12 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



a special line, and who must have flowers later, but this is perhaps too 

 often done. So, though we think it quite the thing to do to refer to 

 " stopping " here, we wish it to be distinctly understood that, in 

 practice, we make a point of potting the plants into 48-sized pots 

 and " stopping " them immediately they are sufficiently established. 



A young carnation is very brittle, especially at the axil of the 

 foliage. Its natural growth is, at first, a single stem, which it will 

 send up 12 or 15 inches and then produce a flower bud ; but we 

 do not want this, and before it has reached more than half that 

 height it must be " stopped " if it is ever to become a good plant. 

 About 7 or 8 inches of growth will be sufficient to develop the stem, 

 and then its energies in the upward direction must be checked and 

 diverted to the making of " breaks," which will go to the building 

 of the future plant. For this, it is not sufficient to pinch out the 

 leader, as we do with so many other plants, neither is it right to take 

 away so much of the top so as to have nothing but the hard wood 

 remaining ; but the correct method is midway between the two, 

 and this occurs, as a rule, 4 or 5 inches above the soil. And the 

 way to make the separation is not by cutting, but by pulling, just 

 as you would pull a pink piping. Take hold of the plant with 

 the thumb and finger of the left hand just below where you wish the 

 separation to be effected, and with the thumb and finger of the right 

 hand just above, and give a sharp pull upward, and the top portion 

 readily coming away makes the operation complete. This is more 

 easily done early in the day, before the sun has affected the flow 

 of sap in the plant and rendered it less brittle. 



The next work of immediate importance is the potting on. 

 Assuming that the plants are still in 6o's. and that they have been 

 duly " stopped," the time to pot them on is when the new breaks 

 have started into active growth. Do not let them advance far, 

 otherwise they may feel the check, and this is, at all times, bad for 

 them. If, on the other hand, you are able to get on with the potting 

 before it has become necessary to " stop " them, then the time may 

 be selected when the establishment in the 60 's. is complete and 

 an abundance of roots are seen running round the side of the pot. 



The vital question here is that of compost. May we, once again, 

 emphasise the importance of a clean compost ? Let the loam be 

 pure loam ; the manure free from foreign matter ; the leaf soil 



