HOME GARDENS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 4, 1 March 1950, Page 6

HOME GARDENS

(By J. S. Yeates, Massey Agricultural College)

CHOICE OF A HEDGE PLANT Last week we dealt with some the points to be watched and some of the preparation that is necessary before planting a hedge around the garden.\ This week the merits and de-merits of some hedge plants are’ discussed. Today one of the most popular Hedges is the small Lonicera nitida. This is the small-leafed hedge, grown usually from four to six feet high, which suits the formality of small gardens, stands trimming, and usually looks neat. Its main fault is that it is coming to be almost too commonplace. It can be grown very easily from cuttings—the past summer’s shoots cut off about nine inches long; the leaves stripped off the lower two-thirds, and "planted in May-June, about two-thirds in the soil. Make the cut with a knife because. secateurs may bruise and cause rotting. If you have the ground well worked and clean in advance, you can set the cuttings out in place and leave them to makfe a hedge there. For a hedge, I would put in two rows of cuttings at least a foot apart, and six inches apart in the rows, to allow for some failures. The reason for planting two rows is to give the hedge more stiffness against wind. Lonicera is a type of honeysuckle and inclined to move about in wind. A double row gives it more bracing at ground level. Another scheme is to have a wellstrained wire or two in the middle of the hedge to prevent wind movement.

Escallonia exoniensis is about next in popular favour. This is the fine-leaved escallonia with small, whitish flower, not the old, coarseleaved type with a red flower. The escallonia can quite easily be grown into a hedge ten or 12 feet high and gives good shelter. It needs light trimming two or three times a year and will stand hard cutting back if it gets right out of hand. The only risk is that hard cutting back may let hi a disease (silver leaf) which can easily kill out some of the plants. If you are planting this hedge, put in the plants a foot or eighteen inches apart. Tasmanian ngaio is a hedge I have grown around my own place. It is very, fast growing and needs regular topping back when young to thicken it out at the bottom. Thereafter it needs one or two trimmings (or more) a year if you want to keep it at all neat. My hedges have not been kept neat. They are 15 feet or more high, but at any time they can be cut back right to the stumps and will recover, so long as, the new shoots are not frosted 'when still tender. This hedge stands any amount of sea wind and is hard to beat in coastal districts. Buy rooted cuttings in , pots in spring, and plant them about two feet apart.

Australian Iflant

An Australian plant, 'Phebalium Billardieri, is becoming very popular, also near the sea, though it grows well inland at Palmerston North. It grows fast and makes a narrow, upright tree singly. When planted as a hedge it grows fast and needs very little trimming because it naturally grows into hedge form. Hedges of it now six or eight years old are some •eight to ten feet high. It Js not a hedge which should at any time be trimmed severely until we have more experience of it. Space the young plants about two feet apart.

For the most severe coastal conditions, apart from some already mentioned such as ngaio, we have two natives, the taupata and the pohutukawa. In Taranaki a very beautiful ( hedge is often seen near the coast, when Tecoma capensis is grown. This is a scrambling plant with fine dark foliage and masses of brilliantred flowers in season.' It is best grown on somd support such as an old hedge, though a wire fence may serve instead/ It can be trimmed to make a very beat formal hedge, or can be alowed to fill up draughty spaces in an old overgrown hedge which has become draughty. * It might be tried _in other districts with a climate like New Plymouth’s.

The above are the more common hedges; but anything which will make a suitable row of bushes and which stands trimming can be used as a hedge. Hydrangeas, fuchsias, broom, buddleia, and box are a few suggestions. Some fruiting shrubs like feijog, and cranberry can be made to serve the double purpose of shelter and fruit production.