MAKCH] FLOWER GARDEN. 809 



CARNATIONS. 



Being provided with some of the finest and most valuable carna- 

 tions, for with the common sorts it will not be worth while to take 

 much pains, you should proceed to the potting of them between the 

 middle and latter end of this month. 



The proper compost for these flowers is as follows, viz : 



One-half fresh, sound, loamy earth, taken from the surface of a 

 rich pasture ground, turf and all, and not more than four or five 

 inches deep. 



One-third, or a little more, of old horse-dung, such as had been 

 a year previously used for hot-beds. 



One-sixth coarse sea or river sand. 



These ingredients ought to have been mixed together in autumn, 

 laid in a heap about two feet thick, in an open exposure, and turned 

 three or four times during winter, so as that all the parts may be 

 well incorporated and have the benefit of the frosts ; early in March 

 it should be gathered into a round conical heap to drain and become 

 dry, and when sufficiently so, and wanted for use, pass it through a 

 cqarse screen or sieve to reduce its parts, and take out stones or any 

 other extraneous substance which it contains. 



The pots made use of for spring potting, should b ten inches wide 

 at the top, five inches at the bottom, and eight inches deep in the 

 side, with a hole in the centre of the bottom an inch in diameter. 



The pots are first to be nearly half filled with compost, previously 

 placing an oyster-shell or such like, with its hollow side downwards, 

 over the hole in the bottom of each : the compost is to be higher at 

 the sides than at the centre of the pots, and the plants intended for 

 them, which are supposed to have been wintered in small pots con- 

 taining three plants each, are to be carefully turned out with the 

 earth adhering to them in a ball ; and after rubbing off half an inch 

 of the surface of the old mould around the plants, above their fibres, 

 cleaning them and cutting off the points of their decayed leaves, the 

 ball is to be carefully placed in the centre of the pot, and the space 

 between it and the sides filled up with the prepared compost. 



If your plants have been wintered one plant in each pot only, a 

 size much smaller than the above will be sufficient to shift them into, 

 but when three plants grow and flower together in a large pot, they 

 appear to more advantage. 



This being done, give the plants a little water, and observe that 

 the earth comes no higher up their stems than it did in the former 

 pots, nor should the compost come nearer than within an inch of the 

 top of the rim, after it has been gently shaken or struck against the 

 ground in finishing ; as an inconvenience will attend its being too full 

 when the operation of laying comes to be performed, which requires 

 some additional mould on the surface, for the layers to strike into. 



When the plants are thus potted off for bloom, they should be 

 placed in an open airy part of the garden under an arch of hoops, 

 that in case of cold drying winds, heavy rains, or cold frosty nights, 

 mats may be thrown over, to preserve them from the effects of such 



