Before leaving the subject of group planting sphagnum moss should be mentioned as a possible plunging material. Moss of this kind has many advantages, not least the fact that it is light, clean and easy to handle, and that difficult plants seem to do particularly well when plunged in it. Recalling my personal. experience with the success of a difficult plant may help to emphasise the advantages of this material.

There are many beautiful dieffenbachias available, the majority of which are a little difficult to care for; Jenbuchia Pia can be among the most troublesome. The main difficulty is that the leaves contain very little chlorophyll, being almost entirely creamy white in colour.

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.

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A great deal of money is spent each year on fertilisers, some of which I am sure would be better invested in buying compost bins. I use a balanced feed as a complement to the organic mulch, not as a substitute for it.

Possibly the safest general feeds are those based on organic substances which in addition to feeding have no detrimental effect on soil texture. The release of the nitrogen, phosphates and potash takes place over a long period so that very little is lost by the plant through being leached away in soil drainage.

The spray advised for the blackfly will control them also. Indeed, it seems that there is a spray for everything likely to infest the garden from aphids to stray cats and dogs. Choose thosc which will only kill the pest or in the case of domestic animals repel them. Red spider mite may cause damage on dwarf conifers but can be controlled with malathion or similar chemical. Tortrix, sawfly and other caterpillars are rarely a problem. Derris and soft soap is a sufficiently potent repellent.

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I always buy the best tools which available funds permit, especially when it comes to secateurs and pruning saw, but the best is not always the most expensive. Find out which secateurs the nearest professional is using, then buy those. A good knife is something no eardener is ever without. I have one purchased many years ago which will give me a lifetime service.

A good spade must head the ,fist and a garden fork will also be needed practically from the beginning to deal with perennial weeds and in helping to break down the soil before planting. A round- pronged, general-purpose fork gives me the best service.

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.

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The cambium is a thin layer of tissue composed during the growing season of actively dividing cells. Only these cells of both the scion and rootstock are capable of joining one to the other into an indissoluble whole.

Prepare the stocks for budding by clearing the soil away from around the base of the stem and wipe the exposed area clean with a moist cloth. Make a cross cut on the prepared surface, then an upward cut to meet it, drawing with the knife blade a letter T. The bark should lift easily with the knife handle if the stock is fit to bud. Remove the bud by starting a slanting cut one inch below the chosen bud and coming at the same distance above. The shield can be trimmed to size after insertion.

Where the T-shaped cut is made depends on what type of tree is required. If a bush form is wanted then the cut is made 4 in. above soil level but with half or full standards from three to six feet of clean stern must be left. The bark is lifted, the bud inserted and bound exactly in the manner described for roses.

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A polythene sleeve, made by slitting a suitably sized bag along the bottom, is then slipped over to enclose the wound and firmly bound at the base with electricians’ tape. Pack moist sphagnum around the wound then seal the top of the bag. By moist I mean that a handful of the moss when squeezed just oozes water. To make certain the weakened stem does not break I tie the whole contraption firmly to a cane.

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.

Where only a few cuttings are required which do not justify the expense of a small propagating unit, a polythene bag and a 5-in. pot will provide an alternative. I use pumice or sand as the rooting medium, filling the pot to within i in. of the rim.

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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.

However, enthusiasm should be tempered with discreet understanding for there are climbers which love to be baked into brilliance of flower by hot sun, whereas others must be soothed by moist shade. Some climbers, of which ,,Actinidia chinensis and Polygonum baldschuanicum are prime examples, will swallow a house completely so quickly do they grow. Others like wisteria or clematis must be carefully pruned and trained, or the gardener is left to contemplate a naked expanse of stem.

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.

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Collar rot, known in the United States as southern blight, is caused by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. (syn. Corticium rolfsii (Sacc.) Curzi). It is a common and destructive disease of capsicums. The cultivar ‘Tabasco’ is said to show resistance. Warm wet weather favours the fungus, which attacks the stem at ground level, eventually girdling it. On pulling up the plant, the white feathery mycelium can be seen in which are embedded pale-brown sclerotic.

Small yellowish spots appear on the ripe fruit, which increase in size during damp weather and become sunken and soft. Dempsey and Brantley (1953) state that it may be overlooked and only appear after the fruit has been held for several hours. According to Sastri (1950), the same fungus can cause a die- back of the plants in India. It is important to plant disease-free seeds. Control is the same as for anthracnose.

Other diseases recorded for capsicums include Phomopsis spp., causing a fruit rot, and Glomerella cingulata (Stonem.) Spaulcl. & Schrenk, associated with a fruit and stem rot, both reported from the Solomon Islands by Conifer (1973). References are also made in the literature to Alternaria tenuis Nees (Quebral and Shutleff, 1965); Alternaria sp. (Aiyadurai (1966); Bottytis cinerea Pers. ex Fr. (McCulloch and Wright, (1966); Verticillium alboatrum Reinke & Berth. (Lippert and Hall, 1963); and V. dahliae Kleb. (Woolliams, Denby and Hanson, 1962).

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British India was by far the most important of these, followed by Japan, Thailand, China and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

An estimate of world trade in whole and ground chillies and capsicums would be somewhat larger if the exports of products incorporating significant proportions of around chillies and capsicums, e.g. curry powder, from several major producing countries were also considered.

Japan, Thailand and Indonesia maintained their position is as substantial producers and exporters during much of the post-war period.. Production in Thailand and Japan, however, appears tobave decreased since the mid-1960s, partly resulting from greater emphasis being given; to other crops.

Production in Burma, as monitored by export figures, appears to have decreased dramatically since the 1950s. This was probably associated with the general decline in Burmese agricultural production during this period and also with the loss,of the Sri Lankan market.

From the early 1970s, however, historical trading patterns underwent a significant change with the reduction of imports into Sri Lanka. During the late 1970s the repercussions of the enactment of import substitution in Sri Lanka were still being felt, but the major impact appeared to have been a severe decline in exports from India and the emergence of China as the world’s chief exporter of chillies and capsicums.

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Since the early 1960s considerable effort has been devoted to devising accurate physicochemical methods to determine the content of capsaicin in Capsicum products, partly motivated by the need to detect adulteration by synthetic capsaicin analogues. These studies have led to the discovery of the natural occurrence of homologues and analogues of capsaicin, and the realization that the naturally isolated crystalline `capsaicin’ used in many previous investigations was probably a mixture of capsaicinoids.

The primary pungent principle was first isolated in a crystalline state from the crude extract by Thresh (1846) who named the compound capsaicin, and later Micko (1898) demonstrated that capsaicin possessed hydroxyl and methoxy groups, and he postulated a structural relationship to vanillin.

Extraction of chillies and capsicums with a water-,immiscible solvent provides oleoresins which can be regarded as a solution of capsaicin in fatty oil; the latter can comprise some 90 per cent of the oleoresin. The fruits of most Capsicum species contain significant amounts of vitamins B, C, E and protovitamin A (carotene) when in the fresh state.

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American paprika is grown commercially almost entirely in small areas in southern California (since 1931) and south-east Arizona; it was formerly grown in South Carolina, until 1946 when increasing competition from imported paprika made production unprofitable. Although the production of paprika in the USA is a relatively new industry, it now supplies about 40 per cent of US requirements, more than that supplied by any individual foreign country.

The American industry, also, has undergone the most advanced technological developments. The traditional method of sun-drying the whole fruits, employed in the early days of the industry, soon gave way to scientifically controlled artificial drying, and was followed by grinding the whole fruits.

The air temperature, relative humidity and flow rate are carefully controlled throughout the process to ensure a high-quality product. The air at the centre of the drier is heated up to 80 C but at the product exit- end the temperature is not allowed to exceed 65 C, and 50 C is regarded as optimal. The drying time for fresh-cut fruits varies between 221-and 4 hours.

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