April 7, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



457 



EASTER LIIylB 



$12.00 per 100 



LEO NI ESSEN COMPANY 



1217 Arch St., Phila. 



S TORE OPEN 7 A. M. TO 8 P. M. 



CARNATION NOTES. 



(Extracts from a paper read before the 



Chicago Florists' Club by Jos. 



F. Klimmer.) 



By this time every carnation 

 grower should have his plans ready 

 for next season; he should know 

 which varieties he intends to plant 

 next fall and what varieties he has to 

 discard. There are quite a few grow- 

 ers, like myself, always ready to buy 

 a reasonable amount of those liberally 

 advertised novelties, and now after 

 trying them for a season, the question 

 is, did they give satisfaction? 



Last August I planted 410 plants of 

 Fiancee in the bench. . . . They pro- 

 duced in October 025 first class flowers; 

 in November, 169; in December, 69; in 

 January, 13; and in February, 4. This 

 is a rather stunning average, but I be- 

 lieve it is to a great extent my own 

 fault, because I treated Fiancee in the 

 first week in November to a fairly 

 liberal dose of manure and bone meal, 

 and in return got an immense crop of 

 fantastic-looking splits which nobody 

 would buy. I wonder will we ever 

 learn to let well enough alone? I am 

 convinced that if I had left the fertil- 

 izer off, 65 per cent, of the splits would 

 have been salable flowers, and Fiancee 

 would have been a fairly well paying 

 proposition at least up to Christmas. 



Cardinal produced quite a few black 

 and distorted flowers, but they also 

 gave be a very liberal amount of good, 

 first class flowers, with fairly strong 

 stems. We had about 30 plants which 

 kept entirely clean of rust and certain- 

 ly came up in every respect to the in- 

 troducers' description. Some of the 

 plants I have now in 4-inch pots will 

 be planted out early as possible to 

 give it a trial as a summer bloomer. 



Lieut. Peary is, in my estimation, 

 the best of the last year's introduc- 

 tions. It is a strong, upright grower, 

 steady and even bloomer, makes no 

 surplus grass, and is entirely free from 

 rust or any other disease. 



In scarlet I grow Flamingo, Estelle 

 and Cardinal and in addition will also 

 nave 300 each of Root. Craig and Vic- 



tory. I need Estelle for a good com- 

 mon scarlet in the winter, and early in 

 April I take up the old plants from 

 the bench, cut them back severely and 

 then plant them out for summer bloom- 

 ing. Flamingo is considered by our 

 Chicago retail florists the best scarlet 

 winter carnation on the market. It 

 has been a failure in a good many 

 cases, but in most cases I believe it is 

 the treatment. The plants must be 

 good and strong when planted out; do 

 not pinch it back any more than abso- 

 lutely necessary; after August first 

 pick off all buds high up on the stem 

 until October 20th, then let them 

 bloom all they can until March 15th. 

 Flamingo wants to be planted in sandy 

 soil or soil with a liberal quantity of 

 half-rotted horse manure to make it 

 porous; give it plenty of water, but 

 do not feed at all, because feeding is 

 likely to spoil the keeping quality and 

 produce more splits. As an explana- 

 tion I can state that the first lot of 

 500 I bought in January, made large 

 and elegant plants, that came in bloom 

 in August; I pinched those flowers off 

 before planting them in the house and 

 let them come into bloom again in the 

 latter part of September, but had to 

 pick those flowers off because they 

 would not keep, but in the latter part 

 of October, when the weather got cool, 

 they improved rapidly and by Christ- 

 mas cut an average of 13 flowers per 

 plant. By March 10 we had an aver- 

 age of 18 flowers. Just about then the 

 flowers get spotty and the plants grew 

 so much to grass as to be almost en- 

 tirely worthless. Seeing that my first 

 lot did so well, I bought 200 more in 

 the fall, all good healthy plants from 

 the field, but considerably smaller 

 than my own. These plants had from 

 the 20th of September on the same 

 treatment, were planted in the same 

 soil and in the same bench, and I did 

 not cut a flower of those 200 plants 

 until Jan. 11, and then they only aver- 

 aged quite 6 flowers per plant up to 

 March 10, when they also gave out. 

 Another important point is in disbud- 

 ding. In rubbing off the bud next to 

 the flower, the main stem is very 

 liable to be injured, and the flower 

 will have a peculiar crooked neck; 

 since I found it out we let the last bud 

 on until the flower is cut and the 

 trouble disappears. 



For white, I shall grow Lady Bounti- 

 ful, Dorner's White Perfection, Lieut. 

 Peary and Vesper, and will discard 

 Albatros and the Belle. In light pink, 

 I shall grow Enchantress, discarding 

 Morning Glory. Possibly Genevieve 

 Lord may have to make room for 

 Helen Goddard, although the former 

 has proved satisfactory. Mrs. Lawson 

 will be discarded in favor of Nelson 

 Fisher and Pink Patten. Pink Patten, 

 I believe, will be in another two years 

 a warm competitor of Mrs. Thomas W. 

 Lawson. For variegated, M. A. Patten 

 seems to be the best with me. 



This completes my list for next sea- 

 son, and I hope it will turn out satis- 

 factory, though I still wish the Lord 

 would throw a sport or a seedling my 

 way that has the clear color of the 

 Marquis and the general growth, habit 

 and keeping qualities of the Patten. 



PRIZE PRIMULA SEEDS 

 SOW NOW. JJiVES 



plants in bloom for FALL sales. 



% Trade Trade 

 Pkt. Pkt. 



I.OO 

 I.OO 

 I.OO 

 I.OO 

 I.OO 



.60 

 .60 

 .60 



Primula sinensis, pureWhite, $0.60 

 " " Brilliant Red, .60 



" HilbomBIue, 

 " Crimson, 

 •' Pink, 

 ' Michell's 

 European Mixture, .60 1.00 

 This is the finest mixture procurable com- 

 posed of the choicest separate colors on y. 

 Primu'a obconica, Red, . . $0.30 



" Rose or Pink, .30 



" " pure White, . .30 



" *' Hybiida Mixed Colors, .40 



" " Fimbriata Choice Mix'd, .50 



For Seasonable Seeds and Supplies please 

 refer to our Wholesale List mailed free 

 on request to all florists. 



HENRY F.MICKELL CO. 



Seed Importers and Growers 



1018 MarketSt., Philadelphia. Pa. 



ARTHUR COWEE 

 GLADIOLUS SPECIALIST 



Meadowvale Farm 

 BBRLLN, I*. Y. 



HAS UNDER CULTIVATION 



OVER. IOO ACRES 



COMPRISING 



The Best Mixtures, Collections 



and Named Varieties in 



Existence. 



Write for 1906 Catalog 



