338 



The Weekly Florists' Review- 



January 20, 1898. 



will root ver\- quickly and make bulbs 

 that will give you a large plant the fol- 

 lowing year. 'Leaf cuttings may also be 

 made when the leaf is matured. Cutting 

 the leaves into small pieces with a portion 

 of petiole attached, a bulb will form at 

 the base which will make a flowering 

 plant another year. 



Another method may be used to propa- 

 gate more rapidly with matured leaves. 

 Lay the leaves upon the propagating bed 

 and cover the ribs about an inch apart, 

 peg down each end where the incision 



was made and small bulbs will form that 

 can be carried over for another year. 

 Thrip and red spider are their principal 

 enemies. These can be kept down and 

 entirelv eratlicated by the free use of to- 

 bacco stems. 



The flowers and plants can be used for 

 many admirable purposes, table pieces, 

 mantel decorations and as a house plant 

 it appears to hold its own with many 

 others. F. L. Atkins. ' 



Short Hills, N. J. 



PROPAGATION. 



Manifold are the ways in the arrange- 

 ment and location of the propagating 

 houses; in their interior arrangement, or 

 the arrangement of a bench or part of one 

 in a house where other plants are also 

 grown; in the procedure of taking and 

 trimming the cuttings; in the selection 

 of the sand, and treatment of the cuttings 

 while in course of rooting. The ways 

 may differ, but the principles of rooting 

 a cutting successfully are invariably the 

 same. 



Temperature and moisture have to be 

 mostly considered. If we detach a cutting 

 from the mother plant and try to root it 

 in a much higher or lower temperature it 

 can only result in failure. The change 

 in temperature will affect the working of 

 the cells, for on the uninterrupted ac- 

 tivity of the minute vessels filled with 

 pulsating life, of which stem and leaves 

 are constructed, depends eventually the 

 formation of roots, the completion of a 

 new plant. 



Combined with temperature is moist- 

 ure. To attempt to root a cutting in a 

 higher temperature than the carnation 

 requires for its welfare may result other- 

 wise than what is intended, to root them 

 more quickly and save time. First, a 

 higher temperature is generalh' the cause 

 of the appearance of cutting bench fun- 

 gus. It will cause to evaporate more 

 moisture from the leaves than the cutting 

 is alile to absorb, cause wilting, conse- 

 quentlv inaction, and when not eventu- 

 ally ending in a total collapse, retards the 

 formation of roots for a long time. 



The other cause is just the reverse, but 

 often not less disastrous. The atmos- 

 phere may be kept so moisture-laden 

 that evaporation is decreased to a mini- 

 nmm, the action increased, root forma- 

 tion hastened, but the whole structure of 

 the new plant is made so sensitive, so 

 delicate, that it easily falls a prey to dis- 

 ease, and when replaced again into the 

 cooler, normal temperature, the check is 

 so severe that the time gained is lost 

 again, two and three times over, and be- 

 sides the young plant may have become 



impregnated with the germs of disease, 

 that will break out sooner or later and 

 end in destruction. A low temperature 

 will retard the formation of roots and 

 cause loss of time, Inil will otherwise not 

 affect the health of the plants. The best 

 temperature for general cultivation is the 

 average night temperature of 55°; day 

 temperature, if it can be avoided should 

 never run above 60°. 



The need of watering depends much 

 on the texture of the sand. A coarse 

 sand will require more v.ater than a finer 

 one, as it will not retain moisture so long. 

 In a normal temperature the cuttings 

 should never wilt when properly shaded; 

 if they do it is owing to lack of water. 



I will shortly describe our propagating 

 house, and mode of propagation, as it 

 will best give my idea of this work. Our 

 propagating house is a common even 

 span 20.XI00 feet running north and south. 

 The whole is shaded with a whitewash 

 made of white lead and coal oil. I have 

 found this the best shading, as it gives 

 the glass a milky appearance; while giv- 

 ing shade it still leaves it light enough in 

 cloudy weather. The interior arrange- 

 ment is one large center bench and two 

 smaller side benches. The center and 

 east side bench we use for propagating. 

 Thev are four inches deep, have brick 

 bottoms, with the heating pipes running 

 underneath and are entirely open on the 

 sides. There is enough drainage between 

 the bricks to drain all surplus water, and 

 the bricks are an excellent conductor of 

 a gentle bottom heat. One steam pipe 

 runs overhead. On the west side we 

 leave the two lower lights of glass with- 

 out shade, for we use that bench on 

 which to place flats with rooted trans- 

 planted cutting.o, before removing them 

 to a lighter house. 



The sand we use is a medium grained, 

 clean pit sand. Before the sand is filled 

 in we give a dight sprinkling of sulphur 

 over the bottom. The benches are filled 

 even full, then well watered, and the 

 sand pounded down solid; the four inches 

 of sand generally pound down to three 

 inches. This makes the bench ready to 

 receive the cuttings. To insert the cut- 

 tings we draw a line with a knife about 

 one inch deep, insert the cuttings three- 

 fourths of an inch apart and the rows one 



and one-half inches. After each row is 

 planted the sand is gently pressed on 

 again. 'NA'e water freely in a gentle spray 

 so the water runs through the bench. 

 The drainage between the bricks allows 

 us to do so. and I find that our stock 

 keeps healthier than with less watering, 

 and the water is retained in a tight 

 bench. 



'there are difierent opinions as to what 

 constitutes a good cutting. That only 

 healthy stock should be selected from 

 which'to take cuttings should need no 

 repetition. I consider any young shoot 

 from three to four inches long a good cut- 

 ting; if longer, the flower bud may have 

 commenced to form, and the.se buds push 

 out quicker than the cutting will form 

 roots; the strength of the cutting is di- 

 vided, but when the buds are removed in 

 time will still make good plants. The 

 most desirable cuttings are those taken 

 from the base or along the lower part of 

 the flower stem. They can be taken from 

 the axil of the leaves, coming off with a 

 clean heel that does not need any further 

 trimming. Cuttings otherwise taken we 

 break out and trim afterwards. I object 

 to the pulling of the cutting, as it seems 

 to me the pulling must strain and injure 

 the cells at the break. In trimming I 

 prefer to make a clean cut with a sharp 

 knife a little above a joint, so the lower 

 pair of leaves can be peeled off; this leaves 

 a clean heel. 



On all cuttings the lower leaves are re- 

 moved as far as the cutting will be in- 

 serted in the sand. We often find cuttings- 

 taken from the axil of a leaf that do not 

 have a clean heel, but a rosette of hard 

 leaves at the base. Such cuttings will never 

 root well; one-quarter to one-half of an 

 inch cut away will generally give a clean 

 heel. We invariably trim the leaves of 

 our cuttings. I may add yet that a good 

 cutting should not be too soft, neither 

 too hard, and should have a good pro- 

 portionate stem and not all leaves, as ia 

 often the case. 



When rooted the young plants should 

 be planted in a light', rich soil and placed 

 in a cool, sunny house, where the young 

 plants can be kept growing and shifted 

 to larger pots as they will require, the 

 early made cuttings being unmistakably 

 the best. Otherwise when room is 

 scarce, and they are placed in out-of-the- 

 way places, kept in small pots or flats, 

 pla'nted close together, so they will be- 

 come stunted, the later struck cuttings 

 are much more desirable. A young 

 plant should be kept uninterrupted in a 

 growing condition until planted out if 

 one wishes to derive the benefits of aa 

 early propagation. Fred Dorner. 



AMERICAN CARNATIONISTS. 



At the risk of being called visionary I 

 offer the following suggestions, and trust 

 that they will be freely criticised in the 

 trade papers and at our meeting in Cbi- 

 ca^; 



As the I500 proposition made some time 

 back does not seem practical, I now pro- 

 pose that I will be one of twenty or more 

 to donate annually I25 for the use of The 

 American Carnation Society, one-half of 

 the money thus donated to be used 

 toward offering premiums at our annual 



