120 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



the northern line, yet within the carnation belt, in saying: ''they 

 cannot produce as high grade carnation flowers in Canada as 4n 

 the states.' ' An experienced and practical floriculturist of St. 

 Louis, just on the southern limit of their normal zone, says carna- 

 tions do not flourish here Another correspondent from Louisville, 

 Ky., says: "Carnation plants do not succeed here; the summer 

 heat injures the plants and s^ops their growth." Another writes 

 from Birmingham, Ala., "Carnation flowers are esteemed here. 

 We import the plants in the fall from their habitat, as we do 

 Spirea and Bulbs, flower them under glass during the winter sea- 

 son, then throw them out." > 



THE DIANTHUS IN CALIFORNIA. 



A grower in California writes: "We root our cuttings in sand 

 without artificial heat, plant them out in the yards and lawns in 

 January, if in the field, in rows three feet apart and two feet dis- 

 tant from each other. Plants will bloom in six months and fre- 

 quently attain a diameter of three feet. A good specimen will 

 blow five hundred blossoms in a season and will continue to bloom 

 until new cuttings begin to flower. We never lift them. They will 

 live several years and are used to decorate lawns; their flowers have 

 but little commercial value. They grow best and burst their ca- 

 lyxes most in our wet season, which corresponds to your winter 

 and bloom and perfect their flowers best in our summer or dry 

 season. Seedlings are treated the same as cuttings; the latter are 

 only used to perpetuate some choice varieties." 



Another correspondent writes from San Francisco: "Seivers & 

 Co. are raising fine carnations under glass. Their best variety is 

 Hanna-Hobart, bearing three and a half to four-inch flowers." 

 (Jumbo Hanna has not made her majestic entree yet in the sem- 

 perflorens belt.) "John O'Hara is building a house to be filled 

 this fall with Lawson. Crane does not give satisfaction here." 



Lawson may maintain its missionary character in California 

 as an exhibition plant, as its originator informs a correspondent 

 through a trade journal that it needs a fifty-five night tempera- 

 ture to keep its calyx from committing /<?/b de se. 



