GARDENING NOTES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 276, 22 November 1945, Page 6

GARDENING NOTES

ATTEND TO CHRYSANTHEMUMS (Contributed by Wanganui Horticultural Society) This time of the year is quiet fo: the chysanthemums, but it is necessary to be on the alert for aphis and a small caterpillar (the leaf roller) which can do a lot of harm if not checked. Use Derris Dust for caterpillar and Black Leaf Forty for aphis. It is also wise to make provision for your top dressing, which should be applied from the middle of December and not later than the first week in January. A good top dressing is well decayed cow manure mixed with soil and compost; proportions, two of soil and one of manure, and if plenty is available use up to three inches in depth around your plants, spreading it from centre of plant out about nine inches; this will protect the roots from lr>sun and also give the plants extra food. 1 your plants are getting tall, pinch lhe centre out. and this will make them bushy, which is much belter for the garden than tall plants. HERBACEOUS PLANTS REQUIRE DE-SHOOTIN (i Some kinds of Herbaceous plants make far too many shoots-more than they can support and flower to perfection. The plants we particularly nave in mind are michaelmas daisies, phloxes, < chrysanthemums, erigerons, jythrums, lychnis, and rudbeckias. Examine any of these plants now, and you will find congested grovvth. According to the age and kind of plant there will be anywhere from 18 .o 30 shoots.. The plants look happy enough, but it must be obvious Io you that before long the congestion is going to resuit m .-piindling, and that when the great, si rain of flowering comes, there won’t be enough food and moisture to go round. Growth wil| droop during quite an ordinary spell of diy weather. Buds (urn blind, there are half blooms, whib, those blooms that do open have washed-out colours. That picture is true Io the life of al| unthinned herbaceous borders every season. i Reduce the shoots considerably, and I hereby reduce the call on the food supply, space and air. and you will be giatified by the more beautiful disThe number of shoots lo leave per plant varie> from five to eight, according to its age and vigour. Within those limits you can safely use your own judgment with the plants mentioned above. To some of you this may seem a somewhat revolutionary proposal. J looks like getting rid of a dcaj good growth. Suspend your judgm» i. till the end of the flowering .‘e;j>o: and we have no doubt what *th verdict, will be. Thinned plants have no shorn loo' and they spread quite as much as t’. unthinned, but the quality of th bloom is leagues ahead. There are rules to observe. Th. shoots r.iusi be vigorous and as evenlx spaced as pos ible<