192 HARDY PERENNIAL PLANTS. 



Propagating House and Benches The ideal propagating house is the 

 north part of a span-roofed house, with a partition of boards, leaving 

 a space of about 4^2 feet available for bench and passage way,. The 

 latter need only be wide enough for one to move about in comfortably. 

 The floor should be made of concrete, so that it can be kept scrupulously 

 clean at all times. The length of the house should, of course, vary with 

 the needs of the establishment. The bench should run close up to the 

 side of the house and the front part, or that nearest the passageway, 

 nailed up with boards, with a swinging door on leather hinges every 

 few feet to increase or diminish the temperature of the sand by allowing 

 heat to escape. It is a good plan to have one of the ends hotter than 

 the other, not necessarily for Carnations, but for cuttings of other 

 plants. Valves should be so arranged in the heating pipes of this part 

 of the establishment that the heat may be under perfect control to suit 

 the various uses to which it may be put. When a specially constructed 

 propagating house is not available, a part of an ordinary growing 

 house, preferably the north side, should be selected for the purpose. The 

 conditions favorable to the process of rooting are: Sufficient humidity 

 to prevent the cuttings from wilting, and protection against the sun's 

 rays, which cause an evaporation of moisture from the leaves of the 

 cuttings greater than can be spared, owing to the inability of the cut- 

 ting to replace the loss quickly from the moisture in the sand. 



Sand When there is a choice, a rather large grained sand and one free 

 from all impurities should be selected; from 3 to 4 inches deep will be 

 sufficient. 



Cuttings These may be put in any time during the Winter months, 

 but February is the safest time for the ordinary crop. Those rooted 

 previous to that month are apt to put on a spindling growth. Re- 

 stricted root room has a tendency to promote hardening of the stem 

 and firmness in the foliage, and while the carnation is in reality an 

 evergreen shrub, it is a soft wooded one, and should be kept in a 

 growing state from the cutting to the flowering plant. The cuttings 

 are usually pulled from the plant; this is the worst possible method, 

 because the exceedingly delicate vessels in the immediate neighborhood 

 of the break are strained and displaced, according to the tension exerted 

 in severing. They strike all right, evidently so, but they should be 

 severed with a knife. 



flaterial for Cuttings In this as in other matters, judicious selection 

 of the material to form future plants will go a long way in determining 

 whether these plants will attain the maximum state in healthy vigor, 

 combined with flower productiveness. It does not take a very experi- 

 enced Carnationist to tell at a glance whether the growths are flabby, 

 as a result of being forced in too high and humid an atmosphere, or crisp 

 and stocky, owing to having been subjected to favorable conditions. 

 Grassy growths at the base of the plant are avoided, as they show a 

 tendency to perpetuate this condition to a degree unfavorable to florifer- 

 ousness. As the extra floriferous nature of a single branch of a tree or 

 ehrub can be perpetuated by propagating from that branch, in like man- 



