198 



HORTICULTURE 



February 16, 1907 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE CARNA- 

 TION. 



(Abstract of a Paper Read Before the 



Florist Club of Philadelphia, by 



John E. Haines.) 



Mr. Haines read a very interesting 

 and practical paper on the above topic 

 on February 5. He told of his earlier 

 experiences in horticultural pursuits 

 and the building of his first green- 

 house for lettuce and radish growing, 

 his success in this line and the ad- 

 dition of other houses from time to 

 time until the limit in lettuce growing 

 had been reached and the perusal of 

 the horticultural trade papers had 

 started the carnation be-3 a-buzzing in 

 his bonnet. One interesting statement 

 was to the effect that a package of 

 carnation seed which was received 

 from the free-seed department at 

 Washington was the beginning of the 

 strain from which has developed the 

 progeny with which his name is com- 

 mercially connected. He said: * 



"The Government stock came mostly 

 in hull-heads and single blooms. There 

 ■were also a few very fine plants, pos- 

 sessing fine stems and vigorous 

 growth amongst them.' We hybridized 

 these with the following standards: 

 Jubilee, Crane, Wm. Scott, Lizzie Mc- 

 Gowan. New York, Albertini, etc. I 

 was very successful and got numerous 

 good ones. Would raise them for a 

 while, discover some bad trait, then 

 discard them. Kept on trying and dis- 

 carding until I secured enough stock 

 of seedlings of my own, which, com- 

 pared with the standard varieties I 

 had on the place, were superior to 

 those in my opinion." 



Mr. Haines told of his first venture 

 at tl'.e exhibition in Brooklyn and his 

 experierces in common with all who 

 exhibit at the fiower shews— the ela- 

 tion of success or the discouragement 

 and subsequent determination to yet 

 excel, when failure was recorded. Con- 

 tinuing he said: "The soil on my 

 place is a heavy clay. I prepare it by 

 making compost. Have never had ex- 

 perience in growing carnations in a 

 sandy soil, but I believe it can also be 

 prepared in compost to grow carna- 

 tions equal to those grown in clay 

 soil. It may even do better. In feed- 

 ing the plants I begin as soon as I 

 have fire in the house. Feed them 

 lightly now and then and keep them 

 on the move. I do not use the liquid 

 manure; I use sheep mantire, bone 

 flour, air-slacked lime and wood ashes. 



"Have not kept a night fireman ex- 

 cept on extremely cold nights. Run 

 my houses between 45 and 52 degrees. 

 In one of my houses I have taken out 

 the partition on one side for growing 

 violets. The temperature of this place 

 is usually about 45 degrees when 

 the others are 50 degrees. Here I al- 

 ways have been growing carnation 

 John E. Haines. I find that in this 

 house the best flowers are produced 

 and yet the plants are very prolific. 



"The troubles connected with the 

 raising of this flower I have also met 

 with and have been kept busily fight- 

 ing. One of these at one time was 

 stem rot. There are many different 

 opinions on this question; I will give 

 you the experience I had in one year. 

 in the fall I buried vegetables, such as 

 turnips, radishes, beets, etc. In the 

 spring time, when the ground was 

 prepared for planting, there were still 

 in a certain patch vegetables that had 

 either rotted or frozen, also some salt 



hay, which had been used for covering 

 bulbs and tomato vines grown the 

 previous year. Here I planted my 

 young stock of carnations. The plants 

 raised on this patch suffered with 

 stem rot. It was peculiar that only 

 these plants were infected. Those 

 which did not get it in the field got 

 it after planting in. This taught me 

 that I must be very careful not to 

 have any decaying or fermented mat- 

 ter around the place. I have since 

 been very strict in the matter of clean- 

 liness. All refuse must be taken away 

 immediately and surroundings must 

 be kept sweet and clean. I have used 

 air-slacked lime occasionally for this 

 purpose. 



"As to rust, I find that by taking 

 the best of care of the plants, begin- 

 ning at the time of planting in and 

 using all the precautions that would 

 be used if they were infected right 

 along, this trouble will seldom appear 

 at all. 'An ounce of prevention is 

 worth a pound of cure.' My plants 

 are watched closely and if any show 

 the least symptoms of it the infected 

 leaves are at once taken off. 



"To avoid thrips and green fly, the 

 plants are sprayed with Nicoticide, say 

 once a week, but precaution is used in 

 choosing a bright day for the work. 

 This treatment I also begin as soon 

 as plants are put into the house, and 

 find it more successful than smoking.' 



LIBRARY NOTES. 



A Book of English Gardens by M. R. 

 Gloag. (.Methuen & Co., London.) In 

 my first contribution to HORTICUL- 

 TURE under the heading of Library 

 Notes, reference was made to a hand- 

 some art volume in folio entitled 

 "Some English Gardens." The some- 

 what attractive and prettily illustrated 

 book now under review is in a like 

 way devoted to English gardens and 

 contains many charming little pictures 

 in the be=t style of color printing but 

 the places dealt with by the author 

 are entirely different from those re- 

 ferred to in the larger work. Abbots- 

 bury, Albury, Ampthill. Ashbridge. 

 Brownsea, Hatfield. Holland House. 

 Knoll, Sutton Place, and Wre.=rt are 

 among the gardens selected for treat- 

 pjent. The artist is Miss K. M. Wyatt 

 whose series of 24 bright little water 

 color reproductions largely introduce 

 the houses as a fitting background to 

 many of the gardens depicted. The 

 book is neatly and tastefully bound in 

 cloth, gilt; it contains 340 pages. The 

 opening pages are devoted to an his- 

 torical account on gardens beginning 

 with reference to Egypt and Babylon, 

 and pass i II g onward through the days 

 of ancient Rome down to later times, 

 chiefly in England. The frontispiece 

 is a view of Holland House and gar- 

 den, and is an instance of what may 

 be accomplished in a great metropolis 

 in the way of the gardening art. "The 

 Terrace. Albury," is a pretty little bit 

 of work and so too is "The Terrace, 

 Brownsea." A genuine piece of Eng- 

 lish rural scenery is "a cottage garden, 

 the Isle of Wight." 'Very effective is 

 "the terrace border. Ham House," and 

 it makes a metropolitan amateur won- 

 der how the country gardener can se- 

 cure such a display of hardy herbace- 

 o>is flowers as we sometimes see in the 

 pictures of the grand old country gar- 

 dens. "Rhododendron Knoll" is an- 

 other exquisite little floral gem. 



C. HARMAN PAYNE. 



TWO CANADIAN TROPHIES. 



Herewith we take pleasure in show- 

 ing illustrations of two of the nicest 

 cups competed for at the meeting and 

 exhibition of the American Carnation 



Society at Toronto, Canada, last 

 month. The Canadian Horticultural 

 Association's trophy was offered for 

 the best six varieties of carnations, 

 fifty blooms of each. The Montreal 

 Gardeners' and Florists' cup was pre- 



sented for the largest and best dis- 

 play of carnations in the exhibition. 

 Both cups were worthily won by the i 

 F. R. Pierson Company of Tarrytown 1 

 and Scarboro, N. Y., and Mr. Pierson is 

 justly proud of them. 



A CORRECTION. 



In the paper by R. O. King, pub- 

 lished in last week's HORTICULTURE, 

 a line was accidentally dropped out of 

 the first column on page 165. It should 

 read as follows, the missing words be- 

 ing those within the brackets: "The 

 glass people say that the workmen do 

 not like to make [greenhouse sizes be- 

 cause they can make] more money on 

 larger sizes." 



