Gardening for Amateurs 



To make the wash, boil a pan of water 

 and dissolve the soap in the boiling water. 

 The quassia chips must be boiled or kept 

 simmering for 10 or 12 hours, and enough 

 water added from time to time to keep the 

 chips covered. Every now and then the 

 extract (that is, the liquid in the saucepan) 

 may be strained off and poured into the soft 

 soap which has been dissolved, and should 

 be well stirred into it. At the end of the 

 business add sufficient water to make the 

 quantity before mentioned. All things con- 

 sidered, I think most people will prefer to 

 buy this wash ready prepared, and it is not 

 expensive. 



It is necessary to spray with this extract 

 two days following, otherwise it is probable 

 that only the old flies will be killed, and that 

 sufficient young flies will have escaped to 

 form new colonies. 



Several of the proprietary washes effect 

 the desired purpose quite as well as the 

 above recipe Abol, for example. 



Ants. It is better to destroy these when 

 they appear in the Rose garden, as they 

 carry aphides about. Boiling water poured 

 in their haunts is recommended, or there is 

 a special ant-destroyer called Ballykinrain, 

 to be obtained from seedsmen. 



Frog-hopper (Guckoo-spit). Syringe 

 hard with plain water, and follow this by 

 syringing with a nicotine wash. Where 

 the number of Rose bushes and trees is 

 small, hand-picking is the best cure. 



Thrips. Keeping the plants well watered 

 helps to guard against attacks of these annoy- 

 ing midges. There are twelve of them, end on, 

 to the lineal inch. Syringing with tobacco 

 wash is almost the only remedy, unless one 

 can cover the bushes tent fashion and 

 fumigate them, which is the safest and most 

 effectual means of dealing with these pests. 



Insect Friends. By way of friends the 

 Rose grower can count on ladybirds, hover 

 flies, ichneumon flies, and lace- wing flies. 

 The ladybirds and their larvae both feed 

 upon aphides. The hover flies drop their 

 eggs among the pests ; these eggs hatch out 

 into maggots, green, grey, or reddish in 

 colour, which devour numbers of the enemy. 

 The ichneumon flies lay their eggs in the 

 bodies of aphides, the resulting maggots feed- 

 ing upon their hosts. The lace-wing flies, 



which have gauze or lace-like wings and 

 golden eyes, lay their eggs on long thin 

 stalks an inch or more in length, which they 

 attach to the leaves. The larvae which 

 hatch out from the eggs have large jaws, and 

 prey upon aphides with the greatest avidity. 



Diseases and Their Remedies. Un- 

 doubtedly the disease that gives most trouble 

 to the amateur Rose grower, and does most 

 harm to his plants, is the dreaded mildew. 

 The word is said to have been originally 

 " meal-dew," so called from its appearance. 



Mildew is a parasitic fungus, and is much 

 more prevalent in some years than others. 

 The attacks seem worse in hot, dry weather 

 than in very wet, cold seasons. There are 

 scientific reasons for this. The disease is 

 generally at its worst in warm, muggy, damp, 

 but not wet summers. Some gardens, 

 generally those in the open country and not 

 surrounded by other gardens, often escape 

 the disease season after season. Spraying 

 in mid-winter, from mid-January to mid- 

 February, with sulphate of copper or formal- 

 dehyde helps largely to keep the disease in 

 check, but sulphide of potassium, also 

 known as liver of sulphur, in solution and 

 sprayed on the bushes and trees from time 

 to time seems to be both a cure and a pre- 

 ventive. Sulphide of potassium is an evil- 

 smelling substance, and if used under glass 

 will discolour paint. 



The quantities given for this solution vary 

 amazingly. Even the National Rose Society 

 errs in this respect, as on page 22 of its 

 most useful little handbook, " Enemies of 

 the Rose," it says use " 1 oz. dissolved 

 in 5 gallons of rain-water," whilst on page 

 93 it says " for Roses no more than 1 oz. 

 should be used to 10 gallons of water," 

 a difference of 100 per cent, of water. In 

 various other books and guides the propor- 

 tion is given as " oz. to 1 gallon of water," 

 " 1 oz. to 2 or 3 gallons," and so on. 



Personally I have used a solution of 

 potassium sulphide many times in the pro- 

 portion of 1 oz. to 3 gallons of water, with 

 only good results. I have never made a 

 weaker solution than 1 oz. to 5 gallons of 

 water for the most tender young leaves, and 

 no harm has ever resulted so far as I could 

 see. None the less, it is always better, if 

 one must err, to err on the safe side. 



