IN THE GARDEN.

Shannon News, 24 November 1925, Page 4

IN THE GARDEN.

' Growth has not been so rapid in th e garden of late, due to the colder atmospheric conditions. Hoeing should be resorted to at every opportunity, seedlings have made very little head. "sray and a few warm sunshiny days and warmer nights would be of great assistance to them. Continue planting iahlias chrysanthemums, and autumr flowering - annuals such as. salvia phlox, marigolds, asters and zinnia's. In the vegetable garden it is not too late to plant tomatoes, and potatoes. A few rows of swedes sown now will come in useful for winter use. It is not too' late to sow seeds of leek late maturing cauliflowers, such as giant malta) Veitches autumn "giant, etc. also savoy cabbage. Sow seeds of cucumber, water and rock- melon,* ,pie melon, pumpkin and marrow. Sow maize and plant kumeras. Colour in the Garden. - As the season advances, a gradual increase of colour is noticeable in the garden, the roses are opening, filling the air with their subtle fragrance in daily increasing numbers. Poppies. both shirley and iceland add their quota of gay blooms to the borders, j and sway with every, breeze. The more stiff and stately orientals attract the eye with their huge flame coloured blooms. Tritonias in charming salmon and flame shades edge the borders, a few scattered carnation blooms are to be found. Th c herbaceous borders are gay with winsome aquilegias, bright geums, foxgloves, lupins, antirrhinums, and irises, while the handsome blue spikes of the delphinium will soon be at their best. Clumps of the charming buffi coloured morphixia ar e at their best, and the pansies and vidas lift their brignt faces to meet the sunshine. Geraniums and pelargoniums provide a gay note of colour to the,walls. In the shrubberies the late varieties of the rhododendron family dominate the scene, while the \ pretty boronias are most attractive. ! Cold winds have not proved kind to the sweet peas which " are slow in opening, their satiny blooms.

Manuring. Many amateur gardeners use too much artificial manure. Good results having been obtained from their use for one or two seasons," they not unnaturally jump to the conclusion that farmyard manure is unnecessatw. Artificials are cleafi'er, and more easily handled and applied, but there is one thing they lack and cannot supply to the soil "humus". Without this very necessary ingredient no soil how. ever well supplied with artificial manure is of value for the successful S'rowth of all plant life. Farmyard manure also serves another import, ant function in helping: to retain

moisture during the hot dry weather. A well manured bed will not yield up its moisture so quickly as one in which ,no manure has been added. , In conjunction with "humas" artificial man. ares are of great value, but whenever and wherever possible use some farm, yard manure as well. The best time to give stimulants to plants is when buds begin to appear, in the case of vegetables use when the plants show signs of a decline in vigorous growth, the food supply contained in the soil, sometimes fails just at th e time it is wanted to bring the plant to perefec. . tion. Shirley Poppies Autumn grown* seedlings are now. blooming and looking their best, their many shades giving a reminder of their evolution from the small red field poppy so common in the fields I "at home." The Shirley poppy in its beautiful shades of scarlet, salmon, pink, and many others, owes its exitsence to the late Rev. W. Wil'ks, who j spent years of labour to furnish the* gardens of" the whole world with beautiful delightfully shaded poppies, direct descendants from one small capsule of seed, saved from one plant amongst a field which alone showed a faint white line margining .' the red petals. -Itv was stated some weeks ago .through the medium of a daily j paper's gardening notes that the Shirley poppy could be had in almost all j colours with the exception of blue, But this coveted colour has now been obtained and a few blooms were on •rshow at the Wanganui Horticultural Society Rose Show held last week. The blooms are dainty in delightful blue grey shades, some showing faint veinings of a' reddish tint. Unless they are grown at a distance from other, coloured poppies it will- no j doubt be difficult to keep them from j throwing back to the more common reds and pinks. Poppies are one of ovir easiest grown annuals and if sown during the autumn months ttiey make a grand display in the early summer garden . e

I - . ' Quartered Roses. A common complaint among rose growers this season is, the prevalence of the quartered bloom. A quartered bloom is one which does not tend to come to a""direct' point in the centre, but quarters showing a cleft in the centre of the blooms rendering the bloom useless for tlic exhibition table Most growers put this down to the excessive moisture early in the season I which ha s tended to produce,too much rank growth among the roses. George Dieksbn. a crimson rose, and recognised as a good exhibitors' rose when It can be grown to perfection, often fails through this same thing in all seasons A good flower very rarely appearing through the early summer months,

but often blooms will be found in the autumn. Many growers have tired of waiting for exhibition blooms and hav e thrown the rose out, but recent experiments tend .to. confirm the ract that better blooms may be obtained from this rose if the centre bud is taken away, leaving cue of the side buds instead. Those who stilll have George Dickson among their collections should try the experiment. 3iignon Daldias. Now that dahlia planting is in full swing the writer wou d like to draw attention to the new Mignon Dalhias these are undoubtedly destined to be. come popular, chiefly on account of their valuable bedding qualities, coup, led -with their bright, gay colourings Mignon Dahlias only grow about eighteen inches in height making them ideal bedding plants, they are also valuable for bordering where tall subjeqts are used in the background They are noted for their intensity of colour and are rich in shades of scarlet, crimson, pink and yellow. Th e flowers are produced very freely on stiff stems, well above the foliage and all that is required aid which is perhaps the most important point in their cultivation' is to trim oft' the old flower heads immedu.'.ely they are over. The removal of the old* flower heads prevents seeding and induces continuous flowering -right up to the time when Dahlias are checked by the first frosts of autumn. No staking or trying is necessary and these are very few bedding plants which give so little trouble and give so much in return.