"^ r^f^'w^^^'^.^'jrr^-' 



U32 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



Afbil 6, 1905. 



the boiler will be eiglity feet, a 3-inch 

 riser firom the boiler to either end of 

 the house and returning to the boiler by 

 thirteen 2-inch returns will provide the 

 necessary radiation. The actual capacity 

 of the boiler required is 1,500 square feet 



of radiation, but for safety and economy 

 it would be well to secure one rated at 

 2,000 feet capacity. Under a pressure 

 system, with the expansion tank well ele- 

 vated, such a system of piping should 

 give good service. L. C. C. 



CARNATION NOTES.-EAST. 



Easter Preparations. 



We all know that the heavy call at 

 Easter is for something in plants but, 

 coming very late this year and with 

 such weather as we have had for the 

 week past, many plants intended for this 

 occasion will be past their prime. Pres- 

 ent indications point to a good demand 

 for carnations. 



When these notes reach you, Easter 

 will be little more than two weeks away 

 and, while little can be done to increase 

 the cut, much can be done in the way 

 of keeping the quality up to standard. 

 I do not predict a scarcity of stock, for 

 no doubt there will be plenty, but, as 

 usual, prime blooms will be in the 

 minority. 



In spite of ventilation, these warm 

 spells run the temperature in the houses 

 up very high during the day, making 

 the temptation very strong to save coal 

 and labor by letting the fires go out and 

 closing the ventilators nearly or quite 

 tight at night. If this is done the result 

 will be serious damage to the bloom, 

 even if only partially developed. 



The difference between the tempera- 

 ture inside and that of the cool night air 

 causes condensation and moisture will 

 collect on the blooms; besides, the atmos- 

 phere will become stagnant. By all 

 meatis have some heat on at night and a 

 crack at the ridge to correspond in order 

 that the air be kept moving. 



As the need for cuttings is practically 

 over, all side shoots down to the point 

 where the stem will be cut, can be re- 

 moved when disbudding. Any buds show- 

 ing signs of bursting or otherwise com- 

 ing imperfect, should be cut as soon 

 as seen. To allow them to develop is not 

 only a hindrance to the others, and a 

 drain on the plant, but a waste of raw 

 material. 



Increased watering will be necessary 

 as the season advances, but do not give 

 a heavy soaking in the morning and 

 think the plants can go it alone all day. 

 About two or three o'clock in the after- 

 noon there will be spots that need touch- 

 ing up. 



Weeds as they appear must be pulled 

 else they will deplete the soil and pre- 

 vent circulation of air among the plants. 

 Leave no detail undone. "Do it now." 

 Geo. S. Osborn. 



CARNATION NOTES.— WEST. 



Topping Young Stock. 



By this time all the early potted 

 plants are well established and most 

 of them have been topped or are ready 

 to top. Much has been said about what 



stage the plant should reach before top- 

 ping but just let me add that it does 

 not pay to pull out the center blades be- 

 fore the stem begins to show. Some 

 say it causes disease through water lodg- 

 ing there, and they may be more or less 

 right, but there is another reason why 

 it does not pay. About three-fourths of 

 the time you do not pull out the very 

 heart, but only the blades around it, and 

 in a couple of weeks you see the young 

 blades push out at the top instead of 

 the eyes along the side of the stem. You 

 have weakened the plant and have not 

 topped it either. Then, again, when the 

 stem shows between the joints the 

 growth is more matured and the eyes are 

 better formed and ready to break and 

 there is less check to the plant. 



"Varieties differ greatly and must bo 

 topped accordingly. What would make 

 a fine, shapely plant of one would not do 

 for another at all. For instance, old 

 Mrs. Joost needed only one topping to 

 make a fine, bushy plant, while India- 

 napolis needs to be topped every time 

 it makes two or three joints. It natural- 

 ly runs up to flowers any time of the 

 year and unless you keep it topped it 

 will waste its energies blooming when 

 it should be building plant. The fail- 

 ure to top enough is, I think, the main 

 reason why some growers have failed 

 with this variety. This severe topping 

 must commence right from the begin- 

 ning and be kept up until the plants are 

 housed in the summer or early fall, so 

 as to have a bushy plant. 



Shift the Young Plants. 



Watch all your varieties closely, espec- 

 ially the early ones. If the young plants 

 have filled the pots with roots you may 

 still have to repot some of them belore 

 planting out. Don't let them become 

 stunted. By all means plant from pots 

 if it is possible. If you have a lot in 

 flats or planted on benches, it will pay 

 you to pot them. I know they take up 

 more room on the bench in pots and it 

 may be a big job, etc., but it will pay 

 you to do it. The plants will take hold 

 better and they will be better and lift 

 better in the fall. The roots will be 

 more compact in the fall and hold the 

 soil better. All these things will count 

 when it comes to having vigorous plants 

 next fall. 



Lawson and Its Rivals. 



Much has been said lately regarding 

 Mrs. Lawson "running out," or de- 

 teriorating. Like most of the other 

 gentlemen, I must say that I cannot see 

 it. While we have never grown Lawson 

 quite as good as some others we have 

 seen, yet we know that ours have been as 

 good this season as we have ever had it. 

 Mrs. Lawson is a most peculiar variety. 

 Naturally it is a very strong, vigorous 

 grower and if it is in good condition 

 September 1 and well established on the 



benches, it is pretty sure to turn out 

 fine. It is, however, a poor transplanter 

 and it does not require much neglect on 

 the part of the grower to throw it all 

 out of gear and it is very slow to recover 

 from a check at that time. Growers in 

 general have learned how to handle it 

 during this period and we find a much 

 larger percentage of growers who do it 

 successfully than we did two or three 

 years ago. Of course there are growers 

 whose stock has nin down through over- 

 propagation and general neglect and a 

 variey like Lawson, which is in great 

 demand, is sure to suffer more than a 

 variety that is in limited demand. 



The remark has been made that the 

 Lawson blooms shown at Chicago were 

 not so good as those shown at Detroit 

 last year and at Indianapolis several 

 years ago. I think they were quite as 

 good as either lot, considering the date 

 of the exhibitions. The Detroit show was 

 held six weeks later than the one at Chi- 

 cago and the one at Indianapolis was 

 about midway between the two. I did 

 not measure any of the blooms at either 

 time, so I cannot say positively as to 

 size, but I do know that there were 

 more blooms at Chicago of other varie- 

 ties that were as large or larger than 

 Lawson than at any previous e^ibition. 

 Not because Lawson was any poorer, 

 but because the others were mostly 

 newer and larger varieties. The judges' 

 scores cannot be taken as evidence either, 

 because a vase of blooms that scored say 

 ninety points four years ago would 

 hardly score eighty-five points this year. 

 So that unless Lawson were grown much 

 better today than four years ago it 

 would score less and one would be left 

 to think that it is deteriorating. That 

 it does not stand out above all others as 

 it did at one time can not be gainsaid, 

 but it is because we are getting better 

 varieties among the new ones. I think the 

 variety will hold up in good shape until 

 we are given a worthy successor. 



A. P. J. Baur, 



CARNATION BREEDING. 



[An address by C. W. Ward, Qaeens, N. Y., 

 before the American Breeders' Association, at 

 Champaign, 111., February 2, 1906.] 



The complexity of the subject of car- 

 nation breeding, its immensity of detail, 

 precludes but a superficial skimming-over 

 of the subject in the limited time 

 allotted to me. 



The original carnation known to hybrid- 

 izers for some 2,500 years before the 

 Christian era was a five-petaled, single 

 bloom about one in<^h in diameter, of a 

 pinkish mauve color. In its original 

 state it grew generally throughout the 

 southern portion of Europe, being found 

 in abundance in Normandy, France, from 

 whence it is believed by some historians 

 to have been introduced into Great Brit- 

 ain. So recently as 1874 it was found 

 covering the Castle Falaise, in which 

 William the Conqueror was born. It was 

 described by Theophiastus as early as 

 300 B. C. 



The present carnation with which we 

 are working is the product of several 

 centuries of culture and hybridization. 

 It is an open pollinated species and 

 mother plants can be used both from the 

 hybrid plants as well as inbreeding upon 

 the same plants or upon the same va- 

 riety. Once secured from seeds a variety 

 is easily perpetuated by propagation 

 from cuttings, which are secured in 

 abundance and may be easily rooted. Im- 

 provements in varieties may be made 



