GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17976, 22 March 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

SEASONABLE WORK. (By “Nikau.") Vegetables and Fruit.— Sow lettuce in a sunny corner. Plant Late leeks, also cabbage and cauliflower. Sow silver beet, turnip, onion and spinach. Prepare covers in case of frost. Bum plants and fruit of diseased tomatoes. Save seed of cucumber and spinacii. Examine stored fruit and onions once a week. Give leeks and celery ono good watering every week. Dig vacant ground, and perhaps sow it with lupins for green manure. Flowers—Finish budding roses. Layer carnations. Put in cuttings of most kinds of plants. Prepare soil for lawns. Disbud chrysanthemums. ' Plant anemones, ranunculi, and most kinds of bulbs. Sow hardy annuals, also biennials and perennials. Mulch azaleas and rhododendrons with lawn trimmings, as this will keep the roots cool and also help to feed them- Sow sweet peas in boxes, if-' the trenches have not been dug and manured.

NOTES. Saving Vegetable Seeds. —Generally it does not pay to save vegetable seeds;; for one thing, a vegetable that has been allowed to ripen seed has been wasted as far as eating is concerned, an-d for another thing the a. lateur is not usually skilful in choosing the best plants for seed. Besides, he has not a large number of plants to choose from. There are exceptions, however. For example, it often pays to save seed of a particularly good strain of bean or pea. Other seeds that are sometimes worth saving are cucumber, marrow, pumpkins, spinach and lettuce. It should be remembered that cross-fertilisation takes place very often with marrows or pumpkins, and the only way to keep a strain pure is to grow only one variety on one farm. In town, with sections close to one another, the strains cannot be kept pure for very long. In saving seed of onion, leek, beetroot, carrot and parsnip, all those plants that have flowered in their first year must be rejected, as the vegetables named are true biennials. Similarly, if lettuce, celery, and “turnips have ‘bolted’ i.e., run to seed prematurely, they must not be used in seed-saving. Then there is a point to note about tomatoes: None of the fruits should be kept- for seed purposes if any fungal disease was observed on the plants. This is tantamount to saying that no tomato seed should be saved in Hamilton this year.

Cucumber Seed. —lf a good strain of cucumber has been grown, seed of it should certainly be saved. For example, there are some strains of apple-cucumbers being grown locally that are far better than the average of bought seed. Similarly there may be a very good strain of the Stockwood Ridge or Mangere Prize-;—two good kinds of long out-door cucumbers. The fruit should be picked when it has begun to turn yellow. The next thin® is to store it in a dry place for a few weeks until it begins to shrivel. By that time the seed is fully matured and ready for saving. A simple way of cleaning the seed is to scrape it into a muslin bag and then wash it under the tap. In a minute or two the seed is as clean as possible. When it has been properly dried, at should be put in a dry, airtight box; it will keep its vitality better this way than if stored in a paper bag and allowed to part with more than the proper amount of moisture. Cucumber seed lasts well; indeed, many gardeners prefer seed in its second year, as the resulting plants are thought to he earlier and more fruitful than others from fresh seed.

New Lawns. —Readers who are thinking of sowing new lawns should hold off a little longer until the dry weather is nearer an end. The interim can be spent in stirring the surface now and then, killing the weeds in the seedling stage. Artificial manures may also be worked in now and thoroughly incorporated with the top two inches of soil. Advantage may be taken of the Easter holidays to do the actual sowing and the accompany-

i | ing raking and rolling. Directions for this will appear later. Chrysanthemums. — These plants . I are now showing so many buds that I some thinning must be done. In- ■ tending exhibitors will already have I ‘taken’ their buds and removed the I unwanted. The ordinary gardener, however, has still much of the disbudding to do. The stronger shoots lof most varieties will be found to have four or flve buds; these should be reduced to one or two on each shoot. Some of the side-shoots must be suppressed entirely, so that the buds on the main shoots can develop properly. If there are single varieties mixed with the double, the disbudding should be deferred until the size an-d fatness of the buds will tell us which are which. The singles, being purely decorative, are wanted in great quantity, and disbudding should be light, or not practised at all. A careful watch should be kept for caterpillars, as they quickly spoil all the buds in a cluster. Really keen growers of chrysanthemums will take the trouble to spray their plants with arsenate of lead in order to check the pest.

Th® Autumn Show. — Good weather before the show resulted in the blooms being in splendid condition for exhibition. The day of the show also being line, a good attendance of the public was recorded, and the Society’s finances were helped accordingly. The dahlias were numerous and of a very high standard. The judge, Mr G. W. Wright, of Epsom, complimented the Society on the display of dahlias, zinnias and bowls for decoration. He said that this district is apparently better suited than Auckland for growing zinnias. Yet, good though these blooms were, the writer assured him that still better blooms were growing in various plots in charge of the Beautifying Society; blooms better than any in the show I could be found in the little plot near | the signal box at Victoria Street, and in the zinnia bed in Memorial Park. But this is by the way. The champion dahlias were named as follows: Paeony: Koorine (pink with amber centre); Cactus: Samuel Sue (sulphur, yellow and pink); Decorative: Marg. Hennessey (rose and yellow). Champion of champions: .Sole Mio (a lemon and apricot hybrid decorative). From the remarks made by Mr Wright it seems that a new class will have to be made for “informal decorative,” and as some splendid flowers belonging to this group were wrongly entered for competition in the decorative classes of dahlias. As a perfect example of the true Giant Decorative Flaming Meteor may be selected. The cut flowers were not as fine as usual, though they made a good display. A strangely-marked aster excited some interest; it was of the. giant branching type, and eaoh petal was streaked with dark blue and white. Before leaving the flower section reference should be made to tiie remarks of Mr Wright concerning the characteristics of cert.in types He says a collarette dahlia should ! have a definite inner circle of petals—a real collar, not just a little petal here and there at irregular intervals. A paeony must have three rows of petals, and no more than three, and it must have plenty of little petals as an inned whorl partly covering the centre- The pompon must be globular, and one side must lie against the flower stalk; moreover, the centre must have no hint of green. He also referred to the Duplex class, really a kind of single, but with two rows of petals; a ‘ well-grown Franchon is the type of this class. The flower bowls were again very good, and received much praise from judge as well as visitors. The children’s formal posies were splendid, and of an unusually wide variety; typical autumn colours were to be seen side by side with whites, pinks, and blues, so that the effect of the whole section was kaleidoscopic. The vegetable section was of a good average standard. The carrots, beet, beans, parsnips, marrows and pumpkins were really in prime condition and of a good type. The onions tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes were not as good as usual. The collection of vegetables were of fair quality. There was an excellent collection of vegetables ‘for exhibition only’ that should he mentioned. The fruit section was .larger than usual and on the whole was very good. The prizes for dessert apples went as usual to Cox’s Orange Pippin, with Delicious third. It seems advisable now to make a separate class for Cox’s Orange, as nothing can win against it if this apple is well grown. The prizes for cooking apples went as usual to Ballarat Seedling. The peaches were very line, and more numerous than previously; so were the pears. Besides the apples mentioned there was a fine plate of Salome. It should he noted that the judge (Mr Runciman), was very thorough, cutting all the likely winners in the root vegetables, marrows and pumpkins, and in the apple and pear section, so that quality as well as size and shape counted. In conclusion, mention should be made of a number of things ‘for exhibition only’; amongst these were new forms of Sweet Sultan, some Spanish irises,, and some very fine begonia blooms exhibited by Miss Searancke. There was only one trade exhibit of dahlias, that, of Mr Wright, the judge, but it contained some varieties new to local growers-