596 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



Februaiiy 18, 1004. 



have rooted them in different tempera- 

 tures, but I think the ideal is CO de- 

 grees bottom and 50 degrees top, no 

 liigher if possible. I have sometimes 

 rooted them very cool, with scarecly any 

 heat, and very successfully, but it is a 

 very slow process. Air is given to the 

 house whenever possible, or nearly every 

 dav, and the cuttings are shaded from 

 all" sunshine until they begin to root; 

 then sun is admitted gradually until when 

 rooted they are fully exposed. I have 

 used papers in shading ever since I was 

 initiated in our profession, and that is 

 quite a few years, but this season am 

 using as shades frames made a conven- 

 ient width, cut of half-inch strips, and 

 covered -n-ith white muslin. These rest 

 on a board back of the bed and are sus- 

 pended in front by wire fastened on the 

 sash bar. This shade keeps the direct 

 air from striking the cuttings and at 

 the same time gives them sufficient, as it 

 is about four inches above the bed. Out- 

 side shade is given with lath shades as 

 the weather gets warm, to keep down 

 the temperature. When the cuttings are 

 rooted, say roots about a half-inch long, 

 they are potted into 2-inch pots in soil 

 four parts well rotted sod to one part 

 thoroughly decomposed stable manur?, 

 with a liberal sprinkling of lime and 

 some sand. This is sifted through a 

 half-inch sieve. 



Care of Young Stock. 



Cuttings are potted moderately tirm, 

 watered thoroughly, treated the same as 

 the cuttings for "about a week and at 

 about the same temperature, when they 

 are gradually given more air and kept 

 45 to 50 deigrees at night and 60 de- 

 grees in the day, with air. Propagating 

 is done from jsfovember on. The early 

 cuttings for summer blooming, when 

 needed, are shifted into 3-inch pots. The 

 later ones I am going to pot this sea- 

 son into aVa-inch pots and plant from 

 them. When weather permits they are 

 removed to cold frames and gradually 

 hardened off, avoiding all extremes of 

 temperature as far as possible and 

 pinched back when about three or four 

 inches high. 



Field Planting. 

 As soon as weather permits, planting 

 out is proceeded with, from about Apri 

 15 on in our section of the country, f>^' 

 course according to the weather. The 

 plants are thoroughly watered. The 

 ground is thoroughly manured about 

 every two years, about two inches deep, 

 half rotten, and well spaded. A coat of 

 lime once in a few years is also given. 

 My garden, as I always term it, is only 

 40x125 feet and I have grown plants 

 here for eighteen years. Now almost 

 every grower believes in growing carna- 

 tions on different ground every two or 

 three years at least and there is no 

 doubt it is a great advantage in growing 

 good stock. I plant firmly. SxlO inches 

 apart, covering the ball thoroughly but 

 avoid covering the foliage. If we do 

 not have rain about every two or three 

 weeks, I give the plants a good water- 

 ing with an automatic sprinkler. I find 

 this does it more thoroughly than when 

 done with the hose. This is repeated 

 throughout the season of growing. I 

 know opinions differ greatly as to water- 

 ing stock while in the field, but the more 

 experience I have the more I advocate 

 it. If the summer is continually dry I 

 water at least once a week. It is not 

 much use to water unless started in 

 good time. 



Plants are kept free of weeds and 

 hoed quite often, gone over every week 

 and those needing it are pinched back 

 until housing time, about August 1. Now 

 methods of culture have changed. The 

 first essay that I wrote was on the grow- 

 ing of the divine (lower about ten years 

 ago. I then advocated September 20 

 as the date for housing. Now it seems 

 we can hardly house them soon enough. 

 I have always maintained of late years 

 that the time will come when we will 

 plant them the same as roses, as some 

 are really doing on a small scale. 



Filling the Benches. 



We prepare the benches by repairing, 

 sweeping off the boards thoroughly, 

 turning them over and giving a good 

 coat of hot whitewash. Space the 

 boards off with about half an inch to 

 three-fourths of an inch between them. 

 While we prepare the soil all parts of 



The Lyre 



I By Wm. H. McDoilg:ill. Chicago.) 



the benches get a good sun bath. Soil 

 is composted of about three-quarters well 

 rotted sod to one-quarter well decom- 

 posed hotbed manure. All is thorough- 

 ly mixed, the soil being chopped as fine 

 as posi-iule. About a shovelful of air- 

 slaked lime is addel to each barrow- 

 load of soil. For drainage on the spaces 

 in the benches we use straw. We for- 

 merly used sod but it is very hard to 

 obtain, especially in dry weather. Straw- 

 is cheap and much quicker handled th;in 

 sod. The soil is wheeled right on to the 

 benches and spread to the depth of about 

 five inches. This gives about four inches 

 after the plants are in and watered. 

 The plants are lifted with a small ball 

 of soil whenever possible. Varieties dif- 

 fer in this respect, as some retain soil 

 easily while others do not. lUey are 

 taken into the house or potting shed. 



House Planting. 



I usually lift a good number early in 

 the morning and again late in the after- 

 noon. They are heavily sprinkled at 

 once, all dead foliage is removed, the 

 house being previously shaded with old 

 soil run through a quarter-inch sieve, 

 mixed with water to a convenient thick- 

 ness and applied with an old broom. 

 I now proceed to plant, just covering 

 the ball thoroughly and firmly pressed 

 with the hands. Strong growing va- 

 rieties are planted about 10x12 and some 

 12x12, others about 8x10. I have some 

 planted closer, but I think we really ought 

 to give more space to our plants than 

 we do, to permit a freer circulation of 

 air. As planting is proceeded with, I 

 water several times until the soil is good 

 and damp but not soaking wet. We 

 syringe about three times a day, moisten- 

 ing the walks at the same time. The 

 house is kept a little close during the 

 day, with Eill air possible at night. I 

 think that if the plants are good and 

 sturdy they really do not need to be 

 kept very close. I do not intend to do 

 so in the future, as plants very seldom 

 wilt with me and I really think this 

 keeping close and damp is the main 

 cause of stem-rot. At least I have al- 

 most come to that conclusion, after close 

 observation. 



House Culture. 



After the planting is done we clean 

 all the rubbish from under the benches 

 and sometimes scatter air-slaked lime 

 after all is cleaned up. If we have no 

 rain in about ten days, the shading is 

 washed off with the hose. The soil is 

 kept in goofi moist condition, not soak- 

 ing wet. These conditions are reversed 

 to a certain extent in the short days of 

 winter. We were late in planting this 

 season, so were delayed all around. We 

 usually clean the plants again before 

 staking, but this was not done this sea- 

 son. The plants have thrived fairly well, 

 but I am a great believer in cleanliness 

 and we usually clean them again about 

 this time. We stake them with the 

 Kuehn support, which to my idea is all 

 O. K., giving a free circulation and al- 

 ways convenient to clean and apply 

 mulch. 



After staking this season we applied 

 mulch one-half inch thick, the same as 

 we used on our roses, composed of one- 

 third rotted sod or soil and two-thirds 

 well rotted hotbed manure run through 

 a one-half inch screen, to which was 

 added bone meal, an ordinary-sized coal 

 bucket to about fifteen medium-sized bar- 

 row loads of the compost. We scatter 

 lime occasionally over the surface of the 

 benches and tolsacco ashes which I save 

 from fumigating, also wood ashes when 

 procurable. Liquid manure is used after 

 the mulch has been on some time, weak at 

 first, increasing in strength as the sea- 

 son advances. As I use the Kinney 

 pump for this purpose, a double quan- 

 tity of manure is placed in sacks, as 

 pressure is obtainecl from city water, 

 which dilutes the liquid to one-half the 

 strength. About half a bushel of shee-i 

 manure, or a bushel of cow manure, or 

 one and one-half of horse manure is 

 used to each sack. One sack to a bar- 

 rel makes the liquid of medium strength. 

 About this season of the year, or a lit- 

 tle later, about one-half inch of mulch 

 of rotten manure is put on and later 

 in the season one inch. 



Daily syringing is stopped as soon as 

 short days start in, except at the ex- 



