Autumn is a most significant season for garden lovers and hints, both practical and artistic, given the Gardening Section the HWA. are greatly appreciated by all those who take 'a personal interest in the planting, and arrangement of their own, gardens. Their activities commenced with a most successful meeting held Jon Friday at Mrs. Craddock's garden, 12 Kinnear Road.
The display of beautifully coloured! dahlias, grown. by Mrs. Craddock was greatly admired and was an encouraging proof of the successful] results that can be achieved by the! enthusiastic garden lover. The main feature of the meeting was a lecture given by Mrs. Clear, so well known m Shanghai for her interest in gardening, and whose practical experience has always been at the disposal of the B.W.A.
Her lecture on the transplantation of Seedlings held many helpful suggestions. Ste began by advising! those who wished to keep their own seeds, to cut away any flower that did not want reproduced, this applier! especially to all mauve flowers, to which colour dahlias and many. other flowers tend to revert. The reason for this being that if they were not removed before the time for collecting seeds, the bees would carry the pollen' to other coloured flowers.
Before planting the seeds the ground should be well trenched and digging should continue until the so'l becomes almost as fine as flour, it should then be watered thoroughly] and left for one day and finally it may be "firmed" a little in readiness for the sowing of the seed:
When sowing the seeds it would advisable to consulta book, The Encyclopedia of Gardenin by TH.W. Saunders was a useful suggestion) because the character-istles of different plants varied so much with regard to their position! in the ground when planted. For instance, wall-lowers should be sown [an inch deep, other plants requiring to be sr the surface. The position for bedding.out should also considered carefully, some flowfers, such as stocks, liking a sunny] protected spot, whereas others, stob early poppies, prefer a colder Jand more windy position.
The time for seed-planting should be chosen with care; for example, in August pansies and wall-flowers should be placed in well-drained seed-pans or boxes; the latter should be constructed so that they can be Jearried indoors during the typhoon 8 of September. Other flowers, such as larkspur, antirrhinums, may be sown directly into beds at the end of September beginning of October. An advisable method for watering the young seedlings is te soak the seed-pans in water, thereby watering from beneath, otherwise special can, with very fine holes should be used so as to sprinkle the water lightly. If ants make fan appearance, "boiling water! should be poured over the seed-pans in order to kill them effectually. Then pans are then put jin a shady place and covered with 4 newspaper. In two days the seeds, should begin to grow and can then brought into the open air. During, the day the seedlings must be protected from the sun with matting. Jout left uncovered at night.
'Transplantation from pan to bed] must be done in the evening when the sun is not strong and takes place in the following way:—The seedlings are lifted, a few at al ime, in a trowel, remembering that only' the leaves should be handled, ice the stem and root are very! delicate. The soil is then pressed firmly around the roots and in order cracks, capable of being to avoid hard ground with open little soi At the conclusion of the lecture] many questions were asked ai answered by the speaker and teresting points were put forward Ly Mrs, Craddock, Mrs, Fryer and Mrs. A. V. Write, sul-General there, to which he was recently appointed. Mr. and Mfrs. Jenkins were met by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Josselyn=2r. Josselyn is the adviser to the Consul-General here.
He has, during the past week, taken over the activities of the Consul-
General during the absence of both Mr. Cunhingham and "Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins takes over the duties of the Consul-General on Ostotier 17..
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.