50 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



to wilt the cuttings we tack cheese 

 cloth up to the glass. That is far bet 

 ter than laying on and taking off news 

 papers. The cloth is heavy enough to 

 shed the rays of the sun at any time 

 and is far enough above the cuttings to 

 give them sufficient light at all times. 



For the cutting bed three inches of 

 coarse, clean river or lake sand is suf 

 ficient. As a consolation to those who 

 do not have lake sand near them I will 

 say that for the past ten years I have 

 propagated in bank sand containing 

 even some loam in fine particles, and 

 I have not lost on an average ten per 

 cent of the cuttings, and in free root 

 ing varieties like Lawson scarcely that. 

 There is little danger of the trouble 

 some fungus among your carnation cut 

 tings, because the temperature should 

 not be high enough for its vegetation. 

 But as a preventive and for another 

 reason Ave always water the sand with 

 the animoniaeal solution before each 

 batch of cuttings is put in. 



\Ve have also rooted carnation cut 

 tings very successfully in sifted coke 

 and hard coal ashes. They will root 

 about as quickly in ashes as in sand 

 and i see no reason w T hy ashes are not 

 more often used where sand is not easily 

 procured. 



Watering is a matter of pure sense 

 and judgment. If the glass is covered 

 with snow or the weather is dull and 

 sunless we water every three or four 

 days. If the weather is bright and sun- 



plants. Those cuttings nowadays seem 

 to run up to flower and are not what 

 we want for making a stout free grow 

 ing plant. The propagator of large 

 quantities, or those wishing to raise 

 the largest possible number of a new 

 variety, may take every green shoot that 

 will make a plant or root. But that 

 is not the way to perpetuate your plants 

 for the best results. Cuttings should 

 be taken only from the healthiest plants, 

 and it will pay to also choose from the 

 plants bearing the largest and most 

 perfect flowers, for like begets like. The 

 offshoots from the flowering stem make 

 fine cuttings (these are the cuttings uni 

 formly taken by good growers for their 

 stock), but they should be taken not 

 too low down, where they are hard and 

 woody, nor too near the flower, where 

 they are small and spindling. The size 

 of the cutting is not material; it is its 

 proper age or firmness that is of con 

 sequence. 



Some growers just tear off the cut 

 tings and put them in the sand as they 

 are pulled off. I prefer to cut the small 

 est possible piece off the bottom. As 

 to trimming the leaves, generally the 

 two lower ones are best removed. 

 Shearing off the tops of the leaves does 

 not hurt the cuttings, nor does it help 

 them to root; it is done merely to 

 allow you to get more cuttings into the 

 same surface of sand. The distance 

 apart to place the cuttings in the sand 

 is merely a question of variety. Some 



A House of Carnation Cuttings. 



ny, allowing plenty of ventilation, then 

 every second day. And if you have oc 

 casion to propagate late in March the 

 cuttings will take water every day. 



In the early days of carnation grow 

 ing, before flowers were picked with 

 long stems, we used for cuttings mostly 

 the young growths from the bottom, 

 those that would grow up and produce 

 flowers, and they made good vigorous 



need more room than others, but the 

 cuttings should be at least one inch into 

 the sand in straight rows, and the man 

 that cannot draw with an old knife a 

 perfectly straight line across three or 

 four feet of propagating bed without 

 the aid of a straight edge should be sent 

 back to washing pots. 



In a temperature of 50 degrees at 

 night the cuttings will root in five weeks, 



but varieties differ considerably in this 

 respect. Some cuttings (of roses for 

 instance) are best potted up as soon 

 as the roots have started out a fourth 

 of an inch, but a carnation I would 

 rather have roots an inch long. Some 

 plant from the cutting beds into flats 

 or on benches in three or four inches 

 of soil, giving them room enough to re 

 main till planting out time. Some pot 

 them first into 2-inch, or perhaps 2%- 

 inch pots and later shift them into 3-inch 

 pots. If early propagated an excellent 

 plan is to pot into 2-inch and in six or 

 seven weeks, or as soon as the roots are 

 crowded, to plant them out in four inches 

 of soil. This way they lift with a fine 

 ball of roots and should be strong plants 

 with several breaks from the bottom. 



After the first week from the sand 

 they will be well rooted in the pots 

 or flats and should be given full sun 

 light and plenty of air. As planting 

 out time approaches you will have stop 

 ped firing in the houses, so a good light 

 exposure there will do as well for the 

 plants as anywhere, but if crowded for 

 room a coldframe is quite as good a 

 place and even better as you can re 

 move the sash entirely on mild days 

 and thus prepare in the best way for 

 planting in the field. We always like 

 to have the plants early enough 

 to have pinched or stopped them once 

 before planting out time. 



Field Culture. 



Don t put off planting time. The 

 carnation is not a tender plant; it is 

 almost a truly hardy plant. In our 

 latitude the end of April or very early 

 in May is late enough. If you defer 

 planting till end of May you have lost 

 a month s growth. Perhaps no crop 

 should be grown year after year for 

 many years on the same spot. We know 

 this is very wrong for some, but we 

 have grown carnations three consecutive 

 years on the same ground and have not 

 noticed the slightest ill effects. We use 

 a light dressing of stable manure every 

 spring and plow deep, not less than 

 eight inches. 



We plant twelve inches between plants 

 and fifteen inches between rows and 

 leave out every sixth row. Be sure to 

 plant in straight rows both ways; that 

 allows you to run your Planet, Jr., cul 

 tivator both ways. This little cultiva 

 tor saves you lots of labor and does 

 about all the work, yet two or three 

 times during the season you muse go 

 over them with the hand hoe and loosen 

 up the soil close to the plants. We 

 don t hoe primarily to kill weeds. We 

 hoe or cultivate to keep the soil loose, 

 and incidentally we of course destroy 

 all the weeds. After a heavy rain when 

 the ground is just friable seems the best 

 time of all to hoe. Then the opera 

 tion ^ a pleasure and it s a blessing 

 to the plants. You can almost see them 

 grow. Yet we do not always wait for a 

 rain. In long dry spells we cultivate 

 once a week. 



For years I practiced and preached 

 watering when the plants were put out. 

 Not surface watering, but a little water 



