Jamuabt 10, 1005. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



465 



the soil out and refill with fresh soil, 

 the same as you use for planting carna- 

 tions in the fall. The Enchantreyss and 

 Lawson, if planted as soon as they be- 

 come established in the 3-inch pots, say 

 about March 1, ought to do nicely and 

 give you a fine crop of blooms early in 

 the summer, especially the Enchantress. 

 The Lawison stems might come a little 

 short. There would te no need of re- 

 planting a^ain in the fall, in fact, I 

 would not think of it. Those plants 

 will make the finest stock on your place 

 next winter if you top dress and mulch 

 them occasionally next fall and winter. 

 They will require a little more feeding 

 than fall-planted stock, but they will 

 pay you mighty well for it. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



THE WITTERSTAETTER WAY. 



The carnation growing establishment 

 of R Witterstaetter, just over the hills 

 from Cincinnati, is one of the remark- 

 able places of the country, not for its 

 size, for there are many larger, but for 

 the fact that save for Enchantress and 

 Cardinal, no other variety on the piace 

 is to be seen anywhere else; all, in- 

 cluding Cardinal, are seedlings, origin- 

 ating there. 



Good culture is the rule and one must 

 look far and wide to find stock in better 

 shape. "For years," says Mr. Witter- 

 staetter, "it hardly paid to grow the 

 best quality for the Cincinnati market, 

 but now the retailers are finding more 

 people who want the finest flowers and 

 they are willing to pay me what such 

 stock is worth. In fact, the demand is 

 now all that I can supply." 



This is the establishment whence came 

 Adonis, Enquirer, Cardinal and several 

 others, and there are half a dozen sorts 

 now on the place which would immedi- 

 ately be put on the market if they be- 

 longed to anyone else. One, indeed, the 

 proprietor feels, is good enough to do 

 credit to his name, and vrill be intro- 

 duced in a year or two. It is nameless 

 but is known as the "Improved Law- 

 son," not that it has any strain of Law- 

 son blood in its parentage, but that Mr. 

 Witterstaetter thinks it, being in the same 

 class for color, will prove to have all the 

 good points of that variety and several 

 added virtues. Principal of these latter 

 is the fact that it is an early bloomer 

 and makes from the start stems up to 

 Lawson 's best mid-winter standard. It 

 is of splendid form. When one says that 

 he has something better than Lawson 

 he encounters the incredulity of the rank 

 and file of growers, but here is one worth 

 watching. 



There is a White Lawson here, but a 

 still better white, in the eyes of Mr. 

 Witterstaetter is one which is an even 

 more profuse bloomer for him. Another 

 white is a pronounced departure in form 

 from all existing varieties, the flower be- 

 ing almost a perfect hemisphere, the pe- 

 tals being scalloped, not fringed, and 

 remarkable for their regularity. There is 

 only a small stock of this, but it catches 

 the eye on sight. 



There are several good reds which 

 are of good size and form, but habit of 

 growth is more important than all else 

 in Mr. Witterstaetter 's view. One is 

 ideal in this respect, and may be put 

 out if it holds good by comparison with 

 the several new reds shortly to be dis- 

 tributed. 



In one house there is a half bench of a 

 seedling from Enquirer. In form and 



House of Carnation Richmond Gem. Photographed Ntw Year's Day. 



color it is very like Fiancee, possibly a 

 little larger. 



Mr. Witterstaetter has recently en- 

 larged his place and it is in all re- 

 spects a model. He had a large part of 

 his cuttings in the sand before Christmas. 

 He does not trim them at all. 



SHEEP MANURE FOR MULCH. 



I am intending to use pulverized sheep 

 manure as a top dressing for camationts. 

 What kind of a top dressing would it 

 make to mix that with cotton seed meal 

 and pulverized bone, and in what pro- 

 portion should they be used? 



H. B. G. 



I do not know anything about the 

 value of cotton seed meal as a fertilizer 

 or what fertilizing properties it con- 

 tains. The sheep manure, with ground 

 bone mixed through it, will make an ex- 

 cellent top dressing. I would add abo\it 

 a 4-inch pot of bone to one bushel of 

 sheep manure and thoroughly mix it. 

 Spread it on the soil about a half -inch 

 thick and water soon after you put it 

 on. I would mix it several days before 

 putting it on the beds and turn it over 

 once each day. A. F. J. Baitr. 



A ♦♦BREAD AND BUTTER" RED. 



The call is not all for fancy varieties 

 of carnations these days, for many grow- 

 ers, especially among those who retail 

 their own product, have found that to 

 produce the big exhibition blooms re- 

 quires care, if not skill, beyond what they 

 can afi'ord to devote to them. Besides, 

 to get a regular supply of these big flow- 

 ers often requires a larger number of 

 plants than the grower who is not a 

 specialist has room for. And without a 

 regular supply, the very best variety 

 loses half its value; you have it when you 

 don't need it and when you need it you 

 haven't got it. The result is that there 

 is a good field for the so-called "bread 

 and butter" varieties, the sorts which, 

 while they do not give fancy flowers, are 

 healthy and easy to grow, give a steady 

 cut and an abundance of bloom. 



Charles Knopf, the managing partner 

 in the B. K. & B. Floral Co., was fore- 



man for E. T. Grave, at Richmond, when 

 the carnation now known as Richmond 

 Gem was produced from seed and thought 

 so highly of it that, when he started in 

 business for himself, he bought the stock. 

 He has now grown Richmond Gem for 

 five years and likes it better every sea- 

 son. It does not come under the head 

 of fancy, either in size of flower or 

 length of stem, although it has all the 

 size and stem required for a general-pur- 

 pose variety. The color is a very good 

 red and at Christmas a very large cut 

 was sold at 7 cents per flower. The 

 variety's strong point is its freedom and 

 steadiness of bloom. The accompanying 

 illustration shows one of Mr. Knopf'e 

 houses photographed at holiday time. 



The B. K. & B. Floral Co. has a very 

 neat plant, five houses, 250 feet long. All 

 their stock is well grown, much of it be- 

 ing shipped direct to retkil florists and 

 the balance consigned to the Cincinnati 

 market. Several seedlings are being 

 coached. One variety Mr. Knopf thinks 

 isn't as generally grown as it should be 

 is The Queen. 



THE CARNATION SHOW. 



All plans are now complete for next 

 week's convention and exhibition of the 

 American Carnation Society, at the Au- 

 ditorium Hotel, Chicago. A large atten- 

 dance is assured and also a large exhibi- 

 tion. All the new sorts will, of course, 

 be shown and the display of standard 

 varieties will be much larger than was 

 thought possible a couple of weeks ago, 

 when cuts were light and prices high. 

 All that is required to give the show a 

 good start is favorable weather but 

 storms, should they occur, are not likely 

 to seriously disturb aff'airs, for the hour 

 for staging is 1 o'clock and practically 

 all the trains are due in the early morn- 

 ing hours. At no time this winter have 

 the through trains been delayed more 

 than an hour or two. The date is fire 

 weeks earlier than last year. 



The illness of George Wienhoeber will 

 prevent his appearing before the con- 

 vention so that the essayists will be three. 

 Prof. Haaselbring, Fred Lemon and O. Ll 

 Washburn. The judges were elected at 

 last year's convention. They are W. N. 



