The Garden.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 314, 7 November 1888, Page 3

The Garden.

Portulaca. This pretty little annual makes one of the best summer bedding plants which wo can grow. If not already sown under glass, and if 1c is to be afterwards planted out, it should now be sown in the open border, where it will soon come on. The portulaca delights in warm, sandy soil, but will als° saoceed in stiff soils. It is one of those plants which will stand any prolonged dry weather well, and this weather we usually get. When everything else is perishing for want of moisture, the porfculaea will pi-oduce its largest flowers and brightest colours. A few years ago there was only a small variety of colours, and double flowers would have been a great wonder. Now, thanks to che fancy grower, we have a large assortment of colours, and where the seed is obtained from a good strain the greater proportion of flowers are double. Last season 1 had portulaca in full flower from January till the cold weather in May. Seeds sown in the open now will be easy to transplant even after the dry weather sots in. Plants can even be moved to other situations when in full flower, if, after planting, they ate watered once so as to setbletheir loots.

Celery. The cultivation of celery has been much simplified during the past few years, and the giant varieties rait^ed have been generally discarded, for the reason that it takes fchemrnuch longerto come to maturity, while they are liable to move injury and require a greater amount of care. Small or dwarf varieties are now genorally raised. These mature much more quickly, are .subject to less injury, and are much more easily raised and prepared for market, as the, labour in blanching the shorfei stalks is less. Celery is a profitable an 1 1 easy crop to raise in our climate, wboio the "soil is in fairly good condition. The soil that suits it best is a deep, rich, moist one ; but almost all ordinary garden soils can be made to suit it if plenty of well-rotted manure is placed in the bottom of the trenches in which they aro planted. Celery plants for succession can be planted out from about the beginning of next month tiJl away on to the beginning of April next, so where this constant succession is required it is always better to have a continual succession of young plants coming on. The seed should be sown in boxes under glass first in rich, .sandy soil. When the plants attain a Jieight of about three inches they should he pricked out in a bed especially prepared with plenty of well-rott ed stable manure. The bed should be kept in a pretty moist condition till the young plants attain a height of about six to eight inches, when they should be plumed out into specially prepared trenches. Celery plants, for some time after being planted, make very slow growth till they get .established. Afterwards they grow very rapidly, and especiallj' it they are liberally treated with rich liquid manure. As they advance in growth, <hey .-hould be earthed up from time to time so that the stalks can get blanched and become crisp.

Carpet Bedding. I To Roivrrs : Sir, — I find on retening to your rtmaikfe of 22nd .September in your notes on gai\iening that you distinctly named carpet bedding, and theie state distinctly that in out climate it would be almost impossible to produce it owing to our equable temperature. The&e are your own words. My contention wai and still is that what you state would militate against its success here, would certainly have the opposite cliect. As I stated before, the foliage plants which aie mainly used for bhU •*?> ie of gardening require a high temperatuie to biina out their colours to perfection. This c;tn easily be proved byieferringtotheEngii&h ]ouiu<il-: on this subject, which state in mimi&takeablo j terms that some seasons it is almost a tailure | there, on account of the wet and cold. The season just closing is one in point. I am nob wiiting 1 without knowing what 1 am writing about, as 1 have visited the principal places where this style of gairicmng is carried out to the greatest peifection, and \ I can assure Hortiih that the Imllimeo ! ot colour brought out in the various plants used for this purpose in New Zealand and Aut-tialia aie far ,-uperioi in their tints ot colour to u hat us ever attained in Britain. My contention is that carpet bedding can be "done hero to greater perfection than in Britain with its. unreliable seasons, provided we had. the j same varieties of plants and convenience-, as they have at their command there. — I am, etc., Ponikkk. For Poniker's satisfaction, 1 will repeal j what was written by me on the 22nd September. "Annuals in our climate arc not as a rule quite so lasting as annuals grown in Britain. Here they grow faster and pro- j duce a much softer wood. The cau^e of I this is a climatic one. In Britain, the temperature during the day attains n high i range, and at night it comes down very low, causing a considerable hardening of wood, and consequently a slower and moio lasting growth. The same remarks will apply to all bedding plants that are used fnr makinsr the gtand display in the carpet bedding which is lequired in Britain and elsewhere. In our climate it would be almost impossible to pioduoeit owing to our equable temperatuie. Bedding: plants here are proved to stronger, longei'-join'ed, and with softer I wood than they usually do where they are subjected to great extremes of temperature every 24 hours. The low temperature at night causes the plants to ■grow shortjointed hard wood, which is much better adapted to produce the large mass of flowers, which isindispensablewhere carpet bedding is tried." I think the above clearly indicates that it was only flowering bedding plants which were alluded to, foliage plants not even being mentioned. In writing the above, a was perfectly aware that very little bedding with foliage plants had as yet been attempted in Auckland, nor is it likely to be attempted extensively tor a good number of years to come. In the three letters which Poniker has written on the subject, I notice a few pas^a^es which seem strange and contradictory, and I now reprint them, using No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 to indicate from which letter the passages are taken. Temperatures: No. 1 — "If he were to take the maximum and minimum temperatures he would find that ours is much lower in the night, as compared with the heat of the day, even than Britain Next, with regard fco hard wood and long joints which he considers fatal to this style of gardening here, a» everyone knows who has studied nature, it is not cold nights, but the nun's rays Lhat make woody matter." 'No. 2. — " With regard to the temperatures, Hortus by his own showing gives a difference of 36 degrees for August, 1886, in Britain between day and night temperatures ; whereas, in .January last in Auckland, he gives a difference of 20 degrees only, which, I think, fully proves my contention. His' correspondent is well aware of the important part foliage has in the perfection - of flowers, fruit, etc., but my contention was I that we could have no woody matter with-

[out the sun's rays. To that I still adhere. (Now, I think the points raised were the > quantity and quality of the wood grown in equable climates, or where there were great extremes.) No. I—Now1 — Now just a word with regard to' plants used for this purpose, and the various parts of the world from which they have been procured, viz., Cape of Good Hope, South America, North America, Chili, Jamaica, Buenos Ayres, California, Mexico, Switzerland, Brazil and Gibraltar. England furnishes only two. Seeing that the majority of them are sub-tropical, is not our Auckland climate more congenial to their success 1 than that of Britain ?" No 2. "• It may be well here ' to remark that the hardness of v! plunt cannot be determined by the>i country of which iO is a native, but' more particularly from the elevation ab which it is found, as some of our tropical plants aro found in the 'valley 'where they are accustomed to great heat, and others farther up th i mountain near the snow lino where the temperaturoismuch coldei." Till 1 lead the above I was not aware that tropical plants could be found near tho bnow line in any country.. What I have always been taught is that all the different elevations were divided into, zones representing diileront divisions of climate' accoidinc* to temperature,' and i/hat sbme'*c,o.untrief possess an equatorial, trbpicaJi^ub/tJlopical 1 , warm - temperate, colder - tomperate, subArctic, Arctic and Polar climate, according to the different elevations and temperatures. Also that such countings possess a different class of vegetation in each of'thosfc' /ones, and such vegetation can be moved to other countries and succeed if thezono or I temperature is about bimilar to the one it is taken from, or as Mr Bfaldane say.% in his woik on Sub-tiopical Cultivation :—: — Each species of plant can only flourish within certain limits fixed by temperature and humidify. These limits' may be wider or narrower according to fclie hardiness of the plant. Some plants being 1 hardier than others, stand gt eater extremes of heat and cold, drought and wet, and consequently ' have larger geographical bounds ; but every plant has some con line be} oncl winch it ceases to exist. No. 2. " Carpet bedding, as stated in my last letter, is composed entirely ot foliage plants. lo conclude, cat pet bedding is a flower garden without llowers." No. 3. "Aslstatedbefcie, the foliage plants are mainly used for this style of gardoninc 1 . 1 am not writing without knowing what i am wntiny ;ibout, as 1 have visited the piincipal places where this stylo of gardening is carried out." Now, so that FoniUer may possess a little more knowledge of what is termed carpetbedding in Britain, 1 will reprint a question asked and the answer given by the editor of one of the British horticultural papers. "Carpet-bedding: Is it righ^ oi allowable, in a prize competition, for carpetbedding to use hmall trees or shrubs?" The editor's answer was, " We should &oy that any plant, if sufficiently dwarfed to work into the pattern of the carpet bed, , is allowable, and can be used with perfect fairness in such competitions." Now. there are a large number of other points which could be dealt with if the matter was of sufficient importance to the bulk of my readers, but it is impossible to spate the space to go on contradicting or exp'aining the \ague assertions of Poniker.