82 CARNATIONS AND PINKS 



follows : " I am writing to ask if you could tell 

 why border Carnations are so liable to collapse 

 at this time of year. Towards the end of July 

 and the beginning of August I have them layered, 

 and every autumn I have a first-rate lot of layers 

 (rooted). As soon as they are fit I have them de- 

 tached from the parent plant, and plant them out on 

 a piece of ground that has been well dug, with a fine 

 dressing of well-decayed manure and a liberal sprink- 

 ling of lime, and as a rule these go on satisfactorily 

 until spring, when the trouble begins. They keep 

 going off, and the remaining plants look very sickly. 

 I ought perhaps to have said that the piece of ground 

 they are planted in is an old strawberry bed." We 

 sent this letter to Mr. James Douglas, the well-known 

 Carnation grower at Great Bookham, and his reply 

 was: ''This frequently occurs when the plants are in 

 full growth, and it happens to those in flower-pots 

 as well as those in the open border. I had a sad 

 experience with it a few years ago. The man who 

 had charge of my Carnations had a liking for artificial 

 manure, and applied it so freely that the growth of 

 some of the Malmaisons was extraordinary. This 

 vigour was the cause of much congratulation until 

 the growths were almost ready to be layered, when to 

 our disgust plant after plant died off ; some died even 

 after layering, before the layers were rooted. From 

 that time I have dropped the use of artificial manure 

 for my Carnations, I get better layers, and there are 

 few deaths — perhaps one in a hundred. The same 

 thing happens to Carnations outdoors when the arti- 



