74 

 CULTIVATION OP THE CAENATION AND PICOTEE. 



BY ME. KIETLAND, ALBIOK NUESEET, STOKE NEWINGTON.* 



|N compliance with the request of the Editor, I shall offer 

 a few practical remarks on the cultivation of these beau- 

 tiful flowers. The readers of the Ploeal Woeld will 

 not need to be persuaded of their claim to our highest 

 consideration as subjects for decoration and exhibition, 

 nor will it be needful to say, by way of introduction, that they should 

 have an honourable place in every iiower garden. I shall be as brief 

 as possible, but shall not omit to mention any matters of practical 

 importance. 



Saving Seed. — Perhaps a word or two may be advantageously 

 said with regard to saving of seed. Pew plants are more shy of 

 bearing seed than the carnation and picotee ; it often happens that 

 out of a hundred blooming plants you may not get a score pods of 

 seed. It may be accounted for in this way — first, because the 

 flowers do not appear till late in the summer, and hence have not 

 time always to ripen their seed, especially if it be a wet season ; 

 secondly, because the flowers that are usually cultivated are so very 

 double as to preclude in a great measure the possibility of much seed 

 being produced. The semi-double flowei'S yield the most. If you 

 perceive the seed-vessel swell and grow hard, so as to give hope of 

 seed, which it will not do till the flower is fading, then pluck the 

 petals one by one out of the calyx or cup, taking care not to injure 

 the styles (which have the appearance of a pair of horns), for if you 

 do you lose all chance of seed. By letting the flower leaves 

 remain in the cup, they are apt to hold the dew and rain, which fre- 

 quently occasion the whole to rot. As the seed-vessel fills up you 

 may with a pair of scissors cut off" the ends of the cup all round, and 

 make a slight incision down it to keep the wet from resting in it. It 

 will ripen toward the end of September, but do not gather it till it is 

 fully ripe, when it will be of a dark brown or black colour. 



Eaising Seedlings. — The best mode of raising seedlings is by 

 sowing the seed in pans in April in good sandy soil. Let it be sown 

 half an inch deep. No heat should be used, as it is the cause of 

 their damping off". Too much moisture must not be given, and 

 shading from the mid-day sun must be afforded. Keep clear from 

 weeds, slugs, and green-fly. The latter are easily destroyed by dust- 

 ing strong snufl" over the plants. They may be planted out about 

 the first week in August, in rows about ten inches apart, in good 

 soil. "Water them carefully until they have become established. 



Lateeing is the next point for consideration. Strip off the 

 leaves to the third or fourth joint from the top. The soil in the 



* We take this opportunity to congratulate the London florists on the acces- 

 sion to their number (as nurseryman) of Mr. James Kirtland, who (as amateur) 

 60 long enjoyed a leading place amongst the cultivators of the midland counties, 

 and whose name was so honourably associated with the exhibitions of Oxford and 

 Banbury.— Ed. F. W. 



