THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 19. 
the hole of the pot a littlo larger, to let the roots freely 
through. Then, after removing a little of the old soil, pot in 
the fresh compost, and set the plants in a cool, shady place 
for a fortnight, not saturating the soil, but sprinkling the 
foliage frequently, to prevent rapid evaporation. A few 
leaves may droop, but not many, and these plants not more 
touched as to pruning, will make fine flowering-plants nest 
season, when you may treat them as other Pelargoniums. 
It would have been as well if you had shifted the plants 
before plunging, or left a hollow place beneath the bottom 
of the pot. 
We fear to enter the lists with you as to Roses, as your 
beating the gardeners is no small test of the propriety of 
your practice. The sorts you instance are continual bloomers, 
and, provided plenty of nourishment is given, and the older 
decayed flowering-wood extracted, they will bloom most of 
the season, except the winter, and even then if heat enough 
be given them. For having them bloom in profusion at 
one time, your plan is the best; rusticating them to make 
fine-ripened wood during summer; the older, worn out 
pieces being previously removed. After this summering, 
comparatively little pruning will be required if you were to 
grow large specimens. Instead of standing out-of-doors, 
let us advise plunging with a hollow beneath the pot, or if 
the pot stands on the surface, place a mound of earth in 
front of it, just to keep the fierce rays of the sun from 
the pot. 
We believe that much in the way of gardening could be 
made of the heat now wasted from factories, &c. We almost 
forget your case, but are very glad you have had such 
success. All that the New Zealand friend said maybe true, 
and if true, why should it lessen the gratification you enjoy 
from your gardening pursuits ? Wo cannot perceive that 
your friend will have a particle more pleasure in his hot¬ 
house plants, than you have in your greenhouse ones. Nor 
do we believe that we can have more pleasure from both, 
than that sweet boy, who was lately tending the wants of a 
daisy, can have from his employ. The sense of the beau¬ 
tiful, and the gratification of that sense, will impart a happi¬ 
ness that no mere idea of costliness or rarity will ever 
produce.] 
GRAPES NOT COLOURING.—PEACHES FALLING. 
“ A Constant Reader of The Cottage Gardener, in 
county Dublin, has charge of a Vinery thirty feet long. 
The Vines appear to bo in good health, with a fine crop of 
fruit on them. The berries of the Hamburghs are not 
colouring well, there are some of them nearly black, and 
others brown, with a greenish hue through them. The A ines 
are on the spur system. I took young canes from them 
last year. I let them bear in half the house this year ; the 
bunches are a fine size, but the berries are nearly white, j 
with a red streak on them. The fruit all swelled to a fine 
size. The fruit on the last year’s wood is the worst colour. 
There are two Vines of the Muscat of Alexandria, also, in the 
house, with a good crop of fine-swelied fruit. There are not 
more than a dozen of good-flavoured berries on each bunch, 
the rest of the berries are a pale colour, and quite sour. 
There is also one Vine of the Black Lombardy, with a good 
crop, and well coloured black. The Hamburghs are of fine 
flavour; those that are anyway brown I was thinking 
might be a Brown Hamburgh. They grow very strong, with 
the leaves very large and sappy. The young wood will grow 
the length of the roof, which is eighteen feet, as strong as 
a nice walking-stick. I intended to cut the old \ ines away 
this year, as the spurs are getting too long, and leave those 
young ones in their place. I put fire to the house on the 
5th of May, when the Grapes were coming into blossom. 
I lighted the fire at four o’clock in the evening, and kept 
j the house at 05° at night, while in blossom, and from 05° 
[ to 00° at night, while swelling, and from 75° to 85° during 
the day. No fire in the day, except when wet and dark. They 
commenced to colour on the 8th of July. I gave two inches 
of air at the top of the house to each sash at night, for a 
fortnight, and then I gave a little more at top and bottom, 
and continue to do still, with air in the day also. 
“ There is another house adjoining this, thirty feet long, 
also planted with Frontignans, Hamburghs, and Black 
Lombardy. The fruit used to shank away when ripening. 
I thought they might be too deeply planted in the holder. I 
485 
examined the roots, and found them five feet deep in the 
border; I took the Vines all up, and cleaned the border out 
four-and-a-lialf feet deep. I put in nearly two feet of good ; 
size granite stones in the bottom, and covered them about 
three inches with rubble, filling up all crevices, and then I 
put a sod, witli the grass-side down, over that, leaving the 
border two feet deep. I filled in the border with the old 
stuff, putting some rotten dung and lime rubbish. Through j 
it I planted the old Vines about nine inches deep, or a little 
better, covering the roots with old tan, lime rubbish, and 
fresh mould, all worked well up together. 
“ It was on the 36th of October, 1853, that I took them 
up. I was not allowed to cut them down until the 5th of 
May following, as there was a crop of fruit expected from six 
of them that year. They grew nearly the length of the 
roof last year, and I cut them back to three eyes last winter. 
There are three of them that have made fine canes this year, 
but the remainder of them did not grow so strong. About the 
latter end of June, I noticed the foliage turning on two 
Frontignans, and a Black Damascus, but they have got 
quite green again, and commencing to grow. The vines 
that are not colouring are planted in the other half of this 
border, I think they must be too deeply planted also. If 
I could receive any information through The Cottage 
Gardener respecting the vines that are not colouring, I 
should be for ever thankful. I was thinking, if I was to 
force them early in the season, that they might have a 
better colour. I have a large Peach-tree, it is twenty-one 
feet each side of the stem, and has forty dozen of fruit on 
it; it appears to be in fine health, the fruit is commencing 
to fall off it before they are ripe. It is the late Newington 
Peach, the fruit falls every year before they are ripe.” 
[Some of the best gardeners of the day are in somewhat 
of a similar predicament as yourself as to Grapes not 
colouring, and frequently this happens when the berries are 
particularly well swelled. We believe that in your case it 
chiefly arises from a deep, rich border. Unless you exercise 
some controul over that border to keep it dry and warm, as 
adopted, by asphalt covers, at Wilderness Park, or other 
means to keep wet out, we do not think that early forcing 
would mend the matter; more firing, we think, would be 
effectual, so far as more throughly ripening the wood. 
Your system of giving air and the temperature is all that 
could be desired, only, that for Muscats, it might be higher 
j at night, by a few degrees, when in bloom, and Seldom below 
I 60° afterwards. There are several modes you might try. 
First, raising the vines, which would check their luxuriance, 
give you, perhaps, smaller berries, but better coloured ones. 
But what you have tried does not seem to have answered 
well. A neighbour of ours had young vines that shanked 
considerably, though producing large berries and bunches. 
They had only been a few years planted, and on borders not 
at all deep. Last season, after taking the fruit off them, he 
undermined and lifted the roots near the surface, and this 
season he has a full crop, and not a shanked berry, and the 
border within six inches of the surface is full of young 
rootlets. Secondly, resort to the disbudding system in spur- 
pruning, so as before pruning to remove the most of the 
buds of the short shoots, except the one at the base. We 
speak chiefly of doing this, on the supposition that you let 
the border alone as it is. Thirdly, substitute, for a time, 
rod-pruning, or growing for the spur method, and give 
more fire to harden that wood in the autumn. Protect the 
border, also, from autumn and winter rains. We should 
be inclined to try these one year before raising the Vines, 
and, in addition, see that there is a drain deeper than the 
border. 
Would you tell us the age of the Vines you found so deep, 1 
and which did so little good afterwards ? If young, they 
ought to have done better; if very old, it would have been 
almost as well to have planted young ones at once. Did 
you resort to any means to encourage root-making at once, 
by covering the border, &c. ? The appearance of the leaves 
almost denoted a coldness at the border; and the warm 
weather after June seems tohavo given a stimulus to the 
roots. 
We should imagine that the Peach-tree often in the habit 
of shedding its fruit prematurely, should be more thinned, 
leaving little above half the number you mention; and in 
