TOTAL OF 15,000 PLANTS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1934, Page 4

TOTAL OF 15,000 PLANTS

ANNUALS AT PUKEKURA PARK PLANS FOR “MODEST’ DISPLAY, SEEDLINGS RAISED AS SIDELINE. HUGE AMOUNT OF WORK INVOLVED I Some months ago it was announced by the Pukekura Park authorities that this year an attempt would be made by the maintenance staff to supply from the Brooklands nurseries all annual plants required for the flower beds in both sections of the park. The bald announcement conveyed, even to the amateur gardener familiar with the tedious business of raising a few boxes of annuals for planting in the home garden, little conception of the magnitude of the undertaking. - Despite the fact that this year’s ambitions for a show of bright annuals are comparatively modest at least 15,000 plants will be raised under glass, “pricked out,” selected for healthiness and type, hardened in the open, and eventually transplanted by hand into prepared places in the hundreds of garden beds in Brooklands and Pukekura Park proper. The fact that most summer annuals are planted so as to make their most effective show in the period between mid-January and the end of February makes it necessary for most of the work involved in raising and planting the seedlings to be done in a comparatively short time.

The seeds, many of which are importations from overseas, are planted in carefully prepared, shallow boxes containing a mixture of soil, leaf mould, lime and river sand in exact proportions. They are germinated in a large glass house and require careful attention and well-judged watering to assure hardy growth. When the seedlings are large enough they are selected by hand, the strongest going into another set of boxes each of which contains roughly 50 plants. In this case the soil is deeper and richer to promote strong root growth. The boxes are transferred to another glassed frame until growth is made and then placed in the open to harden, protected only by scrim covering. The final stage is planting out and careful watering and attention until the final root growth is commenced. In the meantime almost constant attention is necessary to prevent spread of fungus diseases and “damping off.” While the procedure is little different from that of the skilful amateur who grows his own seedlings, the tale of Pukekura Park’s annuals gains force by realisation of the fact that 15,000 plants must be handled—and handled individually—by the staff as a “sideline” and in addition to the heavy maintenance work that always falls : > big gardens at this time of the year. Perennials, bulbs, shrubs, trees, paths, lawns, dugouts, ferneries must all have their quota of attention. This year many hundreds of young trees recently planted will require extra attention. Native trees and shrubs are also being raised in a separate nursery.

The fact that the park staff considers the culture of a mere 15,000 annual plants neither here nor there in the season’s work gives some indication of the tremendous amount of skilfully organised work which goes into the maintenance and improvement of the 114 acres which comprise the Pukekura, Brooklands and Highlands reserves.