THE GARDEN

Southland Times, Issue 21660, 23 March 1932, Page 12

THE GARDEN

WORK FOR THE WEEK (By J. A. McPherson.) The Greenhouse. The forcing of bulbs must be taken in hand immediately if early blooms are required. Anyone with a cool greenhouse can’ quite easily have very early blooms at practically no expense/ Choose good sound and large bulbs or Narcissii preferably strong growing varieties such as Emperor, Empress, Barri Conspicuous or Maximus. Place the bulbs fairly close together in six inch pots or deep boxes allowing the tops just to reach the surface of the soil. Ten bulbs will fit into a large six inch pot while a hundred can be accommodated in a petrol case opened on the side. When they are all potted up stand pots and boxes close together outside and cover them with a six inch layer of ashes or fine coke dust. Here they will be safe for the next two months and at, the same time will root rapidly and gradually commenced to push up their tops. In early spring remove the ashes, bring the pots and boxes into the greenhouse where there is plenty of top light and they will provide plenty of bloom w’hich will be the envy of many. When forcing Hyacinths only half the bulb should be buried under the soil; but the after treatment is the same. As nights become colder increase the fire heat and close the greenhouse ventilators early in the afternoon. Be careful with the watering frorii now on and do not let pots become sodden or waterlogged. Trap earwigs, they will cause much harm when it is time to house Chrysanthemums. The Flower Garden. Autumn in the flow’er garden is really a delightful time in Southland. Summer blooming plants last twice as long and their blooming with true autumn flowering plants makes quite a riot of colour, the labour expended being well worth while. It is quite common to see Nemesia and Stock competing with Michaelmas Daisies and Dahlias for pride of place, a scene that cannot be produced further north. Lobelia cardinalis is in full bloom this week and its long spikes over two feet in height clothed in large scarlet blooms is a very fine sight. Among the Dahlias can be seen miniature decorative varieties that for colour and usefulness outclass their large blooming sisters. Among the former can be noted Dazzle a semi-single of medium size and the nearest approach to a scarlet in Dahlias that one could wish for. Then there is Jersey Beauty of the same type but of the richest pink shade. A miniature cactus is the pretty salmon pink and white tipped variety Sunshine, very well named. Muriel is a small bronze-yellow of attractive form, these few are named to show that among the many new varieties of Dahlias there are besides the huge bloomed varieties, others of attractive colour and size for use in cutting and decorative work and for planting in gardens where space is limited. Where Asters have been planted in fresh soil they have done well; but a little late i his year for show purposes. Doronicum is a very early flowering vellow herbaceous daisy blooming with the Narcissii. It will be necessary to split up the plants this month and replant vigorous portions taken from the outside of each clump. Ornamental grasses and everlasting flowers such as Helichrysums should be cut before they are past their best and hung up in small bunches away from the light to dry. They are most useful for winter decoration indoors when flowers are scarce. Do not neglect the rose beds; but keep the hoe going and spray with potassium sulphide for mildew’ and black spot. Affected leaves should not be allowed to lie about; but all should be gathered up and burnt. Lift, cut back and divide for replanting Violas and Pansies. Autumn sown Sweet Peas will be about three inches high. If thickly sow’n they must be thinner! out and every care taken to ward off attacks of slugs. Keep the surface soil round them well stirred; they resent excessive moisture at this stage. Hasten on the work of topdressing and renovating lawns. The compost heap in many gardens is by now growing steadily in size. Keep the heap firm and have the sides straight in order that the top presents a large surface for adding a layer or two of soil and an occasional dressing of lime. The more compact the heap, the quicker it will rot. Hardwood Cuttings. The end of March and the month of April will be found the best time to make and insert cuttings of roses and all other hardwood trees and shrubs. Make the cuttings about a foot long, remove the lower leaves for two thirds of the distance up the stem and complete the job by making a good clean cut for the base of each cutting just below a joint or node. Clematis is the oidy plant that requires internodal cuttings, that is to say the base cut must be made midway between two joints or nodes. When inserting the cuttings see that two thirds of their length is below’ the ground and above all things tramp all hardwood cuttings very firmly into the soil. Freshly manured or very rich ground must not be used. Trouble with Marrows. A number of readers have had failures with their marrow plants this season. It seems that the young marrows rot off at

the tips about a fortnight after fertilization has taken place. The rotting Is caused by a mildew, possibly the powdery mildew that attacks Wullflow’er plants. It is always on extra strong growing plants that the trouble occurs. This leads me to suggest that far too much nitrogenous manure is used thus leaving the plant and its many tiny young marrows very very soft and therefore open to attacks of mildew. Some sulphate of potash and superphosphate will correct this soft growth and put body and stamina into the plants. As a further preventative I suggest that as soon as the flowers die and can be easily rubbed off, the ends'of the marrows be dusted with flowers of sulphur for no type of mildew can grow where sulphur is. Try this next season and let me know the results. The Vegetable Garden. The bulk of the work in the vegetable garden at this period of the year is general attention to winter green crops, the hoeing up of Celery and Leeks and the lifting and storing of potatoes. Turnip rooted Beet is best, dug when mature, for if left- too long in the ground they become coarse and stringy. All potatoes required for seed should be immediately set up in boxes to green and sprout. Do not stand the boxes away from the light, for this they must have at all costs. An open shed or under a hedge where no frost penetrates is quite a good place. If the crop has been a small one and the tubers not true to type, it is far better to discard them altogether and spend a little more money to purchase certified seed. The Agricultural Department have a sjilendid certification scheme going in Southland and when it becomes better known I doubt if anyone will buy seed other than that duly certified. Certified seed on the whole means general freedom from various diseases (including several classed as virus diseases) and a much larger crop return per acre. Autumn sown Peas and Onions require attention at this period to keep them free from weeds. If the Peas do not show signs of flowering then there is every chance of success provided the soil does not become too cold and waterlogged in spring. Answer to Correspondent. “Lettuce.” Webb’s Winter Green and Winter White are two hardy varieties of Cos Lettuce. Webb’s Immense Hardy Green is a winter variety of the cabbage type. »?i>ecial varieties of Messi’s Sutton and Sons to stand the winter are: Imperial, Arctic, Early Spring, Stanstead Park, and Hammersmith Hardy Green, all of which are of the cabbage type. The variety, All the Year Round, should not fail with you as it does. Do you have an excess of manures in a waterlogged soil in winter? Hie reason for your special Lettuce not setting seed can be put down to greenfly which carries various viris diseases from plant to plant. Some viris diseases have been proved to cause sterility as well as the well-known potato diseases such as mosaic and leaf-roll. Viris diseases will affect tuber production by as much as 509 b Sow the rest of your seed in spring but give a pinch to someone in another district and keep greenfly in check. It has lately been found that greenfly carries a viris that causes the “breaking” of Tulips. WINTER BLOOMING IRISES This season the Algerian iris threw up plentiful flowers almost before November began, and it has steadily continued their production (writes H. A. Tipping, in the Sunday Observer). Thus an easily managed species helps us to realize the contention of the late W. R. Dykes that the English garden may well have examples of Illis large family in bloom during ten months of the year, if not twelve. Among those whose normal flowering season.is the late autumn are several, such as the Palestine I. vartani, that do not approve of our climate. The bulb does not mind frost, but if the winter kills the leaves —and a hard winter will do so—the bulb cannot reform for next season, and even if it does it may fail to get the baking which matures it in its native habitat. Thence, therefore, it needs annually importing, which accounts for its rare presence even in the gardens of our iris specialists. More manageable are I. histrio and I. Histriodes, natives of Asia Minor, that, with us, send up buds as the year ends or opens, but flower in an almost leafless stage. Thus the afterwards ample foliage is better able to continue its feeding work through the winter, and the bulbs set in a dry, south-facing, rock-garden pocket, may continue to thrive and flower for years. Still more Is this the case with Iris reticulata. With a little care and right placing it. will not only survive, but multiply. In his Hertfordshire garden the Rev. Hollo Meyer finds it almost a selfsowing weed. He has, therefore, taken to growing it for market purposes, and displays the blooms in mass formation at early spring shows of the R.H.S.. There are two wild form sof this Caucasian bulb, the type reticulata with deep purple blooms, and the red purple form called Krelagei. But of late times a pal? blue garden variety called Cantab has appeared, very choice and beautiful, and it is on this one that Mr Meyer concentrates. Light soil, good drainage, and all possible early-season sun are the chief desiderata of this invaluable Februaryblooming species. Then we get a series with a curious root habit. It is called the "Juno” class and has, as Mr Dykes put it, “numerous roots like small radishes attached to the bulb.” Iris alata, common by the streams that flow’ seaward from the Mount Etna Range, and Iris persica, with its curious short-stalked greeny-blue flowers, belong to this class and readily withstand our winters as regards roots and leaves. But February and March blasts and downpours may be too much for their elegant fairy flowers, and a hand light, or even just a sheet of glass, to put over them when the storm signal is up is a useful means of ensuring their perfection and duration.

These and their like are caro-needlng and fanciful compared to that vigorous and robust species which we call Algerian. It is not bulbous, but rhizomatous, and has a power of quickly increasing it rhizomes to a big matted mass. The first name given to it was I. unguicularis, but another botanist soon after called it I. stylosa, a name as botanically descriptive of it, much pleasanter on the tongue, and therefore most generally used. It has mainly reached us from Algeria, but there are forms in Greece and by the Black Sea so similar, except for narrower leaves, that they may well be classed within the same species. Iris stylosa is best set with its back against a south wall—a greenhouse wall for preference —and the soil should be fairly light and well drained. The presence or absence of lime is immaterial to it, perhaps like the June irises, it prefers its presence. Its flowers, with tubes of great length, on short stalks, are large and elegant, but fragile. Yet they choose the raging months of winter to expand. Their b«>t use, therefore, is for cutting, as they can be picked in bud before any damage comes to them. Have a vase of them in all their expanded elegance in your room while all without is cold and tempestuous, and your non-ex-pert friends will not easily believe you have gathered them from the open.