GARDEN NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 12

GARDEN NOTES

THE WEEK’S WORK. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Prepare ground for planting narcissi, tulips, hyacinths. A. planting of anemones can be made. These require well worked, rich soil. If daffodils have to be lifted, the work should be done at once. A sowing of iceland poppies can be made. Prepare ground for planting springflowering plants. A. sowing of stocks and early-flowering sweet peas can be made. Prepare ground for sweet peas. Trench as deeply as possible and well incorporate the manure with the soil. More rain is needed before much planting out can be done. Lift and replant lilium candidum, belladonna lilies and nerines. Disbud dahlias. If blooms are required for show reduce the number on the plants to two or three. Chrysanthemums must be sprayed and attended to. From now on buds as they appear should be “taken.” Stake any tall-growing subjects that require it. •THE GREENHOUSE. Pot up freesias and lachenalias. Bulbs for early flowering should be potted or boxed and then “plunged” Cuttings of many bedding plants can be inserted, including petunias, verbenas, lobelias, coleus, pelargoniums, calceolarias. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Make sowings of early peas. These will come in before winter. Sow shorthorn carrots and turnip-rooted beet. Sow thinly and grow without transplanting some of the early cabbage to replace losses by caterpillars, etc. Turnips, early, six weeks and the yel-low-fleshed varieties, can be sown. Potatoes should be lifted once the tops have dried. Beware of the potato moth and do not leave tubers without a covering of soil. i Onions must be harvested as they mature. Earth up leeks and celery as required. Clean up all spent or rubbishy crops and resow. Bum all refuse that is pest-ridden. Do not put it on a rubbish heap for the pests to perpetuate themselves. A planting of an early sort of potatoes should give a useful autumn crop. . THE FRUIT GARDEN. Apple and other stocks can be budded. Earlier budded stocks' should be looked over and ties loosened. Spray late apples and pears for codlin moth. Summer prune stone fruits. VEGETABLES TO SOW NOW. MEANS OF QUICK MATURITY. Vegetables have suffered so much with the dry weather and caterpillars that anything but marrows and pumpkins are a luxury. With the long growing autumn season this lack of green vegetables can largely be overcome by practising the method of sowing thinly, manuring heavily, and not transplanting. Early varieties of peas, such as Little Marvel, William Hurst, Richard Seddon, sown now, will give a crop in six to eight weeks. Lettuce, radish, spinach and spinach beet can all be had in about six weeks by this method. Dwarf beans sown now will give a crop before frost. Carrots such as Early Hom; beet, turnip rooted or globe; turnips, Golden Ball and Orange Jelly, can be sown now and will give good roots for autumn. Cabbage and savoys are the principal green vegetables in the garden, and none suffer more from the ravages of grubs and caterpillars. Sown in the ordinary -way and transplanted they will not heart until spring, but sown and grown without transplanting, they will heart in three months, and are even usable as colworts in seven or eight weeks. For this purpose it is advisable to sow the extra early sorts such as First Early, Harbinger, Flower.of Spring. The plants that are thinned out can be planted up and will come in use later. Cauliflowers can also be grown this way; the early varieties should be chosen. To grow cabbages or cauliflowers the preparation of the soil should be thorough, and one method of sowing is as follows: Rake over the ground, set the garden line, and then sow four or five seeds at, say, nine-inch intervals, covering them wita a little soil. When seedlings are up a little care will be necessary to keep birds

and slugs away, cultivation must be thorough, thinning must be done early, leaving two plants at each place. As soon as the plants are making the first rough leaves give a little liquid manure, made by dissolving a teaspoonful of sulphate of ammonia in a gallon of water, once a week or so. Somewhat similar treatment must be accorded to other kinds, but the chief points to observe are thorough preparation of soil, thin sowing, early thinning, non-trans-planting, plenty of cultivation and liquid feeding. NEW DWARF CORNFLOWER. A particularly attractive bedding plant was exhibited at one of the last seasons shows at the R.H.S., London. It was a new dwarf cornflower, Cyanus Minor Blue Gem, which was recommended for ■trial at Wisley. This grows only about 9in high, and has tufts of flowers springing from a short central stem. For bedding and, garden decoration generally this type should be far superior to the tall cornflower, which, though excellent for cut blooms, is rather disappointing as a garden plant by reason of its awkward habit of growth. ROCK CRESS AND AUBRETIA. These, are dwarf evergreen plants, indispensable in the rock garden, valuable as. an edging jto beds or borders, and effective for spring, bedding. The greatest wealth of colour is produced from September to November. As a rule, however, the plants flower more or less throughout the year. The colours are numerous, and include some rich and delicate tints, from white to deep purple and crimson, including, rose, mauve, and lilac. The aubretia can be propagated by seed, cuttings, and division. The seed should be sown during February and March. The seed is small, but usually germinates freely enough. Sow in a sandy soil in boxes or pots, and when plants are large enough they can be transplanted into beds in the open ground. When first sown, shade the boxes. If the weather is sunny later on, however, they will stand any amount of sun. The plants like lime, and some lime rubble should be added to the soil in which they are planted. Where there are existing plants they can be propagated by division or cuttings. The latter make the best plants, but if only a few are wanted, division will give quite enough. Seed gives very good coloured varieties, especially if the best is selected, but for the very best, named varieties should be grown. I’• . . TIME TO POT FREESIAS. A subject for present attention with a yiew to future and successive decorative effect is the freesia. Successional batches should be potted up from now to the middle of March. Where pots of freesias have been resting the contents should be turned out and the largest of the corms sorted out from the inferior ones; then the next size and so on. This will -ensure pots of even bloom. The smallest corms may be discarded as of little use, or planted outside. For a compost get some good yellow loam, and use two parts of it to one part made up of rotted manure and bone meal, with sufficient sand to ensure porosity. Mix well and moisten well. Use either five or seven inch pots, in the former putting six large or eight smaller corms, and with a dozen or more in the seven inch size. Fill the pots three-parts full of compost, place in the corms and cover them with half an inch or so of soil. A sharp rap of the pot on the bench will be quite enough to settle the soil firmly. Then pack the pots closely together outdoors in a sunny spot, providing a light shading until the roots appear through the soil when, of course, it is immediately removed, giving the plants every bit of sunshine possible. Be careful with water at first, giving just enough to ensure steady growth; when that growth is' very evident, increase water supplies. It is a matter of good judgment Planting low down, in the pot with a light covering is best for two reasons, firstly the stems are apt to become spoilt by pushing through a bulk of close soil, and the flower spikes are not so fine, secondly, a light topdressing can be added occasionally as the stems grow, thus keeping them from toppling over. This can be done until the level of the soil is within half an inch of the rim. Let the plants stay out of doors until the first frost threatens. SCARLET SALVIAS. Salvia bonfire, a dwarf-growing, largeflowered variety of salvia splendens, is of compact habit, and literally covered with long spikes of brilliant scarlet flowers. A bed of this salvia is exceedingly beautiful during the autumn. The display lasts into tire winter, and m several instances may be grown on for a second season. There is a tall-growing variety, but not quite so floriferous. They can still be planted in positions that are not liable to early frosts-