254 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



CHAPTER X L VIII. 

 THE INJURY TO PLANTS BY FORCING. 



Under the head of Carnations I referred to a disease 

 which was very destructive among many of the older 

 varieties of monthly Carnations, or Pinks, which we 

 have been forcing for the last twenty years. I assumed 

 that the trouble was in consequence of this excessive 

 forcing, which had so lessened the vitalitv of the plants, 

 that disease followed whenever tlie conditions were 

 slightly unfavorable, such as too wet or too dry a soil. 

 Since then, our observations have shown that nearly all 

 the varieties of Roses in use for forcing for winter flowers 

 are similarly affected. About the first oi May one 

 season I planted out in the open ground yorn^ plants, 

 that had been propagated in January, of Safrano, 

 Bon Silene, Douglas, Marechal Niel, and foui other 

 varieties, which had been used for forcing during 

 the winter. At the same time we planted out young 

 plants made from cuttings of over thirty varieties 

 of other Tea Roses, that had been grown during winter 

 in a cold house, without being forced. The plants of 

 both lots were all seemingly in a fine healthy condition: 

 but about July 1st, we found that the forced varieties 

 had not only made a much weaker growth than the 

 others, but probably twenty per cent, died outright. In 

 a conversation on this subject with Mr. Miller, the welJ- 

 kuown florist and landscape gardener of German town, 

 Pa., he cited the case of a nurseryman in England, who 

 sent out the Dahlia, " Beauty of Hastings"; the first year 

 it was exhibited from the seedling plant, it was found to 

 be so entirely double, as to have what is known as a 

 "hard center." It has been freely exhibited, and being 

 the finest of its class at that time, orders for hundreds 



