GARDENING NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 48, Issue 14610, 8 March 1922, Page 6

GARDENING NOTES.

Raspberries. The raspberry, Rubus lilacus, is a wild plant in Britain, where it grows in the thin woods under deciduous trees, and without pruning or cultivation produces crops of fruit annually. Through cultivation and selectioiq it has been greatly improved, and it is now one ot‘ the most valuable of small fruits, it is very hardy, its cultivation is simple, its requirements few, and it will grow in an odd corner not very suitable for anything else. As to soil, it is not at all particular, but prefers a fairly heavy alluvial one, moist and rich, but is not so happy on a slid clay -or a thin sand or gravel. When preparing the soil, it should be trenched two spits deep and a liberal amount of manure or compost heap placed between the two spits or dug into the surface after the trenching has been completed. Before planting, level the ground and mark out at the desired distance apart. There are three distinct methods of training raspberries, and the method has to be determined before planting commences: 1. Upright training on poles or stakes. For this method of training the rows are sft aprt, and the plants, or as they are called, “stools,” are 3ft apart in the tow . 2. .Espalier system, when they are trained on a wire or rustic fence, the “stools” being 2ft apart and the fence 4ft to oft apart. 3. The arched system, when they are planted in rows 4ft apart, and the same distance apart in the rows. Planting is better done in April and though they can be grown from seeds, cuttings and suckers, the last-named is the method generally adopted. These suckers spring from round the old “stools,” usually quite close in to roots, but occasionally some distance, away. They are severed from the parent plant with a sharp spade. The. shoot is cut back to about 6in, the cut end of the sucker trimmed if they have been bruised in the lifting, and they are planted in triangular groups of three at a distance of nine inches part. Buds will be found on the canes just under the soil, and great care has to be taken not to damage those in the planting process, because they wil form the canes of the coining year and will bear the fruit the next. Plant firmly and remove footprints and stir up .the surface soil with the spade or fork. Training them as espaliers on a fence is certainly the most satistactoiy method. A simple erection about five feet high will do, with three rows of wire or three rails, and by placing them at intervals through the vegetable plots, or small fruit patch, they will form excellent shelter for the other crops. As the fruit is borne on the young canes of the previous season s growth, the plants are continually renewed, the old ones being cut away as soon as the fruiting season is over. The young eane.-> arc reduced to five or six of the best on each “stool,” and these are tied up on the wires or rails at an equal distance apart, forming a fansliaped plant, the tips of the shoots of one * 4 sto'-l ” just v. aching the tips of the shoots of its neighbours. The fruit is borne on branchy shoots which spring from the buds on the canes, and by this method they receive the maximum amount of light and air, and there is also room for the young canes when they spring up. Though the canes can be tied in the autumn, it is better to leave the shortening back of the points until the spring. When they are tied up to stakes, these should be stout and of some lasting wood. Five selected canes arc tied up 3 and the tips cut away iu the spring. The unsatisfactory feature of this method of training is t'hat the young canes have to grow up among the old ones, and this prevents them from ripening properly, and the fruiting branchlets are also crowded. The arched method is quite good. Six canes are selected from each “stool” and half -of these are bent over each way until they meet another three canes from the neighbouring plant when they are tied together, thus forming a series of archs. The fruiting branchlets are then well away from the young canes, which have plenty of room to develop, and they are also kept low, which is an advantage: when they have to be covered with nets to protect them from birds. Established raspberries like plenty of feeding, and being surface-rooters a mulch of stable, manure or compost heap is very beneficial; keeping the roots cool and feeding them at the same time. Varieties to plant arc:—-Red, superlative, Northumberland, Fillbasket, and Semper Fideles, Yellow, Yellow Antwerp and Golden Queen. * * * *

The Loganberry. , The loganbery is an excellent small fruit, somewhat between a blackberry and a raspberry in appearance and favour, and at one time was considered natural hybrid, but in recent years this has been doubted, and some say it is a distinct species. Though it likes a cool, rich soil, it must have its head m the sun, and it requires _ all that sun, and in Dunedin it requires all that it can get to ripen its wood and its fmit. It is better when trained on a wall, a fence, or over a heap of stones, and when properly treated will mat regularly. It bears its fruit on lateral branchlets on the current yeai s growth, though, unlike the raspberry, the stems do not' die down every jeai, and they will continue to produce fruiting laterals for several years, but the finest fruits ate produced on well-mat- “ ured year-old stems. The blackberry is so common as a wild plant in most parts of New Zealand that there is little need to cultivate it, but the garden varieties are so much superior that where a fence or obi wall is available to train them over they are well worth planting. They bear their fruits in a similar manner to the loganberry, and require tittle pruning beyond cutting out the dead wood and regulating the stems.

Fruit, Flowers and Vegetables.

The .Japanese winoberry is often recommended for cultivation, ami as it n quite an ornamental plant, it is wo. I. planting in the shrubbery. It is of tin same habit of growth as the blackln making long stems from Ott to I'Hf. The fruit, which is borne together m clusters, is wine-red in colour, juicy, and agreeably acidulous, and is suit-aide for dessert or making into jam. All three plants are propagated by havering the tips of the young stems in the autumn, and when these are rooted they a re detached from the parent plant and placed in their permanent position. If has often occurred to me that loganberries, wineberrics or blackberries, trained on low wire fences or rustic fen-, ees, would take the place of hedges in small gardens, providing something useful as" well as ornamental. The best blackberries I have seen were grown on the wire netting round a fowl run, and [ am sure they could also be used to hide manv of the iron fences or paling fences one secs in New Zealand towns and villages. For those looking for novelties theie are several new fruits, such as the Worcester berrv, said to be a cross between a. noose berrv and a black currant; phen-omenal-berry, similar to a loganberry, but darker and sweeter; newberry, like phenomenal-berry, and lowberry and laxtouberry. • • * # Wallflowers. . Wallflowers may now be procured in a wide range of colours, but, as a rule, the rich blood-red, brown, and gold, will be found the most useful kinds. J hey aie more effective if grouped in beds of one colour than when mixed,-but if a companion plant is required for this purpose, the taller growing tulips can be used. Siberian wallflowers should be in everv garden. This is the fine or-ange-coloured bedding plant grown. Sown in January and planted out in April in small beds or clumps, of a dozen plants or so, a brilliant display is provided during the following October and November. Sown in March, plan, ed out in September, a blaze of bloom can be obtained during the summer months, or it can be sown in September for blooming from January to May. It is also a good plan to remove all faded flower stems, as tho plants will proa, others that will prolong the flowering period considerably. Polyanthus, in bronze, cream, gold, red, yellow and white, are amongst the most effective and lasting of spring bedding plants. As a rule they do better used alone than in combination with other plants, though spiraeas, which are not too well known, associate well with polyanthuses. There is much to admire in the feathery plumes of the several sorts of spiraea. The plants delight in a moist position, and flower from December to February. Tulips and narcissi may also be used* alone for spring bedding, particularly the early flowering kinds of tulips. Narcissi, however, arc always more effective when planted informally in grass. Crocuses are suitable for grouping beneath shrubs in places where the foliage can be allowed to remain until it dies. • * * * Schemes of Colour. Winter aconites and snowdrops, mixed or used singly, are good for carpeting shrubberies, whilst the cliionodaxas and the scilla sibirica are also good for carpeting thin shrubberies. Anemone liepatica, in its varied colours, is useful in semi-shade, as are also the different kinds of hardy cyclamen. The turban ranunculus and St. Brig ill anemones are excellent plants for beds in sunny positions. They must, however, be used alone, for tliey do not associate well with other plants. The most effective way of displaying spring flowers is to plant them in beds in much the same manner as summer flowers are grown. Endless combinations and schemes will suggest themselves. As a ruie, two or at the most three colours to a bed suffice, but beds planted with one c-oio cannot be surpassed for effect. One of the drawbacks to this mode of planting is that the display of bloom is frequently of rather short duration. On an average beds of tulips and hyacinths remain attractive for about a fortnight, although other plants used for a ground work help to prolong the show of bloom. Hyacinths are always rather stiff in effect, especially in large masses, but a good way to use them is to group them five together in borders or narrow beds carpeted with some low evergreen. Pink and blue hyacinths look well if carpeted with double white arabis, and as a rule the aubretias are most satisfactory with tulips, as the two kinds are then in full bloom at the same time. Of course, hyacinths and narcissi can be planted in beds by themselves, but it is preferable to use some form of evergreen plant for carpeting, if only to give the beds a furnished appearance in tho winter. The large flowering double daises are desirable for the purpose, in addition to the plants previously mentioned, and they are obtainable in various colours, from white to crimson. Lastly, when planning beds of flowers, aim n't producing direct contrasts as far as possible. Of course, care may be taken to see that colours employed in a bed do not clash, or the general effect would be spoilt. I hope these notes will be useful to readers, as this is an opportune time for planning and planting for spring flower gardening.