Carnations for Summer Blooming and Pot Culture 

 Hardy Carnations 



Comparatively few hardy carnations are grown in this country, except 

 upon the Pacific slope, where they seem to do very well. The attacks of 

 red spider and thrips, in connection with the high temperature prevailing 

 during July and August, render success in growing this section of the Dian- 

 thus family very precarious in the United States. Frequently, during extreme 

 cold winters, and especially where much freezing and thawing occur, the 

 plants will be heaved out of the ground and so seriously injured as to pro- 

 duce few blooms the season following. Probably a hardy race might be bred 

 from our winter blooming carnations by leaving large numbers of seedlings 

 to stand over winter in the field, and propagating stock from such plants as 

 survived. 



Carnation plants that are to stand in the open ground throughout the 

 winter should be protected with a light mulch, which may consist of Autumn 

 leaves, chopped straw, or very coarse manure that may also be mixed with 

 the leaves or straw. This will serve to enrich the ground, and to promote 

 a stronger growth the following spring. The soil in which carnations for 

 summer blooming are grown should be made rich, and at least eighteen inches 

 deep ; and provision should be made so that the beds may receive an ample 

 supply of water during the heated months, when droughts prevail. 



Carnations for Pot Culture 



It is with considerable diffidence that I undertake to give information on 

 this subject, having had but meagre experience in growing carnations in 

 pots. As a rule, my -efforts in this line of culture have met with but moderate 

 success, owing, perhaps, to the fact that I have been more interested in the 

 growing of seedlings, and the improvement of the bench culture of carna- 

 tions, than in pot culture. I can do no better than to supplement my limited 

 knowledge by quotations from English authors who have fully treated the 

 subject. 



In the treatise upon the carnation, published in 1839 by the veteran, 

 Thomas Hogg, of Paddington Green, England, the pot culture of carnations 

 is dealt with at length. Mr. Hogg gives the preparation of soil much im- 

 portance, the following formula being supplied for preparing a compost 

 heap of sufficient size to furnish soil for blooming five hundred pots of 

 carnations : 



"One load of fresh yellow loam; half a load of common black earth, or garden 

 mould; two loads of rotten horse dung; four large barrows of coarse sand from some 



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