IN THE GARDEN

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1928, Page 7

IN THE GARDEN

THE WEEK'S WORK. Look around newly-planted trees and shrubs, and firm any that have been loosened by winds. Any further planting of azaleas, rhododendrons, bamboos, lucullias, poinsettias, can be done. The soil can be prepared for sowing seeds of hardy annuals, etc., outside. Delphiniums are sending up their growths, and will need protecting from slugs. A ring of loose shell or ashes is good. A spraying with lime sulphur will clear up any glugs it touches. Planting of almost any bedding stuff can be done now. Prepare the ground for chrysanthemums. The plants can be put out any time from the middle of October. Divide dahlia tubers. There is no need to force these; planting in November is quite soon enough to get good autumn • blooms. Make sowings of zinnias, ten week stocks, antirrhinums, verbenas, petunias, salvias, celosias, for planting out about December. As the early flowering subjects go over the beds should be replanted, so that there is as short a break as possible between. Sowings of sunflowers, both the large and the miniature flowered, can be made now. Prepare the beds for asters. Where wilt is very bad the seed can be sown outside now. This is a good time to lift and replant gerberas. They like a deep, rich soil. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Get all ground ready for cropping. Where it was dug during the winter it will need forking over to break it up. Crops of parsnips and carrots that have stood the winter should be lifted, and the ground prepared for other crops. Further plantings of potatoes can be made. Those already up should be sprayed and moulded up. Further sowings of peas can be made. Any that are up should be moulded up and staked. Sow parsnips, carrots, broccoli, cauliflowers, cabbage, lettuce, leeks, etc. In warm, sheltered positions it may be possible to sow beans, but in the majority of gardens the soil is too cold and wet. Sowings of pumpkins, melons, marrows, can be made, but protection must be given to the young plants. Plant onions, and where necessary a sowing can be made. The grafting of apple and pear trees can be done now. The stocks should be growing, but the scions should be as dormant as possible. Trees that were budded last autumn should be headed back; pull off any buds that show, with the exception of the “worked” bud. Strawberry beds should have a final hoeing and manuring, and the mulching should be applied. Keep down weeds by hoeing; this applies to all plants of the garden. Never let a weed produce seed if possible. ATTENTION TO STRAWBERRIES. The fruit trees finished, the strawberry bed should next come in for attention. It should be cleaned of weeds and the oldest and brownest of the lower leaves cut off and burned. Then the ground between the rows should be forked lightly or hoed to loosen the top sell. This done, a layer of good long strawy manure should be placed round the plants. This manure has a two fold purpose; not only will it provide valuable nourishment, but by the time the fruits ripen, the straw will have been washed clean and will make a useful bedding to keep the berries off the soil. A good dressing to apply to plants that cropped heavily the previous season, or to rather worn-out plants, is 21b of superphosphate and Jib of sulphate of ammonia to every 10 square yards of bed. Spread between the rows and forked lightly in, .it will prove an excellent stimulant. Superphosphate is an artificial manure that may safely be applied to most fruits in early spring, particularly to the heavy cropping trees and bushes. The usual dressing is about Jib to ea.h medium-sized bush or tree and half that amount for smaller ones. It should be spread on the soil and forked in. 1

NEW ROSES The National Rose Society Show,, which was held in July, was notable for the number of new varieties that wer# ! put before the judges. Two gold medals : and six certificates were awarded. The I following is a descriptive list of the varieties:— Lord Rossmore, H.T.: An immense, full, globular flower, slightly pointed; colour a clear cream, flushed with rose at the point; no perceptible scent; good vigorous plant. Gold medal. MeGredy’a Ivory, H.T.: A clear, pure ivory, or cream colour; large shellshaped petals, making up a big flower of very fine form. Very faint scent. Gold medal. Baby Betty, Polyantha: The colouring is rather a curiosity, being yellow, with a ruddy tint in the buds, and changing to clear rose, with lighter base, with age; distinct and decidedly pretty. Certificate of merit. Britannia Polyantha: A single flower, crimson petal with white base; best described as a dwarf Hiawatha.' Certificate of merit. Dr. Hawkesworth, H.T.: A rich crim son flower of medium size, good form, delicious scent. Certificate of merit. Geo. Howarth, H.T.: Deen cheery red, flower medium size. Certificate of merit. Mrs. Samuel McGredy, H.T.: Mediumsized flowers of admirable form; no scent, the blooms have apricot, yellow, and cherry-red tints in brilliant mixture. Certificate of merit. Violet Simpson, H.T.: Very bright cerise, with yellow base; almost perfect form, no scent. Certificate of merit. CHRYSANTHEMUMS. During this month is a good time for putting in chrysanthemum cuttings. The best cuttings are those that come directly out of the soil around the old stem. Procure some nice soil; a little free turfy loam is the proper thing. Rub this through a sieve, add about half as much leaf soil and the same quantity of sand. Boxes or pots can be used, or a bed in a sheltered, shaded spot can be made up. Dibble the cuttings into the soil, after making it firm. As soon as rooted, the shading must be removed, and the plants put out into their permanent quarters as soon as possible. If pot cultivation is to be fol- | lowed, the cuttings are best put into small pots; they can then be potted on i successively without any damage to the roots.

A SOIL’S REQUIREMENTS. . The four essentials which are necessary to be present in all soils are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, and lime. I It is largely owing to the quantities I present of each of these in the soil that regulates its degree of fertility. These four essentials are taken up in varying quantities by different crops, and it is to supply the resulting loss that artificial manures are used. It should be remembered that should one or more of these not be present or be in too small quantities the eoil beeomes infertile until the shortage of the one or more be made up. For instance, a soil may be rich in everything but nitrogen, and yet owing to lack of this be infertile. This is known as the “Law of the Minimum,” and can be stated briefly thus: [ “Plant development is regulated by the I available supply of that essential plant; I food element that is present in the soil i 1 in the least amount.” THE SEED BEP The finest position for the seed bed is in partial shade, but if this cannot lye provided, and in full sunshine is the only position, then the bed should be shaded —at least, while the seeds are germinating. This can be done by the use of sheets of newspaper. An excellent way is to lay down bricks and put light strips of wood across, and on these rest a layer of fine twiggy branches. The I soil should not be worn out. Good ' fresh turfy loam will do, without any i additional manure. Old garden soils I are better with, some short well-rotted manure added. A fresh position each i time is preferable, as there are some ! diseases which can be contracted in the seed bed. The top soil should be fine, <

and the beds made at least six inches above the path or surrounding surface, to assist in the drainage. The surface should be perfectly level, no matter what the lay of the garden, otherwise heavy rains will wash too much. If the weather is dry, water well the day before sowing, and shade well afterwards, and little, if any, watering will need to be done until after the seedlings are up. Tiie point is to save artificial watering as much as possible before the seedlings are through, as with tile fine surface the soil cakes quickly, and if it gets dry many seedlings are killed, because they I cannot break this crust. CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT CUTTINGS. Perhaps it is miracle enough that some growing wood of a plant', stuck in soil or sand, given the necessary warmth and moisture, will in due time develop roots from the buried end, produce new leaves from the upper nodes and become a new, independent plant. And yet, in modern language, “You ain’t see nuthin’ yet!” For observe: If you take a growing cane of, say, American Pillar Rose, or weigela, and cut into half a dozen three-inch pieces—all potential cuttings and future plants, you would think —and treat them exactly alike, one particular section will take root and start into growth days and perhaps weeks ahead of the others. It may be the third from the tip, it may be the fifth; but one will lead the others some of which may never follow suit. Why! What is the determining factor? Again, if you make a series of quite long cuttings—two feet or more—of several different species of woody plant and insert them all two feet deep in moist sand, where will the roots appear? Well, it depends. In the case of rhodotypug and weigela, at the very bottom end of the cuttings; in the case of philadelphus, at various points along the entire length of the cane but especially about six inches below the surface; in the case of lonicera, at the lower end, and, less vigorously, all the way up. Why these different habits of apparently similar cuttings under identical conditions? Yet again, if cuttings of young, tender shoots are made from Dorothy Perkins and American Pillar Roses respectively, each with a bit of old wood adhering—whether merely a tiny “heel” or an inchlong piece of old cane—the perkins cuttings will promptly develop roots (if the heat and humidity are sufficient), but those of American Pillar will not. If, however, the pillar cuttings are taken without any attached fragment of old wood. they will root as quickly and as vigorously as did the others of Dorothy Perkins. What hidden influence is -contained in those minute fragments of last year's tissue? NEW DAHLIAS. At the Royal Horticultural Society’s meeting on August 14, some new dahlias were selected for trial at Wisley. Amongst them were; Autumn semi-cactus: A. pretty chamois tint. Carmenia, decorative: A gigantic flower with very broad florets, slightly I twisted; yellow, faintly flushed red. D. Campbell, decorative: Flower nearly a foot across; yellow, with salmon shade. Fantasy, decorative: A huge flower of good form, brilliant scarlet, lightly tipped white; very striking. Erecta, cactus: A pink flower of good size, perfect stalk and bloom, held facing to front. Miss Annie Llle, decorative: Lilac, pink, immense flower. Mrs. A. W. Piper, decorative: A big creamy flower, approaching cactus in form. SUNFLOWERS. The sunflower is sufficiently famliar to everybody not to need any description. The large, tall kinds are fine for the back of the border. The seeds have a value for chicken fattening, the only drawback being that small birds get first pick, and leave few seeds for the fowls, unless the heads are covered. To grow them well they need plenty of manure, the more the better. The dwarf varieties are better subjects for the flower garden, as they only grow three or four feet high, flower continuously throughout the summer, and the blooms are useful for cutting purposes. The sunflowers are perfectly hardy, and the seeds may be sown where the plants are to flower. Sow the seeds during September and October in the open ground, put three or four seeds in a clump, and as soon as the seedlings are large enough pull out all but one. There are several varieties offered by seedsmen, all of which are reliable according to the ' descriptions,

FORCING OF SPRING CROPS,

At this period the application of certain artificial manures is extremely useful as an aid to better crops (says the gardening contributor to the Auckland Sun). Many gardeners are under the impression that potatoes should receive a little help from artificial manures at earthing-up. Experiments in recent years have shown that if potatoes are to have the full benefit from this class of manure the manure should be applied as early as possible. Where a moderate dressing of farmyard manure was given, the crop should be assisted with a good complete artificial manure applied according to the maker’s directions. If it is desired to make up a mixture at home it is a good plan to obtain. 71b of sulphate of ammonia, 71b of sulphate of potash, and 281 b of superphosphate. These ingredients should be mixed together and applied at the rate of 2oz a square yard, and lightly forked in.

Any crop which is backward can be helped to make up for lost time by the application of a little nitrate of soda applied as a top-dressing and hoed in. A very light dressing does this; a heavier dose is waste of good manure. Little and often is a good rule with quick-acting manures. If for any reason a heavy dose of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia has been given and the balanced growth of the crop is upset, a dressing of superphosphate and sulphate of potash will help to put matters right. So soon as such crops as onions, carrots and beets are well up in line their growth is helped by applying a dressing of loz of superphosphate per square yard. Such a dressing encourages root action and puts the plants in good order to make the full use of a dressing of a complete artificial manure 14 days later.