26 CARNATIONS AND PINKS 



of plants wanting in constitutional vigour. If the 

 plants are not strong to begin with, they will certainly 

 not recover out of doors." 



PREPARATION OF THE BED 



This is the first consideration. It is better to have 

 a small bed with fifty plants well grown than a large 

 one with five hundred dragging out a miserable exist- 

 ence. If the ground is not suitable, make a bed of 

 good material. A medium clayey loam is best to 

 which has been added a sixth part of decayed manure, 

 but when the ordinary garden ground will suffice, trench 

 it to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, and if the 

 bottom soil was not previously at the top, throw it up, 

 digging up the bottom spit, which should be mixed 

 with manure. Keep it at the bottom. If well incor- 

 porated with the manure it can be thrown to the top 

 the following season. Mortar rubbish is excellent to 

 incorporate with the soil; indeed if the subsoil is clay, 

 I would put six or nine inches of mortar rubbish in 

 the bottom of the bed. This with loosening the soil 

 to the depth of eighteen inches would raise the bed 

 about a foot above the surrounding level, and this even 

 in a dry season would be favourable to the growth of 

 the Carnation and development of the flowers. In a 

 wet season it would perhaps keep the plants from 

 being flooded, a state of things that cannot fail to be 

 injurious. The bed being prepared, the best time to 

 plant must be considered. 



