304 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



" A runner " is easily recognised. Examine a vigorous plant during 

 the summer; it will be noticed that several long, thin, stalks we 

 may call them, proceed from it at various points, and that at the 

 end of each of these there is a tiny plant. This is a runner, and 

 propagation is effected by these (" layering " the operation is called). 

 One must so treat these small plants as to induce them to form roots. 

 They are then severed from the parent plant. There are several 

 ways of accomplishing this ; the one most strongly recommended is 

 that of layering the runners into small pots which should be about 

 2 inches in diameter, having a small piece of turf at their base for 

 drainage, fill up with soil, from which the coarser particles have been 

 sifted, then plunge them into the ground quite close to the parent 

 plant. The object of placing the small pots in the ground is to pre- 

 vent the soil from becoming dry, as would quickly occur were the sun 

 able to reach them. The runner (the tiny | plant at the end of the 

 long stalk) is then fixed into the soil? of the small pot. This is some- 



STRAWBERRY PLANT WITH RUNNERS 



times effected by means of a piece of wire bent f| shaped, but more 

 generally by matting, looped round the long slender stalk, near to 

 the tiny plant, and pressed into the soil with a pointed stick. 

 Give them water whenever required this may be even twice a day 

 in bright weather and in a week or so roots will be emitted, and 

 quickly take possession of the soil in the pot. The long stalk may 

 then be cut, thus severing all connection with the parent plant ; for 

 the runners are now established on their own roots, and well a.ble to 

 take care of themselves. They are now ready, either for planting out 

 in the garden, as already described, or they may be again placed in 

 larger pots and grown for forcing. The latter half of June is the best 

 time to insert the layers in the small pots. 



Cultivation in Pots. Strawberries are cultivated in pots, so that 

 they may be taken into a glasshouse in spring, for the purpose of 

 compelling them to produce fruit earlier than those grown in the open 

 garden. Such a method is known as forcing, and the fruits thus pro- 

 duced, as forced Strawberries. Strawberry-forcing is most interesting 



