THE Amateur Gardener

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 562, 27 November 1915, Page 5

THE Amateur Gardener

GARDEN CALENDAR. NOVEMBER. Average i rainfall, 1.91 in. Under Glass. Thin grapes, and keep the laterals stopped. Sow primula, cineraria, and, calceolaria seed. Stop and train cueumbers and melons as necessary. Pot on young plants. With the increasing sun power, shading may be necessary on greenhouses. "Watering and ventilation must be carefully attended to. Outside. All bedding plants may now be planted out. Train and tie climbing plants. Prune out any excess of shoots, on fruit trees, and thin out heavy crops. Sow wallflower, intermediate and Lothian stocks, Canterbury bells, and other biennials for planting out in autumn. Plant out tomatoes, vegetable marrows, pumpkins, and hardy cucumbers. Sow lettuce, radish, spinach, peas, and beans. Sow broccoli seed early in the month. AN UNSATISFACTORY NOVEMBER The month of November, 1915, will be remembered by gardeners in the North Canterbury district, at least, as one of the most unsatisfactory spring months in the garden that we have experienced for many years. I cannot recall from memory a frost of anything like the severity so late in the season as that which occurred on Sunday night, November 21, and it was more remarkable that it followed a strorig N.E. wind which had been blowing all day. The damage done to tomatoes, potatoes, and tender plants generally was severe, and it will be a difficult matter now to replace the tomato plants 'with any prospect of a good crop. Happily I escaped with but little damage although the plants were very forward, but if they had been destroyed and I had no reserve to replace from, I should be inclined to sow a few seed where the plants were to grow, and to stop the leader after the first truss of flowers showed and then again after the next. A gardener must be an optimist if he is to command success and the harder the knock he receives by abnormally adverse weather conditions the harder he must strive to overcome them. This month, too, hasbeen an exceptionally windy one and although we have had some nice showers during the .first half of the month, they have ben largely discounted by the drying winds and by the absence of moisture in the lower soil. Watering unless it can be done thoroughly where the soil is dry is of very little use, an occasional sprinkle does more harm than good as it only causes the surface to cake. The hoe is a far more efficient tool, and should be kept in continual use especially after showers or surface watering, as it is the most efficient means of retaining soil moisture. With the present prospect of a continuation of the dry weather we have been experiencing it will be best to well water the ground, where a sufficiency of water is obtainable, if at all dry before sowing vegetable seeds such as peas or beans, lettuce and other salading, or turnips, so

BY "AOTEA"

that they will be enabled to come away rapidly and strongly. With the present weather conditions it will be of little use making a further sowing of spinach as it will most likely throw up flower stems as soon as the first rough leaves are formed Newly planted trees and shrubs will most probably receive benefit from a good watering which should be again repeated if the weather continues so dry and windy. Broccoli and Cabbage.

Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants should be put out while small,, as they will establish much quicker than when there is a large expanse of leaf to supply with the necessary moisture for evaporation. It is best to plant in shallow drills, about 3in deep, as it not only protects the plant from winds, but makes it much more easy to water, should water be necessary, and is equal to a moulding lip when the drill is filled in again. When planting out celery it will assist the young plants very much if they are shaded for a few days with some twiggy branches. If the trenches are formed as they should be, that is, from north to south, the trenches get very hot when the mid-day sun is on them, and the little shade given will assist very much in retaining a moist atmosphere and breaking the heat rays.

The watering of a lawn requires rather different treatment to that of trees and shrubs. The roots of the finer lawn grasses do not descend deeply into the soil, occupying chiefly the top six inches, so that a little-and-often policy is much the best to pursue; the coarser grasses and weeds send their roots down deeper, and they will be the ones that will benefit most from a moist subsoil. Two Good Shrubs. Escallonia langleyensis is a very attractive shrub when in flower, and even when flowerless the shiny evergreen, leaves with the graceful pendant habit of the branches ogives it a very distinctive appearance. The flowers are rose colour, and sweetscented, and are produced along the whole length of the branch on short lateral shoots. It is not a plant to crowd in with a lot of miscellaneous shrubs, but should be given an open position, where the distinctive character of the plant may be seen to best advantage. It will grow from 6ft to Bft highland is very freeflowering, quite small plants flowering'freely. It is naturally of a pleasing habit of growth, and requires little training or pruning.

Sty rax japonica is another shrub of fine quality that is also seen to most advantage when given a sheltered and open position. The flowers are white, bell-shaped, and have a central bunch of golden stamens which give them a most effective appearance. The flowers are borne on slender stems, and hang down from the underside of the flattish branches. It is usually seen as a densely-branched shrub, but is said to grow 40ft high in Japan. The plant should be trained to form a stem, ■ as the flowers are best seen when the branches are above the line of sight. About Daffodils. With the gardener the daffodil sea-

son lasts the whole year round, and the flowering season is perhaps the least important of all as far as the welfare of the plant and quality and quantity of the flowers are concerned. There are some varieties of the daffodil that are not quite satisfactory when cultivated in rich garden ground, although, when planted in grass land or under deciduous trees, they will grow and continue for years. I have often puzzled for a reason for this, and, I think, that there is an obvious reason with at least some of those sorts that often fail, such as Ard Righ, Tortuosus, Gernuus, Gernuus plenus, Coronatus, Pseudo-narcissus, and most of the collected wild trumpet varieties. It seems strange that while nearly all our garden raised varieties are such robust good doers, these, which one would expect to be much hardier, will not do as well, but the cause is that with the varieties named when the bulb ripens the whole of the roots die off, and it is not until well on into the autumn that fresh roots are emitted from the base of the bulb.. During this resting period there is a hollow formed beneath the bulb caused by the decay of the roots, and this hollow is liable to be filled up with water every time a shower percolates through the soil. Now, if there is much humus in the soil and that of the decayed roots, it will set up rot in the base of the bulb, a condition well known as basal-rot, the cause of which has not yet been clearly defined. If these varieties are growing in grass land or amongst tree roots, the soil round the bulbs is occupied by active roots which soon absorb the moisture, keeping the soil about the base of the bulbs dry.

Garden Varieties.

Everybody has not got grass land to plant bulbs in, and they may be in the way in the orchard if planted at the base of<an apple tree, so that to keep them in health in the garden the best means would be to take them up every year as soon as the foliage is ripe, and not to replant until the end of March, and then to choose soil that is not too light and that does not contain too much rotted vegetable matter. The reason why. our garden-raised varieties do not suffer so much from this rotting at the base is, I believe, because they have some N. poeticus blood in them. N. poeticus is never wholly without roofs, new roots being formed before the old ones have decayed, and it is very probable that <jven trumpets Jike Emperor and Empress have some strain of poeticus in them. If a trumpet variety is crossed with the pollen of poeticus there will be a number of the seedlings trumpet varieties, but they will have, no doubt, some of the poeticus quality in them, and probably it will be the continuous rooting factor. All the incomparabilis and Barrii varieties are crosses with a trumpet variety and a variety of poeticus in the first place, and they all have in a larger or smaller measure this continuous rooting rabit, and are nearly all good, long-lasting garden plants, that if planted in good ordinary garden soil, that has not been overmanured with animal or vegetable matter, very rarely suffer from anything in the nature of basal-rot.