Gardening Notes

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4229, 10 January 1940, Page 10

Gardening Notes

2 -THE WEEK’S WORK. J Z'.: flower garden. » * Plairt- .put chrysanthemums and dahlias. Both are gross feeders and Require rich soil. Neither plant must puffer from lack of water during sumSuer months. * Gladioli can still be planted. Z Plant out all annuals at the earliest opportunity. j Watch-- roses and lilies for attacks of green -fly. They can be checked by with nicotine sulphur. * VEGETABLE GARDEN. * Sow dwarf beans. X Dust celery plants with soot to preS' pn GSiV a.fiks~by celery fly. J M£Ke /another sowing of peas. Z T^arJh*np potatoes and spray with Bordeaux mixture. * Plant" out leeks, celery, savoys and Jbroccoli.

♦ \ - ROSE SPECIES. : *—DUAL PURPOSE SHRUBS OF GREAT CHARM. Lady Galway advocated the more general use of rose species in New Zealand gardens, when speaking at the New Zealand rose show recently. Her Excellency commented on the charms of the rose species, and not without reason, as many of these “old timers” have finalities which are still unsurpassed by the efforts of the plant breeders. Not only do the rose sj»ecies produce delightful blooms in spring, but in nearly every case they produce crops of vivid coloured hips, qr fruits, in autumn. For decorative purposes these hips are of exceptional

Rose species procurable in New Zealand include the following popular varieties’:

’'Moyessi, deep carmine red, with gcfld stamens, followed by pear shaped sbaflet Tiips. One of the most popular and' very easily grown.

Cavdata, a Chinese species with red flowers followed by vivid orange red fruits. Bracieala (Macartney rose), a ram14ei>. having white flowers with yellow stamen Si. . Microphylla, one of the real old fashioned- roses of England. Bluish pink flowers. Xanthina, a strong growing variety with graceful foliage and yellow flowers. Davidii, rose pink flowers followed by brilliant red fruits in autumn. JXliese wild roses will thrive under conditions where hybrids would die. They require little or no pruning, and will suffer more neglect than most plans. many varieties the foliage takes on "brilliant autumn tints in la'te summer. Planting takes place in late autumn or winter but plants should be booked as early as possible—stocks being limited! ;

_ GROWING A HEDGE. ' TS'IT A FORGOTTEN ART? Uvery year at about this time I received many inquiries from distracted gardeners whose hedges have died, or show signs of doing so, writes a correspondent. So numerous have been the 1 inquiries during the past month, it would almost appear that the hedge problem threatens to overshadow the European situation.

I mentioned the matter to an ofl«~ cial in .the Horticultural Division of . Agricultural Department with whom I occasionally spend an absorbing- half hour discussing the thousand and. one thing that draw gardeners together.

“-Of course your readers are having trouble with hedges,” he replied. “The

man who can grow a hedge successfully can grow anything.”

Perhaps my friend was just a little too sweeping in his assertion, but I mention it to emphasise that the growing of a hedge demands much more consideration than most gardeners give it.

Let us look at a hedge for a moment; it consists of a number of plants stuck- very close together where they are expected to remain, growing continuously, for one’s life time at least. It is clipped back and trimmed at frequent intervals and is expected to- be always “looking nice.” The roots of each plant intermingle with those of its neighbour in the struggle for food, and due to the overhang of the hedge, cultivation is often neglected. Each plant which plays its part in making a perfect hedge is a living unit; it must have food and drink, a reasonable amount of air, and adequate drainage. It is therefore essential that considerable reserves of food should be incorporated into the soil before planting, and that as the soil becomes exhausted it should be replaced or improved by the addition of plant-food.

The fact that most hedges fail after being planted from 5 to 7 years, suggests that the plants have been starved to death. As in medicine, it is easier to keep a plant healthy than to cure a sick one. Therefore, the main cause of hedge failures appears to be just plain starvation.

Another friend of mine lives in a street I seldom visit. Lately I have had occasion to call on him fairly frequently. I always know his house by its black, dead looking hedge. Just a case of pruning back too enthusiastically during a long, dry spell—one of the many causes of dying back, and sometimes total collapse of hedges.

A third cause of hedge trouble is water—too much or too little. An established hedge will stand a fair amount of drought, but if not attended to will sooner or later strike a dry period that is beyond its power of endurance. In winter and other periods of prolonged rain, a badly drained hedge will become so water logged that the roots will die. tl often happens that only a small section of the hedge is affected, but investigation generally reveals that that section has its roots in a clayey subsoil, or is otherwise insufficiently drained. A hedge that its owner’s pride invariable reflects his intelligent cooperation.

BEWARE OF MILDEW. ENEMY OF MANY PLANTS NOV/ LURKS IN GARDENS. The warm, and often humid, weather we are’now experiencing affords favourable conditions for mildew — one of the garden’s greatest foes. If you carefully examine your rose bushes, sweet peas, delphiniums, verbenas or lupins, you will probably find the young, tender leaves covered in patches of grey powdery mould. The plants concerned are affected by the disease known as mildew. In spring it causes little anxiety, but with high summer there occur certain atmospheric changes which favour the development of the responsible fungus. Its spores become active, float about in the air, and when they alight on the leaves cause the disfigurement we have described. The mealy part consists of the new season’s spores. As soon as they are ripe off they take into the air and, unless something is done, mildew spreads far and wide. It spreads, too, in the plants already affected, covering every part tind making them look as if they had been whitewashed. There is nothing more fatal in its effect.

We have given you this description 1 because we want you to understand the seriousness of the problem, and we also want you to take effective control measures at the earliest possible moment. Provided you act at the first blotch stage, a thorough dusting with sulphur powder, or better, a mixture of two parts sulphur powder and one of freshly slaked lime will destroy the fungus. Use for the job a pepper box with enlarged holes or a little puffer or powder bellows, which you can buy at the seed shop. The ideal time to dust is after a shower or when the leaves are moist with dew. The mixture clings better, increasing the certainty of the kill. Should mildew get thoroughly established before you spot it, lime sulphur dusting is not sufficient. Your best policy then is to spray with a solution prepared by dissolving J oz of bicarbonate of soda in gallons of water. Choose a calm dull day or evening for the job, and make sure that you wet the particular mildew concerned. Some, like 1 that of the delphinium, spread on the under surface of the leaves. Obviously if you were to spray the upper sur-" face only the operation would be 1 futile.

It should be stated that while mildews are on the warpath from now to

the end cf the season, they are more prevalent during showery periods. LIQUID MANURE. There are numerous warmth loving plants that require ample supplies of food to enable them to produce flowers freely. Among those which respond to such treatment just now are dahlias, gerberas, delphiniums, stocks, gladioli, roses, and, a little later, chrysanthemums. It is always advisable to moisten the soil with plain water before applying liquid manures.