THE GARDEN

Southland Times, Issue 20786, 29 May 1929, Page 9

THE GARDEN

WORK FOR THE WEEK

(By

J. A. McPherson).

The Greenhouse. Pay careful attention to the ventilating and heating of the greenhouse. Increase the fire heat, and while it is essential to have clean sweet air for' the benefit of plants, avoid unnecessary draughts. An increase of mildew on chrysanthemums and other plants plainly shows that the atmosphere is too moist and muggy. Cyclamen and Primulas arc beginning to push up their flower heads and must be assisted by very weak applications of liquid manure. Stake and tie out Schizanthus and Cinerarias. Store in a frost proof shed all Begonia tubers and Fuchsias. Cuttings in Frames. It is advisable to look through all cuttings in frames, removing dead ones along with any dead leaves. While the weather is sunny the protecting cover may be taken off for a few hours during the brightest part of the day and returning as soon as the afternoon becomes colder. While protection is needed, it never pays to coddle any half hardy cutting.. Keep Planting. With such splendid autumn weather no one should be behind with the work of planting out those subjects so essential for the spring display. Where rabbits have access to the garden- it will be necessary to protect Wallflower and Bellis Daisies (the large flowering daisy.) These plants like Carnations quickly disappear if rabbits are about. Fo.rgetmenots and Polyanthus however seem' to be left alone. The careful gardener makes good use of the present fine weather by finishing all his planting while the ground is in excellent condition, leaving any hedge cutting and pathfinding till such days as rain prevents one from walking on the garden. Plenty of Leaves. Where a plentiful supply of fallen leaves is available these should be gathered and stored in a shallow pit, in order to provide the all too scarce leaf mould for next season. Some time ago I mentioned that Macrocarpa clippings had been rotted down for this purpose and on making further inquiries later find that this form of leaf mould is a decided advantage in the production of 'Vegetable crops and should be also useful for the flower garden, - especially hungry and sandy soils. All members of the Primula family delight in soil which has been liberally supplied with leaf mould. To those readers who cannot obtain leaves, the best substitute for leaf mould is well rotted straw manure (not wood chips) two or three seasons old and able to be taken in the hands and rubbed down very finely without difficulty. Vegetables.

All remaining stems of asparagus should be cut off and all berries which have dropped on the beds carefully collected as these may shoot away and demoralize the beds. Give the beds a good dressing of strawy manure.

Heavy work of trenching is now well forward in most gardens thanks to the assistance we have all received from a good autumn. It now only remains for the frosts to pulverize and sweeten the surface soil. On good warm ground a planting should be made of spring cabbage and cauliflower. These can be planted fairly closely with safety, and every second one cut for use when half grown to allow the development of the remainder.

Give late Celery a final earthing up; but do not leave the tops unnecessarily tied too tight. It is really better to leave the final leaf tops to expand and develop nourishment for the stalks. Fruit. Prepare for the planting of fruit trees, and order the required number as soon as possible. Should the trees arrive before their position are properly prepared, open out the bundles and heal the plants in by opening out a trench anywhere in the garden, put the plants in and cover over the roots. When planting, the holes should be sufficiently wide enough to take all the roots in their natural positions. That is to say the holes will be wider than they are deep and every root must be spread out flat and not turned up or down at the tips. Remove any damaged roots and always be careful never to plant deeper than the plants have been used to in the nursery. A well defined soil mark is easily distinguishable on each tree to act as a guide. Firm the soil round the roots very evenly, leaving no air spaces underneath the plants. Should wet weather occur when the .plants arrive, heal them it till the soil is again in the right condition for planting. The following fruits are especially adapted for good bearing qualities in Southland. Apples. Beauty of Bath, early dessert and good bearer; Bramley’s Seedling, large green- good cooker; Cornish Aromatic, late dessert; Duchess of Oldenburg, yellow striped red, and free from blight; Haw-1 thornden, very old but good cropper, early and juicy; Jonathan, a well known dessert; King of the Pippins, midscaaon white flesh; Rcinette du Canada, good all round apple with good keeping qualities; Red Astrakhan, red skinned crisp and juicy; Rymer large flat greenish yellow and good cooker; Statesman, late cropper good for both cooking and dessert; Worcester Permain, early dessert; Yorkshire Greening, high class apple for cooking and desert (syn Alfrieton-). Pears. Buerre Clairgeau, large late with good flavour; Conference, good midscason dessert; River’s Fertility, a reliable variety with vigorous growth and fruiting in late autumn; William’s Bon Chretien, very juicy midseason variety with white flesh; Winter Cole, a very late dessert of exquisite flavour; Winter Nellis, buttery flesh and the best late variety; Horman’s Pear (syn Knight’s Monarch) a good bearing variety extensively planted in Southland. Plums. The following twelve varieties do well with growers in this province. Cile’s Prolific Damson, Yellow Gage, Black Diamond, Washington, Victoria, Denniston’s Superb, Herron, Orleans Early, Ponds Seedling, Transparent Gage, River’s Early Prolific, Jefferson’s Early Orleans. The Christmas Rose.

Why the Helleborus has been given the name of Christmas Rose I cannot say, possibly because it resembles _ a single rose and also from the fact that in the northern herfiisphere it blooms at Christmas time that being the depth of winter. However, no matter what common name the Hellebores are given, it must be admitted that they are very desirable garden plants which at this time of the year cannot be passed by as of no importance. Soon they will be blooming and providing flowers when most other garden plants are at rest. There are many species ranging in colour from pure white to pinks, reds, purples, and greens; but the latter arc not very suitable for garden purposes. The one most commonly grown is Helleborus niger and much in demand by florists for-cut - flowers. It is a mistake to lift them at the present time. Leave them to bloojn and when the leaves have followed say in December, the plants may safely be lifted and replanted in good moist soil. Only large clumps should be divided, and the plants do best if left undisturbed for six or seven years giving them a mulch of manure each season as soon as the blooms have finished. During very severe weather and to produce perfectly clean white blossoms quite free from blemishes caused by weather and slugs the clumps are better protected with a box over each to which is fitted a i sheet of glass. Often the mistake is made by planting the clumps in among shrubs and allowing the roots of the shrubs to penetrate right through the soil in which they are growing. H. niger is easily recognized by its white flowers and shiny leaves. H. altifoluis is much larger in the leaf and the flowers are j borne on stems a foot high, two to seven

blooms on each stem. The flowers of this species often takes on a rosy colouration. H. colchicus is perhaps the beat of tne crimson flowered species. Its leaves are much larger than H niger being large and coarse with five to seven broad and coarsely toothed divisions. The flower stalks rise considerably higher than the leaves. . If lifted very carefully and placed in large pots just before the buds appW> the Hellebores make charming pot plants ior Winter.

GLADIOLI Of all the flowers which adorn our gardens in late summer, there are none with richer or more varied colouring, and few with so great a range of attractive forms, as. the Gladiolus, wnich has aptly been termed the King of summer flowers. This is really surprising when we realize that as a garden subject, the Gladiolus is a comparatively new flower. While the genus was known to the ancients, and wild forms of it occur in the Holy Land, and in Southern Europe, it began to gain the favour of gardeners only during the middle .of last century, and even then, it was primitive forms from the South African wilderness which first caught the gardeners’ interest. The rose, the chrysanthemum and the dahlia, all have a background of centuries of culture in their native homes, but the only evidence of interest in the gladiolus shown by natives of South Africa is that the fleshy corms were used as food.. When the English and Dutch explorers travelled through South Africa, they found a wealth of wild flowers, none of which were so diverse of colourful as the various species of gladioli. This magnificient flower is the largest genus of the iris family, comprising about 250 species, which number is constantly being added to, as new varieties are discovered. It is not confined to South Africa though 130 of the 250 species are found there. It also extends throughout tropical and Northern Africa, Asia Minor and Central Europe. Though preferring open places, its habitats are most- varied, some preferring swamp lands, some mossy cliffs of the mountain sides, others grow beside the sea, whilst others prefer desert land. The first to be described were the European species (Gladiolus Communis) and the Italian Corn Flag (Gladiolus Segetum.) These species are mostly purple or magenta in colour, and rather small. One of the most attractive of these is the Byzantine Corn Flag, (Gladiolus Byzantinus), which grows about two feet in height, with an upright spike of bright purplish red flowers. More graceful and earlier blooming is the Violet Gladiolus, (Gladiolus Atrovilaceus), the drooping bells of which make attractive cltimps in the rockery. The real foundation stock of our garden hybrids is the Parrot Gladiolus, (Gladiolus Psittacinus), which is found wild in South Africa. It is a tall handsome plant, and grows in a region of moist sunimers and dry cool winters, and is easily adapted ,to summer planting in our gardens. This variety, crossed with a still more vigorous, white, opposite-flowered variety, and with Gladiolus Floribundus, gave rise to the Ghent strain, or so-called Gandavensis race, which flourished from about 1850 to 1880. They were tall growers with long spikes of many open blooms, closely spaced. Some of the bright red varieties of this strain are to be seen in our gardens to-day. In 1875, Victor Lemoine, of Nancy, France, began breeding gladioli, and in 1880, he introduced the first of his Lemoineii strain. These were called the Butterflv Gladioli, and their dark velvety blotchers on the lower petals, together with their brilliant colours, made them immediately popular. This etrain, like every other important novelty among the garden gladioli, arose from the introduction of a new species, the Purple-spotted Gladiolus, (Gladiolus purpureo—auratus), and its close relative, Gladiolus Papilio. Progress in plant-breed-ing is usually slow and halting, but in the gladiolus, each forward step has been a broad one, marked by the introduction 1 of a new strain each time. Man’s part has simply been to choose a promising new species, and then to select the best of the hybrid seedlings from it. The blotched varieties, and all of the blue and violet coloured one, even to-day trace their heritage from Lemoine’s hybrids.

r Up to this time, the garden gladiolus, i whilst handsome and popular, was compar--1 atively small-flowered. An American, John e Lewis Childs, was responsible for the ins troduction of the first really large-flowered s gladiolus, which he brought out as the r Childsii race in 1893. This strain owed its . origin to a dainty little species—Gladiolus i Saundereii, which strangely enough proved - to be the mother of giants. Its wide, re--5 curved petals tendered to open out the flower, and expand it to the fullest, and it 1 also bequeathed to its descendants its darkj dotted white throat. All of our largest and j finest gladioli to-day trace their descent r from this species. Although Childs intro- ■ | duced this strain, the originator was ac- ' tually Leichtlin of Europe, who sold out ; to the American specialist. > Tie efforts of the hybridist have always I been toward larger flowers, with more on I the spike, eliminating all tendencies to- ; ward the slenderness of the wild species. The [ result has been strong, but rather stiff • spikes, but with the introduction of Gladi- . olus Primulinus, a native of Northern , Rhodesia, and successive cross-fertilizings, a ; new race has been recently evolved, with delicate tintings, embracing yellow, apricot, orange, and beautiful blendings of pink and cream. These hybrids have slender stems, and are more graceful in habit—a distinctive feature being their hooded upper segments, characteristic of the Primulinus species which was discovered growing on the moist slopes of the Victoria Falls. Nature had provided this dainty yellow gladiolus with a hood to protect the pollen from the spray arising from the falls. As garden subjects, the Primulus Hybrids are glorious things, and in. the mass, make a good show. As vase flowers, too, they take precedence over the larger and more stately kinds, and there is undoubtedly a bright future for these dainty flowers. A few of the more popular varieties easily obtainable in New Zealand might here be mentioned, a dozen Primulinus Hybrids being given first, and a dozen large-flowered following, due regard being igven to a range of colouring, and only those being mentioned which arc not too expensive for the average gardener. Primulinus Hybrids. Alice Tiplady, a beautiful shade of orange apricot; Arion, large light salmon apricot; Eden, delicate pink, shaded deeper pink; Kitty Grullemans, orange and yellow; Maiden’s Blush, clear shell pink; Myra, large deep salmon and yellow; Orange Queen, rich orange apricot, (almost a large-flowered variety) ; Otranto, yellow, with red line on lower petals; Salmon Beauty, deep salmon, yellow throat; Souvenir, a brilliant yellow; Firefly, a bright red: Xanthia, a rich reddish apricot;. Large-Flowered Varieties. Bertie Snow, lavender pink; Emile Auburn, coppery bronze, cherry blotch; Flora, sulphur yellow; eGrtrude Errey, shell pink, lighter centre with a spot of deeper colour in throat; Helmsdale, scarlet, greyish centre; Hinemoa, light red rose, flaked deeper red, yellow blotch; Imperator, creamy white; Madame Mounet-Sully, white with clean cut scarlet blotch; Marmora, lavender grey, petunia blotch (perhaps the finest thing yet raised) ; Mrs Leon Douglas, begonia pink, flaked scarlet, yellow lip; Mr W. H. Phipps, bright flesh pink, flaked deeper (this variety produces long spikes with many flowers out at one time); Vic tor, brilliant scarlet, white throat.' In addition to the above dozen, special mention might be made of Ivernia, rather more expensive, but an ideal exhibition spike of delicate ivory tint, usually flaked with light pink on the edges of all petals. —From The City Beautiful.