78 GRAPE VINES FOR TABLE DECORATION : MR. SAGE'S METHOD. 



follows : When the Vines are about to be started into growth, iron 

 standards are fixed in the ground near to the Vines, these standards 

 "being provided with rings at the top suitable for holding or supporting 

 the pots in which the Vines are to be layered. The rod or cane of 

 the Vine is taken through the bottom of the pot to the length 

 required, and then tied, the shoots being afterwards trained to a wire 

 frame or trellis which is placed in the pot for that purpose. As the 

 buds break all those below the pot are rubbed off, and when those 

 above have obtained a length of seven or eight inches, they are 

 stopped in the usual way. 



The pots being filled with suitably prepared soil, which must be 

 pressed down rather firmly, some Selaginella is planted on the surface, 

 and the whole is well watered. As the pots become filled with roots 

 constant attention to watering is required. When the Grapes are ripe 

 the cane is cut through by degrees close to the bottom of the pot, arid 

 the plant is found to be established in the small pot. 



The size of pot mostly used for this purpose is that which is termed 

 a thirty-two (six-inch) or a twenty-four (eight-inch), but plants of any 

 size almost may be thus layered, and grown in any form which fancy 

 may dictate. 



Another very pretty mode of obtaining small fruiting Vines in pots 

 for dinner-table decoration, is that noticed by Mr. Anderson in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, N.S., viii., 103, as having been practised by Mr. 

 Lewin, gardener at Drumpellier, Scotland. This consists simply in 

 placing the pot Vine on a shelf, and training it horizontally along, and 

 subsequently placing five-inch pots filled with soil underneath. The 

 Vine is then allowed to form roots into the pots, which it does quite 

 readily, and the shoots on which the fruit is borne being trained 

 upright, are cut away when fully rooted. Thus several small " Tom 

 Thumb " Vines, with one or two ripe bunches, are obtained from a 

 single plant. 



