GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20492, 7 May 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

w ßy “Nlkau.", Sow, in raised beds, dwarf peas, parsley, broad beans, turnips, silver beet and spinach beet, onion, and early cabbage. Mould up leeks gradually, on dry days. When celery has made nearly a.i i’s growth, mould it up for blanching. It will take from four to six weeks for ordinary kinds to blanch. Dig In all the green manure available. Sow spare ground with lupins to dig In as green manure. Plant cabbage, silver beet, chives, thyme and other herbs. Examine fruit in store; never put windfalls along with good fruit. Scatter tuptrph oepha te round citrus trees and rake it* in to the top soil. Either j. tn orchard. Drainage must be very good for nearly every kind of fruit-tree. FLOWERS Cut down herbaceous perennials such as helenlum. phlox, golden rod, etc. Plant hardy marigolds In sunny, firm, well-drained soil. Do not crowd them or pamper them in any way. Plant Iceland poppy, viola, pansy, polyanthus and other primroses, car-' nations sunny, open position . wallflower, dianthus, sweet william, stock, Canterbury bells, and primula malacoides. Plant lilies, and other bulbs. See that the drainage is good for nearly all bulbous plants. Place a little sand under and round the lilies. Carer-iiy weed the dafTodil beds; some of the varieties have come up already, and others are Just beneath the surface. Trim straggly rose bushes, but do no real pruning of them until July. The present is a good time to put in cuttings of roses and shrubs. Dahlia bushes may now be cut to within a foot of the ground, and lifted, if necessary, at the end of May. See that a good label is tied to each clump. Label chrysanthemums while they are in flower. Prepare covers of scrim or old sacking (single thickness?, for a few choice plants. It will pay to lift bouvardias now and plant them in a very sheltered corner of the garden or, better still, store them in a greenhouse for the winter. A choice bush or two of French marigolds may be potted and taken inside. but this must be done before any damage has been done by frost.

THE CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW Another show* to chronicle and to describe briefly. It was a mixed show*, very good in most parts and weak in i what should have been the —the chrysanthemums. It would bo unfair to exhibitors to expect very fine blooms this year, as the middle part of the season was unfavourable to the growth of chrysanthemums. It would also be unfair to tell the exhibitors that their blooms were very good when they were not really so. Fortunately there were some exhibits in the competitive classes which pave an Idea of what a show* chrysanthemum should be. In this connection congratulations are due to Mr Storry and Messrs J. R. and 0. E. Brown, and Mr Wheatley for their championships, and for their setting as good a standard as possible under the circumstances. The following were the championship awards:— Champfon of champions—Mr W. Storry s Louisa Pockett. Champion yellow or cream—Mr W. Storry's Lord Somers. Champion pink or mauve—Mr W. Storry’s Canada. Champion white—Mr W. Storry’s Louisa Pockett. Champion red or bronze—J. R. and G. E. Brown's Sir William Brunton. Anv other colour—Mr W. Storry’s W. H. Everard. Hamilton Chrysanthemum Cup—W. Storry. *-» Some of the other fine blooms were: Mrs E. Alston, Lady Young. B. C. Weare, Lady Stradbroke, Golden Champion, Annie Hamilton. Maroondah, Mrs Reg. Thompson. Mrs F. Rigg. Bessie Cook. Gallipoli. Mrs Tuckett. Edith Caveli, Maggie Stirling and Healesvllle Bronze. Other Classes The decorative section, especially with various kinds of bowls, was a •how* In Itself, and worth going a long way to see. (The attendance, by the way. was very disappointing to the hard-working officials and keen exhibitors.) There were eleven entries ?n the class for pedestal bowls, and Incidentally some friends of the society kindly lent their pedestals for the oc is ,i There was notteeeble difference n t eatmenf as weU as In variety of flowers used In this class, and a fine standard was reached. The ol er kinds of bowk were also Tory !'*’ .r-tiful. ?nme especially noticed were: A bowl of pompon and charm dahi as. a bowl of nerines and other d.dnfy flowers, a bowl of French and African marigolds, a bowl of chrysanthemums. The baskets were also very beautiful. Fpeci-.I mention should be made of a very fine basket of berries, and of the winning basket of flowers. Dinner tables, witch bowls, flower boxes, pnsfes. shoulder sprays and Anzac emblems helped to complete the strongest section of the show. The cut flowers were very interesting and beautiful, as is usual at a Hamilton Show. The winners In the six and in the three were in fine condition. In spite of the recent rain. Gerberas. delphiniums, zinnias, red bottle-brush; red-hot pokers; rudberklas. dahlias. Leonntls. penstemons, neriner begonias, asters. Lasiandra, marigolds, and a host of other plants !n flower were to be seen side by side with the real April flower, the chrysanthemum. Indeed, the orjly noticeable absentees from the flower classes were stock, eladlolus. sweet pea, and the typical flowers of spring. The Lyceum Club onre more helped by staging a varied exhibit. Including the ordinary autumn flowers and some beautiful roses, Tithonlas, slncle and double gerberas. cannas. Lantana. Mina lobata. geraniums and Oratostiirma.

The novW classes in the different section* were avaln well filled. It js very pleasing to see new exhibitors coming In to fill the -places of those who have graduated to the amateur and open classes. Mention should be made of a trade exhibit set up by Mr Wheatley, and of an interesting display made by the Girl Guides Here were to be seen beautiful emblems, posies, and a sunken garden. Unusual Features An hour or two could easily have been spent In examining the unusual plants that were on exhibition. One of the most remarkable was a series of red-capped fund, surely related to the species that figures so largely :n one of 11. G. Wells’s stories of wonder and mystery*. On the second day of the show all the fungi had grown noticeably. The berries were numerous and beautiful. Some were: Cotoncaster*. perper-tree. larce-leavel privet, karamu. various hawthorns and rose ■ | • num : chill: barberries; fruits of Iris foetfdlsslma: the snow-berry ?vmj>borlcarpiis ; an old yet rare plant from Britain —the Butcher’s Broom: 1 rare annual with red flowers (Gilia eoronopifolia : a rare but tender shrub (Crotalaria laburnifolia). and a rare Iwrrleil r- Ir ‘ nf • * f;,> Nri of wtiieli came from Java. Another interesting and beautiful plant was a new African marigold with narrow, curved petals, and named Dixie Sunshine, ft is really splendid for decorative work. Wonderful Crab-Apples One of the most remarkable ew :>.• s was a fruiting branch of the crab-

apple named Gorgeous. There was a weight of perhaps six pounds of fruit on the branch, and sixty pounds had already been picked from the four-year-old tree. This tree is pruned and sprayed, and. indeed, it is treated Just as it ought to be. THE WELLINGTON SHOW Last week the garden expert at at 2YA gave a splendid account of the Chrysanthemum Show* held In Wellington on the Wednesday. The following are the main points of his account:— The chrysanthemum section was the best seen In Wellington for many years. The champion in the open section was a bloom of Mrs Harold Wells. This variety was champion the previous week at the Hutt Show, and the writer has a note that It was champion at the Hutt Show in 1938. The amateur champion was Edith Caveli, as suitable for garden and house decoration ns It Is for exhibition. In the open class of 12 blooms the following were the winners: W. J. Barber. Majestic. Mrs H. Beale. Monda, Lady F. Clarke. Louisa Pockett. Sir Wm. Brunton, and The Melba. (Four were duplicated.) W. J. Barber Is described as a light bronze and Monda as vfeux rose. In the open class of six the winners were: Hugh Mitchell. Mrs H. Wells. Mrs R. C. Pulling (two of each). The winning three were: Carrie White, Mrs B. C. Pulling, Mrs H. Wells. The whites were: two of Mrs H. Wells and one of William Turner. The yellow winners were blooms of Mrs* R. C. Pulling, and the pinks were two of Rose Day and one of Mrs Frank Rlgg. The open three were: Hugh Mitchell Stephen Brown and William Turner. In the amateur six the winners Included: F. S. Vallls. Mrs E. Alston (a pure yellow “sport” from Autumn Tints', Lancashire, Pink Pockett. Majestic. The winning three were: Sir Wm. Brunton. Edith Caveli, Red Majestic. The three of “any other colour” Included Pink Pockett and Stephen Brown. Other Features Other features mentioned by the 2YA expert were the very fine trees, shrubs and other plants that were *hown In a novelty section. The lady In charge of this section had obtained exhibits from Christchurch and other towns, as well as from Wellington province. The following are some of the unusual * plants—only a few are really novelties—Trachelium 'Throatwort . a blue-flowered herbaceous perennial; a pink Gypsophla named r ’- oirthamlf, flowering for months; ‘Menocarpus slnuatus, the Queensland Firewheel fa tender shrub, with red flowers and large deeply-cut, glossy, evergreen leaves) ; various nerines 'especially Blazing Star—a lovely red —and the little pink-flowered, narrowleaved species called N. flllfolia); a new solanum named Masterpiece similar to the ordinary S. capslcastrum, but with much larger leaves and red berries); a new capsicum named Rod Cherry 'unlike the ordinary long ones in shape); Cestrum aurantiacum yellowish, tubular flowers, but the writer would dissuade people from planting it. as it is poisonous to animals and the flowers drop when the flower stems are cut for decoration); Photinla glabra rubens 'a tree with foliagp which Is a wonderful red when young) ; a red form of the ordinarv Erica wilmnreana: Duranta Plumieri fa Mue-flowered tender shrub used 38 a hedge-plant in Tauranga); a new cr,ral-tree (Erythrina) named E. Rlakel. with deep erlmson flowers; T.ambertia formosa tubular tangerine flowers); a new Tlthonia named Fireball more brilliant than the ordinarv T. speciosa. and lasts well in water Salvia vlolace.i 'a very showy plant * Cornus sapitata (the famiiiar treestrawberry. better called a treeraspberry) ; Podalyrla serlcea (a sil-very-leaved little shrub with lilac peashaped flowers): Stokesia: Eucharis amazonlca a white flowered bulb; the cxpprt believed it had not flowered in Wellington before : Feijoa sellowiana a pretty shrub with edible, scented fruit rather like a passion-fruit, but bearing a persistent calyx at the top after the fashion of an apple). Other features of the show were coijections of berries including native species . a splendid exhibit set up by Parks and Reserves Department of Wellington: collections Of hydrangeas some with coloured foliage; and a great display of vegetables from the Onslow district.