134 



GARDENING. 



Jan. yj, 



had. Really when we looked upon this 

 beautiful bunch of flowers it was perfectly 

 evident that a lady would farsoonerhave 

 them than a hundred common flowers for 

 the same money. 



Varieties.— Mr. W. says: "Mme. Diaz 

 Albertini, pink, is bringing me the best 

 price, but Wm. Scott, also pink, is almost 

 as good. In fact with most people the 

 last is the best carnation. Daybreak, 

 pale pink, is also fine. The new Brides- 

 maid is a lovely pink and most promis- 

 ing. Among white flowers we have noth- 

 ing to equal Storm King, well maybe 

 Michigan does; really, I hardly know 

 which one I like the best. Lizzie Mc- 

 Gowan is a great favorite because of its 

 continuous cropping and fine flowers 

 when well finished, but it hasn't got such 

 stems or.foliage as the other sorts men- 

 tioned carrj'. The Stuart, notwith- 

 standing its great praise as a scarlet, 

 and its exceptionally fine stems does not 

 satisf\' me full)'. Portia is still one of the 

 finest scarlets and healthiest of carna- 

 tions, but the blossoms are too small. 

 Among crimsons I expected much from 

 Jacqueminot, but the plants rusted so 

 badly I had to throw them out But 

 here in Meteor we have a beauty. It is a 

 fine flower of a dark glowing crimson 

 hue, and the plants are perfectly clean 

 and healthy, with fine stiff stems." 



Pl.\.nts for Pots.— Mr. W. is working 

 on a set of dwarf varieties suitable for 

 growing in pots, of which Winter Cheer 

 is one of the best we now have. But his 

 plants are of a diflerent type, while the 

 plants are very stockj- and the flower 

 stems less than a foot long, the blossoms 

 are unusually large — we measured one 

 that was three and three-quarters inches 

 in diameter— but when very big they 

 burst their calyx, and he is trying to 

 hybridize them out of that defect. 



Selection. — A wide awake florist is as 

 particular about his stock as is the pro- 

 gressive farmer about his cattle. Every 

 plant that shows an extra good point in 

 the way of healthier growth, stiller stems, 

 bigger or finer, or more flowers, than the 

 majority is marked with a stake to be 

 propagated from for stock. And every 

 plant that shows any inferiority in habit, 

 health, or bloom is rooted out and thrown 

 away as soon as its most advanced flow- 

 ers are cut. 



The plants are propagated from cut- 

 tings taken from the flower stems and 

 outside shoots and never from the inside 

 or underneath ones. He likes February 

 struck plants for winter blooming, as 

 they come in early and keep on late; but 

 he has benchesof stockin fine thrift raised 

 from June struck cuttings. The young 

 plants are planted out of doors in sum- 

 mer and lifted and planted on the benches 

 in September. 



Supporting and Tying.- A few years 

 ago the florists used to stake their carna- 

 tions, but they don't do it now, instead 

 they take strips of %-inch mesh chicken 

 wire netting, 15 or 18 inches wide, and 

 as long as to reach aci-oss the bench, say 

 four or four and one-half feet, and fold it 

 over like an inverted V and place these 

 between the rows of plants to keep the 

 foliage and shoots off" the ground and the 

 branches upward; it also allows of a cur- 

 rent of fresh air to run between the 

 plants. Mr. Ward has discontinued the 

 use of chicken netting for this purpose 

 and instead uses now Va-inch mesh No. 

 20 galvanized wire lathing 15 inches 

 wide. These are stout, stiff", strong and 

 will last for years As this lathing as 

 used by plasterers conies in pieces two 

 feet wide Mr. Ward had his 15-inch size 

 manufactured to order; it cost him three 



cents a square foot in lots of 20,000 

 square feet. To support the flower stems 

 No. 20 or No. 16 galvanized wires were 

 stretched lengthwise along and over the 

 beds, thirteen inches above the ground 

 and eight inches between the wires. At 

 either end the wires were fastened to a 

 cross bar made of gas pipe, and here and 

 there along the beds they were stiiTened 

 by being fastened to light rods of wood. 

 Run across the wires and fastened on to 

 them, a foot apart, were strings of stout 

 silkaline, a green, fine, thread-like cord 

 now much used in t3'ing plants 



Disbudding and Staking.— Carnations 

 that do not have long, stiflT, leafy stems 

 are good for nothing, and varieties that 

 bear several flowers to a stem are dis- 

 liked, the florist wants no more than one 

 blossom to a stem and to give it the best 

 opportunity for development he carefully 

 removes every bud except the terminal 

 one. And to further add to the perfection 

 of his flowers Mr. W. is staking all his 

 best blossoms. The stakes used are pieces 

 offence wire twenty totwenty-fourinches 

 long, one is set to each very promising 

 flower, which is tied up at the top, thus 

 tending to further stiffen the stem and 

 allow the fuller development of the flower. 

 Does it pay? we asked Mr. W. He replied: 

 "A smart girl, at 75 cents a day, will tie 

 up 1,500 carnations a day, and I get a 

 dollar a hundred more for them in the 

 market than I do for the others." 



Summer Cultivation.— Mr. W. is con- 

 vinced that the day is near when, if we 

 want the best flowers, we shall grow our 

 carnations all summer long in green- 

 houses just as florists do chrysanthe- 

 mums nowadays, and with this end in 

 view he is considering building new green- 

 houses with provision for more ventil- 

 ation. 



His greenhouses are new, short span 

 to the south, 20 feet wide by 144 feet 

 long, and five of them are joined together 

 in one block, ridge- and furrow fashion, 

 the space under the gutter of the furrow 

 being open between the houses. 



The glass is double thick, American 

 made and in 24x16 inch panes, and it is 

 all butted together, none of it is over- 

 lapped. No putty is used in bedding the 

 glass. .\ string of hard wove cotton fish 

 line is run along the bars, the glass edges 

 rest on this and the cap of the sash bar 

 being screwed down tight the whole is kept 

 perfectly solid. Mr. Ward is eulogistic in 

 its praise. 



Ventilation is at the top ot the long 

 or north slope, and opens at.the ridge, 

 also in the case of thetwo outside ranges, 

 front ventilation is provided for. 



The benches are lour and five feet wide 

 (but four feet is advised as beingthe best) 

 and raised above ground a little over two 

 feet to the bottom or just two 

 feet six inches from the ground level 

 to the top of the bench. The posts 

 are of locust, and the rest of the 

 lumber is hemlock that, before using, had 

 been soaked in crude oil, said to be a pre- 

 servative of wood. Mr. W. advises to 

 have the posts two feet apart, then 

 cross pieces of scantling, and the 

 bottom boards laid on lengthwise. 

 All the boards should be IH' inches thick 

 plank, in 5 inch wide strips; lay these 

 leaving -U inches between every one for 

 drainage. Then spread some rough man- 

 ure, straw, or moss over the boards in 

 the bottom to prevent the soil from fall- 

 ing through. But spent hops that had 

 been left outside for a summer to get the 

 bitterness washed out of them are recom- 

 mended as being as good as any of them. 

 The trough of the bench or bed should 

 be five inches deep inside measurement. 



The soil used is two parts in bulk of 

 rotted sod loam and one part of well 

 rotted manure; it is placed on the benches 

 four inches deep over one inch of drainage. 



Stimulants.— In the beds in hearty 

 growth and where the soil is well per- 

 meated with roots, a sprinkling of old 

 chicken manure composted with earth 

 was strev.'n over the ground under the 

 jilants, and some of the beds were top- 

 dressed lightlv with well rotted sheep 

 manure. The chicken manure is pre- 

 ferred, but it must be used sparingly. 



Temperature. — A low temperature, 

 free ventilation and good light are some 

 of the secrets of good health, large flow- 

 ers and big stems. "Our minimum tem- 

 perature at night is 50°, and maximum 

 55°; in the day time of course it may run 

 up 10° higher." 



Shade.— Mr. W. is severely opposed to 

 shade for carnations, and is mourning 

 two mistakes in his greenhouse, well, we 

 may say three. First, he would make the 

 short span a little higher and the long 

 slope a little steeper; secondly, for carna- 

 tions he would alwa_vs build disconnected 

 greenhouses; and thirdly, connecting all 

 the greenhouses to a shed at one end is a 

 mistake because of the shade on them 

 caused by the shed in winter. But he 

 would build parallel ranges and intersect 

 them in the middle by a glass corridor 

 leading to a shed at the far end. Tdis 

 idea is shown in Gardening, page 253, 

 .\pril 15 last, when we illustrated the 

 rose houses of F. R. Pierson Co. of Scar- 

 borough, N. Y. 



Diseases. — The carnation rust is the 

 dreaded disease, and as a preventive the 

 plants are sprayed about once a fortnight 

 with Bordeaux mixture-. 



New CARN.i^TiONs.— It is generally con- 

 ceded that we must keep up our stock of 

 carnations b)' raising new varieties from 

 seed. Securing the seeds as obtained in 

 the ordinary way is not considered advis- 

 able or profitable, ever\- flower set to 

 seed has been jealously selected and care- 

 fully hand fertilized, and its pedigree 

 taken. Seedlings bloom when a year old 

 but it is not well to decide upon the 

 merits of a flower on its first blossoms; 

 the best are saved and propagated from 

 for a second year's blooming; if they 

 stand the test they are tried a third and 

 even fourth year before a decision is 

 reached as to their introduction to 

 commerce, if not discard them. It 

 isn't an uncommon thing for a first- 

 year seedling carnation to show good 

 habit and flowers and the second 

 season to turn out indift'erently. Thereis 

 a prejudice against all varieties having 

 petals inclined to incurve, they look wilted, 

 those having reflexed petals are always 

 preferred. 



Orchids. 



VflNDfl GOERULEfl. 



This is the blue flowered orchid. We 

 have a few other orchids having bluish 

 flowers but they are not ver\- showy, 

 hence seldom cultivated. Thisvandahow- 

 never is a p rfect beauty, easy to grow, 

 and certain to bloom, usually coming 

 into flower between October and New 

 Years, and lastingsomeweeksinblossom. 

 We are apt to look upon vandas gener- 

 ally as being quite tropical orchids, but 

 this species is an exception; it is indigen- 

 ous to the Khasya Hills, East Indies, 

 where it is found in the forests at an 

 attitude of2,500 to 4,000 feet, hence we 

 treat it as an orchid needing intermediate 

 warmth. 



