Evening star., 1936-05-30

this Is a desirable addition Is not
fully known. Peat itself is of little
value as plant food and it would
seem as though added nutrients
might offer a means of making the
material even more useful in the
garden if the additional cost Is not too
great. Peat and sand, half and half,
make good material in which to
root cuttings.
Lawn Grasses.
A CCORDING to grass specialists at
Cornell University. mose all of
our lawn grasses are natives of Europe
but have been here so long as to be-
come fairly we'll naturalized. How
ever. this foreign origin explains some
OF the difficulties that are encountered
in developing good lawns. Blue grass.
through centuries of adaptation to
the cool climate Of Northern Europe.
is not able to endure easily our hot
Midsummer periods. Usually this
poor performance in Midsummer is
ascribed to water shortage but the
Cornell investigators compared rain
fall in England with that of New
York and found that New York had
more Summer precipitation on the
average. However, much of the Sum-
mer rain in England falls quietly and
not in heavy downpours and is hence
more available to grasses. White
clover in the lawn mixture is desir-
able since 1t grows better in Midsum-
mer than does the blue grass and.
through its legume nature, contributes
nitrogen to the soil to the betterment
of its associate, the blue grass.
1t is evident that lawn grasses need
the study of the scientific agricultur-
ist, that Is. the study of desirable
combinations for different regions and
possibly the isolation of types that
would better endure Summer heat.
There are few grass specialists in
the commercial field and. although
lawn grass seed from established
seedsmen costs more in the beginning.
it may indeed be well worth the
initial cost. The great expense in
preparing a new lawn is, after all.
in the soil preparation. In most
years, September is the ideal month
for establishing new lawns because
the temperature is descending. mois-
ture is usually more abundant and
inferior grasses, such as crab grass,
are less Of competitors at that sea-
son. To tide over until September.
one can SOW Italian rye grass. which
terminates and grows rapidly but is
of a temporary nature.
Climbing Roses.
THERE are many reasons why home
gardeners like to grow climbing
roses, namely. their astonishing
vigor, their great mass of flowers and
in most varieties, comparative free
dom from devastating pests. such as
black spot. Yet in the past two or
three years gardeners have had many
heartaches over their climbing roses
Varieties, such as DR.. w. Van Fleet
which had come to be considered as
almost fully hardy did not always sur
vive the Winter and especially the
climbing varieties of hybrid teas
proved too tender during the recent
Arctic-like temperatures. Certain
roses, such as Dorothy Perkins,
American Pillar and Christine
Wright, were able to endure. Yellow
climbers, such as Golden Yellow
Climber Jacotte and Emily Gray, all
showed lack of satisfactory resist
ance during the past two Winters.
If we assume that severe Winters
are to be expected in this general re-
gion, there is definite need for an
entirely new race of. harder climbing
as well as bush roses. No one cares
to grow rose plant to full size and
beauty to see it occasionally cut to
the ground by Winter. The time tc
prune climbers Is just after the plants
have bloomed, saving young canes
and cutting out most of the old canes
at their base. One needs q pair oi
long handled shears and a pair oi
stout leather gloves to do the job
safely for the climbers, with one OF