September 15, 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
401 
titude of counsel there is safety;” but, in the com¬ 
mingling of a number of modes, it is often found that 
the experience thus obtained is that of a useful, but 
severe, schoolmaster. I will endeavour to resolve the 
doubts, and answer the inquiries, of many, by replies to 
the following questions :— 
1. —“ I have a greenhouse-vinery. I mean to put 
Strawberries in it in March, but I had no pots in sum¬ 
mer. I laid the runners on the ground, lifted them, and 
planted them on a rich border, and they are now nice 
plants. Should I pot them now, or wait until spring?” 
Pot them now, supposing you have got no glass protec¬ 
tion in winter, or the assistance of a slight hotbed in 
spring. By referring to instructions last year, you would 
see, that the ripening of the bud of the Strawberry- 
plant, and the filling the pot with roots, were next to 
essential to success. If your plants were on a border 
commanding a fair amount of sunshine, the first essen¬ 
tial would be progressing satisfactorily, and would be 
expedited by the check given in lifting the plants with a 
ball. To secure the second, the pots should be as small 
as convenient, if a single plant is used. A large pot, | 
say seven or eight inches, might have two or three 
plants, instead of one, each placed near the side of the 
pot, at equal distances from each other, and with the 
collar of each plant rather above than below the rim. 
Such plants, set full in the sun, will yet fill their pots 
with roots moderately before winter; and, protected 
from the severity of the frost, will continue to root on 
till required to be placed in the house. 
With the assistance of a slight hotbed in spring, I 
have used this border-planting system for succession 
crops, to be taken into the house after March, allowing 
the plants to stand in the border all the winter. But 
the plan will not do for early work, as for this it is neces¬ 
sary to have the maturing and rooting process finished 
in autumn, that the plants may rest in the first months 
of winter. In lifting from the border, in spring, and 
placing in a hotbed, to cause the plants to root ireely 
before removing them to a shelf in the house to set 
their fruit and ripen, three things are necessary:—1st, 
the bottom-heat, in which the pots are plunged, should 
not exceed 75° ; 2nd, air should be on, night and day, 
the object being to have the pots filled with fresh roots 
before much excitement is given to the top ol the plant; 
and, 3rd, the bottom-heat should decline, or the pot be 
moved out of it, some time beiore it is removed to a shelf, 
that no check whatever may be given. Under these 
conditions, I have often been very successful, without 
potting any plants, except the earliest ones, during the 
preceding season; but the method is to be recom¬ 
mended only when pots are scarce, and cannot be got at 
the time. Many, who at one season of the year see a 
large pile of pots in a gentleman’s garden, could hardly 
believe how often these are washed, for difiereut pur- , 
poses, in one season ; and the many shifts that must be 
resorted to to prevent a too-frequeut bill for the brittle 
ware. 
2 . —“ Would it not be advisable to have plants in such 
a south border, say one foot apart, and covered with 
frames in spring; and would not the fruit be as early, 
and certain, as under glass in a house, where no great 
advantage of artificial heat could be given?” Quite as 
certain, and rather more so; but the earliness would be 
dependant on the nature of the season, and the means 
employed. For instance; the importance of “little 
matters'' would, in such a case, at once be seen. Place 
nice clean straw between your plants, as you do in the 
open air, and in a bright sun—the straw will so reflect 
the light and the heat along with it, that, without plenty 
of air, there will be a danger of your plants being 
scorched; while the straw will neither permit of much 
beat passing into the soil, nor be in itself a reservoir of 
beat to be given off by radiation during the coldness of 
the night. But floor your border, between the plants, 
with slates, or tiles, or chips of stone tinged with a dark 
colour, and these will not only absorb heat and com¬ 
municate it to the border beneath them during the day, 
but will radiate it at night, to prevent the enclosed at¬ 
mosphere being unduly cooled then. But even with all 
this trouble, you will be, more than in a heated house, at 
the mercy of the sun. In bright weather, I have gathered 
three weeks or a month before fruit could be obtained in 
the open air. A friend of mine, who has long practised 
the system, is loud in its praise, and, as he says, it helps 
to prevent cramming his houses; and he frequently thus 
accelerates the natural gathering from a mouth to five 
weeks. But then, in my own experience, I have found, 
that in a dull spring the crop thus under glass was very 
little forwarder than that in a similar border in the open 
air. To gain the most from such a system the border 
should be rather steep, so that the rays of the sun may 
strike as little obliquely as possible. 
3. —“What is the best compost?” A good hazel- 
coloured loam; and for tender kinds, a little road-drift, 
or lime-rubbish, or small charcoal added. This loam, 
chopped up in a roughish state, and with little or no 
manure incorporated, trusting for strength mainly to 
manure waterings, will yield great satisfaction. When 
composts are greatly enriched with manures, unless they 
are in a dry state, and perfectly free from worms, the 
slightest disarrangement in the drainage will cause the 
soil to become a sour, soapy mass, and the plant diseased 
and gouty. Besides, with much rotten dung it is diffi¬ 
cult to pot them so firmly as is desirable. 
4. —“What sized pot is best? In this vicinity, I 
see single plants in five, six, seven, and seven-and-a-half- 
inch pots, and two plants in seven and eight-inch pots.” 
This entirely depends on circumstances. If I were to 
judge from my own experience, I would say, five-inch 
pots for early work, six-inch pots for the general and 
successional crops, and seven inches for a few very lute, 
fine plants. This, however, it must be perceived, will 
greatly depend on the time at which good runners can 
be obtained. In early places, it would be as possible to 
mature a plant, and fill its pot with roots, in a seven-inch 
pot, as I could do here in a five or a six* Bear in mind, 
that extra luxuriance is onhj an advantage when there 
is time to mature it. 
5. —“What is the reason for keeping the plant so high 
up in the middle of the pot? Mr. A. has large plants, 
looking so healthy and strong, and they are as much as 
from one to one-and-a-half-inch below the rim of the pot, 
and he grows fine fruit?” No doubt of it; and so might 
you, with the same care; but we wish to diminish care, 
and lessen the chances of failures to beginners. I recom¬ 
mend the collar of a Strawberry-plant to stand boldly 
above the soil, on a level, or slightly above the level of 
the pot’s rim, because it thus becomes more hardened 
by exposure to the sun and air; because it is safer from 
damp, &c., in winter; and because the fruit-bud is less 
liable to injury from alternations of moisture and dry- 
ness in spring 
0 .—“ Why place the plants full in the sun shortly after 
being potted? Mr. B. has very strong plants, much 
more luxuriant than our’s, but they are behind a hedge, 
enjoying a north-west aspect, and though his are yet so 
vigorous, many of the lower leaves of my plants are 
getting spotted, and a yellow cast? ” I wish mine were. 
I got my runners late this season. The appearance of 
your plants, if they are strong, shows that you have 
treated them well. Ask Mr. Errington which he would 
prefer in October—a peach-shoot, of moderate-strength, 
with its leaves getting yellow; or a robust shoot, tearing 
and growing away, with wood and leaves as green as 
leeks ? 
7.—-“Though wanting the fine second-year plants at 
Trentham and Chatsworth, you seemed to prefer young 
