Signs of summer garden now showing

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 508, 19 October 1993, Page 9

Signs of summer garden now showing

By

Bea

Barnes

What glorious days we've had on occasions, a taste we hope of the summer to come. We looked at all the jobs awaiting to be done indoors, looked away again and made a beeline for the garden. It is amazing how much can be achieved in one fine day, and what a joy to see

the tiny flowers appearing that we had never had the time to notice before. The primroses under the flowering plum tree in my little woodland garden are a mass of flowers. Some of

them I notice have a cluster of flowers on the one stem which tells me they will need dividing at the end of summer. The little plantlets should be removed from their woody base and transplanted to keep their true English primrose characteristic. I found a little clump of rose-pink forget-me-nots tucked in beside a ponga log. I had quite forgotten I had planted them there. To be honest the idea of pink forget-me-nots did not hold much appeal as to my ordered English mind they should always be blue, but they looked so pretty with

their rosy pink faces lifted to catch the morning sun they quite won me over. (A mental note for next year - I' 11 plant clumps of rose pink and blue forget-me-nots as a pretty edging to the rose bed). The hybridists are always busy searching for new varieties and new colour breaks in flowers. There is a bright sky-blue petunia which I thought may be rather nice in my blue and white colour scheme in the front garden. Have you tried the lobelia 'lavender lady'? I planted some last year and it made such a pretty edg-

ing to a border . Rather taller than the usual lobelia, it has masses of delicate pinkish lavender-blue flowers. Speaking of lavender, trim the bushes now to encourage them to thicken and send up good flower spikes. While I was busy 'oohing and aahing' over my various finds and planting up some black witch's caul-dron-typecontainers with a few seeds of 'whirly bird' nasturtiums, a clumping non-trailing variety which look fabulous in black pots, Dot was providing the muscle digging and clearing the long side border in the back garden (agood arrangement that!). It was very rewarding to see the results of the mulch we had put on over the winter with good black

earth appearing as all the weed and rubbish was cleared away. We must check all the dahlia tubers which have been stored on a tray of dry sand in the garage over winter and prepare the ground for planting, when the eyes on the tuber are just breaking into tiny shoots. Discard any tubers which show no eyes and any which are soft or unhealthy looking. Dahfias enjoy a welldrained position in full sun. They are not gross feeders and too much manure such as poultry manure or fertilizers with a very high nitrogen content will only serveto produce weak stems and an abundance of leaf growth at the expense of the flowers.

At planting time add sulphate of potash at the rate of 60 gm. (about two handfuls), per square metre and repeat this just before budbreak to improve the ■ quality and colour of the flowers and also help them to hold up their heads. Strong stakes should be firmly driven into the ground before the tubers are planted. Putting them in afterwards risks damaging tubers. On larger varieties use two stakes to each tuber so the plant can be supported between them with a strong tie. Adequate water during the dry months of summer is imperative if you want those champion blooms for the dahlia show in February.