HARDY PERENNIAL PLANTS, 127 



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 4l^ 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, owing 

 to root accommodation being necessarily of an unfavorable nature. 

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

 and firmness in the foliage, and while the Carnation is in reality an ever- 

 green 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 dehcate 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 exijeri- 

 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 

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



