GARDENING NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 9 December 1925, Page 2

GARDENING NOTES.

Feeding Roses. The roses are now in bloom, and the plants are daily opening new Duels. Tile time to fed roses is when the 'Duos are showing" colour. A good way is io obtain a cask cut in half so as to make two tubs, or if larger quantities are required, use the whole cask. Threeparts till it with water, and into this put- two sugar bags, one nearly tilled with cow manure and the other with soot. Let them soak for a day or so and then it is ready for use. Dilute it with three or four times its bulk of clear water, and supply it round the trees, preferably after they have received a good soaking of water or a shower of rain. After applying the liquid the surface soil should be stirred as to preevnt it caking and cracking. » » « * Decorative Aquiiegias.

The long-spurred aquiiegias of the present day are very different from me original columbine with its heavy purple tint, and stiff blossoms, for they now have more open petals each bearing a long and graceful spur, and embrace many exquisite shades of pink, yellow, scarlet, blue, as well as pure white. It is,'therefore, easy to from amongst them the special tints which will suit the colours of the dinner ware, or the. room, always remembering that the warmer shades look best under artificial light, and the blue tints are. only suitable .for daylight arrangements, as a rule. Aquiiegias should! be lightly aranged with flower-grns-sres mid ;i spray or-two of tlio.r own foliage, choosing the smaller leaves. Seed can now be sown to keep up a succession of these iu\aluabie flowers. It should be sown near the surface in fine soil, and kept moist in dry weather. » * • * Rosen for Layering. Many growers fail to strike roses successfully by the common method of inserting cuttings in autumn. Though layering is seldom used in connection with the rose, this is a very easy and certain, way, and but few of the layers put down while the trees are in full growth will fail to strike roots readily. Choose a shoot of sufficient length to be bent over and reach the ground, so as to enable it to be pegged into the moist earth. Make a, tongue-like incision in an upward direction, just beneath a joint and then bend the branch down until it can be firmly pegged into the soil. This requires care not to break the branch or snap it where the incision has been made. In the ease of stiff 'branches that do not bend readily it is 'better to pull the branch down a part of the way, and secure it in that I position for a few days, then return to it, and it. will come down quite easily. Bo sure that the pegging is securely done, for the spring of the branch has a natural tendency to pull the. bough upright again, and it is essential that the pegged joint (which is covered’by soil) should be kept underground. A period of about two months is usually sufficient to ensure a goodly supply of rots, but there is no hurry about severing the layers until it is s'een that really strong top growth is being made. If the layers are put down, in December, early in March is a capital time to sever ready for planting fl ..ring April. '•* • • Reviving Drooping Flowers. Many suggestions have been made, at one time or another for prolonging the life of cut flowers, or for reviving them when drooping, most of which are now well known. But I do not remember hearing of aspirin tablets having been pressed into .service. From a contemporary I learn that an American pharmacist claims that by this method lie has not only preserved flowers for several days beyond the time when they would! ordinarily fade, but lias revived them when wilted. The experiment was conducted with chysanhtemums. Some of them were put into water to which an aspirin tablet had been adde, the others were put into plain water. Kept under conditions otherwise the same, the drugged blooms outclassed the others 'by three days. In another case, flowers which had stood in a hot room overnight and were badly wilted, were given fresh water to which an aspirin tablet had 'been added. They revived in two hours looking as fresh as they did when picked the day before. The leaves, however, remained wilted. The explanation of the action of the aspirin is that it acts as an antiseptic, interfering with the enzyme which normally causes the clogging of the vessels of the stem at its cut surface. One thing in favour of this experiment is its simplicity, and many readers will be glad to try it. » * * * Hardening Off. “'Hardening off” is a common term among gardeners. It is applied to the practice of gradually exposing to open air conditions plants which have been grown in hot houses, before putting them out in the beds in which they are to ower during the summer. It is rendered necessary by the fact that sudden exposure to both air and’ sunshine imposes a great strain on the vital activities, and that it may prove excessive for plants with soft foliage, which will consequently (lag. Hence such plants are moved to a cold frame, and day by day the lights are opened more and more, until it is seen that full exposure is possible, without producing any il effects. Where a frame is not available for the purpose, the best tiling to do is to put the plants out in a sheltered corner, where at first they can bo completely shaded, a, few days later a little sunshine and afterwards more • • * • Herbaceous Calceolarias. Herbaceous calceolarias produce the

Fruit, Flowers and Vegetables 4

largo, flattened, poueli-like flowers intricately spotton. and marbled wita dark bowers on a Uglier ground. To get plants for next summer, seed must t>e sown about midsummer. The seed should be sown in pans in th greenhouse. Drain the pans carefully. 'Make up a compost of equal parts of leaf mould and loam, sifting them finely. To this add a goodly portion of sand, and mix all we el 1 together. Press the compost down equally all over in the pan, levelling it with the bottom of a pot, and water it thoroughly. The difficulty is to sow them thinly and evenly owing to their small size. No covering of soil is necessary, but the pan should have a pane of glass over it to retain the moisture. Stand the pa 11 in a shady part of the- greenhouse till germination takes place, and see that the seedlings get plenty of light without much direct sunshine.. During summer they are 'best grown in a cold frame facing south. ► * * * The Celery Fly. (Vlerv is often found to have whitish ' patches or blisters on the leaves. These patches later turn brown, and the leaf shrivels up and dies. The consequence is that the earthed up stalks do not. develop properly or the celermy may be small, green and bitter. In other cases the plant is killed outright. This mischief is the work of an insect about an eight of an inch in length. It is yellowish brown in colour, with brown markings on the. wings. Jt first appears in November, but is seldom noticed until later, when it attacks the plants while they are growing freely. The female fly deposits her eggs singly upon the upper surface of the leaves. The eggs hatch out in six days or thereabouts, and produce small, n lute or very light green grubs without legs. These grubs at once bury themselves in the. leaf tissues, on which they feed. A fortnight inter the grub changes to a pupa, remaining in the leaf or falling to the ground, A few days later the pupa stage is at an end, and the fly emerges. So the round goes on through the season, several broods being hatched. To prevent the fly from laying her eggs on the plants they should be dusted will soot or finely powdeicd lime whiles the leaves nr wet with dew. A mixture, of the two is even better. Spraying the young plants with a good insecticide is another method of prevention. that should be adopted. Where the attack is bad, the application of a quick-acting fertiliser to force rapid leaf growth is also effective Badlyinfested leaves are best picked off and burned to destroy the. maggots. After the crop has been cleared the ground should be dressed with gas-lime or a soiL fumigant, first digging it over to bury as many as possible of the pupae which would winter in the soil.'

[Upas Tree. Of all trees and plants which possess an evil repute, none has so fired popular imagination as the Upas tree of Java. In the days when travellers’ tales were accepted without question, weird fables were woven around this tree. It was said to grow in deserts where, because of its poisonous exhalations, no life could exist. Birds which flew over the Valiev of Death, where is flourished, were‘said to fall down lifeless; no plants coulil* grow near it; and its poisonous breath, wafted by the wind, carried death and destruction for miles around. As a. matter of fact, the tree yields a milky .iuiee, a deadly poison, with which the Javanese used to tip their arrows: but it is now admitted that the stories told about the Upastree are fables. Its name in Java is, \nfja, and its botanical name Antians toxieara. Tt is an evergreen tree growing to a height of eighty or ninety feet.