14 



The Florists' Review 



July 8, 1915. 



a life-sized store, and his 1915 circum- 

 stances are shown by the final view. 

 This is the interior of the French 

 Flowed Shop, located at 1018 Atlantic 



avenue, Atlantic City, of which Jack 

 Hasson is the proprietor. He speaks 

 French fluently, and says it is of con- 

 siderable help to him in his business. 



CARNATIONS IN TEXAS. 



[A paper by Bird Forrest, of Waxahachle, read 

 before the Texas State Florists' ABsoclatlon at 

 Fort Worth July 6, 1015.] 



Growing carnations for profit means 

 growing them so as to get the largest 

 possible returns from the plants with 

 the smallest possible outlay, consistent 

 with growing good stock, and the prof- 

 its will be larger if you err on the side 

 of more attention than is absolutely 

 necessary than they will if you are a 

 few hours late in watering, a few days 

 late in putting on supports, or cultivat- 

 ing, and neglect the red spider till he 

 gets a hold. 



Wliat Tezans Need. 



Our conditions are entirely different, 

 in many respects, from those of our 

 brothers farther north. Our stock must 

 be rooted much earlier to be established 

 in the pots before the sun gets too hot, 

 and to be ready for our earlier planting 

 in the field. Also, the period when 

 there are no outdoor flowers is much 

 shorter here. So we must use every 

 effort to get as much as possible out 

 of our stock during our shorter period. 



This makes it necessary that we have 

 heavy, stocky plants to bench; plants 

 that will get right to work; that we 

 give them the best of soil in the 

 benches, and constant care and atten- 

 tion; to see that they are planted just 

 the right depth; that they get enough, 

 and still not too much water; that 

 weeds and grass are kept pulled out, 

 and soil frequently stirred. Effective 

 supports should be put on early. Given 

 good plants at benching time, the year 's 

 returns depend on constant and prompt 

 attention to the needs of the plants. 



The varieties of carnations we now 

 grow originated in a cooler climate than 

 ours. The cool nights come earlier in 

 the fall and start the plants off vigor- 

 ously while ours are sweltering in the 

 heat. This disadvantage can be over- 

 come to some extent by close atten- 

 tion to watering and spraying. Can 

 not some of you more experienced grow- 

 ers breed up a strain of carnations that 

 will be, you might say, native to our 

 climate and more resistant to our hot, 

 dry summer atmosphere? The proposed 

 greenhouse at College Station would be 

 useful along this line. 



Eradicating Disease. 



Our greatest enemies to the carnation 

 are red spider and stem-rot. Red spider 

 is easily handled by promptly spraying 

 every spot where they appear with ar- 

 senic; one pound to ten pounds sugar, 

 made to a thick syrup or paste with 

 warm water, not cooked. One ounce 

 of this mixture to one gallon of water, 

 put on with a compressed air sprayer, 

 will keep them cleaned out. The mix- 



ture is not strong enough to be dan- 

 gerous, as you would have to eat a big 

 bunch of stems to get enough to hurt 

 you. 



The last two years we have practi- 

 cally eliminated stem-rot in the green- 

 houses by having our soil clean, with 

 clean benches and proper attention to 

 watering at benching time. When 

 changing the soil several years ago, we 

 emptied one bench, cleaned and white- 

 washed it, and filled it as we emptied 

 the next one; that is, a man would 

 carry out a bucket of old soil from 

 bench No. 2 and bring back a bucket 

 of new soil for bench No. 1, using the 

 same bucket. This we found would 

 leave a small quantity of old soil with 

 the new — enough to transfer any dis- 

 ease or fungus that might be in the 

 soil. We had an attack of club-root 

 four years ago. We then adopted the 

 method of cleaning the soil out of the 

 entire house, washing the benches well, 

 and then giving them a thorough white- 

 washing, also whitewashing the shovels 

 and buckets before handling the new 

 soil to fill the benches. This almost 

 eliminated the trouble, but we still had 

 a little of it. We thought possibly the 

 infection was carried on the carnation 

 support stakes, of which there is one 

 to every plant. So last season, in addi- 

 tion to other precautions, we soaked the 

 stakes in whitewash. This season we 

 have been entirely free of it. 



Infection also can be carried in free- 

 sia and gladiolus bulbs that are grown 

 in carnation benches. But these can 

 easily be cleaned by washing in for- 

 maldehyde solution. In cleaning ours, 

 we also put them in a bucket and 

 poured a teaspoonful of carbon bisul- 

 phide on them, putting a paper over 

 the top to keep the fumes in. One or 

 the other, or both, of these plans effec- 

 tively cleaned them. 



The Best Bench. 



We use concrete benches cast in one 

 piece, five feet wide and six inches 

 deep. No form of bench can be so 

 easily cleaned and disinfected. Also, 

 it lasts a lifetime and cost of material 

 is less than the cost of lumber to make 

 the same bench. A concrete bench five 

 feet wide, with three rows of legs 

 spaced four feet apart, costs less than 35 

 cents per running foot, including labor; 

 gravel at $2 per yard; cement at 50 

 cents per sack. This may be considered 

 a digression from the subject in hand, 

 but we believe anything that tends to 

 lessen the cost of production is perti- 

 nent, and cement benches that never 

 need repairs, do not decay, do not hold 

 bugs, insects and fungous diseases from 

 year to year are certainly an item when 

 it comes to keeping down expenses. 



The Essential Points. 



To get back to carnations, these are 

 a few of the things we have found es- 



sential: Healthy stock from which to 

 take cuttings (we do not like to" pull 

 leaves off the cuttings or top them, as 

 both leave open wounds) ; an absolutely 

 clean cutting bench, with good drainage 

 and clean sand. Also, we have better 

 success without bottom heat; cuttings 

 spaced far enough apart to see the sand 

 freely between each one; watered well 

 when put in, and sprinkled lightly every 

 bright day; covered with papers the 

 first two weeks on sunny days; papers 

 put on about 9:30 or 10 a. m. and taken 

 off about 3 p. m. Our best plants have 

 always come from cuttings put in sand 

 December 10 to January 1. 



Close attention to the little plants in 

 pots to see that they are kept in good 

 shape (we keep them in a cool house), 

 planting to the field March 10 to 20; 

 kept perfectly clean and plowed at least 

 once. a week, to get shapely plants, this 

 is the most important time. Keep them 

 topped and standing straight up. Bench- 

 ed June 25 to July 10. See that they are 

 not planted deeper than they were in 

 the field. If planted deeper, it is an 

 invitation to stem-rot. We plant ours 

 seven rows across a 5-foot bench, eleven 

 inches between the rows. We have had 

 excellent success planting in soil made 

 by high water, deposited along the 

 creek. Any soil that will grow blood- 

 weeds twelve to fifteen f6et high will 

 grow good carnations. We haul our 

 soil up one year ahead and stack in 

 layers, five loads of soil to one of ma- 

 nure from cotton-seed-meal-fed cattle; 

 this turned over twice to get it in good 

 shape. 



In conclusion, let me say that if you 

 have good carnations and plenty of 

 them, and any kind of market for 

 them, the pfofit will show up all right. 



A WOMAN GBOWEB'S IDEAS. 



f A paper by Elizabeth O. Weigslncer. of Beau- 

 mont, read before the Texas State Florists' Asso- 

 ciation at Fort Worth, July 6, 1915.] 



Carnation culture is a comprehensive 

 subject, bounded by an infinite diver- 

 sity of opinion. But, seven years ago, 

 when we took our courage in both 

 hands, lacking capital and experience, 

 and handicapped by skirts, the ultima- 

 tum had gone forth that carnations 

 could not be successfully or profitably 

 grown in southeastern Texas. Nothing 

 daunted, we built a house especially 

 for carnations, 28x150, running north 

 and south, with roof and side ventila- 

 tion, raised benches five feet wide, 

 steam-heated. We get field-grown 

 plants from Furrow & Co., of Guthrie, 

 Okla.; hence we do not have to worry 

 about our stock and always get the 

 best. 



This season we planted White, Light- 

 pink and Rose-pink Enchantress, also 

 Herald. For our compost we use three 

 or four parts good maiden loam to one 

 of well decomposed stable fertilizer, 

 which has been prepared at least three 

 months in advance, before putting it 

 into the benches, which have been thor- 

 oughly scrubbed and whitewashed. We 

 order plants for September delivery 

 and plant directly to the benches, 

 twelve inches apart, and give a good 

 watering to settle the soil above the 

 roots. 



We find many details about carnation 

 growing that require constant atten- 

 tion and unremitting care. Spraying is 

 rrost important during the warm days 

 we have in the early fall. By this ■ 

 means the temperature can be reduced 

 to a moist, growing atmosphere. We 



