CHAPTER XV. 



GROWING CARNATIONS UNDER GLASS THROUGH THE SUMMER 

 WHY HIGHER GRADE FLOWERS INCREASED COST 

 EARLIER MARKET ADVANCED PRICE 

 THE COMPENSATION. 



THE system of growing carnations under glass through the 

 summer season is yet in its experimental stage, but is 

 attracting the attention of growers near affluent markets, 

 where quality commands its price. Its advocates claim an even 

 cut of bloom, of higher grade through the season, with better 

 stems and less disease. They admit the system requires more 

 labor, expense, and closer attention, which is offset by an increased 

 price for the higher quality of goods. Some indoor growers turn 

 their plants out of two and one-half inch pots the first of April 

 directly in the soil on the benches in the house where they are to 

 remain during their blooming season. They will commence 

 flowering about the first of October, thus giving a supply at a 

 period when carnation flowers are scarce. 



Mr. Hartshorn grows his carnations outdoors for eight or ten 

 weeks and then removes them to the house bench a compromise 

 between the two methods. 



Glass affords the plants a more uniform temperature and 

 light. Light intensifies the colors of flowers, as is observable in all 

 countries with cloudless skys. Dr. Beneck, an eminent vegetable 

 physiologist of Europe, says : "L,ight tends to develope the repro- 

 ductive over the vegetative elements of plants." This implies its 

 floral features. Love is the ardor of an animal's desires; a flower 

 is the heat of a plant's passion; the perpetuation of its species is its 

 only object; to fructify and live again in vital seeds is a plant's 

 final aim and destiny. Flowers are not aureoled with beauty for 

 men to admire. They don their crowns of gaudy colors and fling 

 their perfume on the ambient airs to cajole the bees to Adonean 



