August 29, 1903. WE GARDENING world. 
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It K All V*/ vJ JRtI Jr JLJ 111. lVJfN. see page 735 Please post on Friday night. 
Treatment of Strawberry Beds. 
The past two seasons have granted a plentiful crop of fruits, 
but the gathering of the crop has been rather a vexing job, as 
a great many of the fruits began to decay before being ripe, 
owing to the continuous wet weather ; this, no doubt, would be 
more visible on strong, heavy ground. 
This fruit, owing to its demand both for private and market 
purposes, is well worth a bit of care and trouble spent on it. 
Taking a young bed that has just had its first crop of fruit, 
all runners should be removed, if that has not already been 
done, and each plant left separate and clear of its neighbour. 
Remove any half-ripe leaves, to allow plenty of light and air 
into the crowns, so that they will get thoroughly ripened with 
autumn suns, and after removing all cleanings from the bed, 
fork lightly between the rows and plants, and give a good 
mulching of strong heavy manure. In doing this, fork over 
one row, and then use the other, ere it is forked over, for 
wheeling on, and follow on till all the bed is done. 
I am convinced that in these seasons the old, yet commonly 
practised, method of growing Strawberries in rows like a dwarf 
hedge, and digging between the rows with a spade, is a great 
error, as the spade injures the roots, and the manure at a 
spade depth down is away from the roots, the Strawberry being 
a shallow-rooting plant. This method also has the disadvan¬ 
tage of forming quite a bower of foliage, v hereby the sun and 
air are excluded from the fruit, thereby rendering the chances 
of securing good, ripe, well-flavoured fruit all the less. 
Should "it be intended to make a new bed now or in 
spring, in clearing the plants of runners select the first runner 
on each string, letting the rest go, and take care to see the 
mother plant has borne a bunch of fruits, otherwise it may be 
blind ; in such a case take none of its runners. Plant them on 
good ground 6 in. apart and 1 ft. between the rows, and they 
will form fine roots by the time the new bed is ready, which 
should have a fair deep working and a heavy coat of manure 
applied, not too deep from the surface. 
A bed planted now may produce a few fruits next season, 
but with a spring-planted bed, a row of Onions between the 
rows of Strawberries would give a crop from the ground. Place 
the plants 2g ft. apaid between the rows and lg ft. between the 
plants, and in the winter a quantity of forked pegs could be 
made, and after the fruit is set they could be adjusted so as 
to keep the fruit clear of the ground, thereby giving them a 
better chance to ripen, and placing them out of the reach of 
slugs, should the season prove a wet one. 
There are a great many excellent new Strawberries, but it 
is a good plan, even if trying new ones, to stick to an old kind 
if it has proved a good doing kind. J. R. B. 
Hardy Heaths. 
There is no doubt these beautiful plants are slowly, but 
surely, taking the place in our gardens which of right belongs 
to them. It is a well-known fact in the nursery trade that the 
demand for Heaths has shown a great increase. 
Of their usefulness there can be only one opinion, whether as 
a border for large beds, as a clothing to steep banks, the higher 
parts of rockwork, or in large masses for distant effect. They 
have every attribute of a good cut flower, they are wiry, not 
easily broken, have a delicious perfume, and last well. 
There are many species, and more varieties. The genus 
Culluna is especially rich in this respect, varying in height 
from 3 in. to as many feet, and from the purest white to the 
richest crimson, C. v. alba, C. v. Hammondii are good 
whites, particularly the last named ; C. v. Searlii is of a smaller 
habit. Among purples, C. v. coccinea and C. v. Alportii are 
very fine; the latter is rather stiff, and does not clothe the 
ground, but its colour is perhaps the deepest of all. Very 
useful are the silver, golden, and copper coloured foliage 
varieties, C. v. argentea, aurea, and cuprea ; these are often 
very handsome in winter, and always so in early spring. In 
this genus, too, are some almost moss-like in habit, such as 
C. v. hypnoides, C. v. Foxii, and C. v. pygmaea. 
Of the Ericas those species that are hardy are E. cinerea, 
Vagans, Tetralix, inediterranea, carnea, ciliaris, stricta, and 
scoparia. Erica cinerea is very beautiful, there being white 
and rosy crimson varieties ; also many intermediate shade's, E. c. 
alba major, rubra, and carnea are much the best. 
None of our native Heaths can, however, compare in soft 
colouring with the cross-leaved Heath, Erica Tetralix. Of its 
varieties E. T. rubra, alba, and the neat little E. T. mackiana 
are well worthy of mention. In E. vagans we have an imposing 
Heath, which often attains the dimensions of a small shrub, 
some single specimens planted here eight years ago now measur¬ 
ing as much as 3 ft. in height and 8 ft. across. It cannot, how¬ 
ever, boast such varied colour as the foregoing species ; a rosy 
crimson variety has yet to come. The white varieties, with their 
dark brown anthers, are very attractive, while rubra is really 
a good purple. Grandiflora has long stems thickly set with 
flowers, but is of a straggling, untidy habit. 
E. mecliterranea and the German Heath, E. carnea, with its 
white variety, are very useful in early spring, but better than 
either is a supposed hybrid named E. m. hybrida. No one who 
has seen that beautiful bed in the dell at Kew can question for 
a moment its great beauty when grown in a mass. Erica 
ciliaris is a rare British species and a choice variety. E. 
maweana must not be forgotten ; the last two delight in moist 
situations. E. stricta only merits a passing notice, its light 
pink flowers being often insignificant, but its bright green foliage 
is always welcome. 
The most lovely of all, perhaps, are the Daboecias, D. poli- 
folia alba, with its raceme of pure white bells, excelling, in my 
opinion, any other hardy heath. A darker variety than the type, 
and one which has a more erect habit, is D. p. atropurpurea. 
Those named above will form a fair collection, the propagation 
and cultivation of which I purpose to give in another paper if 
the Editor wishes. J. C. 
[Please do.—E d.] 
A Good Method of Tying Early Chrysanthemums. 
As early Chrysanthemums are now grown by nurserymen, 
market growers, and private gardeners in pretty large quanti¬ 
ties, it is very important that they should be securely tied up, 
as the weather clerk about this season of the year often gives— 
and is giving us this year—a more bountiful share than usual 
of strong winds and rain. If the garden or spot where they are 
planted is exposed to high winds, they often get twisted and 
broken, even when they are tied up to a single stake, and the 
rubbing of the shoots on the ground spoils many of the blooms, 
although not broken off altogether. As I have for many years 
been very partial to these early Mums, and grow a good many 
of them, I adopt a plan of tying them up that I think ought to 
please all large growers. They are grown in rows in 5 ft. beds 
across a border, and are tied up to a miniature wire fence. 
The first proceeding is to get a blacksmith to make a number 
of light upright posts or pillars of round g m. iron, making 
three holes in them large enough to allow No. 4 or 5 fence 
wire to get through, making the first hole g m. from the top. 
the next one 7 in., and the third 8 in. lower. This still leaves 
plenty length of post to fix into the ground. Fix one of these 
posts at each end of the rows of Chrysanthemums, then cut 
the wire (old fence wire will do) 8 in. or so longer than the 
distance betwixt the pillars, pushing it through the holes at 
each end. If it is a very wide border, one 3 ft. iron stake in 
the centre will keep the wire stiff and secure. 
The Chrysanthemums can now be tied out according to taste 
on the wire, either in bunches or by spreading the shoots out 
singly, similar to the way that Raspberries are sometimes 
trained. The advantages which this plan has over wooden sticks 
are many. Firstly, if the wires are painted green they are 
scarcely seen, as they run through about the centre of the 
plants ; secondly, they will last a lifetime, and can be used 
for Canterbury. Bells and Phloxes and for some of the strong 
growing herbaceous plants when they are grown in rows for 
cutting. Sticks rot quickly up to the surface level, and often 
cause fungi to spread into the roots of the Mums. This is often 
the cause of many of them dying olf when put into frames in 
winter. John C. Dick. 
Champfleurie, Linlithgow. 
