470 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



June 22, 1912. 



Planting 



is better done in the spring than in the 

 autumn^ as the plants are then less liable 

 to suffer injury from slugs, frost, and 

 dampness. Where one has old clumps these 

 should be broken up in early March if 

 they have a nice lot of new growth by 

 that time, and the yovingest and best rooted 

 pieces put in the places prepared for them. 

 When the ground has been well prepared, 

 the plants may be allowed to go for two, 

 or even three, years without moving if 

 they survive; but, looking to results, it is 

 better in a general way to treat them like 

 the more rampant Michaelmas daisies^ and 

 transplant them every spring. Good 

 groups of plants look better, and grow 

 better, than single plants dotted about in 

 gaps among the perenniak^some of them 

 very greedy — but it is, perhaps, a matter 

 of taste whether such groups should be of 

 one colour only or otherwise. 

 The 



Uses 



to which chrysanthemums can be put is 

 only limited by the imagination of the 

 grower. Apart from their use as a com- 

 ponent part of the mixed border, to be 

 treated in the main like its other occupants, 

 they liave a very important use as reserves 

 for beds and borders when their earlier- 

 flowering summer occupants are over, for, 

 if grown at a fair distance apart on a 

 spare piece of ground in the vegetable quar- 

 ters, they may be taken up in damp weather 

 with a good mass of earth and roots at- 

 tached at any time of the summer without 

 suffering much damage, and used to fill up 

 gaps or even whole beds. Beds, too, may 

 be planted with chrysanthemums and other 

 plants in mixture so designe<l that when 

 the latter go off flower they may be pulled 

 up and the whole bed given up to the 

 chrysanthemums. 

 The matter of 



Varieties 



is an important one^ for^ however different 

 the uses to which these plants may be 

 put, varieties differ no less widely, and 

 must be chosen accordingly. Where they 

 are to be treated as herbaceous perennials, 

 it is essential to select those varieties which 

 make good strong tufts of growth from the 

 base in the autumn, many of the newer and 

 improved varieties being very shy in this 

 respect ; and where the plant only makes 

 one or two shoots, not only does a little 

 damage by slugs mean the possible loss of 

 the plant, but it is diflScult to get those 

 masses of blossom which we look for in 

 border chrysanthemums. On the other 

 hand, where it is intended to raise plants 

 in pots every year, this point is not of much 

 importance. But there is another difference 

 of habit which has obvious results in a 

 damp autumn. Many of the older varieties 

 which are condemned now by experts have 

 not sufficient stiffness in the flowering stems 

 to keep the blooms erect, especially when 

 they are wet, and. defect though this may 

 be, it results in keeping the rain out of 

 the centres of the flowers, and so lessening 

 their liability to rot or mildew in a wet 

 autumn. Some of those with sturdy, up- 

 right flowering stems, such as that beau- 

 tiful Champ d'Or, are of little use in the 

 open in wet, or even foggy, weather. The 

 fine varieties in this early-flowering section 

 which are now being brought out, however 

 attractive they look on the exhibition table, 

 are many of them better adapted for grow- 

 ing in pots than in the borders. As 

 regards standing the winter, it is com- 

 monly observed that the yellow varieties, 

 which are the most appreciated m the 

 autumn garden, readily succumb during the 

 winter, Algkr Petts. 



THE VINE AND FERN 



WEEVIL. 



A note from a correspondent induces 

 me to give a few particulars regarding 

 this insidious and destructive fern pest 

 (Otiorhynchus sulcatus). In the first place, 

 its ravages are not by any means confined 

 to ferns, as its general name is the vine 

 weevil, but it is probable that, once it 

 obtains a firm foothold in a fern collection, 

 it is more absolutely destructive of the 

 plants than it can be in the case of vines. 

 Curiously enough, it appears to be some- 

 what sporadic in fern collections, so much 

 so that when I published "Choice British 

 Ferns," in 1888 (now out of print), I was 

 taken to task for omitting any mention 

 of it in the chapter on " Fern Foes, and 

 How to Fight Them," an omission due to 

 the fact that although I had been accu- 

 mulating a fine collection of ferns for some 

 years, the pest had never put in an ap- 

 pearance, nor had I heard of it from my 

 fern-loving friends. Eventually, however, 

 it introduced itself, probably in conjiinc- 

 tion with some well-intended, and certainly 

 more welcome, gifts and acquisitions, and 

 ever since I have had to wage unceasing 

 war against it to preserve my pets from 

 annihilation. 



For the past three years I have kept a 

 record of the mature beetles found in my 

 glass fernery, and the numbers average 

 three to four hundred per annum, constant 

 search reducing the number by one hun- 

 dred last season, while this season, so far, 

 a great reduction seems to be promised. 

 Xo record has been kept of the even 

 more destructive fat white maggots or 

 grubs which effect their insidious under- 

 ground work during the winter and in the 

 spring, until they assume the beetle form 

 and emerge to attack the foliage above 

 ground, and, if not detected and destroyed, 

 lay their eggs, in the late summer, and 

 so secure a fresh generation. The 

 beetles, happily, do not survive the winter, 

 and hence, if all the grubs can be found 

 and destroyed, there is no new genera- 

 tion. This, however, is not so easily ac- 

 complished. The presence of the grubs 

 in the soil of moderately-sized pots and 

 pans containing ferns is clearly evidenced 

 by the plants flagging and becoming dis- 

 coloured, while in the case of hartstongues, 

 which are their favoured prey, the 

 fronds, when pulled, come freely away 

 from the caudex, having been gnawed 

 through at the base. In pans of seed- 

 lings the young plants will be found lying 

 quite loose on the surface, the roots and 

 crowns being devoured and undermined. 

 With deciduous ferns, whose fronds die 

 down in any case, the presence of the de- 

 predators is only indicated by late and 

 imperfect growth, or no growth at all. 



All this time there is nothing visible above 

 the soil except the signs of ill-health in- 

 dicated ; all the grubs are beneath it. and 

 the beetles are non-existent. Hence, in 

 the winter and spring, it is essential to 

 look out for such signs, and wherever they 

 appear, to turn out the plant and shake 

 out the soil, when quite possibly a dozen 

 or a score of fat white maggots, about half 

 an inch long, and half as thick, curved 

 into a semicircle, will be found among 

 the mostly dead roots, and burrowing into 

 the caudex. To make sure that all are 

 found, the remaining roots and caudice? 

 must ho washed quite clean, or some of 

 the grubs may escape by having burrowed 

 into the caudex itself, in which, however, 

 they are always perceptible owing to their 

 whiteness. All dead matter should then 

 be cut away, and the fern, or its frag- 

 ments, thw may safely be repotted with 



a fair chance of survival if any centre of 

 growth has been left intact. 



These grubs are so tenacious of life that 

 we have submerged infested plants, which 

 we have been reluctant to destroy, for 

 fourteen days in a bath without drowning 

 them, and though a few were found lying 

 apparently dead on the surface, we found 

 they revived when allowed to get dry, and 

 exposed to the air. The difficulty of entire 

 extermination in the grub stage lies in tJie 

 fact that with large, old-established speci- 

 mens of ferns, in big pots, the plants are 

 too rODUst to show any evidence of their 

 presence in small numbers, and hence surli 

 specimens form refuges for a sufficient 

 number of future beetles to survive and 

 carry on the pestilent race. Obviously, 

 therefore, equal attention must be paid 

 during the growing season to the capture 

 of the beetles. 



In a cold conservatory the beetles com- 

 mence to emerge from the soil about tlie 

 beginning of May, first as soft, dark- 

 coloured beetles, but speedily harden inj^ 

 into very tough-cnated ones, nearly l>la<"k. 

 with an oval body about half an inch lon^. 

 and a peculiar small head^ Avith two short 

 antennae. They at once crawl up the 

 stalks of the ferns, and gnaw the edges 

 of the rising fronds, thus doing great 

 damage to those of the hartstongues, as 

 subsequent growth enlarges the gaps con- 

 siderably, and quite spoil their appear- 

 ance. Immediately such damage is ob- 

 served search should be made for the de- 

 predator, which, very likely, may be found 

 snugly ensconced in one of the frills or 

 tassels, when it is easily extracted by the 

 finger and thumb. If not so seen, it is 

 practically certain to be found somewhere 

 on the soil or in the caudex, since it rarely 



^ 



travels from one plant to another unless 

 disturbed. If search still fails, immerse 

 pot and plant in a pail of water, so as 

 quite to cover the soil. The beetle cannot 

 stand immersion at all, and will at onoe 

 crawl out from its hiding place, and creep 

 up one of the frond stems, where he is 



easily secured. 



On large specimen ferns the black hitdv 

 of the beetle is easily distinguishable 

 against the light, but here diplomacy is 

 required, since directly it suspects an 

 enemy, or is startled, it drops to the 

 ground, and lies as if dead, its dark colour 

 then rendering it almost impossible to 

 detect. My diplomacy takes the form of 

 a metal dessert spoon attached to a stick, 

 and when a weevil is observed I cautionslv 

 bring the spoon beneath it^ into which it 

 incontinently drops when the frond i> 

 slightly tapped. The weevil's presence is 

 sometimes only indicated bv small blobs or 

 drops of brownish liquid on the fronds, anf 

 also by a distinct paleness of the norn^a) 

 green colour which is reassumed speediK 

 when the beetle is removed. This fact is 

 difficult to account for, but admits of w 

 doubt. All this, of eoursp, involves con- 

 siderable trf)uble, but is unavoidable V 

 once the ])est has, by ignorance of its hab' ^ 

 or n 



as it is nnitp immune in liotli stnofpp nam 

 vaporisation, or anv inseotirido I know. 



C. T. Dbtjert, VjM.H., F.L.S. 



Tree Pseonies Tliese look fheir best 



wh'en rplanted in: fhe forefront of sliriii> 

 beries, hut tliev are sometimes grown in tin 

 ordinary lierhaceous borders or in was \^ 

 themselves. Flowers of the 3Iountain i^^V 

 exhibit a great variety of colours, and \aen 

 large blooms are invariably much adniirea. 

 Tliey are greatlv benefited by a nnilclinig oi 

 well-rotted manure, as this not only ctiecK. 

 evaporation, but helps to feed the plant- 

 ■Remove any suckers from the root-stot>K^, 

 they may appear. — J. Gardner. 



