268 ON THE CULTURE OP CARNATIONS. 



to succeed ; and I think I may say I have found it to succeed a very 

 great deal better, and you have more chance of the piping and striking 

 well by following this method than by most others. 



It may now be advisable to say a little about the winter situation, 

 &c. &c. Florists who have the means of wintering them in frames 

 seldom run the risk of keeping them in the open ground during 

 winter. I may here perhaps be allowed to say, that one cause of the 

 great losses of tine collections that many young florists have to com- 

 plain of, during the winter I mean, is owing to their stock or collec- 

 tion of Carnations being placed in a situation where there is either 

 too much heat or damp. Too much heat of course draws the plants, 

 and consequently they are rendered incapable of bearing the cold of 

 our spring; and the florist, instead of having a fine bloom from those 

 plants which have probably been in a slight hot-bed all winter, finds 

 that they, on being turned out into the open ground in March, are 

 too fragile and delicate to bear up against the sharp winds so common 

 in this and the following month ; and in this way he probably loses 

 a valuable collection. On the other hand, too much cold, and par- 

 ticularly damp, ought carefully to be avoided, for this is almost as 

 certain to cause you to lose your collection as too much warmth. I 

 think all who follow Mr. Hogg's hints respecting their treatment 

 when in an inactive state in winter, will be rewarded by having a 

 stock of strong and healthy plants able to be turned out in March 

 and bloom well in summer. I may, previous to saying more, ob- 

 serve that at the bottom of the frames four or five inches of coal- 

 ashes ought to be strewed for the pots to stand on. This keeps out 

 worms, and at the same time protects the fibres during very severe 

 weather : they should be placed also near the glass. Hogg, amongst 

 other directions respecting the manner of preserving this plant in 

 winter, recommends " that the frames may be rested or placed on 

 bricks, to admit of a free circulation of air below among the pots ; 

 the frames in some seasons may remain raised in this manner even 

 till Christmas, for it is quite time enough to remove the bricks and 

 let the frames down close to the ground when the frost appears to set 

 in. Let your plants have all the benefit of the air you can by drawing 

 the lights off in fine dry weather, and by giving air in wet from be- 

 hind. In frosty weather, when not very severe, they should be 

 exposed to the air for a few hours in the middle of the day. Decern- 



