Gardening for Amateurs 



Shorten back the main branches each year to parent and *Whitesmith. Green or Green- 



about 8 inches until the bushes reach the size 

 required, when they must be cut back fairly 

 hard each season, and have the side growths 

 pruned to three buds from their base. It is 

 always beneficial to encourage young shoots 

 in old bushes, when there is sufficient space 

 to do so, for young branches invariably pro- 

 duce the finest fruit. It is not profitable to 

 retain Gooseberry bushes when they become 

 old and the growth is weak. To meet this 

 contingency insert cuttings in the autumn, to 

 provide a supply of young plants to replace 

 worthless specimens as occasion may arise. 



Cordon Gooseberries. This fruit thrives 

 excellently when grown as a single, double 

 or triple cordon. Young trees trained 

 in this way are to be had from any good 

 fruit tree nursery, and they may be planted 

 against a wall, fence or wire trellis. Trained 

 against the latter they make excellent 

 screens round or across parts of the kitchen 

 garden. The fence should be 6 feet high. 

 The side shoots are cut back to within six 

 buds of their base in July ; the second and 

 third secondary growths that will probably 

 arise in the course of the summer should be 

 stopped at the second leaf. The terminal 

 shoots are not stopped in summer, and only 

 slightly cut back at winter pruning, until 

 the cordon has attained the height required. 

 Afterwards the terminals must be spurred 

 back at winter pruning in the same way as 

 the side shoots, namely, to within three 

 buds of their base. This form of training is 

 specially recommended for dessert varieties. 

 The fruit attains a larger size, and the flavour 

 is improved ; protection from birds is easy. 



VARIETIES. There are innumerable recog- 

 nised varieties of the Gooseberry, and in 

 addition there are many with local names 

 only. The following form a selection of the 

 best: Red: *Crown Bob, *Dan's Mistake, 

 Ironmonger, Keen's Seedling, ""Lancashire 

 Lad,*London (the largest of the red varieties), 

 *Lord Derby, Red Champagne, *Rifle- 

 man, Speedwell and *Whinham's Industry. 

 Yellow : *Catherina, Yellow Champagne, 

 Golden Lion, High Sheriff, Langley Beauty, 

 *Leveller, *Ringer, Thatcher, Trumpeter 

 and Yellow Ball. White : *Antagonist, -"Care- 

 less, *Freedom, Hedgehog, Snowdrop, Trans 



ish : Cheshire Lass, Criterion, Gascoigne, 

 ^Greengage, Keepsake, *Lancer, *Match- 

 less, *P1 under, *Shiner and Thumper. 



Giant Gooseberries. Most people will 

 like to try the singular plan of feeding 

 Gooseberries in order to get them of an 

 especially large size. This is really a very 

 simple thing to do. The time to start the 

 treatment is just after the fruit is well set. 

 It is best to select a variety which has some- 

 what large fruit naturally, as in such a case 

 the results are the most startling. Any 

 kind of Gooseberry will, however, yield 

 much larger fruit under this plan than is 

 usually the case. A number of saucers should 

 be secured, and these should be arranged 

 under the branches which are laden with 

 fruit. To bring them up closely it will, 

 in many cases, be needful to use inverted 

 pots or bricks on which to stand the vessels. 

 Every saucer is now filled with water, so that 

 the tips of Gooseberries just rest in the liquid. 

 To arrange the position it is often, necessary 

 to pull down the branches with pieces of string 

 fastened to wooden stakes in the ground. 

 Of course the water will soon evaporate, and 

 it is most important that the saucers should 

 be replenished as needed. After a week or 

 so the Gooseberries will start to drink, and 

 they will then be seen to increase in size at 

 an astonishing rate. The fruit which is not 

 being supplied with water will soon be left 

 far behind, and it is possible to produce 

 berries in this way which are two or three 

 times as large as the normal fruits. 



The Gooseberry Sawfly. About the time 

 that the last Gooseberries are removed 

 from the bushes the gardener may notice a 

 few small green caterpillars feeding on the 

 leaves ; sometimes these larvae are spotted 

 with black, the head is of a very dark colour, 

 and the size, when they are full grown, 

 generally approaches three-quarters of an 

 inch. The larvae seem to increase in 

 numbers very rapidly, but this is merely 

 due to further hatchings and an increase in 

 size of small ones formerly invisible. Their 

 appetite is enormous, and quite frequently 

 they continue their depredations until the 

 whole bush is denuded of foliage. These 

 larvae spin brownish oval cocoons on the 



* Those marked by an asterisk bear the largest fruits. 



