TREATMENT OF ROOTED CUTTINGS 77 



want, but of the newer sorts, where the stock is limited, 

 it might pay better to sacrifice a few flowers and get the 

 plants to furnish you the required cuttings for a large 

 stock for next year. This you can accomplish by cutting 

 back the flowering stems. 



CUTTINGS THAT ARE ROOTED 



There is only one thing to do with rooted Carnation 

 cuttings in the sand — get them out and pot them up into 

 clean, sweet soil, or into flats. Some growers even put the 

 plants in benches at once and keep them there until they 

 are planted out. Generally this will be at the end of 

 January or early in February, and from then on until the 

 middle of March. It is better for the young plants to 

 get into fresh sweet soil, with but little or no manure, 

 than into the richest kind of soil that is not sweet. Grow 

 your small stock in a cool house, let the plants form a 

 nice lot of healthy roots and avoid a soft growth; by so 

 doing you lay the foundation for a healthy plant and a 

 good constitution. The Carnation is a cold house plant, 

 indeed almost hardy, no matter to how much heat we may 

 see fit to expose it. If you are anxious to keep your 

 stock healthy, do not pot up a cutting which does not 

 look the way it should; any doubtful one will never amount 

 to anything and it isn't worth running chances with. Make 

 use of a nice, sunny bench for the young stock, and the 

 best ventilated house, and if for any reason you cannot 

 maintain a higher temperature than 45 or 46 dcg. during 

 the real cold nights, that is far better than to make it a 

 practice to keep the stock at 53 deg. 



Avoid allowing the rooted cuttings to make an inch 

 or two of growth before they are removed from the sand. 



