THE AMATEUR GARDENER

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 866, 18 November 1916, Page 5

THE AMATEUR GARDENER

(By "AOTEA.")

GARDEN CALENDAR. NOVEMBER. Average rninriill, l.'.llin. Under Glass. Thin grapes, tind ' cep the laterals stopped. Sow primula, cineraria, and calceolaria seed. Stop and train cucumbers mid melons as necessary. Pot on young plants. With the increasing sun power shading may lie necessary on greenhouses. Watering and ventilation must lie carefully attended to. Outside. All bedding plants may now be planted out. Train and lie 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 the autumn. Plant out tomatoes, vegetable marrows, pumpkins, and hardy cucumbers. Sow lettuce, radish. spinach. peas, and beans. Sow broccoli seed early in the month. SEASONABLE HINTS. VEGETABLE GARDEN. The trenches for celery should be prepared a week or two previous to planting lime, so that the soil shall have lime to settle, and the manure to become incorporated with it. A rich soil is necessary lo grow good celery, as growth must be free and constant, any check, as from exhaustion of the food larder, or from, want of moisture, will cause the stems to become pithy and tough. The trench should be thrown out about a foot or fifteen inches deep, according to the depth of soil available, and about fifteen inches wide. Put into the trench three or four inches of well-rolled manure, and dig this into the soil in the trench, mixing it thoroughly. The space required between the plants when planting in the trench will depend in a measure upon the variety. Dwarf Sandringham White, which is one of Ibe most useful, does not require so much room as the larger growing varieties. Plant Qrmlv, and should the weather be very hot and sunny a few branches laid across the trench for a few days after planting will be beneficial. The after management is to supply plenty of water should the weather be dry, and after the plants are established weak

liquid manure water may be given freely. The plants should begone over, and all side shoots should be removed before earthing up, which should not be done too early. When the plants are growing well a little earth can be cut down from the sides of the trench and spread out evenly round the plants, but the first earthing up proper should not he done before the plants are nearly threeparts grown, and then should not be higher than the inner leaves. To prevent the earth getting into the heart of (be plant it is a good plan to gather the leaves carefully and evenly together, and to tie with a piece of raflia, which should be cut in a day or two when the soil has settled round the plants. Before earthing up, unless there has been a good rain just previously, a thorough watering should be given, but the earthing up should be done when the plants are dry, and the earth only moderately moist. At the final earthing, when the plants have completed their growth, the earth should be banked up in a sharp ridge quite to the base of the outside leaves. Under Class.

Plenty of ventilation will be necessary in the greenhouse, and plants will require constant attention to supply their needs for wafer. During hot weather the house will need damping down two or three times during the day, hut during cloudy or cold weather this should be discontinued. As the sun gains power a little more shading may be required on the roof glass, but it should not be overdone, and must be regulated by the requirements of the occupants of the house. Zonal and other pelargoniums require very lillle shading, while tuberous begonias should have any direct sunlight broken by shade. Where climbers are grown on the rafters of the greenhouse roof they will require almost daily attention. When they are growing rapidly,

thin out the excess of growth, and train I hem out thinly so that the light shall not be obstructed overmuch. Over-shade, damp, and a stagnant atmosphere arc forerunners of aphis and mildew. Seeds of greenhouse plants thai may be sown now are cineraria, calceolaria and primula. Cinerarias should l)c sown in a pot or pan filled with a free sandy soil, pressing the seed in lightly, and covering with a light sprinkling of soil. The pots should then be stood in a shady part of the greenhouse, placing a piece of glass over the pot to conserve the moisture.

One of ihc principal points in growing calceolarias is lo grow them from start lo finish as cool as possible. My usual practice when growing these fine greenhouse plants was to sow the seed in a pan with sifted sandy soil, and to put (lie pan, with a sheet of glass over it, out in the open in a cool place in the shade of a shrub, and lo leave it there until ihc seedlings were lit to prick off. The seed should be just pressed into the soil, which should be moderately firm and no covering of soil should be given, as the seed is verv minuie. If the soil has been well watered before the seed is sown no further water should be required hefore the seedlings are up. Primula seed should be sown as advised for cinerarias, but no covering should be put over the glass. Afler the seedlings arc up and pricked oil', they should be grown in a cooler and moister atmosphere. A frame facing south is the best quarters for each of these plants, giving the calceolarias the coolest position.

Tomatoes should now be growing freely and will require constant attention tp keeping down lateral growth, which should be rubbed off as soon as seen. When the fruit is swelling a constant supply of moisture is necessary, but, when watering, it should be done in the forenoon so that it mav dry up before night. In the Flower Garden. The best time to divide spring flowering plants, such as polyanthuses, primroses, arabis, aubretias, and the dwarf spring flowering phloxes, is as soon as thev have finished llowering. Thev mav be split up or pulled to pieces and planted out in a bed of fairly rich soil in a cool moist position, and planted out in the borders or where.required in the autumn. Answers to Correspondents. "A. M. W."—All the specimens of native clematis you send are referable to C. marata. Soil, position, and locality will account for considerable variation in individual plants of the species, t which are sometimes very difficult to determine, one of the specimens showing a departure towards G. colensoi.

"G. M." writes:—"Could you inform i\k\ through your gardening notes, what is wrong with two of my goosebery trees, of which 1 am enclosing a piece. I have others in the same ground, and they have done very well. They have been in two seasons, the soil is good, and they receive a fair amount of sun. I sprayed them during the winter, and recently I sprayed them' with sulfoiide with no effect. The buds open in the usual manner, then thev'die oil'. 1 now await your advice."

Answer:—The gooseberry shoot you send does not give any clue as to the reason for the failure of the plant from which it was taken. The two most likely causes are: (1) Too strong a spray used during winter. rhcre are few diseases or parasites that attack the gooseberry, and practically none that require the application of a winter spray. It is both injurious and wasteful to apply any strong wash unnecessarily, but the wood of the shoot you send does not show signs of this being the cause. (2) That the stem and main branches of the plant have been injured by the borer. An examination of the stem and branches will reveal whether Ibis is the cause or not. Failure from this cause is often through not sufficient care being taken to-sec that the cuttings have not been injured by the borer before inserting in the ground.