94 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Barren Strawberries (J. H. C.) — A friend of mine has a few scores of Straw- 

 berry plants which for two seasons have neither borne flowers nor fruit. They 

 had a strong healthy foliage, and produced the ordinary quantity of runners ; 

 and were not isolated, but grew amongst others that were productive and are 

 three seasons old. The sorts are Black Prince, usually very productive, and a 

 seedling from British Queen. Could any of your readers give a probable reason 

 for this barrenness 1 



[No particular cause can be assigned for the barrenness of Strawberry plants ; 

 they have a tendency to come barren— a fact patent to every gardener. Some- 

 times the barren plants are self-sown seedlings which come up about the beds. 

 The barren plants should be pulled up as soon as they show they will not pro- 

 duce bloom, and replaced by other plants ; on no account take runners from 

 the barren plants. At the Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens at Chiswick, 

 from some cause not explained, two types of Strawberry plants, that have been 

 well denominated " rogues," frequently put in appearance ; — one is a most robust 

 growing form that produces plenty of large leaves but no blossoms ; the other 

 gives small fruits full of seeds, and quite worthless. — Eds.] 



Yellow Blooming Plants for the Flower-Garden. — There are two of these 

 that I use somewhat largely, and which I can highly recommend; the one is 

 Tagetes signata pumila, the other the pigmy dwarf orange French Marigold. 

 Both produce yellow flowers, and attain a height of some 12 inches. If sown 

 broadcast over the beds about the first week in April, they become during the 

 summer perfect carpets of showy useful yellow blossoms, and neither sun nor 

 rain mars their beauty. I merely dig over the beds in the spring, and on no 

 account do I use any manure, and I tread the soil firmly over the bed previously 

 to sowing the seed. William Plester. 



Ageratum, Imperial Dwarf. — "When at Mr William Chater's Nursery, at 

 Saffron Walden, in the early part of January, inspecting his collection of Holly- 

 hocks, I saw the stock of the fine new dwarf blue Ageratum Mr Chater is to 

 distribute in the spring, and I was reminded that I saw it bedded out in August 

 last, and I was so struck with its beauty that I have come to regard it as a " per- 

 fect gem " for the flower-garden ; and it should be in the hands of every one re- 

 quiring that great want — a thoroughly good blue bedding-plant. In point of 

 colour it differs but little from the old form of A. mexicanum or coelestinum, 

 but its great recommendation consists in its dwarf habit, only 6 inches in height, 

 and the plants literally covered with lavender blue flowers, thrown 3 inches above 

 the foliage. It is also of value as a winter blooming plant, for the old plants that 

 were taken up from the beds at the end of the summer were in flower on the occa- 

 sion of my visit. William Plester. 



Artisans' and Cottagers' Rose Shows. — I have found those excellent and 

 instructive papers on the Rose from the able pen of S. R. H., which recently 

 appeared in the ' Gardener,' to be sources of great delight and gratification 

 as I perused them. The means by which Roses can be grown have been so 

 well expressed that I believe hundreds of recruits will be added to the armies of 

 our Queen ; and I do not hesitate to say that very many rosarians join with me 

 in tendering hearty thanks to S. R. H. for his admirable advice and suggestions. 

 What I wish to ask is this : Is it possible that classes specially for the artisan 

 and cottager Rose-growers could be included in the schedules of our great shows 



