A cautious spring start

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 408, 15 October 1991, Page 4

A cautious spring start

by

Bea

Barnes

October, and such a busy month in the garden if only the weather will let us get on with all the many jobs which need doing. Provided the ground is not too waterlogged the vege garden can have its final dig over and, raked — smooth, will be ready for planting. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, silver beet, celery can all be set out now with clumps of parsley to flavour those lovely new potatoes. While the

weather "remains so cool lettuce is best grown under the protection of a cloche which- will help to speed up the growth necessary to produce sweet tender leaves. Unless the ground is very well drained it is best to wait for a few days of warm sun before sowing seeds of beetroot, carrot, radishes etc. Seeds need warm moist but not wet soil to germinate properly, Planted in cold wet soil, the seed will be very

slow to germinate and may rot away altogether giving a very poor strike for the amount of seed sown. A row or two of early peas will not go amiss if you fancy luscious new green peas for Christmas dinner but don't be in too much of a hurry with beans. With all that snow on the mountain there will be a few more frosts yet so if you have planted those early potatoes make sure they are well earthed up. In the flower garden uyssum, stock, poppy, cornflower, antirrhinum, pansy and viola are quite safe to plant_now and nemesia, petunia and "livingstone daisy will cope with a light frost but anything more than 3 or 4 degrees may take them. French and African marigold, lobelia unless well sheltered, bedding dahlia, aster and bedding begonia are all very frost tender and should be left until later. Have you seen the new large flowered pansy hybrids? Extremely large flowers in a fascinating range of colours. 'Imperial pink' in soft lavender pink shades etched with deep maroon, 'antique' in soft pinks and golds, 'cream delight' a very large flower in soft lemon yellow. The hardy violas, which make such a lovely show whatever the weather, can be had in a wide range of colour to blend in with any colour scheme. Red, yellow, orange, blue, even black and white. There is an immense and ever-increasing range of hardy rockery and perennial plants available now and a lot of the old favourites are coming back. A little silver leafed gem which caught my attention is the dwarf form of .santolina with its tiny rosette. shape leaves. This forms into a small dense clump unlike its more rumbustuous cousin which sprawls all over the place. A lovely dwarf brick red gaillardia is quite striking and some of the lower growing helenium will soon increase into a sizeable clump with masses of bright sunny flowers. New varieties of dianthus, the little border pinks are appearing each year with some interesting colour combinations. Turnpage9

Spring garden

From page 4 A nurseryman told me last week that he and his merry band of workers have potted up 400,000 of these plants so we should find something to suit our odd little spaces in that lot. No wonder they work until ten o'clock at night and all day on Sundays. This seems to have been quite a good year for camellias which have flowered very well without the flowers being blackened with the frosts, although some of the more delicate colours have been spoilt by the heavy rain.

A time consuming but necessary job is to remove all damaged or spent flowers by cutting back to the nearest leaf bud. When the bush has finished its flowering trim up any wayward growth and if the centre is too crowded it can be thinned out to open it up to the sun and air to encourage the setting of good buds for the next season. Don't forget to give your camellias adequate water during the hot summer months (if any). It is at this time that the bushes will set their buds to flower next spring.