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January 27, 1910. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



29 



the sides of the balls with a sharp- 

 j>ointed stick where the roots are much 

 matted, take out the old drainage and 

 carefully loosen the roots entangled in it. 

 A compost of turfy loam, with some leaf- 

 mold and sand added, is suitable. Only 

 a small quantity of manure should be 

 used, and it should be old and well dried 

 and pulverized. See that the soil is se- 

 curely packed around the sides of all the 

 pots. Practically all the plants in this 

 section require firm potting. 



Jeruialem Cherriei. 



Select a few of the finest berries of 

 Jerusalem cherries. They contain a large 

 .quantity of seeds each. Sow in a flat 

 md pot off singly when of suflScient size. 

 Plant outdoors a foot apart, early in 

 May. Do not pinch at all, as sometimes 

 advised, and if your soil is generous, as 

 it should be, you will have splendid 

 bushes which will fill 6-inch pots, vastly 

 superior in every way to the sprawly, ill- 

 shaped plants raised from cuttings. It is 

 surprising how any growers will still 

 propagate these from cuttings, when so 

 much larger, more vigorous, better 

 shaped and more heavily berried stock is 

 to be had from seed. 



CALENDAR OF THE CARNATION. 



[A paper by Joseph H. Hill, of Richmond, 

 Ind., read before the American Carnation Soci- 

 -ety at the Pittsburg convention, January 26 

 and 27, 1910.] 



It seems a trifle ludicrous for a person 

 as young and as inexperienced in carna- 

 tion culture as myself to stand before a 

 body of representative men such as are 

 gathered here today, and attempt to in- 

 form them as to the best way to culti- 

 vate carnations throughout the year. 

 Many a member of this society was suc- 

 cessfully growing carnations before I 

 was born; others, comparatively young 

 men, are already acknowledged authori- 

 ties on the divine flower; and there are 

 others here present who might, if they 

 so desired, retire on their well-earned 

 laurels and enjoy for the rest of their 

 lives their well-filled coffers, the result 

 of hard work, close application and an 

 unceasing attention to the demands of 

 their chosen flower. In some portions 

 of my discourse will readily be recog- 

 nized the teachings of such men as 

 William Nicholson and the Dailledouze 

 Bros., to all of whom I am deeply in- 

 debted for kindly interest and instruc- 

 tion and unfailing response to any in- 

 quiry propounded. Other portions of this 

 paper are records of my own observations 

 and experiences, many of the lessons 

 being quite expensive, as every grower 

 has at times cause to confess as he sums 

 up his columns of success and failure. 



First Steps. 



The middle of November witnesses the 

 first steps looking toward the produc- 

 tion of the millions of carnation plants 

 required for the annual planting in this 

 and other countries. At this time the 

 grower puts into the sand those varieties 

 which fail to make good plants from 

 later struck cuttings, and also those re- 

 quired by those of his customers who 

 insist on "late December or early Jan- 

 nary fieliverv." While large numbers 

 are lai-on in November and December, 

 the bulk of the propagating is done con- 

 siderably after the holidays, and often 

 quite up to the first part of May. It is 

 a:enerally conceded that cuttings taken 

 'luring January, February and March 

 will give the best results to the average 

 sjrower, though most of us have seen 



grand blooms produced in quantity from 

 good April cuttings. 



Too much importance cannot attach to 

 the careful selection of cuttings, which 

 must be strong and healthy and from 

 clean and vigorous plants. The old axiom 

 quoted in Mr. Ward's book, that "like 

 begets like," must never be lost sight 

 of in this part of our' program. 



In the Sand. 



The cutting bench should have a brick 

 or tile bottom, filled with three to four 

 inches of absolutely clean sand, and so 

 constructed that a bottom temperature 

 of 60 degrees can be maintained. No 

 drafts should be allowed to strike the 

 cuttings, and they should also be pro- 

 tected from the direct rays of the sun 

 by a perfectly clean and light-weight 

 curtain of muslin. 



The cuttings should receive a thorough 

 watering when put into the sand, and the 

 detrimental habit of using the hose when- 

 ever they show signs of flagging should 

 be avoided, as this wilting invariably 

 shows that overhead conditions are wrong, 

 and these must be corrected rather than 

 that water should be added to the al- 

 ready saturated sand. The less the 

 amount of water used, if the cuttings 

 are still kept fresh and plump, the better 

 will be the root formation, and it re- 

 quires a nice discrimination to properly 

 adjust this matter. 



Varieties differ greatly in the fiber of 

 the first roots, the Enchantress family 

 being notable for producing good, tena- 

 cious roots quickly; while Afterglow, the 

 sturdiest, toughest stemmed variety in ex- 

 istence, must be handled with great care 

 to prevent the loss of roots when taking 

 from the sand, and must be allowed a 

 longer time to mature. 



Dibbled or Potted ? 



Then arises the question: Shall the 

 cutting be dibbled into the soil, or pot- 

 ted? The former procedure is the easiest 

 and the quickest, but I feel sure that the 

 extra work of potting and repotting is 

 doubly repaid. 



The young carnation that is planted in 

 the field or in the flowering bench from 

 a pot, with its firm ball of earth, in- 

 wrapped with a network of roots, will 

 show no ill effect from the shift and will 

 start right off into growth without a 

 day's hesitation, while the lifted plant, 

 in handling and resetting, loses most of 

 the soil from around the roots, and re- 

 ceives a severe check from loss of mois- 

 ture from its tissues. Especially is this 

 the case if not revived by frequent 

 showers soon after planting. Another 

 strong point in favor of the young pot- 

 grown carnation is exemplified when the 

 plant is lifted from the field either for 

 shipping or for immediate benching; the 

 small pot ball of the springtime will still 

 be found intact, greatly protecting the 

 roots from serious injury. One might be 

 led to suspect that the speaker was inter- 

 ested in the pottery business, for if all 

 the carnation men decide to pot all their 

 cuttings before planting, it means millions 

 of pots, but such is not the case; never- 

 theless, if any of the pot men present 

 want to "fix it" with the speaker, he 

 will be glad to meet them after we ad- 

 journ. 



We endeavor to get our young stock 

 up into 3-inch pots before planting out, 

 but often in the spring rush some lots 

 have to remain in 2 ^A -inch pots and 

 grow on nicely, provided they have not 

 become badly potbound. 



In the Field. 



When the first warm days come on, 

 about mid-April, the inclination is to 

 rush the stock out into the field, but I 

 feel sure that it is a serious mistake to 

 do so. In the house it has grown up in 

 a temperature of from 45 to 50 degrees, 

 and with moisture judiciously supplied, 

 so that it cannot but suffer and be 

 seriously checked when subjected often 

 to cold, severe frosts, and, worst of all, 

 to wet weather and a falling thermome- 

 ter. 



In an ordinary season, if the planting 

 is fully finished by the first part of 

 June, good, big, healthy stock is assured, 

 providing your soil has been properly 

 prepared and possesses full quantities of 

 plant food. 



We have come to the conclusion that 

 cross-checking the plants in the field, so 

 as to cultivate them both ways with a 

 hand cultivator, is not so good as to give 

 them more room between the rows and 

 draw the plants closer together in the 

 rows. By spacing the rows twenty-eight 

 to thirty inches, a horse and spiked-tooth 

 cultivator can be used, greatly lessening 

 the hand labor, besides loosening the soil 

 to a greater depth. The inclination of 

 the hand cultivator is upward rather 

 than downward, thus failing of the in- 

 tent to a certain degree. 



About July 1 we begin to condemn the 

 benches that are not producing a paying 

 quantity of flowers, emptying the worn- 

 out soil, and making them ready for our 

 next year's hopes. 



It is now a recognized fact that the 

 returns from carnations cut in June and 

 July come nearer being "real velvet" 

 than those cut at any other time in the 

 year, providing the plants have had the 

 proper care and have not been neglected 

 during the late spring rush. 



Wanted-A Soil Camer. 



If there is any time in the year when 

 the greenhouse laborer approaches mu- 

 tiny, it is when the task of wheeling out 

 and wheeling in presents itself. If, at 

 this particular period of carnation cul- 

 ture, the lady who strolls through the 

 houses in the winter, remarking on the 

 delights of "cultivating the fragrant 

 blossoms," comes about once more, she 

 certainly finds herself rudely disillu- 

 sioned, for it is as hard, hot and dis- 

 agreeable as working in a quarry or in 

 the molding room of an iron mill. The 

 man who perfects a practical mechanical 

 soil carrier, not only has a fortune as- 

 sured, but the added blessing of every 

 man relieved of this arduous and exhaust- 

 ing work. 



A word as to soil: The old prescrip- 

 tion, * ' Three parts of soil to one of well- 

 rotted manure, together with a generous 

 sprinkling of Ijone, chopped fine and put 

 on the benches," is sure to be super- 

 seded by more modern methods of soil 

 preparation. There are a number of 

 eminently successful firms in this coun- 

 try that take as long as five years in the 

 preparation of their soil for indoor 

 culture. 



The one vital principle to be observed 

 is to have the manure and other fer- 

 tilizers so thoroughly assimilated by the 

 soil, by means of leguminous crops and 

 clovers, that the food is immediately 

 available to the plant. 



Back to the House. 



So much has been written concerning 

 the careful lifting and quick -resetting 

 of the plants from the field, that I pass 



