CHAPTER X 



DISEASES OF THE CARNATION 



CARNATIONS, Picotees, and Pinks are not with- 

 out their enemies, but in this they suffer with 

 plants in general, and therefore can command 

 no special sympathy. While the plants disappear 

 wholesale, a mysterious dying away at the point of 

 reaching their ripest beauty, the thought occurs how 

 foolish it is to waste twelve months for the fruition 

 of one's work, and at the moment of realisation it 

 is destroyed. Many pests attack the Dianthus group, 

 and unfortunately with the greatest virulence. The 

 grower is sometimes responsible for regrettable mis- 

 haps. The plants are barely grown, or over-manured 

 in the desire to reap a reward of abnormal flowering. 

 There is, however, this fact to remember, that no 

 plant can retain healthy vigour and flower abundantly 

 unless it is closely watched that nothing preys upon 

 its leaves or its roots. 



CARNATIONS DYING OFF 



A few years ago there was a considerable corre- 

 spondence in The Garden as to why Carnations 

 die off suddenly, and the question asked is as 



8r 



