COVER OLD WALLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 394, 30 June 1928, Page 26

COVER OLD WALLS

USEFUL FLOWER EFFECTS I saw two uses of flowers In a country town lately which I thought were well worth Imitation. The first was a nasturtium wall. The garden of a small house was' bounded on one side by an unsightly bare wall quite 12 feet high. It had been wired all over, and planted with nasturtiums, alternately scarlet ond cream. The plants had covered the entire surface of the wall up to the coping. They were flowering in such profusion that they formed a dazzling mass, which, when lighted up by the sunshine, almost defied description. There was an invariable exclamation of astonishment and admiration from passers-by on the road when they came suddenly within sight of its glory. As the nasturtium has a long flowering season, it will be some time before the beauty of that wall is ; over.

The second was a clematis porch. It belonged to a large old house of grey stone. Clematis in four different colours had been planted on each side of the porch. The red, White, pale lavender, and vivid purple had been allowed to mix freely. They were all in full blossom, and the effect of the mixed colours against the cool grey background of the old house was charming. ROSE STIMULANTS One of the best and most readily prepared of liquid manures is made by suspending a sack of horse manure with an equal quantity of soot in a tank of rain water, leaving it there for a week. The resulting liquor may then be applied to the trees. Frequent doses of a weak solution are far better and safer than occasional applications of stronger stuff, so that for the first few weeks the concentrated solution should be diluted with plain water as drawn off. Liquid manuring should never be continued late into the season, for it naturally produces somewhat sappy growth, and it is necessary for the shoots to be hard and firm before winter. No manure will be needed after the second crop of roses begins to show colour in the bud state. The surface soil of the beds needs merely to be kept light and sweet by a final hoeing or very light forking when the flowering season is over. FLOWER POTS, NEW AND OLD Flower pots vary in size from two inches to 22 inches in diameter, and in depth from two inches to 18 inches. Convenient sizes for the small greenhouse are three and a-half inches in diameter, known as 60’s in the trade; five inches in diameter, known as 48’s; seven inches in diameter, known as 28’s; and 10 inches in diameter, known as 12’s. Of course, there are sizes in between these. New pots should always be soaked in water, and then allowed to dry before use, otherwise the roots cling to the sides, and cause trouble when it is desired to knock the plant out of the pot. Old pots can be used again and again, but they must be washed and dried each time before use. Broken pots should be kept in a box for use as drainage crocks. They are ideal for this purpose because of their concave shape. Drainage is simple, effected by placing a large piece of crock, concave side downwards, over the hole, a number of smaller pieces being placed over this.

STRENGTH OF FLOWERS’ SCENT Floral perfumes arise from various essential oils which are produced in different parts of the flower. Most commonly they are given off from the petals, but sepals, bracts at the base of the blossom, or even the stamens, may be the seat of the odour. The giving-off of pleasant scents is not. of course, confined to the flower, for many well-known plants possess aromtic foliage, of which lavender and mint are examples. It may seem strange to some that insects flying high above the earth should be attracted by the delicate perfume of flowers, but it should be remembered that the scenting powers of most animals are very much more highly developed than our own, and what to us may appear as a faint odour, to the more sensitive organs of flower-haunting insects may be extremely pungent. How well such insects are able to perceive floral scents, and to recognise the direction from which they come, was shown by Dr. Kerner, who, having found a convolvulus hawk moth asleep on a strip of dead bark during the day, marked it with a red dye, and removed it to a spot situated 300 yards I away from a bush of honeysuckle—a plant which this kind of moth regularly visits. When wilight fell, the moth became active, and on taking wing immediately flew to the honey-' suckle, and proceeded to suck the nectar from the flower. There appears to be no reason to doubt that this insect was able to smell the scent of the blossoms at the distance named, though to the human senses the odour is quite unnoticed so far from the plant. RHUBARB EXHIBITION What is claimed to be “the only 1 show of its kind in the Empire** took place in Leeds recently, when the Leeds and District Market Gardeners* Association held their annual exhibition of rhubarb. The rhubaro-grow ing industry flourishes on the outskirts of the city, and year by year tons of this vegetable are sent to every part of Great Britain. Exhibits numbered 185, as compared with 178 last year.