1831. ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
141 
in an ordinary greenhouse, and the coloured 
leaves are both bright and effective. Those 
who grow the Show and Fancy Pelargoniums , 
and cut their plants back at the end of 
August, will find they have broken into 
growth, and should at once pot them, shaking 
out the old soil, trimming the roots so as to 
reduce their length, and placing them in the 
smallest pots possible. A good turfy loam, 
some leaf-soil, rotten manure, and sand, make 
a good potting compost; and the plants, when 
shifted, should be put into a cold frame and 
kept close for a few days, and shaded from 
the sun. Some of the most forward of the 
seedling Cinerarias should be potted off into 
small pots, and seedling Calceolarias pricked 
off into stove pans. We have found some 
Carinas very useful subjects in an ordinary 
greenhouse, and they have bloomed nicely. 
Cold Frames. —The plants in cold frames 
will be greatly benefited by mild showers 
being allowed to fall upon them ; but they 
should be protected from heavy, splashing 
rains. At this season of the year something 
requires potting weekly, and the sooner the work 
is got through the better, as the plants will all 
the sooner get established. Decaying leaves 
should be removed, and the surface soil kept 
stirred. Hardy Primulas should now be divided, 
and indeed, anything of this character should 
be attended to without delay. The bottom of 
the frame should be made as impervious as 
possible to worms, which, at this season of the 
year, find their way into the pots, and constantly 
throw up worm-casts. The vigilance of the 
gardener will find abundant scope at this season 
of the year.— Suburbanus. 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
subject of the Long-Shoot Method 
7//feN of Vine-Pruning, as adopted by Mr. 
Hunter in the vineries at Lambton, has 
recently been discussed by a correspondent of the Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle, who states that the plan consists in 
reducing the spurs on each rod to a third or a fourth 
of the number usually retained, and letting the 
shoots run without stopping, in many cases almost 
across the house, this extension being necessary 
with the limited number of shoots, in order to 
secure enough foliage to keep up the full action of 
the roots. The principal Vines have been grown 
upon this system for three seasons, the object being to 
restore their strength, which had been much impaired 
through attacks of mildew, and no doubt also by 
the great weight of fruit which had been borne in 
previous years. The effect of this long-shoot treat¬ 
ment was unmistakably apparent last summer, in 
the vigour of the Vines and in the larger bunches 
with large berries produced. Last autumn many of 
these long shoots were of a thickness such as is 
usually only seen in the canes of strong young Vines, 
or the young rods brought up from headed-down old 
ones. This season they are still thicker and stronger, 
showing even bigger bunches. The tlioi’ougli ripening 
of last summer’s wood is proved by the number of 
bunches that each shoot shows, and the big shoulders, 
which in many cases are nearly as large as the 
bunches themselves. Muscats, Hamburghs, Black 
Alicante, Gros Guillaume, Trebbiano, and other 
kinds are alike promising. With aviewto illustrate 
what it is possible to accomplish with the Vine, Mr. 
Hunter fruits a number in pots, consisting of strong 
shoots taken off at pruning-time, put singly in 7-in. 
pots, and induced to make roots before the buds 
start. The shoots are in about 6-ft. lengths, and are 
potted at the end of January, the pots being plunged 
in warm manure in an open shed, so that the tops 
are kept quite cool and dormant, whilst the bottoms 
are induced to form roots. It is upon this that 
success depends. By the early part of April, having 
pushed roots to the sides of the pots, they had just 
been removed to a newly-started vinery, where a 
little warm plunging material was provided for them, 
and the buds were commencing to swell. They are 
then moved into 12-in. pots, and will bear six or 
seven bunches each, averaging about 1 lb. weight. 
The cutting-like shoots used are very strong, from 
half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Some 
consist of portions of the tops of young Vines, 
and others are pieces of the long side-shoots pro¬ 
duced by the old Vines. The kinds so managed are 
Muscat of Alexandria and Black Hamburgh. 
— (5)n the question of tke Renovation of 
Old Vines, the same authority remarks, that 
when reduced to a weak condition through a 
long course of exhaustion, through forcing and hard 
cropping, there is no fruit-bearing plant so capable 
of being brought round by good treatment as the 
Vine, especially if, in their earlier existence, the 
plants have been strong and vigorous. Instances in 
plenty are to be met with where old Vines, at one 
time strong, have been so reduced by hard work and 
insufficient nutriment, that they have been looked 
upon as useless, yet when subjected to judicious 
management they have so fully regained their vigour 
as to leave no trace of feebleness behind. Of what 
it is possible to accomplish in this way, in a com¬ 
paratively short time, we know of no better example 
than is to be seen in one of the vineries at Uplea- 
tham. The Vines are over thirty years old, and from 
their general appearance show that they had thriven 
well in their early years; but when Mr. Letts took 
them in hand, the weak shoots and puny bunches 
showed their exhausted condition. The roots are all 
outside. They were taken up, and a new border 
made, which they at once took to kindly, as was 
evident by the immediate increase in strength of 
wood and size of fruit. The sorts are Black 
Hamburgh, Buckland Sweetwater, and Foster’s 
Seedling. Last year they bore a crop, ripe the 
beginning of June, as heavy as it is desirable to 
take from permanent Vines, many of the bunches 
weighing from 2| lb. to 3 lb., and being perfectly 
finished in every way, but especially in the intense 
black colour of the Hamburghs. These Vines pro¬ 
duced the Grapes wuth which Mr. Letts took the 
first prize for three varieties of Grapes at Newcastle. 
This year, the strength of the shoots and leaves is 
more like that of Vines some four or five years 
planted, and many of the bunches from the long old 
spurs look as if they would run up to 4 lb. each. 
Young rods are now being brought up, and the old 
ones will be removed altogether. These Vines give 
substantial evidence in support of the views of those 
who in many cases prefer recuperative treatment to 
old Vines, that have been weakened through one or 
other of the causes that bring about an enfeebled 
condition, rather than to clear them out and replant¬ 
ing. It may also be mentioned that the roots arc 
wholly in an outside border, and the border has 
nothing more than a few inches of loaves to keep it 
