GARDEN NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22460, 22 September 1944, Page 6

GARDEN NOTES

(By “Nikau.”)

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT Plant onion, cabbage (spring and summer types), cauliflower, lettuce, early potato, herbs, rhubarb, perpetual and summer types, artichoke and asparagus. Sow lettuce, cabbage (summer type), Brussels sprouts, leek, onion (for salads), radish, turnip, shorthorn carrot, parsnip, summer spinach, peas, beetroot, asparagus. Stake the early peas and stir the soil around them.

Pinch out the tips of broad beans to induce the plants to set pods. Sow and keep under glass for some weeks: Tomato, Cape gooseberry, celery, passion-fruit, capsicum (chilli), tree tomato. cucumber and bush marrow.

Examine vegetables in store —onion, potato and pumpkins, for example. By this time all crops of lupins and oats should have made enough growth for turning in as green manure. Sprinkle lime over the bed, and cut up the green stuff while it lies on the bottom of the trench. This helps it to decompose quickly and also incorporates it with the soil, instead of allowing it to lie in a thick layer. Place clean straw or hay around strawberry plants to keep soil from the fruit. Finish planting fruit-trees. This is the last chance to spray apple trees before they flower. Use Bordeaux at lib to 8 gals., and lime-sulphur at 1 in 30. (Winter strengths for bare trees are 1 to 5 and 1 to 15 respectively). Graft all kinds of trees this month and next. FLOWERS Hasten the planting of hedges, ornamental trees, shrubs and hardy climbers. Plant Iceland poppy, antirrhinum, pansy, viola, carnations, stock and other hardy plants available. Scatter blood-and-bone or rich compost around polyanthus plants. When working in the beds and borders be careful of lilies, paeonies and other plants coming up now. Stake and tie securely climbers, standard roses, and all newly planted trees and shrubs. There is still time to make a big sowing of sweet peas. Sow asters in the sunny, well-drained beds in which they are to stay. Plant gladioli from time to time, in order to have a succession. Divide hardy perennials, also some of the half-hardy. Sow in the open garden any time this month: Larkspur, viscaria, linaria, godetia, “everlasting” daisies and ornamental grasses, clarkia, coreopsis, gaillardia, calliopsis, nigella, eschscholtzia, cornflower and arctotis. Sow in boxes and protect from both frost and rain: Carnation, lobelia, petunia, dianthus, verbena, zinnia, salpiglossis, scarlet salvia, Livingstone daisy, phlox and schizanthus. GRAFTING In pre-war times we were able to give full directions for various methods of grafting trees and shrubs, but now we have to be content with little more than an outline. Here are some of the main points to be observed in carrying out this fascinating work. First, use healthy scions or grafts (the shoots to be inserted), and also healthy stocks. Secondly, most grafts are made of rather young bare shoots, grown in the last nine or twelve months. They will generally have a thickness between that of a lead pencil and that of a stout fountain-pen. The length may be anything from two to ten inches, but the writer has seen some that were nearly 30 inches long and yet grew well. The usual length is four to six inches, and each graft will have two to four buds on it. Thirdly, scions and stocks should belong to the same genus of plants. For example apple on apple and crab-apple (possibly on pear, but not really successfully), pear on pear, quince, “japonica” (the flowering Cydonia), thorn, rowan-tree and a number of other trees. Plum, peach, apricot, almond and nectarine form another group, the members of which may be inter-grafted. Fourthly, the cut surfaces should not be allowed to become dry. Next, the cambium (the thin growth-layer just under the bark) of the scion must be placed in contact with the cambium of the stock. Lastly, the cuts must be bound up and smeared with a substance which will exclude air and moisture. Grafting-wax may be made, but we may follow the methods of our grandfathers and use a mixture of clay and rotted cowdung. The writer uses a special petroleum jelly called Petrolatum—often used on the farm for various purposes. This is quickly applied, and does not melt in the sunshine. It is usual to take grafts some weeks before grafting time, in order to slow up the action of their sap. When they are inserted in the stock, the latter, being so much more advanced, gives them a flying start. On the other hand, many shoots cut off and grafted on a tree the same day grow perfectly. Readers who have no grafts ready are advised to get them, put them in the ground at once like cuttings, and then insert them on their stocks in the first week in October. SIMPLE METHODS OF GRAFTING When the stock, and the graft are about the same thickness (usually maiden stems and branches of trees), the best method is splicing or whip grafting. A slanting cut is made in each, and the two surfaces are brought into contact. To prevent their slipping over each other, a vertical slit should be made in each, so that they can be spliced easily by a mere push. The union should be tied with raffia or binder twine and covered with wax or other substance. When the stock is decidedly thicker than the graft, two methods are available. The stem is sawn across, and a cleft is made with a chisel, axe or strong knife. The scion, tapered on both sides of its base to form a double wedge, is slipped into the cleft. It is essential that the cambium of the graft should be in contact with that of the stock. A graft may be put at each end of the cleft, and strong unions should result. Tie and cover up carefully. Another method is called “rind grafting.” The rind or bark of the sawn stock is slit down for about two inches, and a graft (slanting only on the one side, as a single wedge) is pushed down, with the cut side inwards. The two lots of cambium are thus brought into contact very easily. Two or three grafts may be set on the one sawn branch, though a single good one is all that is really needed. Other methods of grafting may be described later. SOME INTERESTING PLANTS * . Mention at least should be made of some interesting plants which are in flower just now. The first is the Japanese hardy climber called Akebia quinata. It bears deciduous leaves with five leaflets (hence quinata), and plum-col-oured flowers of a remarkable shape. This climber is very suitable for netting or trellis. The next plant is a hardy deciduous daphne, called D. genkwa. »It bears bluish or lilac flowers on bare stems, and reaches a height of about five feet. It thrives in most soils and under most aspects.

Much humbler and yet quite as interesting is the third plant—the Star of Bethlehem. This is a hardy English bulb with green-and-white starry flowers which open in the light and close in the dark. The writer saw this running wild in an orchard in the South Island, in his youth, and will never forget the sight. Its Latin name, by the way, is Ornithogalum umbellatum, but its English name is infinitely better. It is very suitable for the rockery, as it reaches a height of only about twelve inches.