GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17840, 12 October 1929, Page 22 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

SEASONABLE WORK, (By “Nikau.”) Vogetables and Fruit. —Sow all hardy vegetables, also a row or two of -dwarf beans. Plant cabbage, potato, rhubarb, lettuce, artichoke, cauliflower and a few tomato plants. Have covers ready for early potatoes, and cover up V the tomatoes every night. Mould up peas, potatoes and cabbage, as this makes them more secure. Prepare beds and manure for marrows, pumpkins and cucumbers. Finish planting lemon and orange trees. Spray apple trees with arsenate of lead (lAlbs to oOgals) as soon as the petals fall; the spray may be combined with lime-sulphur (1 to 80 of water) to check black spot and pear scab. Graft trees. Plant passion fruit. Flowers. —Manure beds and borders. Stake sweet peas. Plant climbers and various Qiardy bedding plants. Divide and replant perennials before they make too much growth. Sow seeds in open ground, or better still, in boxes; use black cotton to protect seedlings from birds. Use Black Leaf 40 for green aphides on roses, aquilegias, etc. Label late bulbs. Put in cullings of fuchsias and hydrangeas, using either the new growths or last year’s wood. NOTES. ■ Grafting Fruit Trees.- —Many, people consider this too difficult an operation, but surely they can do what ivas-

■commonly done by the Hebrews of 1 Biblical times and by the ancient Romans and Greeks? The work of grafting consists in uniting the inner bark of the graft or scion with the inner bark of the stock (whether braneb or trunk). If there Is not this conj tact of the inner harks, no growth | will follow. The work is done at j this time of the year, when there is sap rising up the stock In readiness to feed the graft. It Is usual to rei tard the graft or scion by cutting it off in early spring and keeping It partly buried in soil until the sap begins to rise In the stock In late September or in October. Grafts can be taken now, however. The simplest form of grafting perhaps is the '“cleft” method; a branch or stem Is sawn off and then split in one or two directions by means of a chisel. Then the graft is prepared. It should be four or five inches long, and as thick as a penholder or lead pencil; to fit it for insertion at the end of the crack we must make it wedge-shaped at the point. Care must be taken to fit the two barks together. Four grafts to each stump (two to each crack) may be inserted. Another easy way is I‘rind’ grafting. In this the bark is, gently prized out (sometimes slit) j and a wedge-shaped graft is pushed down between the bark and the wood of the stock. Where a thin stem is used as stock, and the graft is of the same diameter, another system must be followed. The stock is cut to form a long inverted V, and the graft is cut with'a V or swallow-tail to fit the stock. In all these and the several other ways of grafting it is necessary to exclude the air. For this purpose grafting wax is used generally. It can be bought, or else prepared by beating beeswax, resin and l’at. A good way is to scrape the grafting-wax on calico and then wrap this as a bandage round the crown and the base o" Hie grafts. Some people use a mixture cf clay and animal dung instead of grafting wax. Grafting is more easily 'done with apples and pefjrs than with stone-fruits; the latter are usually propagated by budding in summer.

Some Good Shrubs. —The Pearl Bush (Exochorda gran dill ora) is now in full bloom, rivalling azaleas even in floriferousness and beauty. It is aptly named, as each bud is like a pearl. The shrub is deciduous, reaches a'height of eight or ten feet, and in most respects resembles the shrubby Spiraeas. The Pearl Bush should be pruned just after the flowers have 'faded; all weak growths and some of tile poorer dowering wood should be cut out, and straggly shoots trimmed to an even shape. This shrub may -be propagated from layers or from sucker growths. A beautiful but uncommon tree is the Snowdrop Tree (Halesia tetraptera), with snow-white flowers borne in clusters before the leaves appear. It is much more often grown in the South Island than here, but the reason for this is obscure, perhaps for Ihe same reason that most kinds of deciduous trees and shrubs are commoner down there than here. The tree reaches a height of about fifteen l’eet. Propagation is effected by means of root cuttings, layers or of seeds (which are borne in considerable quantities). The tree should he planted on the shaded side of the house, as it needs a cool root-run; it would grow splendidly beside the lake in our Domain. Indigofera gerardiana is another shrub well worth growing. It flowers very freely in the late spring, and is a noticeable tree with its pink flowers. It is easily grown from seed, like other members of the great order of leguminous plants. A still better shrub, but one that is harder to grow, is Kalmia latifolia. This bears clusters of dainty flesh-colour-ed ilowers which have won for it the uncuphonious name of the Calico Bush. Though it needs a cool rootrun, there must be plenty of places in this province where it would succeed admirably. It is a distant relative of rhododendrons and azaleas, but needs more shade than they do. When well grown it reaches a height of eight feet, amt the average is less than half that. Ka'lmia is a North American evergreen that ranks . amongst the world’s best shrubs. Rockeries. —There is still time to put some more plants in rockeries. Besides the anemones, ranunculi, gazanias and Ara'bis (single and double) which are now in full flower, we may plant any of the following: Various dwarf veronicas (Koromikos), Aubrictia, Lychnis, Lotus peliorhychus (scarlet flowers like those of the Kaka’s Beak), Alyssum saxatile (dwarf, with yellow flowers), Armeria (Thrift or Sea Pink), Arum Rehmanii (a dwarf arum with pink flowers), various Campanulas, especially isopbylla, persicifolia, carpatica and portenschlrgiana (with blue flowers, growing in greatest profusion on walls and rockeries in Wellington Botanic Gardens) ; various plants with succulent leaves (such as the sedums, saxifrages, rnesembryanthornums, crassulas and oclievcrias), geurns, Ileuchcra (Goral Plant), dwarf irises, Xcpcta (catmint, so dear to cats), Stachys (Lamb’s Ear), verbena, gerbora, Dielytra (Bleeding Heart), Iceland poppy. Potentilla, Doronicum, Agathca (blue , flowers), Krigoron and Slokesia. For • a border Virginian stock should be ; sown, to flower in six weeks.

Do Nots for Repotting. —Notes on this subject were given lately, but some ‘do nots’ may prove helpful. (1) Do not use dirty or wet pots, as soil would fail to come out in a ball next time and the roots would sufTer. (2) Do not forget the drainage—place pot-sherds or crocks loosely over the drainage hole. (3) Do not use too Large a pot; the size next to the old one should be used. Do not plan! too deeply or too shallow; -half an inch from the top of the V Cj t is generally right, allowing for watering. (5) Do not have the centre low as this might keep too much moisture about the stem; with palms and many other plants it pays to have the centre a little higher than the rest. (0) Do not pot a plant when it is in a dry state; soak it before putting it in a larger pot and surrounding it wilti soil. (7] Do not use too rich or two loose a soil for slow-growing plants such as palrns; a rich, loose soil is suitable onlv for quick-growing leafy plant*. Asters. —These are amongst the finest of all annuals, but, owing to the devastating action of a fungus cornmoniv called ‘collar rot,” much difliculty* in growing them occurs. _ As a precaution against this damping-off disease, the soil of the seed-box should be sprinkled with a solution of 40 per cent formalin in water at the rale of loz to 4gals of water, or with a pink solution of permanganate of potash in water. Another method suggested is scattering some White Island No. 1 Product over the soil three weeks before sowing or planting. Still another remedy brought before the writer’s nollco is a weak solution of sulphuric acid (a terribly corrosive substance). A week *or two before planting . out the aster-bed should be well watered with eithei the formalin or permanganate solutions mentioned above. Aster seed, pre-

ferably of the Ostrich Plume or Giant Branching types, should be sown now, pricked out In 14 days and planted out in 21 days after that. The soil of the aster-bed should be enriched with a complete manure such as rotted stable manure or a ‘garden fertiliser.’

To secure the best results for the vegetable garden it is essential to sow the best of seeds. These are obtainable from A. M. Blsley and Co., Ward Street, Hamilton, whose new season stock is now on the market. This firm now urges the sowing of their specially selected Pea Seeds, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Seed Potatoes. They also supply all classes of fertilisers to gardeners in small quantities, including special garden manure, superphosphate, blood and bone, sulphate of ammonia, nitrate or soda, and lime, quick and carbonate. Full directions in the the use of these manures are supplied on application.