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Febblaby 16. 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



701 



Two Sides of the Flower of Carnation Fred BurkL 



If the cuttinga are not so well rooted 

 as you might wish, don 't dump them back 

 into the box and send them back to the 

 shipper, but notify him at once and take 

 the best of care of them. If he is a fair 

 minded business man he will make allow- 

 ance or replace what you lose through 

 bis fault. If among them are some that 

 had the roots broken off in packing, they 

 will seldom fail to root if you stick them 

 into your propagating bed. That is much 

 wiser than to pot them along with the 

 rest. This often happens with some varie- 

 ties; one of the worst is Mrs. Lawson. 

 The roots branch out so much that the 

 main root, where it joins the cutting, is 

 often not able to support the large 

 bunch of roota and the sand that clings 

 to them. 



When you pay ri good price for novel- 

 ties yop naturally expect good cuttings, 

 well rooted, and you have a perfect right 

 to. But on the other hand bear in mind 

 that in nine cases out of ten the dis- 

 seminator is pushed to the limit for early 

 dclivcT?es and often he is hardly to be 

 blamed if he takes a batch out of the 

 sand a few days sooner than he ought. 

 If the cuttings are the right sort and 

 they only lack in quantity of roots, you 

 should not lose your temper. Stick them 

 into llie cutting bed a week or Iwo and 

 you need not lose any of them. The 

 • lisscniinator is in most ca^cs n hard 

 worked and much abused man. Every- 

 body demands early delivery, and unless 

 he is riblc to caiciilate well' he is apt to 

 over-book on the early propagations, and 

 then is when his troubles commence. So 

 have patience and trust him to do the 

 very best he can for you, and if he falls 

 f-hort of your expectations don 't judge 

 him too harshly. A. F. J. Baur. 



CAUSE OF STEM-ROT. 



In the report of the carnation con- 

 vention I read where Mr. Weber and oth- 

 ers gave it as their opinion that much 

 stem-rot originates in the cutting bench. 

 J. too, think so. It may be that my ex- 

 l)erience will be of interest to some read- 

 ers of the Review. I have a range of 

 three-quarter span houses running east 

 and west, long span and ventilator facing 

 south ir all except the north house, which 



lias its long span and ventilator facing 

 Jiorth. Years ago, when stem-rot first 

 began, I had my cutting bench in a cen- 

 ter house under the long span, with bot- 

 tom heat and no direct air, as the air 

 from the next house could not reach the 

 bench owing to there being no open space 

 lietween the houses and the ventilators in 

 the same house gave no direct air on that 

 bench. Consequently there was always a 

 waini moisture, very conducive to fungus, 

 «s f had to water often on account of 

 the bottom heat. Cutting bench fungus 

 started with a vengeance. I lost great 

 patches two and three feet square all 

 over the bench. Each dav I would have 

 to throw but the dead cuttings by the 

 liandful, and of those that managed to 

 escape some would die after planting 

 into soil and others would die by the 

 hundreds in the field, and still others 

 after planting in the houses in the fall, 

 jumI so on all through the winter, till by 

 spring my houses would only be half full. 



I was nearly at my wits' end. I tried 

 using fresh sand each year and thorough- 

 ly drying the bench and then whitewash- 

 ing it and planting in fresh soil each 

 year to check it, but all to no purpose; 

 the disease went from bad to worse until 

 it occurred to me that the trouble lay 

 in the situation of my cutting bench. So 

 I changed it, and from that time, which 

 was eight or nine years ago, up to the 

 present I have had no trace of cutting 

 bench fungus or stem-rot except when 

 we have a wet summer ; then a few plants 

 may go off in the field, but very few, and 

 out of 15,000 planted in the houses not 

 more than ten or twelve have had to be 

 replaced. 



My cutting bench ever since has been 

 in a house with the long span and ven- 

 tilator facing north. The bench used is 

 under the short span and facing the ven- 

 tilators of two houses, as the gutter 

 connecting those two houses is about 

 two and one-half feet from the bench 

 and is open, allowing a free circulation 

 of air to play over the well shaded bench. 

 There is no heat whatever under the 

 bench and very little in the whole house, 

 only one flow and return, 4-inch pipe, 

 along one side and across both ends, 

 which fails to keep the house above freez- 

 ing point in severe weather. Of course 



cuttings root very slowly in such a cold 

 house, but every one roots and makes a 

 strong and healthy plant. I have only 

 to water them once, when first put in 

 the sand. I am positively sure, from my 

 own experience, that if benches that are 

 free from drip, with no bottom heat and 

 with plenty of air when necessary, are 

 used instead of out-of-the-way benches 

 that cannot be used for anything else, 

 stem-rot would disappear. R. Fischer. 



CARNATION FRED BURKI. 



At the Detroit carnation convention a 

 year ago there was no variety which at- 

 tracted more favorable attention than 

 Carnation Fred Burki. This is a white 

 seedling raised by John Murchie, at 

 Sharon, Pa., and named for the well 

 known cut flower grower for the Pitts- 

 burg market. It has fulfilled its early 

 promise and this season has given better 

 results thaji before. One of the accom- 

 panying illustrations shows a bench of 

 this variety at Mr. Murchie 's establish- 

 ment and the other shows the front and 

 back view of the flower. Mr. Murchie 

 says that he does not profess that it is 

 a first-class show flower or that it is the 

 freest bloomer or that it is free from all 

 the ills the carnation is heir to, but he 

 finds that it is the only white for which 

 he has use on his place. It has bloomed 

 constantly since early in October and up 

 to February 1 he had cut ten blooms to 

 the plant, every one salable and no burst 

 calyxes. The stems are good and strong. 

 Mr. Murchie and S. S. Skidelsky are put- 

 ting Fred Burki on the market jointly 

 and report a good sale for the cuttings 

 everywhere among those who have seen 

 the stock or the flower. 



NOTES ON CARNATION GROWING. 



[A i)ap«>r by Kdward A. Stroud, read 

 before the Florists' Club of Philadelphia. 

 February 7. 1905.] 



I have been asked to speak on the 

 carnation and hardly know why, being 

 probably the youngest grower around 

 Philadelphia. ' However, if my experi- 

 ence will be of interest to any of you I 

 am pleased to give it, telling you of our 

 methods, which do not differ, as far as 

 I know, from the general cultivation of 

 the divine flower. 



