HOME GARDENS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 64, 3 July 1950, Page 6

HOME GARDENS

(By J. S. Yeates, Massey Agricultural College) v SOME GOOD SHRUBS

With the planting season so close at hand, it may not be out of place to devote much of this space in the next few weeks to giving some suggestions as to suitable plants to buy for the garden. This week I deal with a few of the shrubs. We are all very prone to overlook the common things, plants or anything else, however, beautiful they may be. This is very true of garden plants. Most gardeners who are anxious to plant new shrubs, rarely think of the common ones, though the fact that they are common indicates that they must be easy to grow and to live with. Broom is a case in point. We have a number of high-prized (and high-priced) shrubs with yellow flowers, but I doubt if any of them can equal a common yellow broom in flower. Add to this the cheapness and hardiness of broom, and it all adds up to one conclusion, that the common wild b? oom is amongst the most beautiful of yellow flowered shrubs. Transplant a wild seedling or two into your garden, and you will always have some of it, because when the old bushes become too straggly the self-sown seedlings will take their place.

Yellow-Flowered Shrubs After real yellow broom, it is hard to find many better-looking yellow-flowered shrubs or trees. The so-called Spanish gorse (Genista hispanica) is a very attractive prickly cushion plant wi+h flowers about the same as those of broom in colour. Its great virtue is that Spanish gorse forms a den?e mat on the ground, and does not grow straggly. My own plant in about ten years would have reached a diameter of some four feet, and a height of about one foot. This is a first-class plant to cover up ground tidily, and it will stand very hard exposed conditions.

Of yellow-flowered shrubs, two of the best are Winter Sweet (Chimonanthus fragrans) and Witch Hazel (Hamamclis mollis). Both are winter flowering, deciduous trees which produce scented yellow flowers on the bare shoots. Their ultimate heights are about six feet and ten feet respectively, or slightly more in very old specimens. They are both very attractive and very hardy to cold, but my own preference is for the Winter Sweet. Its buds are already showing colour. The flowers, which commence opening in a few weeks, are of a greenish yellow colour, but have a most beautiful and delicate scent which* is the greatest attraction of the plant. Some of the deciduous azaleas provide the best yellows of all spring-flowering shrubs, and with the yellow colour also goes a beautiful perfume. These deciduous azaleas are excellent for their coloured foliage in autumn too —providing a great temptation to the housewife in search of foliage for cutting. A yellow-flowered evergreen which is still not well known is Fremontia mexicana. It is a rather upright shrub growing to about eight feet, and bearing wide-open, rich yellow flowers, some two inches or more across. It is quite hardy in Palmerston North, and is fairly easy to grow from seed. The Kowhai

Although I hope I am duly appreciative of our native plants in their natural surroundings, I must admit that there are few of them I would care to recommend for the average or for the slight >y larger garden. One of these is the Kowhai It needs no description to most people, but as a rule they are prepared to admire wild specimens. Anyone who wants to plant a small tree for shade purposes, or along a drive, could well consider the Kowhai. The most attractive type .appears to be Sophora treadwelli (Treadwell’s Kowhai;. Kowhai s have the advantage That they cast very light shade. They could with advantage be used amongst rhododendrons. Routine Work

Broad beans should definitely be planted this month. They are very welcome in spring when fresh vegetables have been so long at a premium. When planting them, make a flat-bottomed trench two inches deep and about six inches wide. Plant one row of seeds, about six inches apart, along each side of the trench. Put the seeds in the second row opposite the gaps in the row on the opposite side of the trench. Some fertiliser like equal parts of blood and bone and superphosphate can be mixed in before planting. If you plant two or more of the double rows mentioned above, try to space them three feet apart, and to run the rows north and south, because that will ensure '-ach side of the rows receiving some sunshine.