ANSWERS TO CO-RESPONDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 146, 21 June 1901, Page 3

ANSWERS TO CO-RESPONDENTS.

Passion Fruit (F.W.).—All that can be done towards pruning- passion fruit vines is to thin out some of the old shoots so as to give the plant an opportunity of making new wood. As the passion fruit is a heavy feeder, plenty o: manure should be given where the roots can easily yet at i|t. The reason some of your fruit did not ripen this year was the excessive moisture, and the low temperature which prevailed hist soa-son. In growing paasion truit, you must recollect that In a lew years the plants get. exhausted, and die out. :■:■< therefore you 'should plant one or two plants this season, so that they will take the place of the plants now fruiting-.

Apples.—OV.D.)— We sugffost Cor such a purposu the varieties named Bismarck and Bramley'si seedling.—2. You do well v.o confine your planting to few varieties, because you can always sell good varieties in bulk better thau batches ol' different varieties. Moreover, when crops are limit'd, as sometimes happens, many trees in kind will together give you a fair quantity for marketing.

Asparagus buds should now receive liberal surface dressings of. old decomposed manure in instances where not applied previously. This will encourage early growth and materially assist subsequent progress. Meantime, beds which were not outlined and banked up in autumn can, during the next week or two, be marked to line and" a sprinkling of the soil from the trenches scattered over i-he manure; then the Jatter can also be manured and dvg1.

PRUNING ROSES.

As this is a question that interests almost every body that has a garden, we will attempt to give, a few instructions for the guidance of the amateur in this branch of gardening. As the methods of pruning required for the different varieties of roses are very dissimilar, it will be necessary to deal with each variety separately", and for the sake . of convenience we will divide them in to three classes, viz., hybrid perpetual (or spring flowering roses), teas, hybrid teas, noisettes, and polyanthus (or ever-blooming roses), and climbing roses. Hybrid perpetual roses are upright :«i growth and deciduous, or nearly so, In pruning this class of rose, some people practise autumn pruning, but we would not recommend that system, a-s, owing to our mild winters, the buds, that are expected to remain dormant, will be unduly excited into growth, and will flower at too early a period in the season to throw good flowers. The best time to prune these : roses, in a climate such as experienc- j ed in New Zealand, is undoubtedly about the middle of July till the beginning of September. In pruning hybrid perpetual roses, all weak and badly ripened wood should be first removed, as they never bear good flowers. Afterwards, the other shoots that are misplaced or tend to cross others should be cut, endeavouring to, as far as possible, maintain the symmetry. The shoots left should then be shortened back according to their strength. The strong shoots should have about three eyes, or perhaps more, left, if the plant is a strong grower, while the weakergrowing shoots should be shortened back to, say, about two eyes, making £he cut about a quarter of an inch above the bud, invariably choosing one (that is, a bud) that is pointing outwards. The reason for doing this is that the growth will then spread outwards, leaving the centre of the bush open, thereby allowing the wood to properly ripen and the flowers to fully develop. Some of the strongest growing hybrid perpetuals flower better and will give more satisfaction if the long shoots, after having the point cut off, are pegged down to the ground. This checks the flow of sap, and causes the growth of nice, sturdy side shoots all along the branch, and these will be found to almost invariably flower well. This system is very often adopted, and with very successful results, with such strong-growing varieties as Jean Soupert and Her Majesty. The shoots should be pegged down with neat iron pegs, but where iron is not easily got, wooden ones will also answer the purpose very

well. Teas, hybrid teas, noisettes, bourbons, and polyantha roses require pretty well all the same kind of treatment, or so nearly so that the following remarks will be fairly applicable to all the sections named. Unlike the hybrid perpetual roses, these varieties are more shrubby in growth, and as a rule do not grow such strong' wood. They are evergreen, having fine, glossy foliage and are almost constant flowerers, and therefore require different treatment. These varieties of roses do not require to be so closely pruned as the hybrid perpetual. In fact, I have seen them to on, year after year, producing farge quantities of flower without any further pruning than the removal of the dead wood. Where the flowers are wanted for garden decoration only, the quality is of no consequence, the above system will recommend itself, because of its simplicity and the small amount of labour entailed; but, to °tow good flowers, a*d flowers suitable for exhibition purposes, it is necessary to prune, and to prune with care- All dead, weakly, and unhealthy wood should be first removed, which will allow of the worker being better able to see how to carry out the rest of the work, which will consist of shortenin" all the leading growths about hall way back, always recollecting that the stronger the growth the more of it should be left, and the weaker the orowth the more of it should be cut off. The reason for this may not, on first thoughts, seem apparent, but, by cutting weak growth short back, it induces a. stronger growth next season The teas .ajid other varieties under' consideration have very often a tendency to throw up strong, healthy shoots from the roots (very often misnamed water shoots). These should be encouraged, and room made for them as they grow, so that they may take the place of old and worn out wood. A true water shoot.never throws any lateral Ranches, aj.d bears a cluster of flowers 6* top. They should be cut down to within a few inches of the ground, which will induce them to break, and throw^p uiefulwood. Some of the weaker Sowing varieties will squire to be Severely pruned than hasten recommended, always -^anajT .m mind that bard pruning1 raeas* *

stronger growth of wood, and therefore in weak growing varieties a more plentiful supply of flowers.

The pruning of climbing roses, after once the plants have filled the space allotted to them, will consist of keeping up a succession of strong, healthy shoots, to take the place of the older and debilitated wood. Another matter of material importance in climbing- roses is Ihe keeping the bottom parts well furnished with young shoots, the tendency being for the preponderance of the growth to get to the top of the plant while the bottom gets bare and unsightly.