114 THE CARNATION MANUAL. 



be covered with it. Immediately give the beds a 

 good watering with watering-pot and rose to clean 

 the foliage ; the water will carry some of the soot 

 down to the roots and stimulate the plants. They 

 will assume a darker green colour after it. 



Attention will now be required to stakmg and 

 tymg as the flower-stems run up. Also keep a sharp 

 look-out for green fly, as they are generally very 

 troublesome about this time. A dusting of tobacco- 

 powder, or a watering Avith soft soap and water, will 

 generally get rid of them. My own practice is to 

 dust with tobacco-powder, and in a day or two to 

 water them overhead with the following mixture : 

 one pound of soft soap and half a pound of sulphur 

 to sixteen gallons of water, put into a boiler and 

 boiled for two or three minutes. And I may also 

 here state that should they be attacked with fly 

 in the frames in early spring, as they very often 

 are, if the plants in pots are dipped overhead in 

 this mixture at 120^ Fah., it will eftectually clear 

 them of green-fly without the slightest injury to 

 the plants. 



As soon as the buds are far enough advanced, 

 disbudding Avill require to be attended to. If the 

 blooms are wanted for competition purposes, from 

 one to four Avill be suflicient to leave on a stem ; if 

 merely for decorative purposes, then from four to 

 a dozen buds may be left, according to the strength 

 of the plant. 



