40 THE BOOK OF THE CARNATION 



quiescent condition will require very little water at root, 

 but those it is intended to flower must be placed in a light 

 structure in a temperature of fifty to fifty-five degrees, 

 and watered as required. The flowers produced during 

 this period are not, as a rule, so expansive as summer 

 blooms, but they are generally deeper in colour, and are 

 never unwelcome. Mostly, too, the plants should be 

 thrown away after this forcing treatment. Not in- 

 frequently, however, the growths which break freely from 

 the stems of these strike root with little loss if inserted as 

 cuttings in sandy soil, and kept in a warm temperature till 

 the emission of roots. The less forward plants of the 

 batch under review, kept perfectly cool during winter and 

 spring, produce a succession to the forced flowers by 

 merely subjecting them to greenhouse treatment. Large 

 specimens of Malmaisons are rapidly produced by re- 

 potting plants as required, preserving them meanwhile 

 insect free, and all withered or diseased foliage removed. 

 Some cultivators prefer old plants to those that are 

 younger, but the general apprehension is that yearling 

 and two-year-old plants are at once the easiest to control 

 and to manage, while from these the very choicest blooms 

 are secured. 



The true Souvenir de la Malmaison succeeds well 

 planted in borders of prepared soil, and if a plant has space 

 to grow it will increase to the size of a bush, and produce 

 abundance of blooms. I have repeatedly cultivated young 

 plants in this manner, but destroying them once the crop of 

 flowers was gathered. In 1903, I had a very fine lot of 

 bloom on single stems, that is, one flower to each plant. 

 The best method to secure bloom of this kind is to plant 

 out healthy young stuff either in autumn or spring, in 

 friable soil, in a light, thoroughly ventilated pit. The 

 plants need not be more than seven and a half inches apart 

 each way, but under this system it is indispensable that 

 not one growth more than the flowering-stem is permitted 



