GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16096, 20 September 1924, Page 18 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

SEASONABLE WORK. (By "Nikau.") Vegetables and Fruit.—Carry on the work of and planting while the ground is in good order. Mould up early potatoes, peas, cabbage, broad beans. Prepare beds for marrows, pumpkins and cucumbers, but do not sow yet, as it is still far too early for these vegetables. Make the main sowings of carrots, parsnip, silver beet, etc. Plant potato, cabbage, asparagus, onion. Graft fruit trees. Spray apple trees with red oil to kill woolly aphis and various scale insects. Flowers.—Plant shrubs and climbers. Take up and divide perennials such as phlox, Michaelmas daisy, helenium, coreopsis, gaillardia. Sow seeds of hardy annuals in the open, and of half-hardy or tender annuals in boxes. Stake, train and manure the earlier sweet peas. "Finish sowing lawns and making alterations to beds and borders.

SPECIAL NOTES. The Pink Spray: We are sorry to learn that the local seedsmen have been receiving many enquiries concerning our mysterious 'pink spray,' but we are pleased to know that someone besides the proof-reader is interested in this column. The spray is called 'pink' because it is applied when the flowers are 'in the pink,' or, to avoid this ambiguous phrase, when the flowers are still merely pink buds. The spray itself is simply the ugly Bordeaux mixture, or lime-sulphur or some other spray applied at that particular stage in the flowering of fruit trees. At the risk of becoming tedious, we may r?pc-.t that the 'pink spray' is not pink, but is an ordinary spray u*od when the flowers are still pink Mas. The Children's Garden.--Every spring we make our appeal to parents to allow the youngsters space for a garden. Even on the ordinary town section, only one quarter of an acre or less in area, it is almost always possible to find space for such a praiseworthy object as a child's garden. Though it need not be the bast part of the whole garden as to soil and aspect, it should certainly not be the worst part. ' Is it to be a vegetable garden or a flower garden? The answer depends on the taste of parent and of child, but the latter person should certainly be given the choice. In most cases, the plot will be a dual one, containing both vegetables and flowers. A suitable size of plot is about ten feet by six for one child, if both flowers and vegetables are to be grown. Unless the child is allowed to do most of the working and planning, a great deal of the benefit of the gardening is lost. In many cases the child's garden is only a part of the parents'; however this fact should be disguised. As for crops, we suggest something that quickly yields results, for childish impatience is a factor to be reckoned with. Easily and Quickly grown crops include the following.: turnip, lettuce, radish, carrot, butter beans, other dwarf beans such as Canadian Wonder, onion, leek. These crops have the additional advantage of not being too bulky, but where plenty of room can be spared, peas, scarlet runners, cabbage, tomatoes and other crops may be grown. Hints on sowing, cultivation, thinning and manuring may be given, but let the child do practically all the work himself. In this way he will learn to enjoy working in the open air, and coming into closer touch with Mother Earth.

Planting Trees "and Shrubs: As the planting season is almost at an end, as far as these are concerned, the work must be hurried on. Newlyplanted trees and shrubs need to be inserted between stem and stake, so that chafing will be prevented. Evergreen shrubs should be watered well at least once a week unless the ground is already moist enough. Deciduous shrubs, however, will need, little watering until they have begun to put forth leaves.

A Beautiful Climber—A kebla quinata: This handsome native of Japan, now in full bloom in some local gardens, is exciting much admiration with its delicate flve-lobed leaves and its quaint blooms. The latter are plumcoloured, almost black, with lightcoloured stamens; the three petaloid sepals and the three tubular styles complete a remarkable flower. The plant is quite hardy in the Waikato, so it should be much more commonly seen than it is. Flowering at this season, when few genuine climbers flower, it is an invaluable plant. It should make an excellent plant to grow near Mandevilla and the less vigorous kinds of wistaria such as W. brachybotrys, as they flower at different seasons.

Flowering Shrubs.—Although this time is not the height of, the season for flowering shrubs, it is approaching that point. The following, amongst others, are now in flower: flowering currant (with lovely pink flowers and fragrant foliage), Boronia (especially B. megastigma with flowers dark maroon on outside and yellow on the inside), Eriostemon (white flowers, and leaves with a scent like that of the common black currant), Erica or heath (several species, small-flowered and large, tubular-flowered), Kerria japonica (single and double yellow), Spiraeas (of various kinds, such as thumbergii and prunifolia), Berberis darwinii (yellow), laurestinus, flowering almond, Forsythia (with yellow flowers), rosemary, exochorda (pearl bush, just opening), Cydonia japonica ('japonica'), camellia, rhododendron, azalea, and several other kinds. The Horticultural Society's Flower

Show

Viewed as a whole, the show was a decided success. It was slightly better than last year's, as it had more entries, more exhibitors and a few more visitors, while the quality of the blooms was of about the same high standard. Last year the trade exhibits contained all the best blooms, while this year the competitive stands had the best. Of course, some of the rare bulbs costing £6 or more each were not represented at all, but on the other hand there were far more than last year of .the ordinary good exhibition kinds. There were fewer empty classes of cut flowers, practically the only ones being pansies and azaleas. This easily beats last year's record. In decorated tables, however, the entries were below last year's and as we have pointed out after the last two shows, the decorated tables seen at our local shows are far fewer than at such places as Cambridge, Te Kuiti and other towns. An interesting point to note is that whereas the Auckland Society's recent spring show had fewer than 400 vases filled, our local show had over 400 before the daffodil section was reached. That means that ours contained the equivalent of the Auckland show and had all the cut flowers, decorative and pot classes in addition. In fairness to Auckland, however, we must point out that much of our success was due to (lie help givyGn by the Auckland enthusiasts who sent down their best blooms (and who incidentally won many of the prizes). Besides our_ four successful exhibitors in the daffodil classes, there were at least four from

Cambridge and one from Te Kuiti. Hamilton gardeners may see from this what a small proportion of the daffodil winners, they .themselves formed.

It would not be profitable to give long lists of daffodils which were well shown, but the following brief list may be of use to our readers. (Descriptions may be found in the lists issued by Yates, Cooper, Weightman, Gibson and other nurserymen). The list of Trumpets is: Lord Roberts, Admiral Makaroff, Weardale Perfection, D. of Bedford, King Alfred, Van Waveren's Giant, M. J. Berkeley, Zolap, Vanilla, and the champion Renown. The Incomparabilis list is: Flamingo, Gloria Mundi, Fleetwing, Lucifer, Pilgrim, Bernardino, Bedouin, Hospodor, Macebearer, Tita.

The list of Barrii includes: Bath's Flame and Brilliancy (both remarkably fine), Mohican (champion), Fiery Cross. The list of Leedsii included Felspar, Livonia (was champion in Auckland), Lord Kitchener (champion), Southern Gem. The champion blooms were: Trumpet, Renown (exhibited by Mr J. H. Braithwaito of Auckland); MedioCoronati, Yellow Girl (exhibited by Mr E. George (Huntly) : Leedsii, Lord Kitchener (exhibited by Mr A. J. Shepherd, late of Hamilton) ; Barrii, Mohican (exhibited by Mr J. H. Braithwaite).

The cut flowers were more numerous than usual, and included five blooms of: Stock, anemone, ranunculus, hyacinth, freesia, primrose, rhododendron, billbergia. The wallflowers, pansies, violas, camellias and nemesias were not as good as they ought to have been, though the lateness of the season was responsible for most except the camellias. ' The decorative work reached a high standard, but was lacking in quantity. Surely our young ladies will carry on the good work done by their mothers in the past? The trade exhibits were not as good or as numerous as usual, but Mr Sanders had an interesting display of daffodils which were all low priced and which were still to be seen in some of the winning exhibits.

The pot plants were better than usual, though almost every prize was won by the same exhibitor, Mr F. W. Hare. The school section was not well filled, but the display by Whitiora was very good.

Interesting exhibits of locally grown lemons and tree tomatoes were also shown. "Nikau" must confess that the tree tomatoes surprised him, in view of the fact that the plants cannot stand severe frost.

Though the Society's membership is treble that of Auckland's, it includes still only one-sixtieth of the population of the district. We look forward to the time when the proportion rises to one in twenty, and when every member is a real exhibitor instead of being merely a potential one.