FALLACIES OF THE GARDEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3972, 29 April 1930, Page 11

FALLACIES OF THE GARDEN.

There is only half truth in the saying that the “ truth will out,” for the greater truth is that those who will find it must seek it. There are many fallacies associated with what can be the most beautiful spot on earth—the garden!

Wrong beliefs, wrong names, and wrong expectations, if swept away will make the garden a better place still to live in. The belief is common that fruit growing is difficult, and yet one may grow some varieties of apples more easily and with less trouble than cabbages. It is wrong to believe that fruit bought at a shop is as good to eat as that picked mature from the tree. Foreign fruit, especially, picked many weeks before it is ripe, is far inferior to that from one’s garden. A regular supply of fruit from one’s own garden may be obtained from bushgrown trees on the stock called Paradise, which, while keeping the tree small, produces fruit buds. A good selection of regular bearing varieties in the order of coming into use would be from the following dessert varieties:•>—January, Early Transparent, a little on the acid side in flavour unless kept on the tree until early February. Then follows Red Astrachan, which ripens its fruits at intervals until Mr Gladstone is ready. Langley Pippin, for the middle of February, a delicious morsel of bottled sunlight. Irish Peach, as juicy as any. James Grieve or Red Coat Grieve maintain the superiority of the home-grown apple until Ellison’s Orange at the end of the month combines juicy sweetness with spicy fragrance. In April and May Herring’s Pippin will be found superior to the better known Blenheim Orange. There are, of course, many other first rate varieties which bear less regularly. It is the natural ambition of everyone to grow Cox’s Orange Pippin, and it is worth the attempt. In kitchen apples one nearly always has fruit on Lord Suffield or Early Victoria, Rev. Wilks, Golden Spire, Stirling Castle, or Lane’s Prince Albert.

“Plant.pears for your heirs” is one of the most absurd of fallacies. My pears in the following varieties nearly always bear:—Dr Jules Guyot, Williams’ Bon Chretien, Fertility, Conference, Marie Louise d’Uccle, and Mrs Seden. Such are grown on the dwarfing Quince stock. It is a fallacy to allow an out-of-work man who calls himself a gardener to “ cut ” or “ prune ” one’s trees hard back so that a lot of growth results in little fruit. A fruit tree, if left unpruned, produces more fruit than one pruned, a very little pruning or “ tipping” of leading growths may be good, hard pruning of trees, except those which make little growth, is bad, yet many amateur gardeners order their trees to be “ cut ” to. make them fruit.

Wrong naming of plants is often the result of not replacing the temporary labels under which they come from the nurseryman with one of a permanent nature.. The rose garden is far more interesting when the varieties are correctly named, but the memory of what they, are supposed to be or of someone’s opinion is less reliable than the name under which they were bought. One pays for a name, and Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel, the best pillar crimson climbing hybrid tea rose, is worth more than, say, the old "red-scarlet climber. Surely it is good to preserve the name, and there are several kinds of permanent labels, such as the Acme and Neeta kinds obtainable at little cost. Failing these, a neat wooden label recently smeared with white paint, preserves a clearly written name for several years. Wrong names are habitually applied to certain plants, as instanced in the quaint custom of calling the Mock Orange (or Philadelphus) a Syringa. A Syringa is, of course, the botanical name for a lilac.

It may be a small matter that the beautiful shrub usually called a Japonica should be called Cydonia. It is wrong to call a plant by its specific name. In the matter of expectations, while it is always good to visit a show and see the best things, if we select a show rose on account of its size we must not expect to have as many large flowers as are produced by varieties carrying smaller flowers. 0

A garden is planted with beautiful herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees. In the course of a few years these grow and spread until, in order to maintain a good standard of cultivation, a ruthless thinning must be made, or the expectation that the garden will remain as beautiful as when first made will end in disappointment. It is a fallacy to assume that because, say, half an ounce per square yard of a special fertiliser produces a good result on a certain crop, then twice the quantity will give even better results. An overdose may be fatal. It is wrong to expect that the garden refuse, such as leaves, cut grass, and tops of herbaceous plants are as beneficial to the soil if burnt. Combustion destroys the humus which is so lacking in many gardens in these days of manure shortage. It is better to let such rubbish rot down in a heap and then dig into the soil.——.A. Swallow, in Gardening Illustrated.