GARDENING NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1935, Page 12 (Supplement)

GARDENING NOTES

the WEEK’S WORK. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Planting operations are entirely suspended while the ground is so wet. Any seedlings that are ready for planting must be held till weather improves. If seedlings in boxes are showing signs 'of starvation give a little weak stimulant. A teaspoonful of nitrate of soda in two gallons of water is all right. Rose pruning can be done. Cut out any old snags. A small keyhole saw is very useful for this purpose. Now is the time to give the rose beds a good application of manure and also to dig over the surface. Roses respond to a topdressing of new turfy loam. Remove four inches of the old surface, apply the loam and cover with some of the old soil. Chrysanthemum stools held for providing cuttings must be kept weeded. Tools of all kinds should be cleaned, sharpened and put in condition for the coming season. Lawns should be weeded. This may appear a hopeless task, but it is the only means of securing a good lawn. the greenhouse. Chrysanthemum cuttings can be inserted. Dahlia stools can be brought into the house if a supply of cuttings is needed, but if for dividing and planting purposes leave them dry for another month. Cinerarias, cyclamen and primulas in bloom will need liquid manure. Fumigate the greenhouse every ten days; this will give freedom from insects. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN.

Make a sowing of broad beans in cold districts and heavy soils. Prepare ground for potatoes and peas when weather permits. Stakes, boxes, labels should all be cleaned, sharpened and prepared ready for use. _ Paint boxes and stakes with creosote. It is cheap and means longer life to all outside wooden structures. Creosoted wood is avoided by insects, hence as an insecticide it has its uses in reducing th? harbourage for insects. Potato sets should be placed in boxes. Keep them in boxes rather than plant while ground is sodden. Raised beds are essential in most soils just now and makes planting and sowing possible where it would be impossible at this season. Clean asparagus beds, rake off the top soil and replace with six inches of rich compost. Prepare new asparagus beds. _ For a permanent bed a deep soil is essential and in most gardens this means trenching is necessary. Plant shallots and potato onions. Plant so that the tip of the bulb is just above the ground level. THE FRUIT GARDEN. Pruning is the most important operation at present Spraying should follow pruning, but the most important detail in pest control is the removal of all dead twigs, fallen fruit, leaves and weeds. Citrus planting is best delayed for a week or so. Any . pruning of citrus trees can be done during the next few weeks. SHOWY PENTSTEMONS. PLANTS FOR THE WINTER. Pentstemons make extremely showy bedding subjects, and seed sown now in the same manner as snapdragons will also provide plants for blooming this season. Some of the new large flowered strains of pentstemons are really magnificent, well-grown plants, producing blossoms that almost challenge those of the gloxinia. A desirable feature of pentstemons is thg fact that in early autumn, when many beds of antirrhinums are past their best, these plants are usually blooming very strongly. They are perennials .in reality, although not absolutely hardy. In some well-drained gardens they will often survive the winter and bloom again the next year, but as they are so easily raised from seed, special steps to preserve' plants through the winter are hardly worth while. The best shades for bedding are undoubtedly the pink and the scarlet, a mixture of the two making a bright splash of colour. White and purplish are also obtainable. As the latter, however, do not mix well with the pink and red, they are best kept in beds by themselves. A smaller flowered type of pentstemon which is worth growing for variety, as a bedding plant, or in the rock garden, is that known as Blue Gem, with steely blue flowers borne on slender steins about 18in high. REASON FOR PRUNING ROSES. Every grower knows that pruning is called for, but the reason for it is not always clearly understood. The matter is thus concisely explained in that little book, “How to Prune Roses”: A rose is pruned to encourage growth, to admit light and air to all parts of the plant, to produce flowers of better quality, and keep it within reasonable limits. If we look at an ordinary hybrid tea, before it is pruned, we shall see that it has several old shoots spring from the base, with a few young ones formed last season.

The old shoots will have numerous branches, with twiggy growths upon them. Now, if we leave the bush unpruned, all we get in the way of flowers will be a few poor insignificant specimens, together with a lot of thin straggling growths. The older growths left on will serve to make the bush dense and block out sunshine and air. The habit of the rose is to throw up strong new shoots from the base, or low down on the old stems.

Along these new shoots the sap flows more freely than in the older ones, which in consequence become starved, lose their vigour and eventually die. This process is repeated, this season’s new shoots in their turn giving way to younger ones. The intention in pruning is to ensure that the young shoots that will arise shall have all the vigour of the plant, for it is these that produce fine blooms.

This does not apply to the climbing section, some of which bloom on laterals or short side shoots borne on wood of the previous year, while a few bloom on twigs of these laterals. Just now the work of pruning roses will be it full swing. The exact time depends on the locality and the variety. The usual plan is to commence with the hybrid perpetuals, the hybrid teas next and the teas last.