TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 251, 1 November 1901, Page 3

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Outdoor Grape Vine (A.R.).—Permit the several young shoots forming on each spur to remain until you can detect which promise fruit, then remove all but the one or two with best promise by snapping them off at their base.Pinch off the points of all retained for fruiting, just beyond the flrst leaf beyond the last bloom truss. Packing Plants for Exportation (J.F.D.). —The only safe mode of packing the plants you name ls in a Wardian case, or a packing box with a glass top, removable so that the plants can be attended to. The pots should he plunged to the rim in moist but not very wet moss or eocoanut fibre refuse* covering* the so!,l in the pot with moss and tying down separately. The pots should be made secure by laths fitting inside the box, and nailed so as to keep them from moving in any way. They can hardly be made too secure in that respect. The glass should be put in in a frame, and should be thick. In the box apertures should be made, say 2 inches beneath the glass top, an Inch across, and 2 inches apart all round, and perforated zinc nailed over them. Cinerarias Going Out of Bloom (Ignoramus).—ln general most people prefer sowing seed and raising a fresh supply every year, but If you have any particular kind you wish to retain it is better to cut it down before its flowers are too far advanced, as It is then more likely to start and grow at the collar. Plant it out in a shady border, and about the beginning or September or before you may take it up, divide and pot. Gradually innure the divisions to the full sun, so as to have sturdy plants with short leafstalks. If you prefer seedlings, only allow some of the very best to stand, and sow the seed about the beginning of February. We have often seen patches of healthy seedlings come up on the beds -where the old plantshed their seed in moist season; such seedlings do very well If looked after.