An esteemed member of the Association, resident in the County of
Carleton, writes: “I too am in trouble with my grape vines. Vegetation
being very forward this spring, on the fifteenth of April, the day on
which I received the Burnet grape vine, I uncovered my vines; by the
fifteenth of May they had made much progress, when a severe frost cut
them down. They were in some measure recovering from this when on the
sixth of June another frost has again blackened them. The Salem,
Delaware, and Canada appear to have suffered more than the Concord. I
would ask, in a locality where such things are liable to occur, is it at
all probable that any of the early flowering shrubs mentioned at page 52
would succeed?”
It is probable that the frosts were more severe in the County of
Carleton than in the County of Lincoln, but the effect of the frost in
the middle of May in these parts was much the same upon the grape vines
here as described by our correspondent; the Delaware and the Rogers
Hybrid suffering more than the Concord, but the Japan Quince,
Plum-leaved Spirea, and Chinese Double-flowering Plum did not suffer at
all, though the young shoots of the chestnut trees, and some of the
maples and evergreens suffered severely. The young shoots of grape vines
are very tender, and therefore very sensitive to frost, yet if the
Concord in some degree escaped, we think that these shrubs would endure
late frosts much better than any grape vine, and therefore we should not
be by any means discouraged from giving them a trial on account of the
danger of late spring frosts. It is however quite possible that they
might suffer some from the very severe winter frosts, and would
therefore advise that for a few winters they should be protected by
driving into the ground branches of evergreens, so as to form a circular
screen around each of the shrubs, sufficiently dense to afford them some
shelter from the wind and sun until the starting of vegetation in the
spring. After they have become firmly established they may be found to
be sufficiently hardy to endure the winter of that section without any
shelter.
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