TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20363, 21 July 1934, Page 23 (Supplement)

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

INQUIRER (Sheffield) asks: (1) Is the present the best time to apply lime to garden? (2) Quantity per square yard to use. (3) Should the lime be on the surface or dug in?—(1) If using carbonate of lime, ground limestone, or agricultural lime, apply now; if burnt or slaked lime, spring is best. (2). Varies according to soil, but eight to sixteen ounces of ground limestone, or half the quantity of burnt or slaked lime. (3) Soon washes in if left on the surface.

A.M. (Rangiora) asks: Can I hurry up some daffodils, lily of the valley and crocus? They seem to be making very slow progress, particularly the lily of the valley, which I think have not grown half an inch since I planted them. The crocus and lily of the valley are growing in pots indoors.—* Until the plants have made fresh roots you have no possibility of “ hurrying " them. All you can do is to keep the soil moist, but not wet, and give the plants every opportunity to make new roots. Lily of the valley needs a compost composed chiefly of leafsoil and sand, plenty of drainage and shade. Crocus and daffodils should do all right under ordinary conditions. Probably you are expecting results too quickly.

ST ALBANS asks: (1) Would you kindly tell me if it is possible to top a Lawsonianna to the extent of three or four feet without killing the tree? At present it keeps the sun from our verandah. (2) Also if. this is the right time to cut down geraniums?— Yes. Cufs. Lawsonianha can be cut back or trimmed as required without harm, the same as macrocarpa. (2) Early enough. Wait until the first week in August.

M. S. O’MALLEY (Cronadun) writes: I was reading the gardening notes in the “Star” of Saturday, July 7, and a query by H.C. (Pigeon Bay) struck me as being very badly answered, particularly in regard to whether the pepper tree (New Zealand) would make a nice hedge. It appeared to me that the one who answered the question does not know the New Zealand pepper tree, for it makes a beautiful hedge—ornamental only. There is a hedge of it round a lawn in front of the Franz Josef Hotel which is very pretty, and it occurred to me when I read that note to drop these few lines. As a native of this country I would like to see many of our people grow our native plants and shrubs for ornamental purposes. I enclose in this a few leaves of the pepper wood.

You can forward them to your questioner; also this note. There is also another New Zealand native known here as Mick-a-Mick. I think the Maori is mokomoko, and there is nothing imported to look at it for beauty. There are several others, all of which look pretty in an ornamental hedge. There is a hedge on the way into the State Farm at Weraroa made up of several New Zealand shrubs, and I have not seen anything in New Zealand to look more beautiful. I’f your questioner is convenient to the railway I would send him a small parcel of these to try them—if they will grow on the eastern side of our country. I have been a keen advocate of reafforestation and protecting our forest and using our own trees for the purpose in preference to any imported tree or shrub; hence my keenness to see someone else take an interest in native shrubbery or the cultivation and protection of our own bush scenery.—Our correspondent is quite right in his eulogy of the South Island pepper tree (Horopito of the Maoris), a shrub with red, pi.*rple blotched leaves, pungent and aromatic to taste, but the pepper tree referred to in our previous article was the species better known in the trade as Schinus molle. the Queensland pepper tree, with ornamental drooping foliage resembling wattle. Like the Grevillea it would not be satisfactory on the plains. I quite agree with him in his remarks on our native trees. The mokomoko, or Aristotalia, is a really beautiful tree, easy to grow. It is perhaps better known as the New Zealand wineberry, with large leaves, trusses of pink flowers, followed by red berries. Unfortunately it is one thing to see these striking effects in the natural bush and another to reproduce them in the cramped conditions of town gardens.