Propagating and Shipping Young Stock 



plant, will produce a variegated flower. On the other hand, if the propaga- 

 tion of the progeny of the plant which reproduced the variegated flower is 

 continued, the greater proportion of the young stock will produce variegated 

 flowers, but now and then one will give a white flower. Thus, sports may 

 become fixed by a constant selection of cuttings from parents that show the 

 strongest tendency to maintain the variation. 



This is also again proved in the case of variations in branches which 

 produce an enormous quantity of foliage and no flowers. Cuttings taken 

 from such branches will eventually produce a race of plants that will not 

 bloom at all. The author has grown such types of plants two years without 

 being able to obtain a single bloom upon them. 



In propagating from a diseased plant a percentage of the progeny will 

 also show the diseased tendency, while the other proportion will show a ten- 

 dency to resume the normal or healthy growth. This healthy condition may 

 be perpetuated by selecting the strongest plants for propagating purposes and 

 continuing such selection. Therefore, in the perpetuation of a stock of car- 

 nations, such stock will be either poor or good according to the care used, 

 not only in the selection of the parent plants from which to propagate, but 

 also in the selection of the best and most vigorous wood from such plants. 

 The axiom, "Like produces like," is particularly true in growing carna- 

 tion plants from cuttings, and in propagating the golden rule should be, 

 "Strong shoots from strong, vigorous plants in perfect health." Varieties 

 of carnations may be split up into several distinct strains by means of this 

 selection ; therefore, the grower who aims to produce a particular type of 

 carnation will need to select plants for propagating purposes that approximate 

 the desired type, and to continue such selection, and if he would keep the 

 strain pure he must avoid propagating from plants which show sensible 

 variations from the type he desires to maintain. 



In the early history of propagating carnations in America the larger 

 proportion of the propagating wood was taken from near the base of the 

 plant, as the grower was anxious to preserve the wood in the upper portion 

 of the plant for flowering purposes. In those days carnation flowers were 

 picked with short stems and every pip or bud was allowed to come into 

 bloom, therefore the removal of any portion of the wood from the upper 

 part of the plant was counted by the grower as a distinct loss. In some in- 

 stances, where propagation was followed up for a long period by the selec- 

 tion of these base cuttings, varieties finally ceased to bloom and produced 

 nothing but a large amount of grass. With the advent of growing long- 

 stemmed carnation blooms the system of selecting the cuttings was changed, 



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