GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3754, 23 February 1926, Page 11

GARDEN & ORCHARD.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. By D. Tannock. THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Tuberous begonias will be providing the principal display in the greenhouse at present, and they will require constant attention to keep them flowering- Pick off the old flowers regularly, pinch out the side buds on the double varieties and stake oat the stems to give the blooms room to develop. The first batch of cinerarias will now be established in their pots and they can be placed out in a cold frame, where they will be shaded during the heat of the day. but the sashes can be removed altogether during still nights. Chinese and other primulas can be potted up into three inch pots, but they are better stood on a bed of ashes in a cool house. Cyclamen are beginning to grow again and they should be stood on a bed of ashes, given one good watering and frequent sprinklings daring dry weather. Freesias are useful for forcing, they provide a welcome addition to the grenhouse plants in the spring and their perfume is always appreciated. Freesias are natives of South Africa, and though there are many coloured varieties, Freesia refracta and its variety albs are still favourites. The bulbs can be removed from the pots of dry earth in which they have been resting since they ripened off, and the most desirable ones selected for potting up, the small ones being put into boxes or planted out in a dry warm part of the rockery or flower garden. If they were neglected after flowering last season and the bulbs are small and miserable it will be better to throw them away and to purchase supplies from the seedsmen. They are not expensive. The soil mixture will consist of three parts good fibrous loam, one part leaf mould, one part well-decayed manure or dry cow manure, rubbed through a sieve, and bone meal at the rate of two six-inch potfuls to a barrow load of the mixture. Six-inch pots are the most useful, but good results are obtained in five-inch size, large pans or small tubs. Put two inches of rough material in the bottom of the pots for drainage, and over it some of the rough soil. Fill up the pots to within two inches of the top, making it fairly firm, and place nine bulbs in each. Distribute them evenly, press them into the soil, and cover with an inch of the soil, pressing it firmly and leaving the surface smoothe and even. Freesias do not require to be buried in ashes or soil, but they can be given one good watering. They arc then stood in a cold frame and covered with a shaded sash THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. The season has not been favourable for tender vegetables and out-door tomatoes and unless we get considerable heat now they will not do much. For compensation we have abundance of lettuce, and cabbage and cauliflower, free from blight. This is very important for we are sure of supplies of winter and spring greens. It is not too late to plant out cabbage, broccoli, and leeks and to prepare ground for sowing onions, turnips, and lettuce. Store potatoes should bo dug. Thin and regulate the young wood on peaches and apricots which are trained on walls or fences, cut away old raspberrv canes, and thin out the young growth in gooseberry and current bushes. THE FLOWER GARDEN. The roeent moist weather has encouraged the eeods of woods to germinate, and it will be necessary to keep the scuffle hoe busy in the beds and borders. Dahlias will require constant attention, old flowers should be picked off, the shoots thinned out a bit, and looped up the stakes, and liquid manure once a week will bo found beneficial. Perennial phlox have done well this season, and are still making a fine display. They are usually planted in groups in the mixed border or in borders by themselves, and they seem to like a good mulching of well-rotted stable manure, which keeps the soil cool and moist.

Gladioli are making a fine display, and their renewed popularity is well deserved. No doubt this is largely due to the new types and shades obtained by crossing the garden varieties with gladioliis primul mis. Ibis new race is free flowering, the stems are strong and firm, the colours of the flowers varied and pleasing, and when these qualities are combined with the ease with which they are raised from seed, their popularity as garden plant* is understood. Seedlings flower in the second year from seed, and quantities of little corms, called spawn, which arise round the old corms, soon reach tho flowering stage. The raising of gladioli from seed is most interesting, and already New Zealand growers have obtained menv good varieties. Though the flower stems of gladioli are strong it is desirable to provide each with a neat bamboo stake to keep them upright. LAYERING CARNATIONS. Carnations have again demonstrated that they are good plant* for mixed weather, and they are still making a fine display. Unfortunately for us they are a bit later than usual, and as the second crop of roses is well up to time they are both flowering together, a tiling we do not desire. We depend on their following on after the first crop of roses and continuing the display until the second one is on. It is quite possible to root carnations from cuttings, but layering is much more satisfactory, and as it is not at all a difficult operation to perform it is usually practised. Layers root while still attached to the parent plant, and they make good plant* which are sure to flower by the planting season. The tools and materials required for layering are a good, sharp, thin-bladed knife, a hand fork, a pau to kneel upon, a number of pegs made from stout binding wire, and a quantity of soil composed of loam one part, leafmould one part, and one part of sand and lirm rubble. The stakes are made from stout binding wire cut into six inch lengths, and bent over to form a fQur-inch leg on one side and a two-inch one on the other., With the hand fork loosen up the soil round the plants, and if the layers arise up the stem, mound it up a bit. Over the loosened soil spread a laver of the prepared soil two inches in thickness, and select the sheets (nailed grass) which are to be nut down, limiting them to six on one plaint. unions there are special reasons for layering the lot. There is usually n bend in the shoot and at it remove the leaves from one or two nodes or joints. Holding the shoot r-mly with 'he’left hand, insert the knife p’innt halfway between the two nodes which have been uncovered, and. cutting ” awards and inwards until the blade is halfwav through the shoot, continue the cut halfway to the next node. This usually means a cut at least half an inch long halfway through the. stem and up through one node. Keening the tongue away from the stem with the blade of the knife, press it carefully down- into the soil, and when partly buried fix firmly in position with the peg. Next put sufficient soil on top of the layers tc cover the pegged-down part to a depth of at least an inch, cut away the tips of the leaves, and give a good watering. Watering will have to be done regularly should the weather he drv until, roots are formed, when it can he discontinued. The layer being attached to the parent continues to draw supplies of moisture and plant food through the half-cut stem, which, when elaborated in the leaves, is returned to the roots. Portion of this accumulates at the end of the tongue, the cut surface is covered with a layer of cullus, and roots are formed at the node. Care has to be tak to prevent the tongue from being pressed up against the stem from which it was cut away, for it will simply heal up and refuse to form roots. Pinks can be propagated by means of cuttings quite easily, and this is the usual method adopted for increasing the stocks of both the border and the rock garden kinds. Cuttings are made from the young shoots which arise in abundance round the old plants. These are prepared by cutting the stem across immediately below a node or joint, removing the leaves from two nodes and making a cut up through the lower one. Some recommend putting a grain of wheat, or a little bit of the leaf into this upward cut to keep it open, but I do not think this has much influence on the rooting. The cuttings can be put into a specially prepared bed in the open or in boxes of good light cutting soil, similar to those recommended for layering carnations. Make the soil level and firm and spread a layer for clean sand over the surface. It is usually considered the right thing to push the cuttings into the soil, but there is no harm in using a propagating peg for making the holes and pressing the soil firmly round the cuttings. Shade the beds or place the boxes in a frame or cool house until they callus and root formation commences. Penstemens have done very well this season, and they evidently enjoy the cool, moist weather. To get good plants which will flower early next season it is better to put the cuttings in now. Ttmy will root at once and develop into good plants ready to put out in the autumn, and they will commence flowering early ’ ext season. Shoots which are not going to flower are selected as editings, and as these wilt very badly at first it is better to put the boxes in a fairly close shaded frame or a cool house, which can be kept moist by frequent damping of the paths and benches. Geraniums have made very satisfactory growth, and there will be plenty of cuttings, but ; t will be better to delay putting these in for a little to allow the shoots to ripen up. ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT. Mornington, Dunedin.—N".me of specimens: No. 1, Penstemen barbatus; No. 2, Veronica spicata; No. 3, Jasione perennis. Budded roses are not cut over until the winter unless the bud shoots out and we require plants for next planting season.