LESRARY 
AE Yv YORE 
SUT ANICAL 
PICTORIAL PRACTICAL —®#pee. 
CARNATION GROWING. 
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Chapter 1.—Past and Present. 
HERE is no true florist but loves to compare notes with old- 
time growers, and to talk of the flowers of the past. He may 
have a deep sense of the value of modern varieties, but that 
very feeling leads him into communion with the old workers, for he 
first interests himself in the raisers of his own favourites, and then 
in the means by which they developed their work. 
Shortly before penning these lines, the writer stood in a large 
conservatory filled with modern examples of the Chrysanthemum 
fertiliser’s skill, yet no variety interested his companions more than 
the old Chrysanthemum Indicum, which the owner had been able to 
procure, and which he had placed among the new sorts as a com- 
parison. It was impossible to look from the old to the new without 
a grateful acknowledgment—albeit unspoken—of the patience and 
skill of the florists who had effected such marvellous changes. 
The plant from which our modern Carnations have sprung is not 
under our eyes ; if it were we should see a contrast quite as full of 
interest as, if a degree less striking than, that between the old and 
new Chrysanthemums. 
The writer’s personal recollections of Carnations and their raisers 
extend back some twenty-five years, and in that period enormous 
strides have been made. But the raisers of the early ’eighties were 
regarded as having brought their tlowers very near to perfection. 
New sorts were few and far between ; when they came there was a 
tremendous stir in the camp of the specialists. It should be noted 
that these novelties were almost exclusively Show sorts, such as 
Bizarres and Flakes, and White Ground Picotees. The Carnation as 
a garden flower was almost a negligible quantity, and Yellow Grounds 
= were little grown. Selfs were not very highly esteemed. Now Selfs 
cry and Yellow Grounds are in the ascendant. 
The writer dates his special interest in Carnations from two great 
events—an inspection of one of the Carnation shows organised by the 
>= late Mr. E. S. Dodwell at Oxford, and a visit to Gravetye Manor, 
Sussex, shortly after its acquisition by Mr. Wm. Robinson. 
The schools of these two great growers were absolutely opposed to 
each other. When Mr. Dodwell acquired his great reputation as a 
Carnation grower he was a business man, and resided in a London 
suburb. His flowers were grown in a back garden. Bold effects 
