October 1, 1907 
ELOEEIES! 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
PURE ~~ 
LOLLIES. 
Send your Order to 
JOHN 
W AILTON, 
Wholesale Manutacturer of every Kind of Choice Sweets, 
EWEN SE., Adelaide, 
7 
VWiIicTORIA 
DYE WORKS 
(E. L. RAY ) 
172 Rundle Street 
(Opposite York Hotel) and 
Stephen’s Place, 
(Side of Marshall’s) 
Gentlemen’s Clothes Cleaned or Dyed 
equal to new. ; 
Feathers Dyed and Curled 
Gloves Cleaned on Shortest Notice. 
Seeds of tender plants may be sown in 
boxes, or in beds if provision is made for 
sheltering the young plants from frost, if 
necessary. Seeds of dahlia, and a number 
of annuals that would be killed by frost 
if raised earlier may be sown now, A 
finely pulverised and firm surface should 
be prepared for small seeds, and some 
light soil, well mixed and sifted should 
be at hand for covering the seeds, _ 
Plants of hardy annuals and perennials 
raised from seed earlier in the year may 
be planted out when large enough. An- 
other batch of giadioli may be planted, 
the Lemoinei varieties, if selected, pro- 
ducing their flowers in December and 
January. Divisions of dahlia tabers may 
be planted for early blooming, a piece of 
the stem with tuber attached being sufli- 
cient to produce a large plant. A spot 
sheltered from hot winds shvuld be 
selected if possible, as the plants will 
flower in mid-summer. A liberal allow- 
ance of manure should be deeply worked 
into the soil for each plant. The Pompon 
dahlias are usefal for summer blooming. 
and resist hot winds better than the 
Show and Cactus types. 
a 
Tying. 
Happy of old in their gardens were the 
fabled race of the Hyperboreans who 
lived in perpetual calm, beyond the sources 
of northern storms, and happy were the 
dwellers im the sheltered vales round 
Athens, where (so suys their native poet) 
the bright golden Crocus and the Daffodil 
with its fair clusters flowered in winter 
untouched by any gale. It is the fashion 
to denounce tying and to say that flowers 
look best in the posture in which Nature 
places them, but let these critics try a, 
season in a garden, into which winds con- 
trive to twist themselves, from whatever 
point of the compass they blow. Add to 
this the dampness of the subsoil, which 
makes the plants grow tall and deficient in 
backbone; so that they not only get blown 
sideways but turn over until their heads 
touch the ground behind them like acro- 
bats.. If these flowers are to be kept 
visible tying them becomes a necessity, 
But few gardening operations require 
more study and practice than tying. The 
‘tying apparatus forms a very’ important 
part of the gardening stock, It consists 
chiefly of iron, not made for plant stakes 
or they would cost four or five times as 
much as they do, but plain round iron 
rods, varying in size from a quarter to 
five-eights of an inch in diameter, and 
eut obliquely, so as to form a sort of a 
blunt point, into lengths of from 2 feet 
to 6 feet. They aro generally painted 
green. The prunings of apple trees are 
useful for tying small plants such as 
double daffodils. Westerly gales some- 
times twist daffodils off at the ground 
line by dozens, so in exposed places choice 
daffodils like King Alfred and Weardale 
Perfection have to be tied, Small branch- 
ing sticks of hazel are useful for plants 
with slender stems, like single and double 
florists’ Pyrethrums. These should be 
inserted whilst the growing stalks are 
still short, and their height should be 
less than that of the plant at flowering. 
Raffia is a better tying material than 
string for small plants, but for large 
stalks soft sacking twine is used, or for 
some of the largest and most top heavy, 
like the tallest perennial Sunflowers or 
the double Rudbeckia laciniata, tarred 
thatching cord is required. 
No one would wish to tie up a stalk 
which was likely to support itself without 
it, so discretion founded on experience 
must be used. for instance, there is a 
black-stalked late-flowering Sunflower, 
said to be a variety of Helianthus tuber- 
osus, which grows 6 feet high, with a 
spreading forest of stalks, and will resist 
a whole gale. Plants of this nature are 
few, but they are carefully noted and 
cherished. One or two of the tallest 
species of Cimicifuga are equally wind 
proof, In the year 1896 the writer tried 
how far he could do without tying up, 
and a decree went out that nothing was 
to be tied without his special orders. 
July was fine and calin and gave encour- 
agement to the experiment, then came 
a wet August, followed by a September 
of gales. ‘The tallest of the united plants 
were twisted off at the ground level first, 
then followed such a general destruction 
that it was resolved never again to trust 
to the tender mercies of Afolus. 
To descend to particulars about the 
using of the iron rods: Delphiniums, 
tall Phloxes, Michaelmas Daisies, and 
such like stalks ought to have a loose tie 
before they are 2feet high'to prevent the 
stems from getting bent when young, in 
-which case it is very difficult ever to get 
them straight again: this is merely a pre- 
liminary precaution. If there are many 
stalks, at least three or four rods should 
be used to each plant. It is much better 
not to fix the rods too upright, but they 
should jean a little outwards, as it is not 
well for the stalks to present a stiff row 
like a company of soldiers on parade, nor 
is it wise generally to make a sort of 
cradle of the rods, and place the stalks 
loose inside or they tumble about from 
side to side according to the wind. 
A portion of them should be made fasé 
to each rod, and room enough given for 
every side of each panicle of flowers to 
expand. The tops of the rods ought not 
to project above the flowers. Thin Bam- 
boo canes are very cheap and are much 
used for supporting plants in borders. 
They do not hold up nearly so much 
weight nor offer so much resistance to 
wind as iron rods do, and unless the tie 
is made just above a joint it slips. They 
are less easy to fix in the ground. For 
making holes for that purpose ashort bar 
of iron an inch in diameter, sharpened at 
one end and at the other turned round 
into a handle will be found useful 
The habit of leaving plants to be tied 
until they are in bloom and sprawling 
on the ground, and then collecting all the 
stalks together and tying tlie flowers ins 
wards like a besom head, as is done in 
some gardens, is enough to discredit the 
whole practice, Tying must not be de- 
ferred but the neel.of it must be antici- 
pated, and it must be done leisurely to be 
done well. ‘There is no operation in 
gardening of which the proverbial verse 
‘of the old Greek poet, the author of 
«“ Works and Days,’ is more true— 
“The man who puts off work till to- 
morrow is for ever struggling with cala- 
mities,’ so do not wait until the baro- 
meter jumps down during the night and 
the wind blows a gale, when a little fore- 
thought might have prevented the wreck- 
age of choice ornaments which “ all the 
Kings horses and all the Queen’s men 
“cannot set up azain.” 
——_»—__—_ 
Pterostyrax hispidum flowers when it 
reaches a height of about 8 feet. It is 
one of the finest flowering small trees of 
Japan, almost rivaling the wisteria. 
oe ed 
