THE GARDEN

Southland Times, Issue 22107, 30 August 1933, Page 12

THE GARDEN

NOTES FROM GLASNEVIN

(By

J. A. McPherson.)

The Greenhouse. Readers who possess a few of those hardy orchids the Cypripediums (slipper orchids) can commence to repot them this month. They like a compost of half fibrous turf and half fern fibre with a little charcoal and sand added. See that there is plenty of drainage in the pots and stand the repotted plants in a little gentle heat for a month, after which they can be placed in a cool house till the late autumn. Bring forward all Fuchsia plants that have been resting and start them into growth. Growth can be arrested if the stems are sprayed once a day with warm water. Repot all plants into fresh soil as soon as growth is active. The best time to take cuttings, of Fuchsias is from now on until midsummer, choosing young growing tips and inserting them in pots of sandy soil. All Begonias may be brought from their winter quarters and started into growth, repotting as soon as root action is active. The compost for these should consist of threeparts turfy loam one part well rotted cow manure and a sprinkling of bone meal and charcoal. Sand is necessary to keep the mixture free and open. Hie crowns of Begonia tubers should be placed just level with the surface soil. All Begonias like a moist humid atmosphere to grow in. Pot Schizanthus into their final pots and give plenty of light. Pot Calceolarias into five or six inch pots according to the size of the plants. Sow seeds of the foliage Coleus, they are wonderful subjects for glasshouse decoration in late summer. Seeds of Asparagus and all annuals must be put in before the middle of September. Harden off all early bedding plants such as Antirrhinums, Pansies and Violas to make room for others coming on. Sow Tomato seedlings in gentle heat and give the seedlings plenty of light. The Flower Garden. Provided weather conditions hold good, this next fortnight will be a busy one in the flower garden. All new planting of trees, shrubs, and hardwood pl?»ds must be completed. Roses planted tills season may be pruned early in September. Do not be afraid to cut very hard back, leaving only two to three eyes showing on the main shoots. This first pruning of . new roses must be severe if success is to be attained. Plant out Violas in beds on borders. A very effective ribbon border can always be made by using several different colours of Violas and such a border will bloom not only throughout the spring but summer too if care is taken to remove spent blooms and see that the plants do not suffer from want of water. The flatness of the border can be broken by providing “dot’ plants here and there of the silverleaved Centaurea . maritime or. the equally attractive silver-leaved Cineraria. . In districts where the climate is mild a start can be made to plant out Cinerarias. They prefer moisture and shade overhead and can usually be accommodated in any moist place under large trees. Where the soil is dry or the area wind-swept it is useless trying to grow them. i

In planting the herbaceous border the taller subjects should be kept to the back, medium subjects in the centre and dwarf subjects towards the front. If this is rigidly adhered to, however, it will produce a rather stiff effect; but this is overcome by bringing some of the medium sized subjects nearer to the front of the border and at fairly frequent intervals, thus breaking the stiffness or shall I say, softening the whole border. Such an arrangement automatically produces bays in which definite groups of plants may, be set out to advantage. When underplanting the front of the herbaceous border with annuals, a whole bay may be devoted to one type of plant or to one colour of flower and thus give a splendid effect when the whole border is m full bloom. . , . Sweet Peas may be planted into their permanent positions and a sharp lookout kept for slugs. The seeds may also be sown in the open and protected from birds while germinating. Lime is essential on all ground where Peas are to succeed. It is a little early to sow annuals out of doors. The ground however must be got ready by forking it oyer and producing a fairly fine seed-bed. If the land is on the poor side then a dressing of blood and bone meal at the rate of two ounces to the square yard will be of great assistance. See that it is well worked into the soil several days before seed-sowing. Work of sowing down new lawns must be attended to at once. It is not necessary to dig the area very deep provided the drainage is perfect. Just lightly fork over the surface soil, remove all weeds and rubbish and make sure that levels are as required. If hollows are to be filled in, see that .the filling is well tramped into position before the final raking prior to the actual sowing of the seed. A very neglected plant for many years was the Montbretia. Now, however, rapid strides have been made in improving both the size and colour of the blooms in this useful late summer blooming plant, so that to-day it is coming back into favour again. Plant the corms three inches deep and space them six inches apart. The new shades include lemon, bronze, buff and salmon colourings, while the size of the blooms have been increased fourfold. Take a look over newly planted trees and see that they are well supported in the ground. Early spring is frequently very windy. The Vegetable Garden. Plant shallots, cabbage, lettuces and cauliflowers. Choose warm sunny areas on which to sow early dwarf peas and beans, make good wide flat-bottomed drills and allow three inch spacing between the seeds. It never pays to overcrowd these crops. Plant early varieties of potatoes as previously advised and set up secondearly varieties to green and sprout. Good varieties that come under this heading and certified seed of which is plentiful, are King Edward, Ally, Arran Victory, Early Rose, Great Scott, Auckland Tall-top, and Aucklander ShortTop. Autumn sown onions may be transplanted into their permanent positions. Fowl manure and soot are both very good manures for the onion crop. Just keep one eye on the weather and proceed cautiously with the sowing of early carrots, beetroot (stumprooted) radish and parsnips. The latter crop requires a long season of growth and the main sowings should be made as soon as settled weather conditions prevail. If leeks, celery and other winter crops are still in the ground, they may be lifted and planted close together in a handy spot in order to permit of the ground they at present occupy being cultivated for other crops.

WORK FOR THE WEEK March was a month of many weathers, but chiefly notable for a persistent cold east wind, following the terrific snowstorm and gale from the north-east in the last days of February. From the middle to the end of the month the weather gradually improved and in the last week there were days of really warm sunshine. Outdoor plants rapidly responded and shrubs were soon prominent. Chief among them were the Forsythias, all of which gave a remarkable display, with the exception of F. suspensa var. atrocaulis, or as it is sometimes called, “Wilson’s blackstemmed form,” which made strong growth last summer but failed to flower as freely as those of more twiggy habit. Early in the month Rhododendrons began to show colour, and a form of R. Fargesii, without spotting on the corolla, was covered with trusses which had begun to fall soon after the middle of the month. It was followed however, by R. oreodoxa, close beside it, by a spotted form of R. Fargesii and by R. praeteritium, all of the same section, closely related to each other and by no means easy to separate. By the last week in March many others were in bloom, notably, R. sutchuenense, an oldish plant from Coombe Wood, with good trusses of large, pale pink flowers; and the variety Geraldii which has a deep red blotch at the base of the corolla. R. calophytum of the ‘Fortunei’ series, but placed in a subseries ‘Calophytum,’ flowered almost simultaneously with R. sutchuenense; it is a fine species and will eventually make a large bush in suitable Rhododendron soil; the leaves are remarkable for their length, and of a light green colour, but our plant is obviously in need of feeding. The flowers are from pale pink to nearly white, with a dark blotch at the base, resembling R. sutchuenense var. Geraldii in this respect. The ‘Barbatum’ series was represented by several specimens, notably, the old Himalayan form long known and valued in gardens for its rich crimson flowers; Rashleigh’s variety, which differs in having yellowish bristles on the leaf petioles; and a form with few bristles, cultivated here for some years under a wrong name, but I believe of Forrest’s collecting. A form of R. Thomsonii recently identified has pink rather than red flowers, but in leaf characters resembles the Sikkim-Nepal plant. The old R. fulgens also flowered at this time, and when well grown is still to be reckoned with; the compact truss of deep red flowers is not unlike that of R. barbatum, but the flowers differ in the nectaries at the base of the corolla, and the leaves are distint; to strict botanists they are, of course, in different series. A beautiful species now well-known to specialists is R. sperabile; this has lancolate leaves, woolly beneath, and produces a few-flowered umbel of deep scarlet flowers with blackish nectaries at the bace of the corolla; this promises to be a fine species for non-calcareous soils. R. mallotum, formerly R. aemulorum, flowered remarkably well during the last half of March and should become popular, although as with other early flowers, it is liable to be frosted. It is placed in the sub-series ‘Haematodes’ (series ‘Neriiflorum’) by good authority, and is described as eventually a tree, but here it has proved slow in growth and is not yet more than three feet high. The trusses are compact, the flowers deep crimson, and the leaves very thickly clothed beneath with a felt-like, tawny tomentum. A related species, R. pocophorum, also flowered sparsely but is still young; the flowers are longer than those of R. mallotum, crimson, with an unequally lobed calyx. This will probably be a useful shrub in suitable localities. A form of R. arboreum with crimson flowers, and leaves silvery beneath, also flowered out-of-doors, while others with pink flowers bloomed under grass. Smaller species include R. scabrifolium with white flowers in the axils of the leaves; R. impeditum of the ‘Lapponicum’ series, a form with more erect branches than usual and possibly a related species; flowers freely produced and of a bluish-mauve colour. R. racemosum and its white variety flowered freely in an unheated house, as also did R.. leucaspis, but these had not flowered out-of-doors by the end of March.

Hybrids in flower outside were R. Jacksoni, R. Jacksoni var. album and R. Jackson’s Scarlet, all hardy, free- ' flowering shrubs of medium growth, growing here more satisfactorily than many of the species and flowering annually almost without fail. R. nobile, R. detonsum. R. Prattii, R. campanulatum, R, Williamsianum and R. adenogynum were rapidly expanding their flowers at th© end of March. Bulbous plants were soon prominent with the improvement in the weather, and none more so than the Chionodoxas. C. Luciliac and its varieties Boissieri, gigantea, rosea, sardensisand Tmoli were all in fine bloom by the middle of March, while the newer . C. Siehei, more robust than C. Luciliae, the scape purple and the flowers nearly as blue as those of the variety sardensis, was a feature in the rock garden and herbaceous border. Tulips were already attracting attention, notably, T. Kaufmanniana and its forms variously named Gaiety, intermedia, etc.; T. pulchella, T. praestans, T. Kolpakowskyana, and the small-flowered but early T. bifiora and the variety turkestanica. The well-known Puschkinia scilloides is a useful early-flowering plant of considerable merit, its spikes of pale blue flowers appearing later than the very early “Squills,” Scilla bifolia and S. sibirica, but considerably in advance of the later species, such as S. festalis, or as it is now called, S. nonscripta, and S. hispanica.

Anemone blanda, A. b. var. scythinica and A. b. var. rosea were in full flower at the end of March in the rock garden and among shrubs in the wild garden. The yellow-flowered A. ranunculoides, when planted in loose, moist soil where it can run freely, is distinct and beautiful. The several varieties of A. nemorosa were rapidly opening during the last week of March, one of the earliest here being Blue Gem. A. angulosa (Fig. 126), a larger plant than A. Hepatica, but with a general resemblance to that species, was prominent about the rock garden, its bright blue flowers appearing in great profusion. Very early in March, Iris persica flowered at the base of a sunny wall and although lacking the finer colour and stronger growth of I. sindpers, .1. sindjareichii, etc., is very distinct in its bluish-green falls with blackish-purple blotch. Uncommon and curious is Hermodactylus tuberosus, which was in flower by the middle of the month; the flowers, appearing with the leaves, are green, and the blade of the falls dark brown or almost black. J. W. Besant. —in “The Gardeners Chronicle.”