FOR THE WOMAN GARDENER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1939, Page 10

FOR THE WOMAN GARDENER

LAYERING OF STRAWBERRIES. SOME USEFUL HINTS. In layering strawberries in order to increase stock, the following method is very successful. Choose a runner which is nearest to the parent plant and pinch out all the others. Place this runner on a small flower-pot which is full of potting soil, keeping the runner in place with a flat stone. The runner will root in a comparatively short while, and-it can then be severed from its parent and the pot removed to a shady place to mature. This method is better than allowing the runners to root where they please. Reared on this system, strawberry plants will produce earlier and will be more robust than if grown in a haphazard manner.

Maidenhair fern can be increased in spring by dividing the plant into several pieces and planting each piece separately in pots, or it can be propagated by spores. These are gathered by placing a whole frond in a paper bag when the spore cases are dark brown. The spores will fall into the bag, and they can be sown in prepared soil. Bulbs multiply rapidly also, so that a few shillings expended one year will prove a profitable investment. Many self-setting seedlings make their appearance from time to time in odd corners of the garden. These, if carefully tended, often grow into strong, hardy plants. Many seed merchants put up seed jn packets as low in price as threepence, which is an economical way of buying if one wants only a few of that particular flower. There are numerous ways in which a garden can be kept well stocked at a minimum of cost, and if a little extra trouble is involved in the propagation of the plants the intensified interest in the miraculous workings of nature is, in itself, a reward that far exceeds the outlay, whether financial or physical.