404 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ November 3, 1881. 
well deserve the extra care and atlention they require more than 
ordinary stove plants.—W. E. 
WINTERING STRAWBERRIES IN POTS. 
After the severity of last winter there need remain no doubt 
on the minds of those engaged in forcing Strawberries exten¬ 
sively in pots, that the plants are as well outside during the 
winter as stored in frames and cool houses. Frames even in the 
most extensive establishments are frequently required for other 
purposes than protecting Strawberries, and it is a serious matter 
where there are few frames and these crowded with Strawberries, 
when at the same time they are wanted for Lettuce, &c., to main¬ 
tain a supply of salad. This state of things compelled me in 
1878 to try a few Strawberries outside, and a larger number in 
1879. The result having proved very satisfactory, I resolved to 
leave all the plants out last winter, and I am now convinced that 
they are as well or better outside than in. Left outside they 
enjoy a more complete rest, and when they are introduced into 
heat growth commences at once and the plants come quickly 
into flow.r, It appears to me that no advantage is gained by 
placing even the earliest batches in frames for protection againtt 
heavy rains, as if the pots are well drained and full of roots 
autumn rains will not injure the plants nearly so much as placing 
them in frames and keeping them dry to bring about rest. This 
results in injury to their roots, as Strawberries cannot endure 
drought during any stage of development, while if kept watered 
in frames the plants have a tendency to prolong their growing 
season instead of being allowed to go naturally to rest outside. 
Those plants protected in autumn will not start into growth 
so early as those left outside until wanted. For instance, a batch 
is protected in autumn and placed on a vinery or Peach house 
shelf in November to be started into growth. Another lot is left 
outside until the end of the following month and cold weather 
has induced rest. These will start more vigorously into growth 
and throw up their flowers both better and stronger above the 
foliage than the earlier plants. Both may ripen their fruit much 
about the same time, but the heaviest and best crop will be from 
those started at the end of December. Nothing is gained by 
bringing Strawberries prematurely to rest and starting too early. 
An early growth of the plants succeeded by an early natural rest 
is by far the most satisfactory system of producing early fruit. 
This is best accomplished by obtaining a few early runners from 
young plants on a warm border, and growing them afterwards in 
5-inch pots. These are filled with roots earlier than pots of a larger 
size, and thus the plants complete their growth in time to receive 
a good rest. In no previous season have my plants of Vicomtesse 
Hericart de Thury, which I regard as the best Strawberry for 
early work, forced so quickly and easily as last spring, which I 
entirely attribute to their being left outside until introduced for 
forcing. 
After the severe weather was past several remarked that my 
plants had suffered dreadfully because all the old foliage was 
gone and only the crowns left. They certainly looked miserable 
objects, but the pots were well filled with roots w r hieh were in 
splendid condition, and the crowns were large and plump. These 
plants, however, soon produced new strong foliage, and fine crops 
of fruit. 
The pots are very liable to break if left out during hard frosts, 
but this can be reduced to a minimum if they are plunged in 
ashes or partly decayed leaves. This involves but little more 
labour than packing them in frames and attending to them after¬ 
wards. If extra labour, however, is occasioned, it is well repaid 
by having a number of frames for other purposes. The system of 
stacking Strawberry pots upon their sides one row above another, 
cannot be too strongly condemned, as the plants suffer con¬ 
siderably from drought during dry winds. 
When the winter is past the plants should be lifted out of the 
material in which they have been plunged and the decayed foliage 
removed. The soil should be well pressed to the sides of the pots 
and the whole top-dressed with rich soil. It is surprising how a 
little rich top-dressing assists the fruits when swelling. 
I may just mention that Sir Charles Napier appears less hardy 
than the majority of Strawberries, and if left outside during such 
a winter as the last would be injured more or less ; in fact, many 
plants were killed that were established in the open ground.— 
Wm. Bardney. 
A ROCKERY FOR ALPINE PLANTS. 
( Continved from, page 349.) 
The rockery I have described will give a surface of more than 
100 square yards—we may call it in round numbers 1000 square 
feet—to cover with plants. This sounds a large space, but the 
difficulty generally is not how to cover it with plants, but after a 
few months how to find room for choice rockery plants when they 
come into our possession. We must remember that nearly every 
plant, whether alpine or not, flourishes and inert ases more rapidly 
on a rockery than on a flat border, and the rapid spread of many of 
our old friends becomes astonishing. Plants which we have been 
accustomed to nurse in frames through the winter become quite 
hardy on the slopes amorigst the stones. This causes a strong 
temptation to plant some on a rockery which have no business 
there, and a careful discretion in selection must be exercised. It 
is hard to define an alpine plant, and there is no occasion for us 
to do so, especially as many which are undoubtedly and strictly 
alpine in habit are by no means desirable occupants of a choice 
rockery, and many pretty and delicate plants which are not 
alpine may properly be cultivated in this way. 
Those who are ambitious of covering their new rockeries with 
hardy perennial alpines in one season will have no difficulty in 
doing so. They may have resort to advertisements which offer 
a hundred choice alpines for £1, and their friends who have 
rockeries will readily supply them with a stock of rapidly-spread¬ 
ing plants. At the end of the first year they will be congratulated 
on the success of their rockery which has been built in so short 
a time, and will, perhaps, think that they have much to be proud 
of. Masses of many sorts of Vinca, major and minor, plain and 
variegated ; cascades of Cerastium reaching from the top to the 
bottom and spreading over the flat ground below ; large cushions 
of Saxifraga emspitosa and bypnoides ; irrepressible Sedums of 
the acre and rupestre type, and Sedum spurium of several colours, 
will quite hide tbe soil and the stones. Then there will be luxu¬ 
riant masses of Arabis and large tufts of Columbine ; and the 
common Primrose with leaves grown to a gigantic size will have 
occupied all the slope beneath it and round it with seedlings. 
Add to these Coronilla varia, Corydalis lutea. and the large- 
flowered running St. John’s Wort, and the insidious Asperula 
odorata, and the still more insidious, because it looks so innocent, 
Campanula pumila. 
These and many others which would make up a list too long to 
enumerate, you will have a well-covered rockery, which through 
autumn and winter you will think a success, and it will certainly 
look very rustic ami pretty ; but with spring tbe struggle for 
the survival of the fittest will begin. Every nook and corner will 
rapidly be occupied, and when the hamper of new alpines which 
has been waiting favourable planting weather arrives, you will carry 
them along the rockery in vain looking for a vacant spot, and 
being reminded at every step of the proverbial advantage of pos¬ 
session. If you try to clear a space, you will find that the roots 
you are looking for are more than a good way from the space you 
wished to clear, and are so firmly and deeply entangled amongst 
tbe stones that no digging or pulling will extricate them, and 
before the end of the summer you will conclude that you must 
either leave the rockery a hopeless wilderness and build another 
for the choice plants, or pull the old one entirely to pieces, and, 
having entirely cleared away every root, begin again to plant it 
more cautiously and slowly, with plants of which you know the 
habit.— C. W. Dod, Edge Hall. 
(To be continued.) 
AERIDES ODORATUM PURPURASCENS. 
Mary species and varieties of Aerides are grown and valued in 
gardens, but among those requiring comparatively little trouble 
to ensure fairly satisfactory results, Aerides odoratum is especially 
esteemed by many Orchid-growers. It is very seldom, however, 
that such a large and vigorous specimen is seen as that represented 
in the woodcut, fig. 67. The variety there shown, A. odoratum 
purpurascens, is, moreover, not so common as some of the others, 
though it is, when well grown, equal to any other form of the 
species. The engraving was prepared from a photograph taken 
last year when tbe plant was in flower, and recently forwarded to 
us by Mr. C. Warmington, gardener to J. T. D. Llewelyn, Esq,, 
Penllergare, Swansea, who gives the following cultural and de¬ 
scriptive particulars concerning it. 
The Aerides is growing in a basket 24 feet wide and 10 inches 
deep. The centre growth is over 6 feet high, and there are five 
other principal growths about 5^ feet high from the top of the 
basket. There are also many young growths from 1 to 4 feet 
high. Last June when in flower the plant had seventy-eight 
spikes, with from fifty to sixty flowers on a spike. 
“ My mode of treatment is very simple. About the third week 
in February I remove all the old sphagnum moss and crocks that 
can be done without injury to the roots. I then supply fresh 
moss and clean crocks. The moss is then syringed, the water 
