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August 30, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



927 



CARNATION NOTES.-EAST. 



Spr&ying vs. Syrinsing. 



The present spell of bright days and 

 cool nights is producing ideal breather 

 for the establishment of recently benched 

 plants. Of course the temperature dur- 

 ing midday runs higher than is desirable, 

 but it is just here where the observant 

 grower can best employ both his time 

 and personal attention to good advan- 

 tage. 



You will notice in the early morning 

 (I take it you get around between 5 and 

 6 a. m.), how the plants have braced 

 up during the night after a previous 

 warm day. This is a good indication, but 

 do not wait until flagging commences 

 before applying a light spray. 



Now, there is a vast difference be- 

 tween spraying and syringing as under- 

 stood in greenhouse operations. By 

 syringing is meant to apply directly, 

 with force sufficient to dislodge some 

 object, while we should define spraying 

 as the act of scattering in minute par- 

 ticles. 



With a medium force of water, aim 

 the hose at an angle of aboyt forty- 

 five degrees over the bench, using the 

 thumb or forefinger, direct the spray as 

 high as possible over the plants without 

 hitting the glass. Endeavor at all times 

 to break up the water as fine as possible, 

 thus forming a mist to descend lightly 

 over the foliage. 



It is not the amount of water used 

 which benefits the plants, in fact the 

 less applied at one time the better; 

 but several times during the day, accord- 

 ing to the weather, this spraying opera- 

 tion must be gone through until the 

 plants show signs of taking hold, when 

 spraying may be less frequent and in 

 time may be discontinued. 



During this critical time avoid 

 draughts over the plants, but in no case 

 keep the houses closed, producing stag- 

 nant atmosphere. That invites that dread 

 disease, stem-rot, to pay a visit. Also 

 arrange to spray so tHat the foliage 

 will be dry over night. 



I am every year more convinced that 

 the improper use of bone meal, or the 

 inferior quality of some grades, has much 

 to do with stem-rot, but of that mat- 

 ter we will treat later. 



Geo. S. Osborne. 



CARNATION NOTES.- VEST. 



Removing Old Foliage. 



When you have reduced your syringing 

 to once each day, so that the plants are 

 dry overhead most of the day, and be- 

 fore you put in place the supports that 

 are to hold the plants upright, it is a 

 good time to look over the plants and 

 take off all dead and diseased foliage. 

 This should be done when the plants are 

 quite dry, as the blades will snap off 

 readily next to the stem, whereas if they 

 are wet, they are likely to strip off the 

 bark from the stems. You can get 



around the plants much handier before 

 the supports are in place, and it is a 

 good time to give the whole lot a good 

 cleaning off. 



What a difference there is in varieties. 

 Some will transplant without losing a 

 blade, while others will lose half the 

 foliage in fipite of anything you might 

 be able to do, and oftentimes just the 

 ones you would expect to have the least 

 trouble with. To leave this dead foliage 

 on the plants would be inviting disease 

 later on, and it looks so unsightly. 



Summer Pests. 



A pest that usually gives us more or 

 less trouble about a month after plant- 

 ing is the sow-bug or wood-louse. This 

 bug is naturally a scavenger, but it also 

 loves live carnation leaves, and if left 

 undisturbed will chew up your plants 

 considerably. It likes sugar better than 

 carnations, and by mixing Paris green 

 into the sugar and dropping a little here 

 and there on the edge-boards, you can 

 destroy it. Don't e^ect to get all of 

 them with one dose, but repeat it several 

 times, a week apart. 



If your plants are affected with any 

 of the fungous diseases, such as fairy- 

 ring, or the common carnation spot, it 

 will pay you to give them a dose of 

 Bordeaux mixture or formalin. Use the 

 formalin about 500 to one. This amounts 

 to about one and one-sixth drachms to 

 each gallon of water. Figuring a pint 

 at a pound, there are 576 drachms in 

 each gallon. The formalin is clear and 

 will not color up the plants like the 

 Bordeaux mixture. It is much less trou- 

 ble to prepare and apply. Both are 

 good for all such diseases. By washing 

 it off with the nose you can apply the 

 formalin every few days, but the Bor- 

 deaux mixture had better be left on 

 several days before being washed off. 



Spraying. 



Don't wait until your place is over- 

 run with greenfly before you fumigate 

 or spray. As soon as the plants are 

 well established, you should begin spray- 

 ing them regularly once each week. Set 

 a certain day of the week when you are 

 best able to do it, and make it a fast 

 rule to spray on that morning. You 

 don't have to wait for a cool evening, 

 or on anything else, when you employ 

 this method of fighting aphis. You can 

 spray any morning, rain or shine, 

 whether you have to pick blooms or not. 

 It makes no difference. After diluting 

 the nicotine liquid in water, it is so 

 nearly clear that it does not spot even 

 the whitest bloom, it is more )a3ting 

 in effect than fumigating with tobacco 

 smoke, and I can assure you that unt^s 

 you start out with a bad case of thrips, 

 one application each week will keep your 

 place clean. 



On one plant, however, I want to 

 warn you against using any of these 

 liquid preparations, and that is the vio- 

 let. They can't stand even the mildest 

 applications. Why it is I cannot say, 

 but numerous experiments have proven 

 this conclusively. 



When taking into account the effoc- 



tiveness, the cleanliness, and the eaae 

 with which liquid nicotine can be used, 

 I can not understand why any grower 

 will stick to the old method of burning 

 tobacco stems. A. F. J. Baue. 



SUPPLEMENTING CARNATIONS. 



I am the owner of four houses 25x150 

 feet, and one lean-to 16x75 feet. In 

 the four main houses I grow carnations; 

 in the lean-to, which consists of three 

 benches, I grow smilax, swainsona and 

 some potted ferns, asparagus, and car- 

 nation cuttings. 



Now I feel that I don't get enough 

 out of the four main houses. What I 

 want to 'get is a list of crops that 1 

 can use to follow up the carnations with 

 in the early spring. As soon as a bench 

 of carnations gets exhausted, and are 

 not paying for bench room, I want to 

 get rid of them at once, stir up my soil 

 and plant something else right away. In 

 the lean-to I use all of my empty space 

 for freesias, narcissi and Harrisii, but 

 as I have been in the business only a 

 short time, I am not well enough ac- 

 quainted with it to know just how to 

 get the most out of it. 



What varieties of summer carnations 

 would you suggest? C. B. S. 



If you grow carnations as they ^ouhl 

 be grown, they will occupy your benches 

 the entire year, except the time requiretl 

 for refilling and repairing. If you can 

 sell your carnation blooms at a fair 

 figure up to the time for throwing them 

 out, which is early in July, then you 

 ought to get-vs much out of them as you 

 could out of any other combination of 

 crops. There are few early summer cut 

 flower crops that could be planted afte/ 

 Easter, and be done with when you 

 should begin to get your houses ready 

 for replanting; so there is great danger 

 of damaging the next season's carnation 

 crop, by throwing it late, more than 

 what you gain on the extra crop. 



The retail grower can work in many 

 odds and ends in the way of spring bed- 

 ding plants that will take up lots of room, 

 in fact all he cares to give up to them. 

 If you are situated so that you can dis- 

 pose of considerable quantities of geran- 

 ium plants in the spring, you will find 

 them a profitable crop to work in. You 

 can carry them along in 2% -inch pots 

 until March 1, at wMch time repotting 

 into 4 -inch should commence. You can 

 throw out enough carnations at that time 

 to hold them when set on the bench 

 close together. Later on, in April, when 

 you can spare more room, you can spread 

 them out as they need it. These will 

 all be gone by the middle of June, and 

 your benches will be empty for next sea- 

 son 's preparations. 



Not all growers are situated so they 

 can work this plan advantageously. We 

 happen to be so situated, and we dispose 

 of many thousand geraniums and other 

 bedding plants; we think it pays us well, 

 though we have never been able to grow 

 eighty good 4-inch pot geraniums from 

 one stock plant in one season. You can 

 use up a limited amount of space for 

 Memorial day flowers, such as candy- 

 tuft, feverfew and ten weeks' stocks, 

 etc., providing you can find sale for 

 them. Some growers plant gladioli be- 

 tween the carnation rows. These should 

 be planted about the middle of February. 

 Bed spider is their worst enemy. 



Another crop that pays well is sweet 

 peas. These must be sown before Jan- 

 uary 1. Plant half a dozen seeds about 



