60 PICTORIAL PRACTICAL CARNATION GROWING. 
found, and most experts pot their rooted layers, and winter them 
in frames. 
While the writer avoids the presumption of teaching the leading 
exhibitors how to grow Carnations, he yet has doubts as to the 
wisdom of glass for wintering. In his own experience, he has found 
that plants in frames are a constant source of anxiety during the 
winter. They are particularly liable to mould, even when given 
plenty of room and abundance of air in favourable weather. After 
losing several hundreds of plants, he resolved to plant the rooted 
layers straight out into beds, and has had no reason to regret the 
practice. Mould can be kept under with greater ease in the open 
air than in frames, and if there is a certain wastage of grass, and 
only a small plant remains when spring arrives, it develops very 
rapidly. A raised and well-drained position is chosen, so that there 
may be no fear of stagnant moisture about the plants. 
Amateurs who do not grow for show, but fcr ordinary results in 
beds and borders, are advised to try the open air treatment. The 
Carnation is a hardy plant, and although flowers of the finest exhi- 
bition quality may not be possible out of doors, very nice blooms 
can be got. 
Where potting for wintering in frames is practised, the plants 
should be carefully taken up with a trowel while the soil is moist, 
in order to get a good ball of earth with the roots. With care, 
the roots are neither bared nor broken, and only a very slight check 
to growth is imparted. The plants may be potted singly in 60’s or 
in pairs in 48’s, taking care to drain the pots. A compost of loam 
3 parts, leaf mould 1 part, and a good dash of sand, is suitable. 
Plunge the pots in cinders ina frame. M, N, and O, Fig. 26, give 
the details. 
Chapter Vi.—Culture in the Garden. 
WE have seen how Carnations may be raised from seed, cuttings, and 
layers, and by one or other of these processes we have got a stock of 
plants. We may now proceed to consider methods of bringing them to 
perfection (1) for the garden ; (2) for exhibition. 
The beauty of Carnations when grown in beds by themselves is 
fully realised when a garden is visited where these lovely flowers are 
specialised, such as that of Mr. Martin R. Smith at Hayes, Kent. 
The glorious flowers, with their soft foil of glaucons, grey green 
grass, are markedly effective. It may be asserted with little fear of 
contradiction that no garden plant is capable of giving brighter or 
more pleasing floral pictures than the Carnation. 
Where a large collection is grown they may be planted in a series 
of beds skirting the lawn, or in a group of rectangular beds with 
