GARDEN NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19765, 21 December 1935, Page 20 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES

SEASONABLE WORK

SPECIALLY WRITTEN AND COMPILED TO SUIT WAIKATO CLIMATE

(By “Nilcau.”) 1

F “REST AND BE THANKFUL.”

THE CHRISTMAS SEASON. Enthusiasts who simply must work to the garden will be able to find plenty to do without suggestions from this column. Accordingly we shall tjeal with horticultural topics from a different point of view this time. DECORATING THE HOME. • Readers probably know very well i Jww to decorate a New Zealand home «t; Christmas time; by way of contrast let us consider suggestions given by an English writer for his readers m Britain:— “Christmas without decorations would not be Christmas. For the rest of the year our rooms may present as demure an aspect as every-day life ordains, but at Christmas they must be given a festive air, if the spirit of the season is to be realised. And there is only one right time to embark on this jolly undertaking— Christmas Eve. You may give thought ‘ to it beforehand, and gather the material that is to deck the house, but not until the eve of Christmas should you start hanging anything up. This is but following ancient custom, and, it 3 fellow principle is that nothing should be taken down till Twelfth Night. In the home at least let us resist the modern anticipation of Time, which puts Christmas annuals on the bookstalls in October, adjures us to shop early and post early; so that when Christmas is really upon us, all the fun and interest of our cards and our presents has evaporated. To complete this hurrying ■cheme, there remains only the request that we shall eat our turkeys and our puddings and' pies well beforehand, to save washing-up on Christmas Day! . . . There must, of course, be holly and mistletoe, but to supplement these it is a good plan to make use of evergreens, berberis and other berried shrubs, to which may be added, according to one’s purse, a display of chrysanthemums, azaleas and other pot plants that are a particularly charming feature indoors when winter has laid the garden bare.” “Merely to push sprigs of holly behind pictures and in vases is not sufficient; this is a lazy way to decorate I; for Christmas. Something should be made of garlands or wreaths of holly, and then there will be a decorative effect besides a gay one. But if garlands and wreaths of green are put up without relief, the effect will be too solemn. Here one can resort to the streamers that are sold in rolls for fetes (bright red ones are best) or tufts of scarlet wool can be fastened among the green leaves to lighten the foliage considerably where there are no berries. Th decorations should begin with the hall, where, whatever else is missing, there must be a good bunch of mistletoe hanging overhead. And here make a point of noting the importance of a warm effect in the illumination. At this season especially the hall should have a Welcoming appearance, and the tone of lighting will contribute to this.; Bare, cold lights must be avoided.” “On the Christmas table itself, chrysanthemums will make a brave display, set in an attractive vase, or there can be an arrangement of fruit. The graceful pine and brightly-col-oured apples and oranges are as grateful to the eye as they are luscious to the taste. The seed-pods of the cape gooseberry offer another suggestion, piled up in a vase—a treatment which is a pleasant variant from their familar display on stems in a jar.” Mention is also made of dried grasses and “everlastings” such as statice and various daises. The winter cherry (Solanum capsicastrum) is to be used as a pot plant, and also in the form of branches and sprigs covered with scarlet berries. It all goes to show how diffei'cnt our Christmas season is; the question of which is preferable is not so easily settled in oar favour. There is no need to balance mistletoe against pohutukawa, for New Zealand has several species of mistletoe. Is it one of Nature’s compensations that the mistletoe grows best in the cold south?

SOME BEAUTIFUL PLANTS.

In the last few weeks the writer has had the privilege of examining many unusual features of local gardens. The first was a specimen of Enkianthus campanulatus, a rare Japanese shrub very similar in some respects to E-japonicus, but the time of flowering is later, and the bells are larger than those of E-japonicus, and they are greenish instead of white. Leaves are said to colour wcli in autumn before they fall. The shrub is rather slow-growing, and prefers soil rich in peat or other humus. Then came three collections of delphiniums. In the first case, only, a series of separate flowers was seen, but they were sufficient to give an idea of what a spike or a whole plant of them would look like. The second was a small collection grown from seed saved locally. The third was a large collection of delphiniums growing in a border. Some of the varieties were: Purple Splendour, Blue Gown, Opal, F. W. Smith, Pink Lady, Lady Rose and Lavender Lady. The first of these, Purple Splendour, of the “hollyhock” type, had between GO and 70 large' flowers on the one spike. In all three collections, nearly every flower was double or semi-double and larger than a half-crown, but much diversity was shown in the arrangement of flowers on the spike. Some were loose, others were tightly packed. Great range of colour was also noted. At least two of the collections were of the famous strain of Blackmore and Langdon of Bath, the English specialists in begonias, polyanthus and delphiniums. Delphinium seed does not keep well, and should be sown as soon as possible after gathering, but it is not as bad in that respect as Gerbcra, and English seed can be raised successfully in New Zealand.

JAPANESE IRISES

This week the writer looked over two collections of Japanese irises, and one of two conclusions had to be drawn; either the year has been particularly favourable, or else some of the new kinds are better than the old.

LILIUM REGALE.

Readers who are not sure what Japanese irises look like will probably remember them when told that this kind of iris is more nearly fiat-topped than most, and always has three broad petals at least. Several varieties have six broad petals for the extra three large have taken the place of the three narrow ones found in some varieties. Two other characteristics are the rich veining of the petals, and the absence of a “beard.” Another feature is the narrowness of the leaves; in this respect the Japanese iris is more like certain species of gladioli than flag irises. • The best situation for Japanese irises is b'eside water, so that the roots can work down to moisture. Ponds, ditches and the sides _of streams are very suitable. The writer has had visions of the shore of our lake being beautified by this type of iris and certain kinds of moisture-lov-ing gladioli. Another thing of beauty this month is the silky oak (Grevillea robusta) of Australia. In the colder parts of Europe it is a favourite plant for pots or the soil of conservatories, but in New Zealand we can grow it in the open. In Hamilton plenty of the Grevillea trees are thirty feet high, but in the Rotorua .Sanatorium grounds there is a tred far taller than that. Besides the beautiful divided leaves, there are interesting and pretty flowers to commend the tree to the notice of garden-lovers. It is rather closely related to the Australian bottle-brushes and to our native rewarewa (Knightia excelsa), as shown by the queerly-shaped flowers. These are of a rich orange colour—a really unusual colour for the flowers of a tree.

Another shrub seen last month in full flower was Viburnum tomentosum plicatum; the flowers are snowwhite and rounded, and are so arranged along the branches that one gets the impression that some playful child has been tying pompoms or powder-puffs all over the bush. This species is related to the guelder rose, but differs in having the flowers along the branches instead of at the ends of pliant twigs. It is certainly one of the best of all shrubs for planting in medium or large gardens. That is succeeds in this district is shown by the specimens seen in a few private gardens here.

This week Lilium regale 13 in full bloom, delighting every flower-lover. It is very fragrant, not heavy like some species of lily. This was introduced by the great plant-collector, E. H. Wilson, from Western China. Here is his own account of his discovery:—

“Up'the mighty Yangtsze River for 1800 miles, then northward up its tributary, the Min, some 250 miles to the confines of mysterious Tibet, there ,in June, by the wayside, in rock crevices, by the torrent’s edge, and high up on the mountain side and precipice, this lily in full bloom greets the weary wayfarer—not in twos and threes, but in hundreds and thousands—aye, in tens of thousands. Its slender stems each from two to four feet tall, flexible and tense as steel, overtop the coarse grasses and scrub, each crowned with one to several large funnel-shaped flowers, more or less wine-coloured without, pure white and lustrous on the face, clear canary yellow within the tube and each stamen filament tipped with a golden anther.” This lily has, without a shadow of doubt, revolutionised lily growing, for it is raised in thousands from seed, and this method of propagation is spreading to nearly all the species which have been introduced. 'Some of this year’s English catalogues have lists of over fifty species available by way of seed, and one has as many as seventy. This has much to do with the formation of lily societies, such as the New Zealand Lily Society, The members of this society import seed and distribute it among their members. Its headquarters is Christchurch, and its president is Dr. Fletcher Telford. Brief reports of its activities appear regularly in the New Zealand .Smallgrower and The City Beautiful.” Need we say that the latter is Christchurch. NEXT WEEK. Some diseases of citrus trees will be dealt with in this column next week. In view of the dry spell, readers are advised to scatter a few pounds of a general garden fertiliser'round each large lemon or orange tree and water it in . If this is done the fruits now setting will have a chance to develop properly. WIRELESS TALK. The subject of to-night’s broadcast at 7.30 from IYA is to be “Fruit Tree Diseases.”