GARDENING NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

GARDENING NOTES

THE FLOWER GARDEN Delphiniums and other hardy perennials sown early should be pricked out into nursery beds. Plant anemones, ranunculi, iris, narcissi, and other spring flowering bulbs. Cuttings of calceolarias, geraniums, and pentstemons can be taken. Lift and divide primroses and polyanthus. Sow seed of pansies and violas. Cuttings of any good varieties can be taken now. Dahlias must receive attention to staking, tying, and disbudding. Chrysanthemums must be securely tied; disbudding must be done. Remove lateral shoots not required. Take buds as they show. Prepare ground for new rose beds. Discard any varieties that are failures. A small garden Las no room for sick plants. THE GREENHOUSE. Cyclamen and primulas will need potting on; the early batch will be ready for the flowering pots. Cinerarias should be transplanted as necessary. Herbaceous calceolarias must also be attended to. Fumigate often—it is easier to keep a greenhouse clean by fumigating every ten days or so than to try and clean up one full of insect pests. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Sow prickly spinach, turnips, shorthorn carrots, and turnip-rooted beet. Make plantings of cabbage and cauliflowers according to requirements. Hoe between standing crops of' brussels —' sprouts, savoys, etc! Remove any yellow foliage and draw soil up to the stems. . Earth up celery and leeks as required. I Celery should be full grown before earthing; leeks should have soil added ' as they grow. Thin any early sown crops of carrots, 1 beet, turnips, etc. Sow onions for spring planting. A firm ’ seed bed and clean soil are required. Runner beans should be picked before getting stringy. ' ' Make a sowing of dwarf peas; put sticks j to'those sown earlier. THE FRUIT GARDEN. | Gather the varieties as they mature. Do :

so carefully to avoid bruising. Collect and feed to pigs or fowls all fallen fruit. You are only breeding disease by leaving it on the ground. Cut some of the surplus wood off stone fruits when crop is off. Cut out old fruiting canes of raspberries and loganberries, tying in the young canes coming from the base. SCIENCE IN PLANNING. STRAIGHT LINE ECONOMICAL. In drawing the drills for sowing, a line should always be used, the rows for the

different varietier being arranged at an even distance apart, as this not only adds to the neatness of the garden, but economises space. For dwarf-growing crops, such as carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips, spinach, lettuce, etc., the . rows should be arranged from 12in. to 15in. apart, according to the variety sown, allowing sufficient space between the rows for hoeing and hand weeding as well as for the development of the plants after they have been properly thinned. For cabbage and other colworts a safe distance to plant is 18in. apart, the rows being arranged 2ft apart.- For such crops as cabbages, cauliflower and other colworts, spinach, lettuce and other green crops, the ground cannot be too well manured. DISBUDDING DAHLIAS. Here we have a work which needs some experience. To do it successfully you must know your variety, and be able to say when the buds are big enough to cut away. Disbud a little late rather than a little too early. Let the cluster*.get well into shape before pinching one bud away. As a rule leave the centre bud to carry the flower. The terminal one is usually the strongest and nest. I Before the final selection is made be certain that the bud you leave is sound and plump, and not in any way marked or grub eaten. Should it be faulty, select another of the cluster. The taking away of all others will very quickly add to its, size. Where you are looking to having two or three flowers on the one stem, pinch the centre bud out as early as possible, and tire others will come into bloom together. Use a sharp, small blade of a penknife for the disbudding operations. Stout stems should be cut with a heavier blade or pair of secateurs. It is not possible to grow the large flowers which are tabled at the autumn exhibitions unless one disbuds with a very free hand. To the taking away of flower buds a systematic thinning of the lateral shoots must be added. Checking the flowers throws the sap back into the stems, which are not at any time slow to take advantage of a turn in their favour. Perfect blooms are not the result of chance. They entail a lot of work and trouble. But anyone who has time and opportunity can get excellent results from their dahlia plants. You can begin to shelter the blooms about twelve days ahead of th' date, on which you require the perfect flower. Select well-formed buds, giving preference to those which are tightly packed with petals, and are carrying a small hoi? in the centre. As far as possible arrange to take the buds at different times. The plant will help you do this, as it seldom happens that all the terminal buds are forward at the same time. A piece -of wool tied round the flower stem is supposed to

prevent insects from marching up to the bloom. Ants can be kept down by woollen ties steeped in Stockholm ta. FERNS IN AUTUMN. The autumn is a tricky time with 1 fems in the greenhouse. More fems ’ are probably spoilt and lost at this season than at any other time. It is not ’ altogether due to the approaching dull days and autumn weather, as it is the 1 attempt so often made to stimulate growth by additional warmth when the ferns should really be allowed to obtain a period of rest. Fems at this time of ' the year require more light, in fact 1 most varieties are better without shading at all, also, as growth slows up, so ’ the water supply should be lessened. This does not mean they should be dried up, but just keep them moist without ’ being saturated. The overhead syring- ’ ing and damping of benches and floors can also be limited to warm, sunny days.. REPOTTING ASPIDISTRAS. Now is an opportunity for repotting aspidistras, for if left much later, the ' weather will be so cold that the plants will not make enough roots to take hold of the new soil, but will probably decay. The drawing room aspidistra is one of the best tempered plants going, and put up with more ill-treatment than any other. Palm fems, etc., all give out long before the aspidistra shows a yellow leaf. Now, one thing the aspidistra asks for is good d-’aUTage, for with good drainage there is no over-supply of water possible. Another thing is a clean soil. Stable and other suchlike manures are all right when in the hands of an expert, but in the hands of a novice better to leave them out and trust to a pinch\or so of some artificial manure once a week or so to supply plant food. Therefore, let the soil be good, fibrous turf, broken up small, and the addition of some sand. The aspidistra in the drawing room needs a clean face, and a mouth wash at least once a week, and better still, twice or three times. There are a lot of cleaning preparations to be obtained, but the best of all is warm water and a little soap applied with a toft sponge. Tea leaves and cold tea and various other stimulants, including aspirins, are sometimes recommended, but keep off such and trust to clean water—it is more natural and satisfying, and less chance of clogging the soil with a lot of rubbish that will choke the roots • for want of air. Above all, do not let the plant dry off for a week while you are on holiday, and expect it to have fresh green leaves.

PEAS AND BEANS. ’ Peas and beans and particularly the former, have had a trying time generally, but plants from the later sowings that have not lacked moisture and nourishment are in a conditio., that bodes well for the future. With attention to their needs, as intimated, 9nd keeping the pods closely picked, you can anticipate securing several dishes between now and when the plants are frosted. By pinching out the tops of the plants when the lower blossoms have set, the development of pods is hastened. ‘ SAGE AND THYME. Young plants of sage and thyme are much more satisfactory than old bushes, which take up far too much space and favour the growth and perpetuation of perennial weeds. Young plants are easily secured by taking sideshoots | about 4in. long, stripped off with a slight heel’of older wood, inserting them firmly, 6in. apart, in sandy soil, kept moist. Most of the cuttings may be expected to root if dealt with now. SOW HARDY ANNUALS NOW. If not already done, the autumn sowing of hardy annuals, to stand the winter and bloom early next summer, should be made at once. Some of the best for this purpose are cornflowers, coreopsis or calliopsis, as they are sometimes known, godetias, malopes, sweet sultan, clarkias, shirley and other poppies. Sow in fairly good but not too rich soil. A well drained position is necessary, and thin seedlings as soon as large enough to handle. The small plants should be kept free of weeds throughout the winter. ENDIVE. Endive is being planted for late autumn use, in rows Ift. apart for the curled varieties, and 15in. for the Batavian, similar distances being allowed between the plants. After watering in, the soil will be kept moist subsequently, this provision, together with reasonably rich, porous soil, constituting the chief factors towards success. I ants from the early sowing are approaching full size, and blanching will soon receive attention. Flower pots are inverted over the plants and pressed down so that the rims are slightly embedded in the loose soil. The drainage holes are then blocked to exclude light. See that the plants are dry before covering them; but bleach only a few at same time, as the leaves soon begin to deteriorate when once ready for use. The blanching process takes less than a fortnight at this season.