Alpine --trawberries.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 8

Alpine --trawberries.

Strawberries arc such favourite fruits with all that it is to me a matter of great &urpiiso the Alpine varieties are so generally neglected by growers and amateurs alike as to be considered quite rarities in the few places where they are cultivated. The flavour of the fruit is distinct and pleasing, and the plants are well woith growing for the change they afford in that direction, but their chief value lies in the- fact that thoy furnish a good crop when the ordinary varieties have ceased to bear — during the l:x>t month of summer and the first of autumn.

Discussing the matter with a number of gardeners recently. I listened to a general complaint from tho comparatively few who had' given them a trial th»fc tbo plants had not been found to do well, the produce being light and the fruit very small. On inquiry, I found the mode of culture adopted had been to plant runners after the manner ordinarily followed with tho larger varieties, and therein, no doubt, lay the cause of failure; for although they are successfully grown by that method hero and there, I am assured by ao enthusiastic and eminently successful grower, who has experimented largely in their culture, that he finds plants raised from seed produce incomparably heavier crops and handsomer fruits than those propagated from runners. His plan is to raise a stock annually, but he usually retains tho plants in the beds for a third season's fruiting.

Seed sown on a hotbftd during tho present month, and tho reeultaat plants put out on a well-prepared and warm border as soon as laige enough to handle, will give a crop in tho autumn, and where a hotbed or other suitable hoa-fc cannot bo provided, the seed may be sown out of doors in spring with the certain prospect of a good crop of fruit the following year. French gardeners have lono- recognised and utilibed the value of the Alpine strawberries. There are red and white varieties.