July 23, 1874. ] 



JODBNAL OF HORTICDLTORB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



CO 



PERPETUAL-FLOWEEING CARNATIONS. 



HERE is no more beautiful and sweeter flower 

 than the Carnation, no plant so intractable 

 as regards training, none so ungainly and 

 uninviting in aspect. It is quite necessary 

 to state this, for anyone attempting its cul- 

 ture must not expect to find in the Tree 

 Carnation neatness of habit, nor need oom- 

 pactnees be sought by an infinity of stakes, 

 and twisting and twirling the shoots about 

 them until a balloon or other form be secured. 

 The shoots are so brittle, so apt to snap at the joints, 

 that very careful handling is at all times necessary. The 

 best form of plant that I have tried is cylindrical, a few 

 neat stakes, painted green, being placed all round the 

 pot, and the shoots trained on them in a spiral manner; 

 this tends to induce the plants to put out shoots near the 

 base, whereas when the shoots are trained erect those 

 for future Howering are put forth at the upper part of 

 the plant, and the plants attain a height altogether dis- 

 proportionate to the furnishing of the base. Even young 

 plants from cuttings have the tendency to grow tall. 

 Stopping will, of course, encourage the production of 

 shoots from the base, hut they are slow to appear, and 

 after all will grow as tall as the shoots first stopped would 

 do before throwing for flower. I like the plants, however, 

 to have three or more — in fact, as many shoots as can be 

 had before allowing them to run up ; but then stopping 

 for the production of side shoots must be practised for a 

 considerable time before the desii-ed result is obtained, 

 and the number of flowers is not increased to such an 

 extent as to warrant this course of preparation being 

 followed. It will take two years, and in some instances 

 three years, to form a plant well furnished at the base, 

 the plants during that time requiring considerable atten- 

 tion in watering, and taking up in winter, when they 

 must have protection, space that in many cases can ill 

 be spared ; whilst if we content ourselves with a smaller 

 plant that may be stopped once or not at all, it will give 

 us nearly as many, sometimes quite as many, flowers in 

 twelve months as the plants two or three years old. 



Young plants flower more freely, and have finer 

 flowers than older plants ; they take up considerably 

 less pot room, less head room, and are passable in ap- 

 pearance, which is more than can be said of plants after 

 the first year of flowering. I have not seen a really 

 passable plant of a Tree Carnation or Pieotee ; I have 

 heard of them, and should, indeed, be glad if anyone would 

 let out the secret of forming a really handsome plant. 

 I know some are of dwarf, I ought to say herbaceous, 

 habit, the flower stems rising from the plant at no great 

 distance from the soil, dying down after flowering, the 

 young shoots not produced upon their stems, but rising 

 from the base, and so preventing that leggiuess com- 

 plained of in the Tree Carnation. Such, however, are 

 not Tree Carnations ; the flowers are not produced in 

 succession, but all at a time, the flowering being then 

 over for the season : hence they are not Tree nor Per- 

 No. 695.— Vol XXVII., New Semes. 



petual-flowering Carnations, though they may be the off- 

 spring of plants having the Tree and Perpetual-flowering 

 habit thoroughly fixed. It is noteworthy that seedlings 

 from a Tree Carnation will afford both the Tree and the 

 border type of plant ; some will grow M or more feet in 

 height without putting out a side shoot, and when they 

 do so it will be at an undesirable distance from the base 

 of the plant. This last is the true type of the Tree Car- 

 nation, and the only one exhibiting the Perpetual-flower- 

 ing character. It does not flower in summer if the seed 

 is sown in the April of the previous year, or not until 

 late in summer, and the flowers are slowly and succes- 

 sionally produced ; the majority of such plants do not 

 flower until late in autumn, and in a suitable tempera- 

 ture (50') their blooming is prolonged until spring. These 

 are the most valuable, they flower at a time when sweet- 

 scented and useful flowers for cutting are scarce, and few 

 are so enduring in a cut state. 



The other kind, resulting from the seed of a Tree Car- 

 nation, has no claim to the name, nor to be considered 

 Perpetual-flowering. It should be placed under a distinct 

 head. Its merits are dwarfness of plant, profusion of 

 bloom ; the flowers are as sweet, but not so large as those 

 of the Tree Carnation, having more the character of a 

 Pink than of a Carnation, and having the toothed or ser- 

 rated edge, showing the tendency to revert to the species, 

 whilst many such seedlings have very fairly-formed 

 flowers, though with narrow petals. The flowers aro 

 good for cutting, and more freely i^roduoed than in the 

 florists' varieties. In this kind fresh shoots spring from 

 the base of the plant, and do not extend upwards nearly so 

 much as the others without flowering, the height varying 

 from one foot to three or four. I have one that does not 

 exceed a foot in height, with rather small flowers, smooth 

 broad petals, and good in form, it being a Pieotee with 

 a white ground and maroon edge ; another, rather tall 

 (2 feet 6 inches), producing its shoots from the base, has 

 large flowers 3 inches across the base or lower petals, it 

 is a yellow ground with a carmine edge — a Pieotee, of 

 course, and a perfect half ball. There is also among some 

 seedlings a pure white Carnation superior to The Bride, 

 having the dwarf habit; and another of a monstrous 

 character, white ground with purple edge, and measuring 

 4h inches across. It is a sort of flower within a flower, 

 not uncommon to the Rose, but, unlike the latter, form- 

 ing a green centre, the Pieotee having two perfect calyces, 

 one inside the other, and what is most remarkable, the 

 petals of the pod within the pod appear simultaneously, 

 and so we have a lai-ge flower of many petals. 



Allusion is made to these seedlings not with the view 

 of praising them, for there are no doubt others vastly supe- 

 rior — though some of the best named varieties do not put 

 them to shame— in colour and form ; whilst for profusion 

 of bloom I have no hesitation in pronouncing in favour 

 of seedlings. They have not all double flowers, but the 

 single are not more than a sixth, and even the single 

 flowers are not altogether useless, nor wanting in scent. 

 Seedlings are also freer in growth than plants perpetuated 

 from cultingg, and come very true to character. Seeds in 



No. 1S47.— Vol. LII., Old Seeies. 



