Garden Notes TULIPS, ARISTOCRATS OF OCTOBER GARDENS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28267, 3 May 1957, Page 12

Garden Notes TULIPS, ARISTOCRATS OF OCTOBER GARDENS

I Specially written for "The Press’’}

[By

T. D LENNIE,

AJI.RA.H., N.Z.]

Friday. May 3. 1957. When discussing floral effects for the spring garden, one should not overlook the display made by tulips, the aristocrats of October. It might well be called the Dutch national flower, for it is there a great commercial asset and it is also planted in thousands over the world.

Many points combine to make the tulip everybody’s favourite. It is easy to grow, is not subject to serious diseases and is so adaptable for either garden beauty or use as a cut flower for the house. It dates back more than 400years since its value was recognised and its use spread from Turkey to Western Europe, centering in Holland as a crop of national importance.

Books have been written about the tulip and notably one called the Black Tulip, by Dumas. There was also the extraordinary speculative boom of 1634-37 when the civilised world went wild on Tulipmania, of which Holland was the seat, during which time many bulbs were sold for more than their weight in gold. It was not until about 1840 that it reached the height of its popularity in England, which was heightened about 1889 by the introduction of the stately Darwin tulips and this tall growing type leads the tulip world today. There are many types of the flower, many of great interest to the collector. These include rockery miniatures, wild species of interesting form and colour, doubles, and parrot tulips.

Colour is very diversified, and the bulb will do well in the garden where the soil is moist and well drained, but it does not do at all well in grass. The Darwin tulip is a natural self flower and any streaking or striping is a defect.

In big park plantings lifting of the bulbs is generally done in midsummer with replanting about April or May. This escapes the danger of contacting the “fire” disease, which is often due to being planted in the open, where the bulbs are subject to a hot, dry summer. Bulb planting should now be general. With the general tidying up of the borders through the removal of spent growths and surplus perennial plants, considerable space should be available for putting out suitable bulbs. Anemones and ranunculas are a useful bracket for massing or edgings. These small bulbs should be put in about six inches apart and two inches deep. In both cases the pointed or claw end should be regarded as the base or rooting part. The top or growing part may be seen as a light-coloured or fluffy disc. Sparaxis and tritonias are another edging pair of beauty and usefulness. Both are brightness itself, and differ from other spring bulbs in their formation and permanence, for they are both very prolific increasers. Complementary to these edging beauties is the well-known Narcissus bulbacodium or hoop petticoat, as it is generally called. This golden daffodil is ideal for massing on the rockery or along a rock edging, where it can be reasonably cool at the roots. Tulips, narcissi, and hyacinths have no special wants. A fairly rich soil, open to the sun and rain, with a planting depth of six inches, should suit them. Lily-planting time has arrived. Such varieties as Regale, Pardalinum. Longiflorum. Henri. Tigrinum, and Speciosum should form the base of any collection, with a leaven of new varieties such as the English Martagoni. Davidii, Centifo’.ium, Gilrey, and types of Auratum. Iris of the flag or bearded type, Stylosa, and Siberica can be trimmed up and replanted after dividing the clumps. This division can be done with a sharp knife. Deep planting of the corm divisions is not advisable. They are also well suited to growing under trees or in dry positions. Helleborus niger is now pushing up its buds to flower next month. To get full value in longer stalks and clean white flowers, erect a temporary frame round the clumps, with glass or scrim covering on frosty nights. Violet patches can have attention. Young side-rooted growths can be used for extensions but if the leaves show a rusty yellow due to red spider the best control is to cut them off and syringe nicotine sulphate on the plants. Some useful bedding plants can| be put out to vary the spring display. Iceland poppy, wallflower, sweet William, polyanthus, pansy, all associate well with bulbs. It will soon be time to think of ordering shrubs and roses, but there are many tidying up jobs to be done in preparation, such as trimming back spreading shrubs and border perennials. For instance spreading clumps of lily of the valley can be cleared of dead foliage and given a good two inch mulch of fine compost. Many shrubs and small flowering trees can be trimmed of low spreading branches. VEGETABLE GARDEN Celery and leeks may require earthing up as growth advances but this should be about the final attention unless rusty spots show on the celery leaves. These leaves should be pinched off. Rhubarb should have old yellow leaves removed and a good mulch of compost or strawy manure built round the crowns. They will respond to this when growth starts in spring. Fruits of tomato, pumpkin and marrow can be gathered and put under cover. This will allow of putting stakes away for next season. Cloches can be got out to protect lettuce plants or seed. A row of broad beans and early peas can be sown with onion and early cabbage ,>n a warm border. The asparagus bed should receive attention. Cut off and burn all foliage, loosen surface, and cover with three inches of strawy manure or compost. See that the seeds are carefully gathered up and not allowed to germinate on the bed. Autumn leaves are falling. These should be accepted as money for nothing, for they rank very high as a plant necessity through the compost heap. This applies to all deciduous trees, with oak and elm topping the list. In this matter of compost materials easy to get, can be mentioned sawdust. This can be spread three inches thick over vacant areas and under the trees, with the assurance that by September not one-third of it will retain its formation. The greater part will have amalgamated with the soil and have lost its identity, with good effect. FRUIT GARDEN All apples and pears should now be gathered when dry and stored in airy boxes or shelves in an open shed. Mildew has very disastrous effects on apple and rose particularly. In late summer its effects are very noticeable on young foliage. The spores of the disease fasten on the growing buds, and as the young leaves unfurl, contagion is effected, with an increase in keeping with the growth of the foliage. It is now visible as a white deposit on the leaves, making them sickly and pallid. During the dormant season, and after the leaves have fallen, infection remains on the bud tips. When spring comes and the buds swell, the spores come to life and the infection goes on. For this trouble a spraying of lime sulpur at two tablespoonfuls to a gallon of water would be well worthwhile. Mummy fruits on all fruit spurs should be carefully picked off. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS “Gardener,” Rangiora.—(l) It would not be possible to give the exact lime content lost by leaching, but at the rate of four to eight ounces a square yard, applied in early winter, the dressing would last for two years.