Raising Carnations from Seed 



of the cai nation, are certain to produce more or less improvements upon 

 existing varieties, and the forehanded grower will need to purchase annually, 

 and test such varieties, in order to determine whether he can successfully 

 supply them at a profit. 



The mere raising and selling a double seedling carnation, even though 

 netting some profit to its grower, cannot be considered as successful im- 

 provement of the carnation. An accidental variety of merit may now and 

 then come to the grower who miscellaneously mixes the pollen from differ- 

 ent flowers, and plants the seed resulting therefrom ; but the continued pro- 

 duction of the best of the improved varieties will scarcely follow such work. 



If the reader expects that hard and fast rules for producing an army of 

 new seedlings, to perplex the whilom seeker of that which is best and most 

 profitable to grow, will be herein laid down, he is laboring under a mistaken 

 idea. 



The ground over which a hybridizer is working becomes peculiarly his 

 own territory, practically an unknown region which he alone is exploring, 

 and he must not only get his knowledge as he works over his field, but he 

 must also have the ability to take advantage of and use what knowledge it 

 may be his fortune to garner ; consequently, he cannot make rules even for 

 his own guidance, much less for the guidance of others laboring in different, 

 though analogous fields. 



In the selection of parents, choose the best you have at hand. You will 

 not find all the desired attributes in any one plant, or in any six plants, 

 possibly not in any hundred plants; and after producing several thousand 

 seedling plants, and finally reducing them by the process of selection to a 

 half-dozen considered worthy of a third year's trial, the hybridizer will 

 wonder at and be discouraged by the amount of dross he has to handle in 

 order to get a little gold. 



In the selection of seedlings, color stands pre-eminently above all other 

 considerations. Size, form, fragrance, substance, strength of stem, stand 

 on a fairly even basis of value. When these have been secured, get as much 

 continuity of bloom as is possible, and maintain your cardinal features. Do 

 not overlook fragrance. Its place is so close to color and size, that it was 

 the cardinal virtue that won the Divine Flower into favor long before it had 

 much of either color or size to boast of. 



Having suited your own taste in selecting your seedling, you must in- 

 vestigate its selling qualities. Florists should appreciate that the discrim- 

 inating buyer usually decides what he or she wishes to purchase. The 

 retail florist, being in close touch with the consuming purchaser, quickly dis- 



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