named this rose Florence L. Izzard, and it was the only novelty to which the society granted the highest honour, its gold medal.