The Home Garden

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 67, 20 March 1940, Page 10

The Home Garden

WORK FOR THE WEEK. The Flower Garden Early layered carnations should now be well rooted. Lift and plant out if the ground is ready, otherwise plant them in the nursery beds. It is advisable to have them planted in their permanent beds before the cold weather sets in. Sweet peas may be sown either for winter or spring flowering. All spring flowering bulbs should be planted. Anemones, tulips, ixias, hyacinths, narcissi, ranunculus, and spring gladioli may all be planted this month, also members of the smaller families as sparaxis, grape hyacinths, lachenalia, crocas and tritonia. Belladonnas may be lifted this month. All hardy annuals may be sown. Attend to dahlias by tying up. thinning out, and, if necessary, watering freely. Keep a careful watch for caterpillars on chrysanthemums. Spray with a poisonou; spray. Ihe Vegetable Garden Sow this month: Carrots (Early Horn), Cabbage (Enfield Marker and Flower of Spring), winter spinach, lettuce, corn salad, endive, mustard and cress, turnip, onion (Giant Rocca or other autumn varieties for transplanting in spring). Plan this month: Strawberries, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, lettuce, endive and celery. Routine Work.—Lift onions when ripe, and store. Earth up celery and leeks. Dry off thoroughly onions and shallots before storing. Pinch off the ends of tomato shoots and remove foliage to assist ripening of fruit. Plant and sow silver beet for winter use. Turnips for winter use should be sown now, thinning as used. Later a sowing of the yellow-fleshed variety may be made. Lilies. Lilies are an important family of hardy bulbous plants, useful both as cut flowers for house decoration and for display in the garden. The flowers are in most cases large. The colours are varied and interesting, and some have an agreeable though strong perfume. In a garden where rhododendrons and azaleas are cultivated they are particularly useful, for they flower after these beautiful shrubs are over, and in the case of the deciduous azaleas they provide colour until the autumn tints appear. But the most important fact is that they like just the conditions which azaleas, rhododendrons and heath like—an acidy, well-drained soil, and the shade which these shrubs provide is just what the lily bulbs like because, being mostly stem rooters, their best roots are at or near the surface where they are apt to dry out unless shaded to some extent. They also appreciate a mulch of well-rotted manure, leaf mould or lawn mowings just as azaleas, and they should not be allowed to become dry during summer. They really like a sandy loam, which contains lots of organic matter and which is slightly acid. While some lilies do not mind lime in the soil, others will not grow at all if lime is present, but all grow well without it. Lilium candidum, the Madonna lily, differs from most of the others which are commonly grown in that it is not a stem rooter. It should not be planted more than two or three inches deep and it likes lime or lime rubble. It should be transplanted when the leaves and stem have quite died down. Any scales broken off when transplanting if placed in boxes will make tiny bulbs which will flower when two years old. Lilium regale, the royal lily, is undoubtedly the most useful of all, for it is easy to accommodate and will grow with or without shrub shade. It is not at all particular as to soil, and so far has not been attacked by any kind of blight. It is easy to propagate either by the natural division of the bulbs, which in time become an enormous size, or by raising from seed, which is produced in abundance. Seed sown in the open as soon as it is ripe will produce bulbs which will flower in two to three years. At first the stems may have only one or two flowers, but as the bulbs increase in size the stem increases in strength, attaining a height of five feet and bearing a dozen or more flowers. The flowers are funnel-shaped, deliciously scented, snow white suffused with yellow in the throat, and stained wine colour on the outside. They are stem-rooting and should be planted six to eight inches deep. Lilium Henryii is also a vigorous grower, its flower stem reaching a height of nine feet and producing quantities of bright orange-yellow flowers with pale green medieval lines. It is better planted among open shrubs, is a stem-rooter, and should be planted eight inches deep. Lilium Davidii is also a vigorous plant, though the flower stems seldom exceed five feet. They bear large numbers of flowers on long pedicles, orange-red or deep orange, with brown spots. It is one of the most graceful of all lilies, is easily accommodated, is a stem-rooter and should be planted at from six to nine inches deep. Lilium pardalinum is also a very vigorous lily, and is a native of California. It grows to a height of from five to eight feet and is most suitable for a moist place in the woodland or near a stream. It is easy to accommodate, its bulb being like a scaly rhizome, which divides up easily, thereby increasing the plants at a great rate. The flowers are various shades of orange or red, and more or less spotted with brownish purple. Lilium Speciosum and its varieties is specially recommended, for it flowers after most of the other lilies are past. It grows to a height of about tour feet and has white, ruby-red, rose-pink to carmine-pink flowers, which are specially useful for cutting. It is a stem-rooter and should be planted eight inches deep. Lilium Martagon, the Turk's Cap lily, grows to a height of three to four feet, the flowers being rosy-purple. It is a stem-rooter, easy to grow and very suitable for a group in a mixed border. L. chalcedonicum the scarlet Martagon, is a choice lily not so easy to manage as Martagon. Flowers are a brilliant seaiing-wax red. Lilium auratum and its variety, platyphyllum, is a glorious lily from Japan which is most desirable, where it does well. It seems to thrive best at the foot of a brick wail, where it may grow to a height ot nine feet, producing quantities of its large, strongly perfumed flowers. Lilium longiflorum, the Easter or Bermuda lily, is called the Bermuda lily because it is extensively cultivated on that island for the American market, and the Faster lily because it is extensively used for church decorations at that time. The flowers are pure white. It is a stem-rooter and should be planted six inches deep. It is a suitable lily for the mixed border. Other good lilies are L. Giganteum, L. croceum, the orange lily, L. formosinum (a late flo ering species easily rasied from seed), L. ugrinum, the tiger lily, L. umbellalum, and. L. Wilmottrae—a hardy and dependable lily not unlike Davidii. The flowers are a rich orange-red and it is stemrooting. Lawn 1 roubles and New Lawns. Moss on lawns can be put down to either shade or a combination of sour soil, due to lack of drainage, which causes a great poverty of plant food available, in August get busy with your rake and rake out all you can of the moss; then apply 4oz. per square yard of hydrated lime and let the spring rains wash it in. Then in Marcn apply a sprinkling of good loam and broadcast good lawn grass seen at the rate of a i oz. per square yarn. When fairy rings maice their appearance on the lawn, make a solution of copper sulpnate and ordinary washing soda, lib. of each dissolved in 10 gallons of water. Well water the rings witii mis solution, more especially die outer sides and the grass just outside tne ring. This will destroy the fungus and stop the spread outwards. The active threads of the mycelium are always wen in advance of the toad stools which appear aoove ground. Making a New Lawn.—A new lawn can be made with turf, out tun is a very uncertain commodity, and tor many good reasons, which i wilt not set down here, i would always tavour seen, in the first place the ground must be well prepared, ine essentials are good drainage and tugging. Manure is not usually necessary, out a fair amount of Humus in tne soil is uesirabie. Alter uiggmg comes the levelling, which is not such a simple business as might oe supposed, it may loon level when you have dnisnca, out it uoesn t ai\-.ays s«.ay so; so it is advisable to walK about on it, ana alter a ween or so level it again. Have your merchant mix your grass seed with red lead, and you win not loose any of your seed oy oiras mice, i usually sow 2oz. per square yard; some people sow more, but i consider it a liberal sowing. Kane the seed well imo tne soil, a covering ji soil is not essential. Rolling at this stage is not necessary, especially n the soil is the least bit sticky, as it causes a crust to form, whicn is iiii/.j up by tne quick-growing grasses, carrying the smaller ones with it; sj it aappens their roots are nangnig in space. Tou must take steps to consolidate the surface by running a light roller over it as soon as the grass is beginning to show. Alter the grass is well up a light rolling every week win do good—it helps it to become firmly established. The first cutting should be done with a scythe, but as so few people know how to use it, the least said the better. The next best thing is io see that the mower is snarp and the blades set high, so that the grass is left about two inches high for he first two months, gradually reducing it as the grass grows thicker and stronger. Limewashing Old F ruit 1 rees. Old fruit trees that have been neglected often have the stems covered .vith a growth of moss and lichens; in fact, many other trees growing in damp warm districts have the same trouble. If the stems are not too large or not too badly covered, spraying with caustic soda (11b to 10 gallons of water) will clean them. This spray, however, cannot be used on evergreen trees. Lime sulphur solution will also remove moss and lichen gradually, but when the stems are large and the moss and lichen has a firm hold limewash made with quicklime and applied with a brush is the best clearance. Apply the limewash so that the trees are cleaned before ihe spring. The limewash is quite harmless to the trees, with the exception of rhododendrons and ericas. It also cleans off insect and fungi spores that may be hidden under the moss or pieces of bark.