April 4, 1908 



HORTICULTURE 



439 



The New American Carnations in 

 England 



With the great contrast between the climate of Eng- 

 land and America, it is surprising what similar verdicts 

 are arrived at in the Judgment of the new varieties of 

 American carnations. It is the simple truth which tells 

 in the end; all the beating of drums and clanging of 

 cymbals in the world will not make a bad carnation a 

 good one. And if good, no matter if grown in the sun 

 of California, or the smoke of London, they produce 

 mighty tine flowers. 



While many of the small growers over here do not test 

 any of the new American introductions, others do so 

 only in small quantities and are not really in the po- 

 sition to judge. At Bush Hill Park we bite rather 

 largely at some of the novelties, yet more often, I am in- 

 clined to think that we are in the position of the cat, 

 while the monkey was using its paw to get the chestnuts 

 out of the fii'e. In other words, the small grower greatly 

 prefers that a large grower shall cultivate and show the 

 novelties for the first year, get the stock well climatised, 

 and, I might add, free from disease, because it is won- 

 derful how invariably this is in the crate as packing, yet 

 much of it, I am inclined to think, is created on transit. 

 Still that does not alter the fact that it is there and re- 

 quires getting rid of, because the average British grower 

 has a great abhoiTence of rust. 



The loss, again, is no small item in importing carna- 

 tions from America, and often those that you save figure 

 out as very expensive plants. We all realize that prac- 

 tically the last word has been said in the matter of pack- 

 ing, so we do not look for better results in the futiire. 



Aristocrat came over very badly diseased and was 

 slow to make a start away. We grew it under glass all 

 summer, and commenced to cut in mid-September. The 

 formation of the flower is considered almost ideal, the 

 great fault being the color, which has too much magenta 

 in it for British taste; its stem is good and calyx held 

 well throughout the London fogs. 



Beacon is unanimously voted the best scarlet; in fact 

 it is most difficult to find any fault with it. We all 

 have a very warm corner in our hearts for the raiser of 

 it. We grew it indoors all summer, started to cut early 

 and have been cutting ever since. 



Winsor is another general favorite, all the best Lon- 

 don shops having a strong fancy for the color, and its 

 short stem in the early part of the season is not too 

 strongly objected to, 3'et the Britisher dearly loves a 

 more shapely flower. 



White Enchantress is good, and all like it, yet White 

 Perfection leads in purity of color; as yet there is no 

 great rush for this child of a noble sire. 



Rose Pink Enchantress is disappointing ; the dull days 

 cut its unstable color up sadly, yet when the stock has 

 been more rigidly selected down to a true shade, it may 

 live on. 



Imperial and Pink Imperial are not of a habit which 



is popular in England, and the color of the former is not 

 bright enough to become a favorite, while the latter is 

 pretty without being great. 



Red Riding Hood we did not stock, and those who did, 

 wished they had not. 



Red Chief is the right color and would have had a 

 great future in Britain if only larger, 3'et under the cir- 

 cumstances life will be short. 



Victory is just coming into its own; it has regained 

 its health and with us is remarkably fine, but all last sea- 

 son it was very sick itself, and made all of us feel quite 

 bad. 



Britannia is a general favorite throughout; it flour- 

 ishes wonderfully well under pot culture, the deep rich 

 color being popular. 



Mrs. H. Burnett, another of last year's British intro- 

 duction, has won favor in some localities, the salmon 

 pink color being a most popular shade in London. 



Bush Hill Pari: 



^ 



The Fertilizer Question 



Editor Horticulture : 



Dear Sir: — My attention has been called to a state- 

 ment in a recent number of Horticulture regarding 

 remarks made by me before a recent meeting of the Car- 

 nation Society concerning the use of chemical fertilzers 

 and their effect on the production of carnations. 



In order that I may make my position perfectly clear 

 I may say that after a good many years of experimenting 

 under glass on crops of different kinds, we have reached 

 the following conclusions and it was these conclusions 

 that we referred to in our talk before the carnation 

 j>eople : 



(1) That so far as tlie securing of healthy plants and the 



production ot profitable crops of flowers was con- 

 cerned, fully as good results could be secured by 

 the use of good composts alone as where chemical 

 manures were applied. 



(2) That florists were prone to over-estimate the value 



of chemical manures, especially bone, in the grow- 

 ing of crops. 



(3) That the more highly concentrated and soluble the 



chemical manures used, the more likely there was 

 to be injury resulting therefrom, owing to the fact 

 that it was exceedingly difficult to properly gauge 

 the handling of these materials in the growing of 

 crops under glass. 



We stated, I believe, and will repeat that if we were 

 in position to always get good well decomposed stable 

 manure, either cow manure or horse manure, we would 

 ■want nothing better in the growing or forcing of crops 

 under glass. 



Very truly yours, 

 B. T. Galloway, 



Chief of Bureau. 



