16 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



ON WINTERING CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES. 



BY A SUBSCRIBER. 



HE mode of wintering these beautiful flowers has been so 

 often given to the public by the largest and best growers 

 of the present day, that it may appear something Like 

 presumption in me to offer anything with a promise of 

 being either new or interesting. But in compliance 

 with the request of some of my brother novices, who witnessed the 

 healthy appearance of my plants all through last winter, which was 

 by far the most trying I have known since I have grown this 

 goddess of flowers, I will, with your permission, lay before the readers 

 of the Ploral "World, as concisely as I can, my system of manage- 

 ment. I will not say that my plan is the best, but it shall be what 

 it professes to be — namely, a plain account of the treatment given 

 to them throughout the winter. I ought here to say, that I am 

 but a very small grower to many of your readers, as my stock for 

 blooming never exceeds three hundred pair, but, of course, I winter 

 double that number. The kind of frame, or rather pit, I use, is 

 different to any I have seen, but at the same time very simple, and 

 useful in the summer for other things when the carnations are in 

 their summer quarters. My pits are fifteen feet long by four wide ; 

 I build three rows of single brick piers, five feet apart in the rows, 

 the two outside rows are two feet high, the middle one two feet four 

 and a half inches, or one brick higher than the outside ones. On 

 these I lay a plank, three inches thick by six inches wide, the long 

 way of the pier. I then get some common house slate, and place one 

 on the outside plank, the other on the centre one, and nail each end 

 of the slate to the planks, to prevent it slipping, taking care to 

 place the elates about one inch apart, to admit a thorough circulation 

 of air to the roots of the plants ; by having the centre higher than 

 the outsides it forms a slope, and prevents the water from lodging 

 in any part of the pit. I then make a frame-work of board one inch 

 and a" half thick, and one foot four inches deep ; this is placed on the 

 wall plates which form the pit. I put in my drainage six inches 

 thick all along the' pit ; what I use is four inches of coarse coke, 

 and two inches of ashes on the top. I then put in my soil, and fill 

 up even with the frame-work. I have a span-roof frame for the top, 

 with three glazed lights on each side, hung from the top with hinges, 

 so that the lights from one side will turn over the ridge and fall flat 

 on the other ; the lights are six inches wider than the pit, so that 

 the rain is thrown clear from the pit. I leave a space of five inches 

 between the frame-work of the pit and the frame of the roof, 

 which gives a thorough ventilation of air to the plants, and by having 

 the lights six inches wider than the pit, it prevents the rain blowing 

 in on the plants. My pits run north and south ; on the east side 

 and north end of the pit I have a board with hinges screwed to the 

 pit to shut up in case of very cold cutting winds from the north-east. 

 The south and west sides do not require it, aa I don't think we ever 



