24 JULY 1947, Page 17

In My Garden

This year more than ever before I have enjoyed feasts of wild straw- berry, both in the raw and in jam. They have fruited in the wild in unusual profusion ; and I am convinced that they are worth while as a garden crop, but the variety is of no little importance. That most ingenious of horticulturists, Mr. Clarence Elliott, who boasts of eating strawberries from June to October, recommends Cresta and Baron Solemacher, but there are many good sorts. Even the common wild variety does well in a garden, though the fruits are smaller. In the flower- garden the bush I could least well spare is the Aetna Broom. It is at its best whets Syringa and such are over, and it has a delicacy of form quite peculiar to itself. Frosts did not touch it, though its neighbour, the Spanish Broom, was cut to ribbons. It is astonishing how late some of the recoveries from the winter have announced themselves. The said Spartium Junceum is in belated blossom and a passion flower, quite

given up, begins to climb vigorously. W. BEACH THOMAS.