THE GARDEN

Southland Times, Issue 21088, 21 May 1930, Page 14

THE GARDEN

WORK FOR THE WEEK.

(By

J. A. McPherson).

The Greenhouse.

Hydrangeas intended for flowering as single heads in five inch pots, must be given their final potting this month. Growth will be almost at a standstill for several weeks and watering will have to be done sparingly. Keep the plants in a very cool atmosphere and remove side growths as they appear. Hydrangeas are gross feedersbut stimulants should not be given until active growth commences. The last of the Begonias will now be finished flowering and can be dried off in a frost proof shed. The Flower Garden. Colour in this rection of the garden is becoming scarcer as the days begin to shorten and soon very few plants will be in bloom. There are however several shrubs which bloom during the winter months and add interest to the garden wherever planted. The Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) is at present in full flower and at the same time, loaded with bright orange-red fruits. Garrya elliptica produces long greyish catkins and makes a fine specimen plant. A charming little Jasmine which never fails to produce a display of bright yellow blooms right in the heart of winter is J. nuiflorum and should be in all gardens whether large or small. Viburnum tinus, though common, is quite a useful plant if kept in due bounds, and the rather rare Witch Hazel (Hamanelis arboreal is both uncommon in flower shape and colour. The last few weeks have been splendid for autumn sown lawns. On a good dry day, provided the soil is not wet they’ may be given a light rolling and any seedling weeds removed. Do not be in a hurry to cut the lawns; in fact it would be better to let them grow slowly through the winter and scythe them over in early spring. Plant Lily of the Valley crowns in well prepared beds, placing the tips- of the crowns an inch below the surface. During showery weather continue to bed out all spring flowering plants. Sweet William may be planted out now and will bloom at Christmas time. The plants are best massed in a large group to give the best effect; but sufficient space left between each plant to permit of interplanting with either late summer or autumn blooming annuals. Failing these, Michaelmas Dasies or border Chrysanthemums may be used.

Bulbs must be got in without further delay and a start made to set out Ranunculus and Anemones. If the latter two are kept out of the ground till now, there is little chance of them coming too early through the ground and being damaged by spring frosts. Readers who have left their Ranunculus and anemones in the ground all summer will probably find that the recent mild weather has started them into growth which will, unfortunately, be severely checked later on.

When re-organizing the garden this winter, consideration should be given to the use of rock edgings for long borders. Behind a properly constructed rock edging many plants can be found a happy home. Aubrelias deiight in creeping through the openings and over the rocks, while the more rampant viola cornuta is thoroughly at home in such a position. Even the mossy saxifrages can be grown wfilh success and if the rocks are large enough some of the small creeping shrubs will grow very weill. Two main points should be borne in mind when constructing a rock edging. Firstly, do not have the long points of each rock jutting upwards like so many unnatural pinnacles. It is better to keep a fairly even level along the entire tops of the rocks. Secondly, the most effective rock edgings are those which face a bed or border several inches above the level of the pathway. Lastly, do not use broken pieces of concrete, nothing looks so unnatural.

Prune rambling Roses before heavy frosts occur, and burn the primings to save the spread of mildew in spring. Orders for trees and shrubs should be in the hands of the nurserymen as soon as possible. The Vegetable Garden. Recent mild weather has brought winter crops well forward and perhaps a little colder weather would be welcomed in order to hold back the main crops. On warm sunny borders a last batch of lettuce may be planted and given constant attention until they have a good hold of the ground. Any beans affected with rust, or old pea tops affected with mildew are better burnt than being placed on the compost heap. Spores of most of our garden fungus diseases lie dormant for a considerable time, awaiting further opportunity to attack crops. The preparation of beds for Rhubarb can be undertaken immediately. It is a fact that this crop will grow on sour and acid soil, but it is essential that the soil be well drained. Even if the above is taken into consideration, all gardeners are agreed that the maximum results are obtained from well trenched and well manured ground. Thoroughly trench the beds, adding all refuse from the rubbish heap to the lower spit of soil. Well decomposed material from the compost heap or well decayed manure added to the top spit. Leave the grounl in a rough state till early spring. ■ Cut all foliage from Asparagus beds and clear off any berries that have fallen on to the beds. , . , Wherever possible clean the outskirts and odd corners of the vegetable garden before severe weather sets in. Dirty corners are like neglected and spent crops, splendid homes for fungus and insect pests. Herbs may be lifted, divided, and replanted. Oxalis crenata. From time to time amateurs come across a small crinkled tuber about the size of a hen’s egg, smooth and reddish in the skin and going by various names, one of which is “Japanese Artichoke.” This tuber in question is really a native of Peru. They possess a very acid taste when fresh; but this can be removed byadding a little carbonate of soda to the cooking water. The plant is extensively cultivated in Bolivia where it goes by the name of “Oca." Cultivation for successful results requires a light rich soil end either tubers or cuttings may be planted and treated in a similar manner to potatoes. _ According to authorities the reason why many people do not care for Oca is the fact that the tubers have not been treated properlv after lifting to rid them of their aeid taste. The acidity may be converted into a sugary flavour by exposure to the sun, and the tubers become as floury as ordinarv potoatoes. In Bolivia the tubers are placed between a top and bottom layer of wool to assist the above conversion and if the action of the sun is allowed to play on the tubers for several months they become very sweet and may be eaten like figs. Unfortunately our climate is too cold to permit of this and it is often with difficulty that the tubers are produced in Southland before frosts cut down the tops. Answers to Correspondents. “Primrose.” It is too late to sow Polyanthus seed. Keep it til the springtime and sow out of doors in a small bed. They will then be good plants to bed out next autumn for flowering the following spring. “Climber.” The best scarlet climbing rose is Paul’s Scarlet Climber and a vigorous grower too. “Amateur." Except on high and warm ground, Olearia is inclined to frost. I would advise using the white flowered Escallania for your side hedge.

FALLACIES OF THE GARDEN

There is only half truth in the saying that the “truth'will out," for the greater truth is that those who will find it must seek it. There are many fallacies associated i with what can be the most beautiful spot on earth —the garden! | Wrong beliefs, wrong names, and wrong I expectations, if swept away will make the ' garden a better place still to live in. The belief is common that fruit growing is difficult, and yet one may grow some varieties I of apples more easily and with less trouble I than cabbages. It is wrong to believe that . fruit bought at a shop is as good to eat as that picked mature from the tree. I Foreign fruit, especially, picked many weeks before it is ripe, is far inferior to that from I one’s garden. A regular supply of fruit I from one’s own garden may be obtained from bushgrown trees on the stock called Paradise, which, while keeping the tree small, produces fruit buds. A good selection of regular bearing varieties in the order of coming into use would be from the following dessert varieties:—January, Early Transparent, a little on the acid side in flavour unless kept on the tree until early February. Then follows Red Astrachan, which ripens its fruits at intervals until Mr Gladstone is ready. Langley Pippin, for the middle of February, a delicious morsel of bottled sunlight. Irish Peach, as juicy as any’. James Grieve or Red Coat Grieve maintain the superiority of the home-grown apple until Ellison’s Orange at the end of the month combines juicy sweetness with spicy fragrance. In April and 1 May Herring's Pippin will be found superior to the better known Blenheim Orange. There are, of course, many other first rate I varieties which bear less regularly. It is , the natural ambition of everyone to grow Cox’s Orange Pippin, and it is worth the attempt. In kitchen apples one nearly alj ways has fruit on Lord Sulfield or Early 'Victoria, Rev. Wilks, Golden Spire, Stirling Castle, or Lane’s Prince Albert. j “Plant pears for your heirs’’ is one of 'the most absurd of fallacies. My pears in the following varieties nearly always (bear:—Dr Jules Guyot, Williams’ Bon J Chretien, Fertility, Conference, Marie Louise • d’Uccle, and Mrs Seden. Such are grown i on the dwarfing Quince stock.

It is a fallacy to allow an out-of-work man who calls himself a gardener to “c.ut” or “prune” one’s trees hard back so that a lot of growth results in little fruit. A fruit tree, if left unpruned produces more fruit than one pruned, a very little pruning or “tipping" of leading growths may be good, hard pruning of trees, except those which make little growth, is bad, yet many amateur gardeners order their trees to be “cut” to make them fruit.

Wrons naming of plants is often the result of not replacing the temporary labels under Which they come from the nurseryman with one of a permanent nature. The rose garden is far more interesting when the varieties are correctly named, but the memory of what they are supposed to be or of someone’s opinion is less reliable than the name under which they were bought. One pays for a name, and Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel, the best pillar crimson climbing hybrid tea rose, is worth more than, say, the old red-scarlet climber. Surely it is good to preserve the name, and there are several kinds of permanent labels, such as the Acme and Neeta kinds obtainable at little cost. Failing these, a neat wooden label recently’ smeared with white paint, preserves a clearly written name for several years.

Wrong names are habitually applied to certain plants, as instanced in the quaint custom of calling the Mock Orange (or Philadelphus) a Syringa. A Syringa is, of course, the botanical name for a lilac.

It may be a small matter that the beautiful shrub usually called Japonica should be called Cydonia. It is wrong to call a plant by its specific name. In the matter of expectations, while it. is always good to visit a show and see the best things, if we select a show rose on account of its size we must not expect to have as many large flowers as are produced by varieties carrying smaller flowers. A garden is planted with beautiful herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees. In the course of a few years these grow and spread until, in order to maintain a good standard of cultivation, a ruthless thinning must be made, or the expectation that the garden will remain as beautiful as when first made will end in disappointment. It is a fallacy to assume that because, say, half an ounce per square yard of a special fertilizer produces a good result on a certain crop, then twice the quantity will give even better results. An overdose may be fatal. It is wrong to expect that the garden refuse, such as leaves, cut grass, and tops of herbaceous plants are as beneficial to the soil if burnt. Combustion destroys the humus which is so lacking in many gardens in these days of manure shortage. It is better to let such rubbish rot down in a heap and then dig into the soil. —A. Swallow, in Gardening Illustrated. A NEW ANNUAL. “Sweet wivelsfield” is the result of a cross between sweetwilliam and dianthus Alwoodii, and was introduced recently by Messrs Allwood Brothers, of Haywards Heath. It grows like a sweetwilliam, flowers like a sweetwilliam, but is more compact, and each growth produces trusses of bloom from mid-summer to late autumn.

It is an annual, and should be grown like antirrhinums, asters, etc. The colours are in great variety, reds, purples, blush-pinks, rose pinks; also laced, veiled, and razed colourings. These plants are supposed to be superior to sweetwilliani, because they are annuals and flower the first, year from seed, whereas sweetwilliams, being biennial, require to be sown one year to flower the next. Also, during the last few years sweetwilliams have largely lost their constitution, and do not thrive in all districts. Whereas sweed wivelsfield, being a hybrid, is of robust constitution, and thoroughly hardv. The foregoing remarks are those of the raisers, and as this new plant was thought worthy to receive an award of merit from the Royal Horticultural Society, there seems no reason to doubt that it will prove itself a very useful plant for this country. SODIUM CHLORATE AS A WEED KILLER. In the issue of The Gardeners’ Chronicle for February 23, 151, it is stated that no reference to the use of sodium chlorate as a weed-killer can be found. This chemical has been tried out by several State agricultural departments here in America and is highly recommended. Tests conducted recently at Cornell, New York, have proved sodium chlorate to be deadly to Thistles, and in Kansas it was equally successful against Bindweed. At Purdue, Ind., where, I think, it was first tried, experiments were made about 1914 with various chemicals for the purpose of combating weeds possessing deep roots, such as the Thistle, Bindweed and Quack Grass (Couch). The substance sought was not for the destruction of weeds on paths, etc., but on agricultural land that had been overrun with the above weeds. No success was attained until sodium chlorate was tried. The first tests killed ninety-five per cent, of the Quack Grass. Sodium chlorate is readily dissolved in water at the rate of 11b to a gallon, and it is either sprinkled or sprayed on, the tops of the weeds being thoroughly saturated. The best time to do this work is when the plants start to bloom.

Sodium chlorate is made only by one concern in this country, at Niagara Falls, the cost being about 30/- per 1121 b. drum. One drum is sufficient to spray an acre. The ’chemical is not poisonous to livestock, and it does not harm the soil. The action of this sodium on nlant growth is to oxidise the tissues. There is one danger only in its use; if mixed with small particles of organic matter it becomes combustible, therefore it should not be handled indoors, and all clothing and shoes worn while applying the spray should be washed before they are allowed to dry, as even friction may cause fire. Sodium arsenite is also used for a similar purpose, but this is deadly poison, and, if used heavily, it will prevent all forms of plant life growing for months, or even years. It is not so penetrating, however, on deep rooting weeds as sodium chlorate, but it is to be recommended for walks, hard tennis courts, etc., because of its sterilizing character on the soil.-—T. A. Weston, New Jersey, U.S.A.