164 



HORTICULTUEE 



Augui-t 7, :91j 



CARNATIONS IN THE SOUTH 



(A paper read before The Texas State Florists' Association by Bird Forrest of Waxahachie, Tex.) 



■"Growing Carnations for Profit," 

 means growing them so as to get the 

 very largest possible returns from the 

 plants with the smallest possible out- 

 lay, consistent with growing good 

 stock, and the profits will be larger if 

 you err on the side of more attention 

 than is absolutely necessary, than they 

 wUI if you are a few hours late in 

 watering, a few days late in putting 

 on supports, or cultivating, and neg- 

 lect the red spider till he gets hold. 



Our conditions are entirely different 

 in many respects, to those of our 

 brothers further north. Our stock 

 must be rooted much earlier to be es- 

 tablished in the pots before the sun 

 gets too hot, and to be ready for our 

 earlier planting in the field. Also the 

 period when there are no outdoor flow- 

 ers is tfiuch shorter here. So, we must 

 use every effort to get as much as pos- 

 sible out of our stock during our short- 

 er period. This makes it necessary 

 that we have heavy, stocky plants to 

 bench; plants that will get right to 

 work; that we give them the best of 

 soil in the benches, and constant care 

 and attention; to see that they are 

 planted just the right depth; that they 

 get enough, and still not too much 

 water; that weeds and grass are kept 

 pulled out, and soil frequently stirred. 

 Effective supports should be put on 

 early. Given good plants at benching 

 time, the year's returns depend on con- 

 stant and prompt attention to the 

 needs of the plants. 



The varieties of carnations we now 

 grow, originated in a cooler climate 

 than ours. The cool nights come 

 earlier in the fall and start the plants 

 off vigorously while ours are swelter- 

 ing in the heat. This disadvantage can 

 be overcome to some extent by close 

 attention to watering and spraying. 

 Can't some of you more experienced 

 growers breed up a strain of carnation 

 that will be, you might say. native to 

 our climate and more resistant to our 

 hot, dry summer atmosphere? 1 he 

 proposed greenhouse at College Sta- 

 tion would be useful along this line. 

 Our greatest enemies to the carnation 

 are red spider and stem rot. Red 

 spider is easily handled by promptly 

 spraying with arsenic every spot where 

 they appear; one pound to ten pounds 

 sugar made to a thick syrup or paste 

 with warm water (not cooked). One 

 ounce of this mixture to one gallon of 

 water, put on with compressed air 

 sprayer will keep them cleaned out. 

 The mixture is not strong enough to be 

 dangerous, as you would have to eat a 

 big bunch of stems to get enough to 

 hurt you. The past two years we have 

 practically eliminated stem rot in the 



greenhouses by having our soil clean, 

 clean benches and proper attention to 

 watering at benching time. 



We firmly believe in cement benches 

 as the very best way to handle carna- 

 tions inside. Our benches are cast in 

 one piece, five feet wide, six inches 

 deep, with plenty of drainage holes. 

 When changing the soil several years 

 ago, we emptied one bench, cleaned 

 and whitewashed it, and filled it as we 

 emptied the next one; that is, a man 

 would carry out a bucket of old soil 

 from bench number 2 and bring back 

 a bucket of new soil for bench number 

 1, using the same bucKei. This we 

 found would leave a small quantity of 

 old soil with the new — enough to trans- 

 fer any disease or fungus that might 

 be in the soil. We had an attack of 

 club root four years ago. We then 

 adopted the method of cleaning soil 

 out of the entire house, washing the 

 benches good and tlien giving them a 

 thorough whitewashing. Also white- 

 washing shovels and buckets before 

 handling the new soil to fill the 

 benches. This almost eliminated the 

 trouble, but we still had a little of it. 

 We thought possibly the infection was 

 carried on the carnation support 

 stakes of which there is one to every 

 plant. So, last season, in addition to 

 other precautions, we soaked the 

 stakes in whitewash. The past season 

 we have been entirely free of it. In- 

 fection can also be carried in freesia 

 and gladiolus bulbs that are grown in 

 carnation benches. But these can 

 easily be cleaned by washing in for- 

 maldehyde solution. In cleaning ours, 

 we also put them in a candy bucket 

 and poured a teaspoonful of carbon bi- 

 sulphide on them; putting a paper over 

 the top to keep the fumes in. One or 

 the other, or both of these plans effec- 

 tively cleaned them. 



No form of bench can be so easily 

 cleaned and disinfected as the one 

 piece cement bench. Also, it lasts a life- 

 time and cost of material is less than 

 the cost of lumber to make the same 

 bench. A cement bench five feet wide 

 with three rows of legs spaced four 

 feet apart costs less than thirty-five 

 cents per running foot, including labor, 

 gravel at $;'.00 per yard, cement at 50c. 

 per sack. We have on exhibition here 

 a set of pictures of a cement bench in 

 course of construction with notes on 

 same. We will be glad to give any in- 

 formation wanted to those inquiring. 

 No, we don't want to sell you one, but 

 just to help along. This may be con- 

 sidered a digression from the subject 

 in hand, but we believe anything that 

 tends to lessen the cost of production 

 is pertinent to the subject, and cement 

 benches that never need repairs, do 

 not decay, do not hold bugs, insects 

 and fungus diseases from year to 

 year are certainly an item when it 

 comes to keeping down expenses. To 

 get back to carnations, these are a 

 few of the things we have found es- 

 sential: Healthy stock from which to 

 take cuttings (we do not like to pull 



leaves off the cultiups or top them as 

 both leave open wounds), an absolute- 

 ly clean cutting bench, with good 

 drainage and clean sand. Also we have 

 better success without bottom heat. 

 Cuttings spaced far enough apart to 

 see the sand freely between each one; 

 watered well when put in, and 

 sprinkled lightly every sun-shiny day. 

 Covered with papers the first two 

 weeks on sun-shiny day; papers put on 

 about 9,30 or 10,30 A, M., and taken off 

 about 3.00 P. M. Our best plants have 

 always come from cuttings put in sand 

 December 10th, to January 1st. 



Close attention to the little plants 

 in pots to see that they are kept in 

 good shape (we keep them in a cool 

 house), planting to the field March 

 10th to 20th; kept perfectly clean and 

 plowed at least once a week. To get 

 shapely plants, this is the most im- 

 portant time. Keep them topped and 

 standing straight up. Benched June 

 25th to July 10th. See that they are 

 not planted deeper than they were in 

 the field. If planted deeper it is an 

 invitation to stem rot. We plant ours 

 seven rows across a five-foot bench, 

 eleven inches between the rows. We 

 have had excellent success planting in 

 soil made by high water, deposited 

 along the creek. Any soil that will 

 grow bloodweeds twelve to fifteen feet 

 high, will grow good carnations. We 

 haul our soil up one year ahead, put in 

 layers five loads of soil to one of ma- 

 nure. Manure from cotton seed meal 

 fed cattle. This turned over twice to 

 get it in good shape. 



In conclusion, let me say that if 

 you have good carnations and plenty 

 of them and anv k'nd of market for 

 them, the profit will show up all right. 



ONE WOBURN GROWER. 

 We have never seen a more promis- 

 ing field of fine asters than that of C. 

 B. Johnson at Woburn, Mass. The 

 "astermums" are especially handsome 

 and are already producing heavily. Mr. 

 .Johnson, who is known as a very suc- 

 cessful carnation grower, is busy trans- 

 planting from the field to the houses. 

 He grows about 25,000 in which the va- 

 rieties White Perfection. White Won- 

 der, Matchless, Beacon, Harry Fenn 

 and Benora figure most prominently. 

 Philadelphia he will discard as a poor 

 keeper and this will be his last year 

 with White Wonder, White Perfection 

 proving to be a much better keeper 

 and shipper. In the matter of plants 

 Matchless is far in the lead. Mr. John- 

 son has a large plantation of candytuft 

 in frames, seed sown June 15th, which 

 is expected to give an abundant and 

 useful fall crop at a time when fine 

 white flowers will be needed. It is a 

 great pleasure as well as very instruc- 

 tive to inspect such a place as Mr. 

 Johnson's where every foot of ground 

 is made to yield to its full capacity 

 and resourceful intelligent industry is 

 paving the way to prosperity and af- 

 fluence. 



