276 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



FEBRUARY 16. 1899. 



55. Sprinkle a little soil or leaf mould 

 among the tubers, but not covering 

 them by any means. From near the 

 old crown there will be soon starting a 

 number of young growths. When these 

 are 3 or 4 inches long they will root 

 quickly, but it should be in sand 

 where the bottom heat is fi5 to 70 de- 

 grees. Always cut a dahlia, cutting 

 immediately below a joint. If these 



cuttings are grown along, shifted when 

 needed, kept tied up, planted out as 

 soon as it is safe in a loam that has 

 had one-half its weight of manure 

 added and copiously watered two or 

 three times a week, you can pick full 

 flowers by July 1st, or, at least, by the 

 anniversary of the battle of Santiago. 

 WM. SCOTT. 



INDOOR GROWN CARNATIONS. 



BV Ch.^S. \V. JliHNSON. 



[Read before the Philadelphia Meeting of tite 

 American Carnation Society.] 



The principal motive that led us to 

 adopt the growing of carnations under 

 glass from start to finish was to try 

 and have the plants throw an even 

 cut of blooms steadily throughout the 

 season rather than have an abun- 

 dance of flowers at one time and a 

 scarcity another. We found upon first 

 trial that we could produce a much 

 finer grade of blooms with better 

 stems and with less disease by grow- 

 ing the plants under glass throughout 

 the summer months. 



This is the third season that we have 

 grown our carnations by this method 

 and while we do not claim to have 

 mastered all the ills and failings that 

 carnations are subject to, such as rust, 

 bacteria, purple-joint, bui-sted calyx, 

 and most particular of all, to time our 

 crop so as to have plenty of fiowers 

 when prices are high and there is a 

 scarcity of stock on the market, yet we 

 firmly believe we are on the right 

 track, and though the number of 

 blooms produced per plant may be 

 slightly in favor of field grown stock 

 the cash returns have proven with us 

 to be decidedly in favor of the plants 

 grown inside all summer. We will ad- 

 mit that in the fall and early winter 

 months, say along till about the mid- 

 dle of November, the number of 

 blooms being cut from field grown 

 plants will put our indoor grown stock 

 in the shade, and though this may be 

 the case, it has come under our notice 

 time and again in this (Chicago) mar- 

 ket at least how little actual cash re- 

 turns the grower realizes for all of 

 this big cut or the greater part of it 

 through it being poor colored and hav- 

 ing short stems. In Chicago last fall 

 lots of this kind of stoclc went to waste 

 and what was sold brought only 40 to 

 60 cents per hundred, and this is the 

 time that field grown stock has the 

 advantage and is piling up the aver- 

 age number of blooms cut per plant 

 over those which have been grown in- 

 side. 



About the commencement of Octo- 

 ber our indoor grown plants will have 

 begun to get in their work and the 

 flowers can be disposed of readily at a 

 good price, due mostly through their 

 having a longer and much better stem 

 and also being finer in color. It has 

 been our experience with several vari- 

 eties for them to throw a big crop of 

 blooms the first month or two aftei- 

 being lifted from the field, but after 

 that crop has gone and we get along 

 into December and the dark days com- 

 mence, they seem to suddenly take a 

 standstill and do not budge, no mat- 

 ter how we try to encourage them. The 

 blooms are worth two or three times 

 as much now to what they were six or 

 eight weeks ago, and we have often 

 wished our big cut of a few weeks back 

 could have been switched from then 

 till now. To bring this about has been 

 our aim, by growing the plants inside, 

 and from the way they have done with 

 us so far we feel greatly encouraged. 



Through close observation we have 

 found tnat the wood does not get so 

 hard on the indoor grown plant as it 

 does on those lifted from the field. We 

 also find they keep up a more active 

 growth throughout the entire season, 

 producing a steady crop of long stem 

 fancy blooms far beyond what we 

 have been able to do in the same 

 houses and under the same conditions 

 with field grown stock. 



The indoor grown plant will not 

 make as large a plant or produce as 

 much grass, neither will it throw so 

 many short jointed growths, which 

 with some varieties rarely amount to 

 anything. This allows them to be 

 planted closer together; we have all 

 our plants set ten inches apart each 

 way this season, and we find that 

 though we may not realize so many 

 blooms per plant there is very little if 

 any difference in the cut from the area 

 of bench occupied between outdoor 

 and indoor grown stock. 



It has come to our notice of grow- 

 ers trying this method of culture by 

 planting 25 to 50 each, and sometimes 

 less of several varieties on the one 

 bench under the same condition and 

 given the same treatment; we fail 

 to see how this can be called a fair 

 test, for this is not enough plants of 



each variety to try the method proper- 

 ly, neither will two varieties, except 

 in a few instances, respond as they 

 should do under the same treatment. 



The cultural method we have fol- 

 lowed is to select January or Febru- 

 ary rooted cuttings and pot them up 

 into thumb pots, after which they are 

 given the same treatment as the young 

 stock intended for planting in the 

 field. We always aim to keep them as 

 cool as possible, with plenty of light 

 and good ventilation. Care must be 

 taken to prevent them from drying out 

 too much, also never allow them to 

 become pot bound. We find the thumb 

 pot large enough to carry the plant 

 along to the end of March or begin- 

 ning of April, They are then potted up 

 into 3%-inch pots and it the weather 

 is favorable can be set outside in cold 

 frames, keeping them a little close for 

 a few days, after which they will need 

 all the ventilation you can give them. 

 As soon as the weather will allow the 

 sash is removed entirely, replacing 

 them should we have a cold or rainy 

 spell. They will need going over every 

 little while and the tops pinched out 

 to encourage them to break up from 

 the bottom. 



We find this size pot large enough 

 to carry them along till planting out 

 time, or, in other words, to the end 

 of June or the beginning of July, but 

 should any of the plants show signs of 

 suffering or begin to get hard we 

 would advise giving them a larger pot. 



After the house is all ready and the 

 soil has been made as firm as possible 

 the plants are set ten inches apart 

 each way, care being taken that the 

 plants are not at all dry when being 

 planted. After they are set we water 

 the plants only, leaving the rest of the 

 beds until they have got well hold of 

 the soil, and when the time comes to 

 give the bed a good watering we go 

 over it to make sure that it is as even 

 and as firm as possible. 



After this the general routine of our 

 work is to keep a watch on them to 

 see that they do not become too dry. 

 Particular care should be taken to 

 have the soil of the same condition 

 clear through. We do not advocate 

 giving the beds a mulch so early after 

 planting as this; our method is, keep 

 the surface loosened up with a hand 

 rake, which we find answers the pur- 

 pose just as well, preventing the soil 

 from becoming baked, and enables us 

 to judge its condition better. We do 

 not allow the beds to get too wet, but 

 keep them as much as possible in a 

 pliable condition, watering only when 

 dry, and then thoroughly. 



As a matter of course, all the ven- 

 tilation possible should be given, the 

 more the better. We do not shade the 

 glass at all, only during planting time. 

 In very hot weather we give the plants 

 a good syringmg and dampen the 

 walks every day. With this treatment 

 we have never been troubled with 

 thrip or red spider. After the plants 

 get started they will make a rapid 

 growth, and if neglected begin to get 



