26 
THE GARDENING WORLD. January II, 1908. 
pearance it is just possible to leave it too 
long, during which time the side buds grow 
up and cause the top bud to die or become 
blind. When the ‘buds make their appear¬ 
ance that you desire to save, your best plan 
is to remove the side buds as soon as this is 
possible without injuring the one you wish 
to save. On the other hand, it might have 
been due to a wrong time for stopping cer¬ 
tain varieties. This, of course, has to be 
learned by observation, unless you can get 
the necessary treatment along with the Chry¬ 
santhemums themselves. For instance, in 
general terms early varieties may be stopped 
in April for the purpose of getting a second 
crown, while 'late varieties may be stopped 
in May and the first or crown bud taken. 
This stopping, as it is called, merely means 
the removal of the young tip of the shoot, 
not cutting hack the stems. In reference to 
the varieties, we may say that Mme. P. 
Radaelli may be stopped at the beginning of 
May and the first crown bud taken ; Valerie 
G.reenham may be stopped at the end of 
March and the second crown bud taken; 
Winter Cheer is a late or December variety, 
only grown for decorative purposes; Edith 
Smith may be stopped March 20th and the 
second crown bud taken ; Mrs. Barkley may 
be stopped about the middle of April and 
the second crown taken ; President Viger may 
be stopped June 10th and the first crown 
taken; Emily Powers we fail to find, pos¬ 
sibly it is a decorative variety. These late- 
flowering kinds should be propagated in 
March and stopped a time or two to make 
them bushy. 
VEGETABLES. 
2503. Brussels Sprouts Settling Down. 
Can you advise me about my Brussels 
Sprouts ? I sowed Veitch’s Exhibition and 
planted them out as advised in Sutton’s 
book in rows 30 in. apart, mostly 30 in. 
apart in the rows, and some 3 ft. apart. 
They are .a good crop, but the stems seem 
weak, and instead of standing well up they 
are .sitting down with half the stem and half 
the crop on the ground. Would you kindly 
tell me how to remedy this another year ? 
(Lower Hardres, Kent.) 
In trying to account for your Brussels 
Sprouts settling down it is largely a ques¬ 
tion of light, exposure, season and soil. Evi¬ 
dently you have given them plenty of space 
between the lines and the plants. In the 
first place, all the Brassica tribe should be 
planted in situations well exposed to light, 
though sheltered from .any quarter -from 
which strong gales may be experienced. It 
is just possible that your soil may be very 
light naturally, or made so by the long- 
continued yearly addition of manure or de¬ 
caying vegetable matter. On the other hand, 
it may be naturally rich (or made so) and 
sandy. Then the continued cloudy weather 
and frequent rain during the past season 
caused quite a number of subjects to make 
rampant growth without steadily building 
up and hardening the stem. The result was 
that these stems afterwards settled down, 
either of their own accord or under the in¬ 
fluence of heavy rain, which, in our district 
at least, occurred at frequent intervals dur¬ 
ing the period of most rapid growth. Then, 
for future directions, we should advise you 
to give good attention to light, or, in other 
words, select situations not shaded by trees. 
Another method would be to trench the 
ground and give it a dressing of lime on the 
top some little time before planting. The 
lime will assist the humus in decaying, and 
besides releasing plant food, the ground 
would settle down a little more closely. We 
are only presuming that your soil is too 
light and rich, but if we are correct, you 
could improve it by adding a little heavy 
loam or clay as a dressing from time to time, 
in addition to the liming. Amongst the 
plants we noticed last summer that behaved 
in this way were Oenotheras, the section also 
known as Godetia and Clarkias, but many 
other things were also affected in the way 
we describe. 
FRUIT. 
2504. Grafting Seedling Pears. 
I should be glad to know in an early issue 
of The Gardening World if seedling stocks 
of Pear trees, say, two years old, grafted on 
another stock .would fruit in the ordinary 
way, as if the scion was taken from an older 
tree that had borne fruit. (Novice, Middle¬ 
sex.) 
Seedling Pears take a longer time to come 
into a fruit bearing state than scions taken 
from trees already in bearing. If you graft 
them on to the roots of young stocks, it can¬ 
not very much alter the results. They will 
be slow in coming into bearing. If, how- 
~ever, you graft them upon trees that are 
already bearing, the grafts will come into 
a fruiting condition earlier than they would 
on young stocks. 
2505. Gooseberries in Pots. 
At a flower show last summer I saw some 
Gooseberries grown in pots with single stems 
and bearing splendid crops of fruit. .Are 
they difficult to grow in this way, and do 
you think I would succeed ? Can you tell 
me how it is done? (J. McRae, Worcester¬ 
shire.) 
There is no particular difficulty in grow¬ 
ing Gooseberries as upright cordons in pots. 
You may either get plants that are already 
partly trained, o.r you may start them from 
the very commencement yourself. The plan 
is to put in some cuttings of Gooseberries 
and let them grow for one year, then prune 
them hard back to encourage the develop¬ 
ment of strong young shoots. The best one 
■should be retained as a leader and pruned 
about 18 in. long. This will cause spurs to 
be produced all along the 8 in. that are left. 
It would be well to get them into pots early, 
so as to get established -before they commence 
fruiting. If the cuttings are taken from 
fruiting plants your pot trees would com¬ 
mence bearing when quite small. Every 
year -see that a good leader is left on the 
top and the side branches held in check. 
The latter should, of course, be spurred back 
to ^ in. or so at the winter pruning and the 
leader shortened as above. One advantage 
of Gooseberries in pots is that you can place 
them in a greenhouse or under cover if the 
weather happens to be stormy about the time 
they come into bloom. Put a stake to each 
plant, so that the leader can be tied upright 
if it happens to be crooked. Attend well to 
watering during the summer months,-and 
give weak liquid manure once or twice a week 
during the growing period when the tree 
is in bearing. 
2506. Fyramid Pear Trees. 
I planted six Pear trees in November, and 
would like to grow them as pyramids. 
Should they be pruned the first year of 
planting, and how should it be done? They 
are -grafted on the Quince stock, as I under¬ 
stand they fruit better in this way. When 
can I expect them to begin bearing? (C. ,P. 
Maynard, .Kent.) 
We should always prune Pear trees the 
first year if they require it. In shortening 
back the side shoots be careful to do so in 
such a way that the lower branches will be 
the longest and succeeding ones above them 
gradually shorter. The leader should be 
cut back to 6 in. or 8 in., so as to encourage 
the formation of spurs on the portion left. 
You should, of course, get a number of 
strong shoots near the top, and the best one 
should be retained as a leader. It is not 
necessary to cut very severely so long as the 
portion left develops spurs and gives off side 
shoots to form the body of the tree at 
fairly regular intervals. The object of the 
Quince stock is to make the trees come into 
bearing earlier, and the check put upon them 
by the stock also inclines them to fruit more 
regularly or frequently. Your trees may 
commence bearing, or at least some varieties 
will, in the second or third year from plant¬ 
ing ; or, in other words, when the trees are 
about three years old. 
2507. Cape Gooseberry. 
I have a young plant of this in a pot, but 
would like to plant it outside if you think 
it would succeed. I am told it is not hardy, 
and, if so, how should I treat it to get it 
to fruit? A friend of mine xaised some seed¬ 
lings and gave me one. (W. H. D., Dorset.) 
It is a greenhouse plant rather than a 
hardy one, but it will live against a wall in 
various parts of the country with no other 
protection, and possibly in your county it 
would also fruit against a south wall. A 
better plan to ensure regular fruiting would 
be to plant it in a greenhouse or orchard 
house, where it can be encouraged to start 
into growth early in spring and then kept 
well ventilated as the weather gets- fine, for 
the purpose of producing firm wood and 
ripening the fruits, which are produced in 
succession. The plan would be to train the 
principal branches on a trellis and then let 
it produce short side branches rather freely, 
but at the same time you should avoid crowd¬ 
ing, so that sun and light can ripen the 
fruits. 
2508. Transplanting- Gooseberries and 
Currants. 
I have about thirty bushes of Gooseberries 
and Red and Black Currants. I did not get 
them all at the same time, so that they are 
now mixed and irregular. What I want to 
do is to transplant some of them, so that all 
the Gooseberri*s may be put together, and so 
on. Some of them are six years old and a 
good size. Can this be done successfully, 
and when is the best time? (S. Matthews, 
Notts.) 
You can transplant Gooseberries and Cur¬ 
rants at the present time, though February 
would be rather a better time to do it. They-' 
are extremely hardy, however, and your best 
plan will be to lift the Dushes, place them 
on one side, cover up the roots, and then 
proceed to trench the ground to be re-planted. 
If in any way poor, manure might be. given 
at this time. After the ground has settled 
for a week or so, select the bushes so that 
they will be of even size for any particular 
plantation or row. They should have 6 ft. 
of .space each way, and certainly not less 
than 5 ft. In digging them up, be careful 
to secure as many of the fibrous roots of 
Gooseberries as possible. The Currants are 
not so particular, though they even should 
be properly treated. 
- I 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
2509. Peas and Mice. 
I sowed some English Wonder Peas in the 
open ground at the end of October, but I 
found on looking at them the other day that 
there were holes in the rows, and I opened 
a bit of the row, but found the Peas all 
gone. Would mice have done this, and, if 
so, what am I to do? (J. Herdman, Dur¬ 
ham.) 
It is quite likely that your Peas have been 
destroyed by field mice or voles. The only 
thing you can do now is to tread down the 
soil on the rows and set traps near them. 
You may thus be able to catch some of the 
marauders. A good plan is to grease the 
inside of glass jars or old zinc pails, put 
some water in the bottom and then sink these 
traps so that they will just be below the level 
of the -ground. The mice often run into these 
during the night and are unable to get out. 
