The message
from "Andy Hunt" contains these words:

You're welcome to some though. Or you can just set some seed straight
from a fruit

That's a really kind offer. Whereabouts are you? Would they survive the
Royal Mail, do you think?! I don't know if I have anything I could offer by
way of a trade . . .

Some way from you, if I have you place right. I'm just a bit south of
Norwich, and I'm sure they'd survive the Royal mail - they're only about
a centimetre high ATM, and dormant.

I suppose the best thing to do would be to plant half-a-dozen plants in the
pot, and then as soon as they have flowered for the first time, get rid of
all of them except the strongest male and female. I'd have to take some
advice on how to tell them apart though!

Do you know how big these vines get before they flower? (Rhetorical
question - *BIG* is the answer)

They've got some really nice, big terracotta pots down at B&Q, they cost an
arm and a leg, but one as a luxury for the Chinese Gooseberries is in order,
I think. I've also decided to build a kind of lean-to greenhouse in the
corner of the garden (see separate thread) where I'm going to have the
vines, where the house meets the highest garden wall. It gets all the
morning sun, but not so much directly in the afternoon. There's stuff
growing there now, so hopefully it will be OK. In fact, some hyacinths have
come up in that corner, which surprised me because someone told me they
wouldn't come up until March. My garden is very warm and sheltered though,
for the frozen North.

Don't forget to plant the vine outside and train it in to your
greenhouse. Dig a nice deep hole and pile in old bones, leather and
woollens, the last two often obtainable from chuckouts after a jumble
sale.

Hopefully having the vines in this improvised greenhouse will increase my
chances of a decent crop of grapes and gooseberries! And it will be nice to
be able to sit inside it with a cuppa on a rainy day.

Don't put the goosegogs inside or you'll have them covered in mildew. As
an indiginous hedgerow plant they are quite OK outside in all weathers.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
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