GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 11

GARDEN & ORCHARD.

By

D. Tannock.

WORK r-'R T liy, WEEK. THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Rut calceolarias into their flowering pots, and grow on gradually in a cool moist house up near the glass. As begonias ripen oft store them away, and as soon as the foliage drops off the bedding kinds they can be cleaned, dried, and packed away in dry soil and placed in a dry frostproof shed. Gladioli can also be cleaned and stored away, but it is not necessary to pack them in soil, though it is necessary to put it round the tubers of dahlias when they are being packed away. Keep primulas, cyclamen, and cinerarias growing steadily, and give a little weak liquid manure when the pots are filled with roots. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Complete the planting out of wallflower and other spring bedding plants as soon as possible, prune rambler and climbing roses and lift and replant old and exhausted beds and borders. THE VEGETABLE AND r. -*UIT GARDEN Make the last planting of cabbage at once, lift and store away root crops, earth up celery and leeks, and dig and manure all vacant ground* Clean and mulch rhubarb. prune fruit trees and bushes, and prepare positions for making fresh plan tations of bush fruits, apples, pears, and plums. Provide drainage where necessary, and carry out alterations to paths, fences, otc., during the slack season. PRUNING Br. SH FRUITS. Gooseberries. —Pruning cf some kind is essential if our bushes are to remain in a healthv and fruitful condition, and if neglected even for one year they become a tangled mass of twigs producing small and unsatisfactory berries, which are difficult to pick. Pruning of any kind is a very sensible operation, it reduces the number of fruit buds so that the berries may have a chance to develop properly and to ripen satisfactorily, and at the same time maintains a well-balanced and healthy bush. When properly pruned, gooseberry bushes will remain healthv and fruitful for years, but it is very doubtful whether it is worth while trying to bring’ neglected bushes into a satisfactory condition. It is really better to root them out and begin with young plants. Begin with young plants which usually have about four shoots each a foot or more in length. Each, if slender, should be shortened, hack to half its length, and if strong and sturdy to two-thirds. From these four shoots quite a number will arise during the following spring, and these will be summer pruned to the two most vigorous and best placed on each, which will be eight in all, and will form a satisfactory framework for the new bushes. In the autumn the summer pinched shoots will be cut back to an inch in length and the unripened tips of the leading ones can be cut away With well established bushes it is first of all necessary to cut away all dead, oeeaying, and unhealthy wood As gooseberry bushes bear their fruit on little spurs or arrested branches which are formed on the old stems as well as on the young ripened shoots of last year’s growth, a considerable amount of thinning out 13 necessary to admit fresh air and sunlight to all parts. Tho first branches to be cut away, however, are those near the ground. If they do bear fruit, it weighs them down until they are so near the cultivated soil that they are splashed with mud, and consequently unfit for use. The next branches to be cut away are those which grow in towards the centre of the bushes. There is not room for extensions in that direction without choking in the centre of the bushes and unduly shading the little spurs on the older wood. As the old stems radiate from the centre of the bush, all the young wood would be on the outside and all the best fruit would be there also, but by following a system of cutting out a number of th? old branches every year and bringing or an equal number of young ones to take their place the whole bush is keot vigorous and fruitful. To keep the hushes healthy it is also necessary to add a considerable amount of young wood each year, and this is done, as advised, by extending the ends of the main branches and replacing a few of the least satisfactory ones with young wood. A model gooseberry bush may be described as having main branches thinly disposed, furnished throughout with vigorous fruiting-spurs and maintained so by the annual extensions and addition of young wood. An effort should also be made to maintain all the branches of an equal degree of vigour, for if some become very strong others will become weak and an unequal distribution of sap is tbe result. It is also important that the bushes should be well balanced and that the extreme tips of the branches all round should be as far as possible an equal distance from the main stem. Next shorten back the laterals or side branches to about an inch in length and the main or leading ones to from 6in to 9in according to the amount of space available for spreading. When the variety is of a drooping habit prune to a bud on the top of the shoot to secure upright growth. If erecting growth prune to an outside bud so that the growth may bo in an outward direction. We are sometimes troubled with birds picking out the young fruit buds before they have time to develop, and to frighten them off a few strands of black cotton can be stretched from branch to branch over the top, or they can be sprayed with liquid manure or other harmless substance, which will make the bushes distasteful to the birds. Black currants differ very much

from red ones in their pruning requirements. They bear their fruit buds on the young shoots of last year’s growth, and hence to keep the bushes healthy and fruitful it is necessary to replace as mxny as possible of the feeble, old branches with young, vigorous kinds. The first operation when pruning black currants, therefore, is cutting out the dead and deca.ying shoots, also a number of the healthy ones, to let light and air into all parts of the bushes and to make room for the young, vigorous ones which spring from the ground round the main stem like suckers. Next cut away all the lateral or side branches, if there are any, and shorten back the young wood a bit, say, to bin in the case of old, fully-matured bushes and 6in to 9in on younger ones. Red and white currants, unlike the red, bear all their fruit on tbe little spurs or arrested branches on the old wood, and it is not necessary to leave more young wood, than is necessary to maintain a vigorous and healthy bush. The shoots are therefore reduced to six or nine, and these radiate from the centre in an even manner so that each may obtain an equal share of the sunlight. When pruning, after cutting away all dead and decaying branches, thin those which remain it necessary and spur back the lateral or side branches to about half an inch, shortening back the. young or growing part of the shoot-s to from six to nine inches. Both gooseberries and currants produce very satisfactory crops when trained as cordons on a wall, fence, or wire trellis. In tbig case each plant is limited to not more than three shoots, and these are carried right up by extensions at the end from year to year, all laterals or side branches being cut out to an inch. By this method all the fruiting spurs on the old wood have room to develop, and the fruit receives light and air. and consequently develops and ripens properly. I should have mentioned that the tools tequired for pruning are a pair of good, sharp secateurs, a sharn knife, a sharp pruning saw for dead or very thick branches, and a. pair of stout leather gloves to protect the hands. If it is desired to propagate the bushes from cuttings the ripest and best developed of the young shoots should be collected when pruning, and after cutting them in lengths and tieing them up in bundles they can be buried in the ground until required. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “J. S. S. W.,” Mosgiel.—Wattle, seeds should oe sown at once, and as tney usually rake a long time to germinate unless treated in some way they are wither put into boiling water and allowed to soak for a day or put on an old shovel and gently heated over a fire. As the plants do not transplant well, they are better sown in small pots in a light soil and planted out in their permanent, positions vvntui quite small. They are riot much use for shelter, but are very ornamental when in flower. They grow very rapidly. ‘E./ Dunedin.— When Lillum auratums are doing well it is not necessary to lift them every year, every two or three years will do. Remove some ot the surface soil and replace with well-rotted turf mixed with an equal quantity of well-rotted manure cr leaf-mould, but do not give lime. If the subsoil has not been well trenched, it wii,l be on advantage to loosen up under the bulbs with the fork, for good drainage is most essential. As the soil has to be kept cool it is an advantage to grow . lillies among heaths, andromedas, or rhododendrons. “M. G.,” Taieri.—The golden tree in the centre of the autumn tint bed in the Gardens is a golden ash, and the smallleaved plants are Spiraea prunifolia (tall) and Berberis Thunbergi (d waif). The Guilder Rose Viburnum opalus sterilis is the true snowball tree. Good pink hydranges are. Dentella and Blue Ornament, but the blue depends largely on the presence of iron in the. soil.