June 11, 1008. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



9 



CARNATION NOTES.- WEST. 



Preparing ^or Next Season. 



With Memorial day past and gone and 

 the annual school commencements soon 

 over, the demand for carnation blooms 

 will soon be on the wane. As long as 

 the asters are not plentiful, there will, 

 of course, be a fair demand for light- 

 colored blooms, but all the darker shades 

 can well be dispensed with at any time 

 now. This applies especially to the 

 wholesale grower. The retail grower can, 

 of course, make good use of any kind 

 of a fair bloom in funeral work all 

 through the summer. 



So the next good thing on tap is get- 

 ting the beds emptied, repaired and re- 

 filled, ready to replant for next season. 

 The time to begin this work is just as 

 soon after the old plants are useless as it 

 is possible to get at it. To put it off a 

 month or more just because you may not 

 wish to plant in early is not a wise 

 thing to do, as it cannot possibly gain 

 you anything, while, on the other hand, 

 it might cause you considerable loss of 

 time if you happen to find, unexpectedly, 

 a few benches that need rebuilding. This 

 repairing of benches nearly always con- 

 sumes more time than one figures on at 

 the beginning and, in fact, it is fre- 

 quently the cause of late planting and a 

 consequent loss of consiiierable of the 

 early season's crop of blooms. 



To refill the beds early does not nec- 

 essarily mean that you must replant 

 early, but it does mean that you will be 

 able to plant whenever you wish to do 

 so. If you are in the habit of planting 

 in late, let me urge you to plant a part 

 of your carnations early this season. Get 

 them on the benches by July 15 and see 

 whether you will not be pleased with the 

 results. I will have more to say at the 

 proper time about the lifting and caring 

 for the plants after housing, but get 

 your beds ready so you can plant any 

 time you want to. 



Semi-solid Beds. 



If you have heretofore been using 

 raised benches altogether, and you find 

 some that need rebuilding this summer, 

 I would like to prevail upon you to give 

 the semi-solid bed, such as we now use 

 exclusively, a fair trial in a limited way 

 and see whether you will not want more 

 of them. I am not prepared to give you 

 any figures on the cost of construction 

 and maintenance of the two styles of 

 beds, nor of the number of blooms cut 

 and the comparative quality. All I can 

 say is this : We tried the two styles side 

 by side in the same houses and planted 

 to the same varieties, and we were so 



well pleased with these beds that we are 

 installing no more raised beds for grow- 

 ing carnations. 



Now, do not get the idea that this is 

 simply a hobby with us, as it is not. It 

 is a matter of dollars and cents. If we 

 could get better results from the raised 

 benches we certainly would install them, 

 and whenever we run across a style of 

 bench or bed that beats the one we now 

 use, we will certainly change to that 

 style. The old saying, "The proof of 

 the pudding is in the eating thereof," is 

 well applied in this case. Theories and 

 opinions count for nothing in the face of 

 actual facts, as worked out by personal 

 experience. 



The construction of the semi-solid beds 

 is simple enough and I have described 

 it in these columns before. Build up 

 your side walls from the ground with 

 whatever material you choose, and to 

 whatever height you wish. We make 

 ours out of wood, using red cedar posts 

 2x4, set in the ground about eighteen 

 inches deep and four feet apart. We 

 use pecky cypress boards, 1x12, for the 

 sides. These boards can be set up from 

 the ground fully two inches if coarse 

 filling material is used along the sides, 

 thus making the bed fourteen inches 

 high. This is then filled up with cinders 

 from our boilers to within four inches 

 from the top, leaving the balance for 

 soil, etc. If you use concrete — which is 

 all the rage these days — for the sides, 

 you can build them any height you want 

 them. We find, however, that twelve to 

 eighteen inches is the best all-round 

 height. It is high enough to be worked 

 well and will use up a big lot of filling 

 material, too, besides being less liable 

 to push the sides out than where the 

 sides are two feet or more. 



The only thing I will ask of you, in 

 case you decide to install one of these 

 beds, is that you build it as described 

 above, and give it a fair location in the 

 house. Do not put it where a raised 

 bench never grew good stock, as one of 

 our acquaintances once did, and do not 

 use old bench soil and sand, etc., for 

 filling, as the same person did. We have 

 found nothing so good for filling as cin- 

 ders. 



Refining the Benches. 



But to get back to filling the beds for 

 planting. Be sure the beds or benches 

 will hold up the full season. Before 

 filling in the soil, be sure you clean them 

 well and give a coat of hot lime wash. 

 Especially is this desirable if you were 

 troubled with stem-rot this season. We 

 spread a scant inch of manure at the 

 bottom of the bench before filling in 

 the soil. Either cattle or horse manure 



will do, providing it is old enough not 

 to heat. Then spread on the soil and 

 make it level with the sides of the bench. 

 In planting it will be packed down 

 enough to allow for watering and later 

 on for mulching. Break up all the lumps 

 as you bring in the soil, as carnations 

 like a well pulverized soil to work in. 



We have always, heretofore, used a 

 fair amount of bone meal at planting 

 time, believing that it benefited the 

 growth of the plants. Professor Gallo- 

 way, however, asserts that bone meal 

 does not improve the crop in any way 

 and that it is useless, and money thrown 

 away, to apply bone to the soil. A prom- 

 inent carnation grower related to me a 

 similar experience with this much used 

 article the past season. So we will make 

 some experiments this season along that 

 line, to determine whether bone meal is 

 as indispensable as we formerly consid- 

 ered it. The growers of this country 

 spend many thousands of dollars on 

 ground bone every season and it would 

 be a pity if this had been done unnec- 

 essarily and without any return for it. 



If you do not plant the beds for some 

 time after they are filled, do not keep 

 the soil very moist, but do not allow it 

 to become dust-dry either. Neither is 

 good for it. A. F. J. Baur. 



MAY-FLOWERING TULIPS. 



The name May-flowering tulips is very 

 misleading; the title is very well in Eu- 

 rope, but it will not do in this country, 

 at least not in Virginia. Our so-called 

 May-flowering tulips were well over be- 

 fore Easter. The Darwins dragged on 

 a week or two after, but were finished 

 before May. 



A writer, speaking of an exhibition of 

 tulips, says Margaret and Picotee were 

 both shown under one name. Another 

 variety, labeled Beauty of America, came 

 nearer the type. Now, the only tulip 

 likely to confound one is White Queen, 

 and it is evident this was the one, but it 

 is not Picotee shaped. Moreover, the 

 latter would proclaim itself after three 

 days in water, by turning almost pink. 



The same writer says Bouton d'Or 

 and Golden Crown showed up well. Now, 

 although both are splendid commercial 

 varieties, they are not much on the ex- 

 hibition table. He mentions Gretchen as 

 being very fine. Now, in all he mentions 

 but six sorts. Where were Mrs. Moon 

 (syn. Gesneriana Lutea), Pink Beauty, 

 Inglescomke Pink, Striped Beauty, Paris- 

 ian Yellow, etc., none of which gets a 

 notice! These should have been seen, 

 even if too high-priced as yet for com- 

 merce. 



Did the display include Darwins? We 



