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•January 28, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



23 



to some extent. We thought for a while 

 that the trouble was with our ice-box, 

 but experiments seem to show that this 

 is not the case. These carnations, with 

 some other varieties, are grown in a 

 house 50x150, run as near 52 to 54 de- 

 grees at night as possible. They have 

 been top-dressed at intervals of two 

 weeks, with a light mulch of sheep 

 manure, wood ashes, air-slaked lime, 

 soot, shredded cattle manure, and blood, 

 bone and potash — not all at once, of 

 course, but in succession. 



They have usually been picked at 6:30 

 a. m. and not put into water until they 

 reached the store, at about 8:30. But 

 flowers picked at night, put immediately 

 into water and remaining in it over night 

 are acting in the same way. We have 

 had numerous complaints of their not 

 keeping well, though they were perfectly 

 fresh when sold. It is a mystery which 

 we are trying hard to solve, and come to 

 you for help. 



We have thought the trouble might 

 come from the flowers getting chilled on 

 the way from the greenhouse to the 

 store, but today, with very mild weather, 

 we are facing the same conditions. Is it 

 the growing or th^ after-treatment that 

 is wrong? C. S. D. 



In such cases as yours it is much more 

 likely that the cause of your trouble will 

 be detected at home than that it will be 

 solved by some outside party. We have 

 had -come under our observation a num- 

 ber of cases of carnations keeping poorly, 

 in spite of all kinds of precautions, as 

 well as changes in culture, handling, etc. 



I will say here, however, that in almost 

 every case we have observed that where 

 the blooms went to sleep within an un- 

 reasonably short period of time after 

 picking, it was not caused by faulty cul- 

 ture, but by some other cause, usually 



Fred H. Lemon. 



(Member Entertainment Committee for Carnation Convention.) 



Charles Knopf. 

 (Chairman Finance Committee for Carnation Convention.) 



gas — gas of some kind, from one source 

 or another. We call to mind one case 

 where a certain retailer turned from one 

 grower to another vainly, in search of 

 carnations which would stay awake two 

 days after reaching his store. Other 

 plants and flowers seemed to keep and 

 grow, but no carnation grower could be 

 found whose stock would hold up. The 

 discovery of a minute gas leak was made 

 quite accidentally, after hundreds of 

 dollars of loss had been caused. The 

 presence of gas had been suggested, but 

 it was argued that the plants apparently 

 grew as well here as anywhere else. It 

 proved this one thing, that a small 

 amount of gas may have a serious effect 

 on carnation blooms — an amount so small 

 that it cannot be detected by the odor. 



The fact that the blooms complained 

 of in your case were sent to different 

 places does not disprove this suggestion. 

 If there happens to be a gas main near 

 your carnation houses, the cause might 

 still be the same. We have known a case 

 of this kind, where there was a very small 

 leak in the gas main. During mild 

 weather, as long as the ground was not 

 frozen, there was no trouble, but as soon 

 as the ground froze an inch or two deep 

 the gas could^not find a way out except 

 to seep along^under the frozen crust until 

 it reached the unfrozen earth under the 

 greenhouse. As soon as the ground 

 thawed the trouble disappeared again, 

 l-erhaps you have a case of this kind. 



We find that while right or wrong cul- 

 ture will improve or impair the lasting- 

 qualities of carnation blooms consider- 

 ably, it will not do so to such an extent 



