GARDEN NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 21931, 9 January 1943, Page 6

GARDEN NOTES

(By “Nikau”)

; taiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiniiiiiuiir j ! i VEGETABLES AND FRUIT I Plant celery and leek (main crop), cabbage (savoy and drumhead types), broccoli, Brussels sprouts and borecole (kale). > Sow swede turnip, yellow-fleshed turnip j (but too early for winter crop), silver beet, ; parsnip, beetroot, carrot, lettuce (in per- : manent quarters). Keep runners and other beans closely 1 picked, in order to maintain a succession ! of pods. i Give cucumber, marrow and pumpkin | plants a thorough watering once a week, j and then give them liquid manure. Tomatoes are making splendid growth, , 'and need plenty of attention—removing ; side-shoots, staking, spraying, cultivating, 1 and an occasional soaking. To check caterpillars on tomatoes, spray with arsenate of lead (loz. to 2 gals.). The j | strength of Bordeaux (for blight) is lib. to 10 or 12 gals. FLOWERS Mark the best sweet peas for seed. Label gladioli w’hile they are in flower; the later ones should receive a thoroughsoaking every week. Remove many of the side-shoots of dahlias, and stake the plants securely. Sow '* Gleam ” nasturtiums if there is a sunny bed that needs filling up quickly. Sow anemone, ranunculus, aquilegia and polyanthus primrose, and keep the boxes in a shady place for four weeks at least. It is still rather early to sow Iceland poppy seed; the first part of February is a better time. Save seed of gerbera and sow it in the next few weeks, as it quickly loses its germinating powers. Layer carnations; the process will be explained in later notes. As the weather is so dry, most trees and shrubs are not in a suitable condition for budding; in any case it is still rather early for this work. Take up narcissi, and try to find a fresh place in which to plant them in February or March. It is sufficient to move them every second year. Diseased Vegetable Marrows A few weeks ago we gave a fairly long ' account of some common virus diseases, 1 especially of potato and tomato. In the I last week or two a serious disease of vege- 1 table marrows has appeared. It is leaf : mosaic, a virus disease. As was pointed out in a previous note, viruses are com- • monly spread by biting or sucking insects. 1 The symptom of this mosaic is first a light 1 and dark green mottling of the leaves in : irregular patches, but this must not be j confused with the definite regular blotches which are a noticeable and natural feature ! of some kinds of marrow foliage. The ! mosaic mottling is irregular, and the plant is obviously losing vigour; in fact, the plant may be only a tenth the size of an ordinary one. There is no cure, so every plant suffering from mosaic disease should be rooted out and burnt. Marrows Dropping Fruit Every year it is observed that a fairly large proportion of the early marrows fails to develop. In some cases the fruits set and swell, but turn yellow and fall off before long. The commonest cause is faulty fertilisation; perhaps there was no male flower open to fertilise the female, or the weather was cold and wet, discourag-

} ing the bees. Later on—say from the middle of December to February—drought ! may be the trouble. Sometimes a plant ! has devoted all its energies to forming one I large fruit, and the smaller ones on the t same vine fall off even when apparently j beyond the stage of infancy. For really good results, marrows should be grown In slight depressions in a soil which has had j a fair amount of compost worked Into it. ! In a dry season this Is a better method I than planting on a mound. PARNELL ROSE GARDENS Last week the writer had the opportun- ; ity of seeing the thousands of bushes in j the Parnell rose gardens. Some were In : the full flush of their second blooming, and j were very beautiful. Most of the beds I have only the one variety. Some of the ! most beautiful beds were those filled with i Hawlmark Crimson, Mme. Pierre du Pont. I Golden Dawn, Comtesse de Castilleja, Ville ;de Paris, Shot Silk, Mrs Van Rossem, ! Etoile de Hollande, Lady Hillingdon and | Angele Pemet. It was pleasing to see that ! hardly one of the blooms of Golden Dawn j was marred by black outside petals (as often happens). I In the mixed beds the most noticeable I were the McGredy varieties—Scarlet, Coral, Orange. Triumph, Pride and D. McGredy. and Christopher Stone. Padre. Mme. E. Herriot, Talisman, Crimson Glory and Mme. Cochet-Cochet. The most striking rose, however, was Cuba; the following description (from an Australian catalogue) does this lovely bedding rose no more than justice: “Cuba, brought out in 1926 by Pernet—Ducher: The long buds are almost scarlet, very heavily flushed orange and claret, with deep orange scarlet or Lincoln red on the back of the petals, and the inside of the petal is a rich velvety scarlet crimson with carmine towards the tips. Long buds carried on upright stems. The open flowers are large, semi-double and globular. Very sweet scented. Very vigorous. Very freeflowering. A very striking colour and w'orth a trial.” In the Parnell gardens, with a heavy clay soil, this variety was as vigorous as Shot Silk, and even more beautiful. Incidentally it may be rei marked that Christopher Stone also justlj fies the high praise given it in the same Australian catalogue. BUSHY PLANTS A drawn-up seedling is neither beautiful nor sturdy; generally it is the product of crowding in the seed-bed The trouble is easily avoided by pricking out the seedi lings when they are only one or two inches high, or by thin sowing. Spindly plants of French and African marigolds, antirrhinum, annual phlox, and zinnia should have their tips pinched out so that only three or four pairs of leaves are retained. The same may be done to sweet pea and Argentine pea seedlings. With stocks, however, it is better not to pinch out the tips, but to have one large head in preference to a number of smaller ones.