IRISH GARDENING 



137 



short-spurred form, wliioh has appeared every 

 season for years, and not les.? beautiful in its own 

 way, is the" elegant scarlet and yellow, A. fonnosa, 

 this latter making an admirable companion for 

 Ferns. A white form of the Hairy Willow Herb 

 (Epilohium Jiirsutum) is attractive and un- 

 common, without being so aggressive as its better- 

 known relation, and a bokf clump of the true 

 Laratera olhia is always effective in an open 

 space. Lysimachia clethroides is a good shade 

 plant for a wild garden, and the more rampant 

 L. punctata, with its spires of yellow bells, is a 

 handsome species, and safe enough here. Grow- 

 ing among Heaths, the more lowly Cotoneasters 

 and other subjects, Arenarla montnna gnindi- 

 flora is quite at home, reproducing itself freely. 



tahile to populate the woodland rather than over- 

 run the rock garden, for it is too fine a subject 

 to be cast out — even if that were possible ! 



Campanula lactifiora is one of the best of its 

 race for wild woodland planting, the pale 

 lavender-blue of its flowers being particularly 

 effective in light shade, and among the Verhas- 

 cums which do best with us are lugrum, in yellow 

 and white, " Miss Wilmot," cupreus, and densi- 

 florum. But I must bring these random notes to 

 an end, though no mention has been made of the 

 Cyclamens, Colchicums and Anemones, of Wood 

 Lilies and Gaultherias, of Iris and Rodgersia, 

 and a hundred more which at one season or 

 another lend their charm to this half-tamed corner 

 of the wild. A. T. Johnson, N. Wales. 



Growing Str.\wberries in Barrels at Green fif.i 



and of the several Omphalodes, 0. cappodocica is 

 a peerless gem, and one easily satisfied. 



Meconopsis camhrica (Welsh Poppy), a pest in 

 the rock garden, is elegant and pretty, and an 

 all-summer bloomer, along the path margins and 

 among prostrate Ivy, but tlie buff form is still 

 more ^pleasing and less prolific. TiareUa cordi- 

 foliu is as indispensable as it is easy, but T. uni- 

 foliata is bigger and better in every way, its only 

 drawback being that it is not a coloniser. A 

 large-flowered form of Geranium ph.r^um, with 

 leaves in four colours— viz., green, sepia, cream, 

 and red— seeds freely, as do G. /ttiiatum and Ei>- 

 dressi, the half-caste progeny of the two latter in 

 various tones of pink growing freely even in grass. 

 The splendid G. anemnmrf'^ium is also becomnig 

 naturalised in clear spaces. That beautiful little 

 Wood Sorrel, O.rnlis aretnseUa rose(t, is, I am 

 happy to say, beginning to establish itself, and 

 the Cowslip-like 0. hiten grows like a weed 

 almost anywhere. W'ith some difficulty wo are 

 trving to persuade liie purple-flowered 0. spec- 



Strawberries Grown in Barrels. 



Every garden, whether it be large or small, should 

 ])ossess its strawlierry bed, and when the fruit is 

 in season the portion of the garden where such is 

 situated is for a time the most popular, but as soon 

 a? the harvest is over the daily visits and the care- 

 ful attentions cease, and the strawberry bed be- 

 comes, as is too often the case, one of the waste 

 pieces of ground in the garden. It must be ad- 

 mitted that there is wonderful pleasure to be 

 obtained in growing, in no matter how small a 

 (juantity, the succulent strawberry. 



We would grow strawberries, but we would also, 

 when the fruit is gone, grow in their place some- 

 thing else, and wrest from one of tlie best i)ieces 

 of gi°ound in a small garden flowers or vegetables 

 tliat shall continue our interest and occupation. 



It can be done, and both the large and small 

 grower can derive nuich pleasure from the foUoAV- 

 hig method of culture that I now shall describe. 



Till- growing of strawberries in barrels seems to 



