THE GARDEN

Southland Times, Issue 19508, 6 May 1922, Page 7

THE GARDEN

(By

“Horticola.”)

SHRUBS CONTINUED.

Aloysia Citriodora, lemon scented Verbena, is a fine little shrub, well worth a place in the garden. Amygdalus Persies, double white, double crimson, and double pink. This is a handsome spring*flowering shrub, having bright flowers, and is suitable for a small garden. Cut back after flowering to promote blooming wood for next season. Amelanchier Canadensis and Sanguinea, are very good shrubs, flower early in spring and show highly coloured foliage in autumn. Buddlea Veitchiana is a fine flowering shrub with bright mauve-violet flowers six to eight inches long. The thorns (Crataegus) are the well known May. There are several fine garden varieties; one of the best is Paul’s Double Scarlet, and there are also double white and pink, as well as a good single scarlet. They are among the best of small trees, and are suitable for all kinds of gardens. There are some beautiful varieties amongst the Almonds, Apples, Cherries, Peaches and Plums. A few of the best are Prunus Cerasus, Prunus Padus, Primus Floribundus, and Prunus Schiedeckeri. The Apple-Crab is a very pretty shrub, both as regards flowers, and later in the year the fruit. One of the best varieties is John Downie. Yellow Kerria.—There is no more cheerful shrub in the spring than the Yellow Kerria Japonica, and it is well worth growing. The double flower is much superior to the single, as it grows more vigorously, and the blooms are brighter. There are several varieties of Heaths, such as Erica Carnea, Erica Arborea, and Erica Pyramidalis. Vulgaris (Scotch Heather). —Vulgaris Alba, a white variety, is well worth having in the garden. Choisya, has bunches of white flowers much like orange blossoms. It is a very popular shrub. Cornus Baileyi, Mascula Sanguinea and Saricea, commonly called American Dogwoods, have highly-coloured foliage in autumn.

Philadelphus (Mock Orange).—There are a number of varieties of this fine, sweetscented shrub, and it is very useful for cutting purposes.

Japanese Maples.—These are dwarf-grow-ing, hardy little trees, and if planted in a sheltered position do very well. There are a number of varieties, with leaves from a pure white to pink and dark purple. One or two of the best are Abropurpureum Variegatum, bright crimson; Nishiki Casane, lovely green leaves, mottled with yellow Abropurpureum, dark purpleleaves and of dwarf growth. Another Japanese shrub worth planting is the Tree Paeony. It is a handsome plant and will grow on any good garden soil, if given plenty of water in summer. They are of all colours—white, red, pink, and the loveliest shades of salmon; Ad-zuma-Niskiki, large single crimson, fringed with yellow; Fukashigi, crimson, very fine; Hanatochibana, pink, light tips, Kasuminomori, a beautiful pink, very delicate. We can hardly rely upon Camellias, outdoors, except in sheltered places, where the soil is well drained, and is a good loam, but if a good position is available, they are well worth the little extra trouble which may have to be expended on them when in flower, so it is well then to place a piece of scrim over the plant. Brugmansia Sanguinea is a fine shrub, with a trumpet-shaped red and yellow flower, which hangs downward from the branches. It requires a warm, sheltered corner, and if grown outside, should be cut right down each year.

Ilix (Holly).—This is one of the best evergreen trees we have. Golden Queen and Silver Queen are two very good varieties. It is a fine sight at this time of the year to see the holly loaded with bright red berries.

The season for tomatoes is nearly finished (says the “Star” Garden Annual) and those who have late fruit still hanging upon 'he plants will find that by the removal of all or nearly all the foliage lhe fruit that is left upon the plants will ripen very much better. As growth is about finished, there is no advantage in leaving on the leaves; on the -ontraiv, they keep the fruit back rather than other .vise. Re-

move all foliage and keep the house dry and airy. If only a little fruit is left, the best way will be to cut off portions of the stems with the fruit attached and hang them up in the warmest place to | ripen. The plants mi ' cn be pulled up with advantage, th: -g a longer rest to the soil. It is :. _ .plan to dig up the soil and sow it cc.v i at once with Cape barley or mustard, and when the crop is well grown dig it in. This green crop dug

in has been proved to surpass for tomato cropping the ordinary method of manuring. The apple, of all our trees, is perhaps, the most valuable, as its fruit accommodates itself to many purposes, and can be stored for a prolonged'time. Moreover, its medicinal properties are not to be despised; the old adage asserts that: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” There is .no dbubt that the apple is useful as a brain and nerve tonic, containing, as it does, a large uercentage of phosphorus and malic acid in an easily assimilated form. It is also claimed as a corrective for a sluggish liver (whence the time-honoured custom of serving apple sauce with roast pork) and as a remedy for rheumatic and gouty troubles; while it is said that where cider is the common beverage the disease of stone (calculus) is practically unknown. The apple tree requires good, deep soil—a rich, sandy loam is the best—and as the tendency of its root growth is to run just below the surface it does not usually require root-pruning or lifting. Manures that will mix:—Slag and nitrate of soda; superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia; basic slag and lime; bonedust will mix with any other manure; potash will mix with all manures. Manures that will not mix: Slag and superphosphate; slag and sulphate of ammonia; slag and blood manure; superphosphate and nirtate of soda; superphosphate and lime; lime and stable manure

The real wire-worm is the larva of two or three species of beetles called Elater, and is about an inch long, as thick and tough as a piece of whipcord, in colour a shining brown-yellow. He bores into the underground part of plants of every kind; and it is a poor consolation, when at length you dig up your carnation or your potato that has been looking unhappy for some time, to find wire-worms stuck like yelow pins half in and half out of the root. Stirring the soil is the best help against him; in no case put on your ground any turf-soil freshly taken from a paddock. Fresh turf simply swarms with wire-worm; it must be stacked and left alone at least one season; and then in digging it out for use, the wire-worms should be sharply looked for. No insecticides have any effect upon wire-worm; a bang between two hard surfaces is the only way to be rid of them. In his address at the Nurseryman’s Conference, held in Christchurch recently, Mr Tannock, of Dunedin, read a paper on “Impressions of Horticulture in Europe,” from, which the following is an extract: - Kew is a many-sided institution, it is the home of systematic botany, new plants are constantly being named and classified, and old ones re-named, much to the confusion of ordinary laymen, by a staff of systematic botanists in the herbarium, and in the open air and the various glass houses a most complete collection of living plants, representing the different types of the world’s vegetation is cultivated. The economic side is not neglected, and in the four museums a most complete collection of the various plant products both in the raw and the manufactured state is collected together, and the staff are constantly supplying information about new products and collecting and distributing seeds .and plants to the various colonies. One section is devoted to British forestry and forest products and it is most interesting and useful. The decorative side is the one which most visitors admire. Kew is well laid out and represents in a very complete way the English style of landscape gardening, just as the gardens at Versailles represent the French. The rock garden, az alia garden, rhododendron dell, water-garden, bamboo garden, and green house with the flower beds and the extensive lawns and woods carpeted in spring with daffodils and blue bells, all combine to make a wonderful picture of series of pictures and the Londoners thoroughly appreciate and take full advantage of their national garden. Both Kew and Edinburgh are stacked with new plants, which have been recently introduced, chiefly from the mountains of India and China, many of which are hardly hardy at Home, but they would thrive in New Zealand, and the Home botanists are anxious for us to have them. Sir Isaac Bailey Balfour told me that there were between 600 and 700 new species of rhododendrons alone, and I should say there were at least 100 species of primulas, also new iris, lilies, and all sorts of trees and shrubs. Many of these rhododendrons and primulas are capable of great development at the hands of the hybridist and we have in New Zealand as near as possible the natural conditions to get the best results, and we know that raisers of rhododendrons have already achieved considerable success, Mr Martin, of Fairfield, having raised the Marquis of Lothian, which is still one of the finest of that type. These rhododendrons vary in height from a few inches to forty feet or more, and the primulas from less than an inch to five or more feet, so there are varieties to suit all tastes and positions. Kew is also an advanced school of horticulture, young men and women who have had five years’ practical experience in gardening, are taken in for a two years’ course. During that time they work in the various departments and attend lectures in economic, geographical and systematic botany, physics and chemistry and plant pathology. I have described Kew at some length because I i think there is a distinct need for a na- ! tional botanic garden where as complete | a collection of the native and exotic plants ' as possible should be grown, and this gari den, combined with the School of Horticul--1 lure, and probably the School of Forestry, J would make a fine combination.