August 8, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Planting Strawberries. 
Planting Strawberries. 
C5 +++ <E? 
Of soft fruits, Strawberries are pro¬ 
bably the most popular, and although the 
! fruiting season of the plants is compara¬ 
tively short, all who cultivate them can 
obtain fruit for a much longer period by 
planting both early and late cropping 
varieties. 
Rich loamy soil suits Strawberries best, 
and from such ground really fine fruit 
can be obtained at the expense of very 
little trouble, whereas in the case of light, 
chalkv soils considerable care is neces- 
I sary in the preparation of the bed and 
the plants require a lot of attention if 
anything approaching a good crop of 
fiuit is to be obtained. A new Straw¬ 
berry bed or plantation should not on 
anv account be made on the site of the 
old bed and the ground must be deeply 
worked and heavily manured, the nature 
of the soil to some extent governing the 
kind of manure that should be used. If 
the soil is light and sandy, cow dung, 
sewage and manures that help to make 
| tne ground heavier should be worked in, 
whilst when the conditions are reversed 
i and the soil heavy and tenacious manures 
that tend to lighten, as, for instance, 
I strawy stable manure, wood ashes and 
road scrapings, should be used, but in no 
case should the quantitv of manure be 
stinted. 
Early planting is desirable so that the 
pi ants have sufficient time to become 
established and form good crowns before 
winter sets in, the distance to place the 
plants varying a little according to the 
variety and nature of the soil. A good 
average distance is eighteen inches be¬ 
tween the plants in the rows and the rows 
two feet apart, these distances being in¬ 
creased a little in the case of strong¬ 
growing varieties in good rich soil and 
decreased where the soil is light and 
sandy. 
Before the rooted runners or plants are 
disturbed they should be well soaked with 
water, and plants that are lifted from the 
ground must be taken with a good ball of 
soil attached to the roots, whilst those in 
pots should be carefully turned out in 
the manner shown in Fig. 1 of the ac¬ 
companying sketches, lightlv tapping the 
edge of the pot on some convenient ob¬ 
ject being sufficient to loosen the soil 
round the outside and cause it to leave 
the pot as shown. 
In planting, care must be taken to keep 
the crown of each plant just above the 
soil as shown in Fig. 2, Fig. 3 illustrating 
a wrong, vet frequent method of plant¬ 
ing, the plant being buried too deeplv in 
the ground, whilst the roots of the plant 
shown in Fig. 4 are crowded together in¬ 
5*5 
stead of being evenly spread out. Make 
the soil moderately firm round each 
plant, again water after planting is com¬ 
pleted, and, if the weather is hot and dry, 
it is best to cover the plants with inverted 
pots or other shading, which should, how¬ 
ever, be removed at night and during dull 
weather and cleared away altogether as 
soon as the roots take hold of the new 
soil. 
Briefly, after treatment consists of keep¬ 
ing the’ plants well supplied with mois¬ 
ture until they are thoroughly estab¬ 
lished, keeping the bed free from weeds, 
removing all runners immediately they 
appear, and in spring when growth com¬ 
mences a mulching of strawy manure 
should be given. Two excellent contri¬ 
vances for keeping the fruit off the ground 
are shown in Figs. 5 and 6, consisting 
of wire rings supported by wires or forked 
sticks inserted in the ground. 
Ortus. 
-- 
In the village of Frick, Switzerland, 
Cherries are so plentiful that the buyers 
have refused to make an offer for them, 
and the children are allowed to take as 
many as they like from the orchards. 
Colour-Changing in Flowers. 
Some interesting examples of colour¬ 
changing in flowers by direct sun-rays 
were shown at the Grand Yorkshire Gala. 
This is an absolutely new process, the 
details of which reached England only 
a year ago, through the pages of the re¬ 
port issued for the year 1906 by the South 
African Association for the Advancement 
of Science. In that country cloudless 
skies are the rule for three or four months 
in the year, and experiments were carried 
out by an officer now quartered at York, 
to endeavour to ascertain what changes 
could be effected in the colouration of 
flotvers by withholding different hours of 
sunlight from the same varieties of 
plants. The common Nasturtium proved 
very sensitive to sunlight when clouds 
were absent from the sky for days to¬ 
gether, and by screening off the light at 
different hours decided differences were 
detected in the colour shades of flowers 
which were similar in every respect to 
begin with. It soon became evident that 
the experiments were leading to definite 
results, which were shared by other plants 
besides Nasturtiums, and, moreover, that 
growth was also greatly affected by the 
time of day when direct sunlight was ad¬ 
mitted or was screened off. Many vege¬ 
tables were found to be hightly sensi¬ 
tive to direct sun-rays, and increased 
crops of Lettuce, Onions, and Peas were 
obtained where aspect was properly at¬ 
tended to. All gardeners realise the im¬ 
portance of aspect as regards growth, but 
it will be news to most of them that just 
as much attention must be paid to ex¬ 
posure to direct sun-rays if they wish to 
obtain the most delicate colour shades 
in flowers. They will have an oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing for themselves what 
colour-changes have been obtained, for 
the seeds which have been brought from 
South Africa to York have come true, 
and the new varieties have proved to be 
veritable mutations. In one case, the 
process which had not been quite carried 
throughout there, has been successfully 
completed under the variable York 
skies which have been experienced this 
spring.' 
