304 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



The day is over when a firm of good repute will send out a 

 Carnation knowing it is worthless. Frequently a new sort holds up 

 for three or more years and then gives out, but if you wait until 

 dead sure that it is a really good thing, it is too late to make money 

 on it, for by that time everybody has it. 



There is no such thing as the three or six best sorts for the flo- 

 rist to grow. Soil and climatic conditions, the houses they are grown 

 in, and the way they are handled make a certain sort a success in 

 one locality and a failure in another. The man who wants to go 

 into growing Carnations and doesn't know what sorts to plant can- 

 not do better than find out what is being successfully grown by others 

 in his neighborhood, or what growers make use of within a radius of 

 a hundred miles or so if there are none in his immediate vicinity. 

 But never omit to invest each year in at least a few new ones; don't 

 feel sore because the sorts you tried last year turned out badly; 

 forget about them and keep on trying out new ones. It is the only 

 way. 



THE NECESSITY OF EARLY HOUSING 



I have yet to find a live retail grower who isn't crowded for 

 room eight months out of the year. About the only time he sees 

 the bottom of the benches is right after the bedding stock leaves 

 the house, and if that runs into July, somebody has to get busy 

 repairing the benches, cleaning them, and refilling them with soil, for 

 the Carnations from the field are ready for housing by the tenth to 

 the fifteenth of that month. If they are housed early it means that 

 the plants become re-established in a few weeks and during the 

 middle of September start to flower on fair-sized stems. 



Early housing is most important for the florist who has to throw 

 his plants out in early April in order to make use of the bench space 

 for Spring stock, for he has to get the most out of his plants up to 

 that time. Such as have been benched during July or in early 

 August will give you fine flowers and stems during November and 

 December, which cannot be said of such as were lifted and housed 

 the end of September or during the month of October. 



Stock lifted from the field in July usually consists of plants with 

 six or eight short, stocky shoots which when benched will, in the 

 shortest possible time, become established and go ahead. Plants by 

 the middle of October usually are of enormous size, are hard-wooded 

 and therefore are set back considerably when housed, hardly ever 

 producing a crop of really good flowers and stems before the middle 

 of January. Even small, late propagated stock, housed about 

 October, will require considerably longer than stock planted in 

 July when everything is in favor of plant growth. 



