Carnation Culture 



By W. R. Fowkes. 



The Aiuencaii canialiun today stands pre-eminent as 

 an indispensable flowering plant both for private grow- 

 ers and commercial florists. The development of the plant 

 from the once insignificant Dianthiis Caryophyllus to the 

 present glorious long stems, large majestic, as well as 

 fragrant blossoms, its freedom of flowering and almost 

 freedom from disease attacks places it as secnnd to none; 

 even the rose cannot at present outrival its splendor. 



The carnation is easily propagated from cuttings. 1 

 will here state that my remarks appertain more to the 

 private grower, who has to grow fine blooms, whether to 

 adorn his employer's home or to wear. This in itself is 

 an incentive to a gardener to try to outrival his neighbor 

 in the producing of extra fine blooms. 



Propagation may be commenced in January, and if 

 good cuttings can be had, even in December. It is an 

 advantage, because the plants have not by this date been 

 highly fed. Select cuttings with great care, as future 

 success depends on the start in the first stage. The best 

 and earliest blooms can be had from cuttings taken from 

 the flower stems and the nearer the bud the cutting is 

 taken, the earlier it will flower. 



The usual house will do for propagating, that is, the 

 north side of a rose or other house, as they are usually 

 built, and there is no necessity for a special structure, for 

 if a position of a bench in the carnation house is utilized, 

 provided the cuttings are watered daily for the first week 

 and shaded with a strip of cheese cloth from the sun for 

 two days, they will he all right. 



As soon as rooted, pot in 2j4 inch pots, using a compost 

 screened through an ^ inch sieve of loam, sand and leaf 

 soil and no manure. 



As they advance, pot again into threes, using a compost 

 with a little old cow manure in, and keep near the glass 

 to induce a sturdy growth. They can again be potted 

 into four-inch pots and placed in a cold frame in March, 

 being careful to protect from frost or cutting winds. 

 Xow in order to obtain early blooms, and most of us are 

 expected and like to exhibit in the fall, a start should be 

 made in May with the house for the reception of plants 

 for their summer quarters. I am not mentioning field 

 culture for early crops, because that part is best suited 

 to the commercial grower who cannot afford to grow 

 his plants inside all summer. He has his bedding plants 

 and others to grow to turn an honest dollar in to help 

 pay his expenses, but with a private grower on a first 

 class place, expense in competition with pleasure antici- 

 pated is a ilifferent proposition. 



The soil can be cut the first week in April, and the 

 best fiberous sod to be obtained is not too good but is 

 more in order than any artificial feeding afterwards. 

 One-fourth cow manure mixed with the soil and carried 

 on to the benches, which should receive previously a coat 

 of lime wash and sulphtuv 



Turn the soil over once daily, and when it is in proper 

 condition level off with a rake and spread a fine coating 

 of wood ashes on top. which can be forked in and after- 

 wards the bench can be pressed fairly hard, ])ut not like 

 a mushroom bed. 



f'lanting can be commenced any date after ^^ay 1.^. 

 and the space required is according to the strength of the 

 varieties being grown. When planted, give a good water- 

 ing, and it should not be necessary to shade at all when 

 turned out of pots in the manner described. All that is 

 required during the next three and a half months is 

 careful watering and light cultivation of the surface soil. 



Watering, we are all agreed un, must be done, but 

 syringing is with many a different matter. Scientists 

 claim that as the carnation comes from Dianthus, which 

 was formerly a rock weed growing on a high altitude 

 where the air was rather dry, does not require water on 

 its foliage ; also that it is noticed in dull weather that the 

 bloom on the plant's growth is more pronounced than in 

 liright weather, which seems to be an indicator of pro- 

 tection from damp. 



Xow the idea as applied to the primitive carnation is 

 all right, but to apply the safme dry treatment in our long 

 hot, dry summers when evaporation is rapid would only 

 court disaster and the plants would become infested with 

 red spider. A few sprayings lightly applied with a hose 

 with a man who knows how is not only important, but 

 necessary; also damp the floors well if of cement or drv 

 boards. 



The plants require several pinchings to induce a bushy 

 growth, but eight weeks must be given generally for the 

 last stop for a certain flower to be cut. When the stems 

 commence to push up, the plants require a light feed, 

 and dried bone manure rubbed through an inch screen is 

 a grand food to commence with in addition to a fair 

 sprinkling of bone flour. Potash is a necessity and can 

 be applied in wood ashes, sulphate of potash or Scotch 

 soot, which also has a number of high fertilizing proper- 

 ties. 



The temperature during summer cannot be regulated, 

 only cooled oft' by the spraying and damping, but when 

 fall commences and the befauty looked for begins to show, 

 then the best temperature is fifty degrees nights, rising to 

 seventy degrees during the day of course. All the air 

 must be given cautiously and with all sense, the small 

 things, namely watering and ventilating carefully being 

 the most necessary and important ones. Never over- 

 water, and in cold weather syringing must be dispensed 

 with. 



I slated in my first lines that the carnation is almost 

 immune from disease, and in comparison with the rose 

 and certain other favorites it is almost immune. Rust 

 and stem rot are the worst the grower has to combat. 



The writer a short time ago had the misfortune to ob- 

 tain his soil from underneath trees, and the manure was 

 from a barn where the cattle were bedded on wood shav- 

 ings, and although fine plants when first put in the bench, 

 a number of them (10 per cent, of all) succumbed to 

 stem rot, but, with the remedies tried, Bordeaux mixture, 

 sulphur, charcoal, du.st, etc., not any were successful, so 

 Fungine was tried with marvellous success, and after- 

 wards the plants were sprayed once every two weeks. 

 It is a grand fungicide, and if used from the early start 

 will keep away rust and stem rot. 



The varieties now evolved make one think the limit has 

 been reached, but year after year brings out some grand 

 novelties which have not come without much care and 

 pains. Dailledouze. I believe, were the first to intro- 

 duce the carnation in America, and they dese^^^e great 

 credit for all their efforts, the new Enchantress Supreme 

 being one of their latest grand achievements. C. W. 

 Ward, who has raised so many good ones, has now 

 given to the world another grand white, the variety 

 Matchless. Fisher and others are all deserving of their 

 grand efforts to glorify and bring to perfection the most 

 useful and one of nature's most lovely gifts — the .Ameri- 

 can carnation. 



