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26 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



January 27, 1910. 



ment to place beside the door of the 

 house where death has entered, in lieu 

 of the somber crape. Because of their 

 excellent lasting quality, they are one 

 of the best flowers to use for sending a 

 long distance, or when they are required 

 to be kept for a considerable time be- 

 fore being used. 



If it were not for being so wasteful, 

 many of tlii' arrangements of carnation 

 flowers would be improved in appearance 

 if carnation buds and foliage were com- 

 bined with the flowers. 



For the uses enumerated, the carnation 

 flowers should be of good quality; and to 

 produce such, the propagation and culture 

 of the plants producing them, and the 

 gathering and care of the flowers after 

 being grown, must be carefully and prop- 

 erly attended to, necessitating unflagging 

 attention on the part of the grower. This 

 is not alone the case with the carnation 

 plants and flowers, but applies as well to 

 all the stock in the florists' domain; a 

 fact which all plantsmen do not seem to 

 appreciate. 



If eternal vigilance is the price of lib- 

 erty, it is no less the price of good plants 

 and flowers, and the difference in the 

 success of different florists may gener- 

 ally be ascribed to the continuous care 

 bestowed on his stock by the successful 

 grower, and the intermittent care and 

 partial neglect, in this respect, of his less 

 successful neighbor. 



Propajation— Old Ways and New. 



There are different ways of propa- 

 gating carnations, and the older English 

 authorities seem to have preferred layer- 

 ing, which is necessarily an extremely 

 slow method and is practically unknown 

 in this country. 



Another means that they practiced was 

 propagation by pipings, which were prac- 

 tically the same as our cuttings, and the 

 directions for the operation are as fol- 

 lows: "Prepare as many pots as are 

 wanted. Pill them nearly full of com- 

 post, and the remaining space with sil- 

 ver sand. Prepare the pipings, by cut- 

 ting off a stem quite smooth at the 

 third joint; then carefully slit the joint 

 just through, and insert the pipings in 

 the sand. ' ' 



How would our growers, who propagate 

 carnations by the million, like to be con- 

 fined to the slow and tedious method just 

 outlined? Undoubtedly their patience 

 and their pots, with some of the other 

 material mentioned, would soon become 

 exhausted. 



Judging from the directions concern- 

 ing many of the horticultural operations 

 described in the English works on gar- 

 dening, and especially those of an early 

 date, silver sand was a most important 

 s-ibstance in the gardener's equipment, 

 and, while it is a very nice and cleanly 

 material to work with, we have proved 

 by long practice that it is not indis- 

 pensable. 



The best materials from which to make 

 carnation cuttings are the shoots spring- 

 ing from the sides of the flowering stems, 

 but taken before they are old enough to 

 have developed the three joints men- 

 tioned in the directions concerning pip- 

 ings, just read. These will make better 

 plants than the tips of terminal stems, 

 such as are produced on young plants, 

 and which are sometimes used. 



Cuttings should never be taken from 

 plants showing any signs of disease, such 

 as yellow or spotted foliage, notwith- 

 standing the temptation to do so in the 

 case of varieties that it is desired to 

 increase to the limit. 



Only so many cuttings should be taken 

 off at once as can be prepared before 

 they show any symptoms of wilting. They 

 should be handled at a distance from 

 stoves or hot pipes and not in bright ^ 

 sunshine, and it will do no harm to * 

 freshen them by a gentle spray of cold 

 water, if it seems necessary. 



Benching the Cuttings. 



While some growers insert the cut- 

 tings in the sand almost in the condition 

 in which they are taken from the plants, 

 it is much better to prepare them first by 

 judicious pruning, as follows: Pull off 

 two or three of the lowest leaves, with- 

 out removing too much of the substance 

 of the stem of the cutting; then, with 

 a sharp knife, shorten any of the remain- 

 ing leaves that are long enough to re- 

 quire it, leaving from one to two inches 

 of the base of each leaf. 



The cutting bench should have been 

 prepared in advance, with three or four 

 inches of clean, sharp sand, free from 

 loam or any vegetable substance, and 

 should be provided with some means of 

 keeping up a gentle bottom heat. 



It is the practice of some of the best 

 propagators, and a good one, too, to re- 

 new the cutting bench with fresh sand 

 after each lot of cuttings have been taken 

 out, but it is a laborious operation and 

 is not absolutely necessary. If the sand 

 is stirred and loosened, and thoroughly 

 soaked with boiling water, applied with 

 a watering can having a spray rose on 

 the spout, so as to destroy any fungoid 

 growths in the sand, it may be used for 

 a number of times with safety, as has 

 been proved by actual experiment. 



In preparing the bench to receive the 

 cuttings, the sand, which should have 

 been thoroughly watered some time pre- 

 viously, should be firmed by using a clean 

 brick, or something similar, and scored 

 for each row of cuttings with a table 

 knife. If the cuttings have been prop- 

 erly trimmed, the rows should be about 

 two inches apart, and the cuttings placed 

 one-half or three-quarters of an inch 

 apart in the rows. They should be in- 

 serted from one-half to one inch deep, 

 depending somewhat on the condition of 

 the sand and the character of the cut- 

 tings, and should be firmed by pressure 

 of the finger and thumb on the sand 

 during the operation of setting them, 

 which may soon be learned. As soon as 

 a lot are set, they should be given a good 

 watering with a can such as recommended 

 for scalding the bench, and should never 

 be allowed to get so dry that the sand 

 becomes light-colored and dry to the 

 touch or the cuttings show any signs of 

 wilting, but the watering should be done, 

 if possible, during bright days, and in 

 the morning. While the bench should 

 have all the light it wUl bear without in- 

 jury to the cuttings, by making them 

 wilt, it will be necessary to shade it from 

 bright sunlight, at least until the cut- 

 tings have become so thoroughly estab- 

 lished that sunshine does not harm them. 



Potting the Cuttings. 



As soon as the cuttings have formed 

 roots half an inch in length, they should 

 be potted in 2-inch pots, using a good 

 quality of potting soil, with little or no 

 fertilizer in it, and firming the plants 

 well in the pots. This course is preferable 

 to planting the cuttings in trays or boxes 

 of soil, a plan followed by many growers. 



The plants should now be placed in a 

 rather cool, well lighted house, having 

 about the same temperature as that in 

 which the cuttings were rooted, and one 



in which top ventilation can be given 

 when needed. 



For a short time at first they will re- 

 quire to be shaded from bright sun- 

 shine, but the shading should be dis- 

 pensed with as soon as possible. 



One of the most important things re- 

 quiring attention at this stage of the 

 growth of the plants is the watering. 

 They should never be allowed to get quite 

 dry, and, on the other hand, should never 

 be watered while the soil is wet, as neg- 

 lect or carelessness in this respect is like- 

 ly to lay the foundation, or, rather, sow 

 the seeds of future stem-rot. This opera- 

 tion should be in charge of the most ex- 

 perienced and careful person employed in 

 the establishment. If the watering is 

 done with a hose, it should have a nozzle 

 furnished with a spray rose, having a 

 flat, and not a convex surface, perforated 

 with very small holes. To water plants 

 as it should be done is one of the most 

 di^cult things to teach a beginner and 

 should never be entrusted to anyone who 

 cannot do it properly. A careful and 

 experienced 'man knows by looking at 

 plants when they need water, and how 

 much they need. 



While probably a majority of plants- 

 men use an open hose to water with, 

 regulating the amount of the flow with 

 the end of the finger, this is not nearly 

 as good a plan as to use the spray nozzle, 

 as recommended for the newly-potted 

 carnation plants. The flat, perforated 

 surface of the rose concentrates the 

 spray, while a convex surface causes it 

 to be too much scattered, so that it is 

 difficult to apply the water just where it 

 is needed without wetting other plants 

 standing near that may not require irri- 

 gation at the time. For general green- 

 house use the perforations in the rose 

 should not be very large. 



Weeds should not be permitted to grow 

 among the young carnation plants, and 

 fumigation must be attended to regularly, 

 to keep down aphis, whUe the under side 

 of the foliage should be sprayed with a 

 good force of water, to keep the plants 

 free from red spider. As soon as the 

 stems attain the proper height, say, five 

 inches, they should be stopped, which 

 will induce the formation of side shoots. 

 When the pots are well filled with roots, 

 the plants should be repotted in 3-inch 

 pots, and so on to 4-inch and 5-inch pots, 

 for those that are to be benched from 

 pots. 



Late propagated plants that are to be 

 grown outside during the summer may be 

 planted from 2-inch pots, or, better still, 

 from 3-ineh, if they have needed repot 

 ting before being planted out. 



Propagation by cuttings may be car- 

 ried on from November until April, but 

 January, February and the early part ol 

 March VFill be found the best time for 

 this operation. 



Planting in the Field. 



The proper time for planting in the 

 field will vary with the latitude and thi 

 season, but should be done as early as 

 it can be with safety, so that the plants 

 may become established, and make some 

 growth, before the hot weather of mid- 

 summer. If the young plants have been 

 hardened in a coldframe for some time 

 previously, they may be planted outsid'' 

 sooner than if taken directly from the 

 warmer greenhouse. 



The soil in the field where the plants 

 are to be grown should be of a loamy 

 nature, and care should be taken to have 

 it well pulverized and free from stones 

 and other obstructions. 



