IN THE GARDEN.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18095, 10 June 1924, Page 5

IN THE GARDEN.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. (SPECIALLY Writtfw _,l M . ttiTTEN FOE THE PRESS. ) (BY J- T. SINCLAIR.) ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS Ee t^°^ 8 Bh ? u!tl on 'y be stored in ed for 'seeZ th moT rotoT that We giVe S^h m e" table ?^,° e3 are tended f °r the W5-A y i , must certainly be ' otherwise their flavour will deteriorate very considerably. If it is not possible to exclude light in C ° Ver the tubcrs with old XoV^'~h?i,i % ( nnh ' ral for the begonia to ° 14 haa fi nished flowering, ? f care °» vour pari - th f Plant from this. Both instead of' hj? 11,6 f C T' ° yOU -ally lo untfl t£ t /*' WithheM the until the plant was quite dried off. The bulb, or tuber will remain dormant all winter and should be left in the dry soi being p.aced in fome dry, frostBid™. P n ' th ® pot bein S on its There have been many striking evidences lately of the unwonted mildness of the season. Thus, one has seen Salvias, Fiieball, and Bonfire blooming in the open in the latter part of May not weakly or washed-out flowers, but so rich in colouring that one might well be misled into the belief that the month was April and not May. Many other tender subjects were also unchecked.

The wise gardener, however, is he who does not permit the topsy-turvy-dom of the seasons to influence him unduly in the systematic pursuit of his daily and weekly tasks. He does not pretend to be a long-distance prophet. He lias a shrewd notion, that Nature uiil. in her own time, exact ,i fitting compensation for the recent relaxation ; that ere long and with a suddenness which will strike consternation into the breast of the indifferent and slip-shod gardener she will restore the balance of the seasons. The methodical gardener will not be found with soil untilled, with ground unprepared for the planting of roses, shrubs, and fruit tree's, or with herbaceous borders untouched. He will have used to the full the opportunities for strenuous work which the mild autumn has bestowed, and he will wait with patience and confidence the turn of the day, even though it bring with it hard frosts and heavy falls of snow. _ For the outdoor gardener the next «jx or seven weeks are sometimes regarded as holidays, and so they may be if all the pressing tasks of autumn have been accomplished, if the garden now looks neat and trim, if beds and borders have been cleared of dead topgrowth, and the autumn bonfire has burned itself out, if paths and edgings are in good order, if the vegetable plot has been trenched and manured, if, in a word, all has been done that ought to have been done, so that when brighter weather returns and brings its own peculiar and special responsibilities the gardener will be free to meet them and grapple with them. Where there has been dilatoriness in any of these respects, fullest advantage should be taken of any comparative mildness of the weather. Planting of all kinds can be done with perfect safety. This applies especially to rose trees, shrubs, and .fruit trees, the lifting of which by nurserymen has [>een delayed to the last possible moment owing to the fact that the sap, under the stimulus of the abnormal fine weather, has been slow to descend, and that root activity has been unusually persistent. For the same reason there is no ground for immediate hurry in the pruning of fruit trees. Let this operation be postponed until a severe visitation of frost has checked the flow of sap. Then there will be 110 chance of the pruning knife stimulating root activity, and this is precisely what >ihould be avoided at the present time. With the exception of the grapo vine, the pruning of other fruit trees can wait for a few weeks, as at the time of writing apricot trees growing on. walls have not quite shed all their foliage.

FRUIT. Grape Vines—The" pruning of these should be done as soon .as all the leaves drop, if the operation is left until later, the sap will begin to move and the wounds are liable to "bleed," as gardeners say. There is always danger in cutting vines when the sap ,is moving. A newly-cut surface at j that time affords a means of egress for I the sap, so that much sustenance is lost through bleeding, befora the i wound naturally heals over. ' If the vines are fully established i the laterals, or side shoots, can be cut I back to two . buds from the base of c,a,ch ]/itkirail. Exirerieuceid growers ' often leave one bud only, but this is a bit risky for the amateur, should he have an accident in spring when he is tieing. the new gound growths to the wires, or breakages through careles handling, for the young shoots of the vine are very brittle and are easily snapped off. As soon as th© relative value car. be determined in spring, that is, as soon as it is seen which shoot is going to bear the best branch, the other can be pinched off. | Young vines are pruned in a differ- : ent manner. Vines newly planted require to have their stems shortened back to a bud near the level of the i glass uprights of the vinery. Two- • year-old vines, if they have done well, will have made very long main growths and probably some side growths. These latter must be pruned back to two eyes as suggested for established vines 5 and ! the leading, or main growth, requires to be cut back about three feet from the point to which it was cut the previous year, in order to induce lateral shoots to develop and become the permanent fruiting spurs,, making the cut of course, close above a strong bud'. If these young, main shoots are left too long, some of the buds often fail to crow, and this makes some part of the rod bare of spurs The smirs on either side of the. rod should be about eighteen inches apart, the spur on one side being opposite the space on the other. . . When all the pruning is done and ' the primings gathered up and burnt, all tlie rods should be cleaned, for both red spider and mealy bug lurk beneath the loose bark during the winter. AH the loose bark should i be rubbed off, particularly around the spurs The rods should then he scruhbdd 'with strung soapy .water, and afterwards dressed with some insecticide. This, however, must not contain' oil as oil penetrates into and destroys' the bast of the vine, causing the rod to become weakened if it does not die altogether. Outdoor vines are best pruned on the spur system, as the buds then break into growth more regularly and are jdore likely to produce fiuitful growths than under any other system. The usual method of. pruning i? to shorten the lateral growths to two or three buds, and when these break into growth the following season, to select the best and most promising and most suitably-placed shoots for fruiting, rubting off all the others. This process mav be followed for several years, until the spurs become too long, when they may either be cut off to the.main stem, from which dormant buds will start into growth, or young canes, arising from near to the base of the vine, may be trained in the place of older rods.