Pinoy Entrep

Employ a deeper container filled with moist peat. Plants do particularly well in such containers if the pot is plunged to the rim in the peat. The individual requirements of each plant can then be checked.

Growing plants in a group. These to my mind are by far the best purchase, as there is little doubt that plants do very much better if grown in the company of other plants. When taking my first steps, as it were, into the mysteries of growing pot plants a hardened old nurseryman once informed me t hat his plants did very much better when grown in a group. At the time I suppose an amused smile creased my face, but since then the sight of poorly plants making an indifferent job of growing in splendid isolation has given me cause to recall his remark with less amusement.

This in itself makes it a very fine plant for exhibition work, and it is especially useful and attractive when incorporated with blue saintpaulias. On the nursery no one was very keen to be given charge ofgreenhouses containing D. Pia, as the chances of success were not particularly good.

A third method of growing plants in a container is to fill the box or trough with a standard house plant potting compost and, removing the plants from their pots, plant them up more or less permanently in the mixture. To simplify the operation it is wise to arrange the plants in their probable positions on top of the compost before doing the planting. Very few of the larger containers are equipped with drainage holes in the base, so it is of the utmost importance to ensure that it is not overwatered.

When adopting this method it is important to choose plants for grouping together which are reasonably compatible in their moisture requirements, as they will all have to suffer or enjoy the same conditions. For example, the moisture-loving cyperus would not be expected to do particularly well in the same container as a sanscvicria which prefers very much dryer root conditions.

Thereafter they produced young plants at the base of the parent stem and the original plant gradually deteriorated, which is common to all the dieffenbachias that are likely to he grown in a pot.

The owners of small gardens need to utilise every scrap of space and they, therefore, must be more selective in their choice of plants. Climbers and wall plants will provide the answer to many problems for they will add both space and height to congested sites and will bring colour to every available wall.

Taxus baccata is a native plant surrounded by a wealth of legend. Like many other trees long cultivated in gardens it has given rise to several variants. Adpressa makes a dense shrub which tends to form several leaders but I prefer the golden-leaved aurea for the way its leaves cheer up a dull February day.

No matter what treasured climber is planted, the wall will provide a protection not enjoyed by the denizens of the open garden. Before attempting any planting examine the soil at the foot of an average house wall. Usually it consists of builders’ leavings, sub-soil, pot crocks and other aridities, possibly enriched by a few tea leaves. All this must be excavated and replaced with soil from a fertile part of the garden.

A good mixture consists of 5 parts of garden soil to 2 parts of peat plus a 6-in. pot of bonemeal to every barrowload of the mixture. Only a narrow border need be made, 2 ft. wide by 15 in. deep, for given a good start healthy roots will penetrate less profitable fields.

There are two species of Actinidia especially suitable for wall culture, butoboth need different treatment. Actinidia chinensis will riot over an acre of wall in an undignified scramble. The large leaves, 6 to 8 in. across, and fragrant flowers are recompense enough if space can be provided, but really only a castle offers sufficient wall space and even then, should the drawbridge be left down, it could prove a liability for once inside it would take over the uppermost turret.

A. kolomikta is a shrub of feminine complexity. It is incapable of deciding on a suitable leaf colour, the lower half remaining green while the upper half turns white and pink. I avoid hard pruning for the stems being hollow tend to die back along the whole branch. A thinning of the twigs is a permitted indulgence. A warm south or west-facing wall suits actinidia best.

For the man who devotes all his time to the garden there is the mist unit bench. This automatically switches on a fine mist spray whenever the air surrounding the cuttings reaches a certain stage of dryness. This high degree of atmospheric humidity prevents the cuttings losing moisture and with thermostatically controlled soil warming providing an ideal rooting temperature the results achieved can be dramatic.

Not all are so obliging and must be helped in a small way. This process is known as layering and the main requirements are patience and a soil in good physical condition. A few weeks prior to layering work in a liberal quantity of peat and sharp sand around the selected plant.

Any branches low enough to be pulled down to soil level will be suitable. At the point where the branch touches the soil make a cut of about 2 in. into the centre of the stem and then gently push a piece of sphagnum moss into the cut to hold it open. Peg the cut surface down firmly to the ground and cover with the sand- peat mixture to a depth of about 3 in. In addition to the peg and the layer of compost I place a large stone on top as this holds everything firm and keeps the compost underneath moist.

I prefer a straight blade and handle for all grafting work. The tying materials used are very much a matter of personal choice, but of the products available, a wide-ribboned soft raffia is my first choice. Grafting tape or ready- made ties are effective alternatives. Cold wax is less trouble to use than the limp wax which needs heating over a fire.

The stocks chosen for grafting arc either lined out in nursery rows especially malus, prun us and pyrus, which can not be potted up, or, as with rhododendrons, peonies, conifers and similar ornamental shrubs, potted up into a cold house for working. For most forms of grafting the ideal situation is to have the stock in growth and the scion still dormant when the union is made.

Of the 9 or 10 methods of grafting commonly practised in commercial horticulture, whip and tongue is the technique used more frequently than any other. To achieve a reasonable degree of success both the scion and rootstock sections to be married must be approximately the same size.

The rootstocks of roses are lined out the previous autumn. When selecting bud sticks look first at the shoots that have already flowered. The buds near the centre will usually prove ripe for insertion. Keep the sticks fresh after they are cut in moist sphagnum or a jar of water; first removing the leaves but leaving a small piece of stalk as a handle to hold the bud while it is being inserted into the T cut.

Prepare the stock by cutting it down to the required height above soil level, for the beginner I would suggest 4 to 6 in. This should be done so that a sloping cut surface is left approximately 11 in. long. Finally a small downward cut is made half way up the slanting surface to leave a tongue.

A matching cut is made on the scion to ‘take a bud’, or in simple terms a bud is left to of an inch from the tip, but on the opposite side to the cut surface. Then make a tongue to fit neatly over that already inserted in the stock. Fit the two in position, see that the cambium layers are flush, bind them together with strips of moistened raffia, then paint the tie with grafting wax to complete an air and watertight seal.

Splice grafting is the same only without the tongue and I use it on soft-wooded clematis. Saddle grafting is used frequently for rhododendrons. R. ponticum stocks are grown on in pots on a warm bench for twelve months before working. At the appropriate season, as the sap lifts, make two slanting cuts on the scion in an upward direction to leave an inverted V like an old fashioned clothes peg.

Any suckers which appear, as they inevitably seem to, should be removed before they make too much growth. All the available food will be sent up to the terminal buds of the plant so that by October the snag of old wood to which the shoot was tied can be cut away.

The rootstocks for crataegus, sorbus, laburnum, and many other trees can be raised so easily from berries gathered from fields and woodland that budding and grafting offer a cheap, albeit fascinating, method of furnishing the garden.

Whatever the conditions, however, no shrub will succeed unless planted in a well-prepared soil. There is no short cut to soil fertility, no chemical magic to change overnight a sterile desert into a Garden of Eden, no matter how hard the manufacturers advertise their individual wares.

Drainage must be a primary concern except when the garden is sited on a sandy soil when the problem will be water retention rather than draining an excess away. Some gardens have a system of tile drainage which will cope adequately with any excess rain, short of a tropical thunderstorm.

The first rains of winter will soon discover any defects in the drainage. If water stands in puddles round the rose beds or on the lawns it may be that the existing drains are blocked or damaged.

Into the bottom fork a generous dressing of whatever organic matter is available. Those living in a town will find a mixture of coarse bonemeal and peat the cleanest to handle. A further dressing mixed with the top spadeful leaves a beautifully worked soil into which the roots can penetrate freely.

During prolonged wet weather a heavy crop of weeds may develop and an excursion with a broad-bladed hoe on the first bright sunny day is the best way to clear this particular nuisance. I choose the blade, then bend it in a vice until, when fitted with a handle, it sits flat in a working position while my`’–back back remains comfortably straight. I gave. up bending to push hoes many years ago.

A rake is a refinement and not really essential. A fork or cultivator will do the necessary levelling off of the soil before planting. A reel and line will be needed to ensure that the various hedges are laid straight and true. Few people have a reliable enough eye to work without one.