I -wi 



10 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Februabx 17, 1910. 



CARNATION CULTURE. 



[A paper by S. J. Goddard, of Framingham, 

 Mass., read at a meeting of the Gardeners' and 

 Iflorists' Club of Boston, February 15, 1910.] 



To be successful in growing carna- 

 tions, the minutest details must be care- 

 fully considered. 



To start with, the propagating bench 

 must be absolutely clean; nO old, rotton 

 bottom or side boards should be allowed 

 to remain when starting to propagate in 

 the early winter. My method is to build 

 a bench of 1-inch pecky cypress. We 

 lay the boards close together, using sides 

 three and one-half inches deep. 



Ready for the Cuttings. 



Before filling with sand, whitewash 

 the bench thoroughly, using hot lime with 

 a small proportion of Portland cement, 

 of the consistency of very soft mortar, 

 so that it has to be rubbed well with a 

 brush in order to fill every crack. 



In picking off cuttings, great care 

 should be exercised to make the selec- 

 tions from only the healthy plants, and 

 i do not take them unless they have fully 

 matured. By being matured I mean that 

 they are on stems on which the bud is 

 showing color or is fairly well developed. 

 In setting them in the sand be careful 

 not to set them too deep; about three- 

 quarters of an inch is deep enough. 

 Make them as firm as possible and water 

 each row as soon as pressed in. This 

 method gives one a better chance to see 

 that the sand is thoroughly soaked and 

 leveled, so that there are no dry spaces 

 around the bases of the cuttings. Water 

 should be given every day for ten days. 

 The sand will then keep wet enough to 

 carry the cuttings for the balance of 

 their sojourn in the propagating house. 



Flats Versus Pots. 



The next proceeding is to shift the 

 rooted cuttings from the sand to flats or 

 pots. We prefer flats, as they are easier 

 to handle, take up less room and are 

 much easier to care for later in the sea- 

 son, with regard to watering. My experi- 

 ence has been, when lifting field-grown 

 plants, that stock planted from pots will 

 retain the shape of the pots and the loose 

 roots around the outside will break off to 

 a great extent. This is not the case with 

 stock planted from flats. We use flats 

 twelve inches wide, twenty-four inches 

 long and three inches deep. These will 

 hold sixty plants, placed in ten rows, 

 with six in each row. That is for the 

 earliest boxed stock. Later in the sea- 

 son. Of with any boxed after March 1, we 

 put in eleven rows, with seven in a row, 

 or seventy-seven plants in each flat. We 

 prepare our boxes by making the soil 



moderately firm and of the right de- 

 gree of moisture to work well, using one 

 part well rotted cow manure and four 

 parts fresh loam. We always immerse 

 the roots of our cuttings in a pail of 

 water when lifting, to remove the sand, 

 finding that by this procedure fewer roots 

 are broken in course of handling. 



Always give a good soaking after 

 transplanting. Put the young trans- 

 planted stock in a house that is kept at 

 a night temperature of not over 52 de- 

 grees or less than 48' degrees, shielding 

 them from the bright sunshine for three 

 or four days and keeping them from 

 drafts as much as possible. 



Toppiog the Youo£ Plants. 



Do not top or pinch back until the 

 cutting has grown enough to show the 



S. J. Goddard. 



Joints. I notice that when a top is pulled 

 from one not developed, one does not get 

 the heart out clean and the process has 

 to be repeated some time later. Conse- 

 quently the cutting that was jointed has 

 commenced to branch and the other is 

 two weeks behind. 



Bepeat this operation every week, tak^ 

 ing tops from the ones most advanced. 

 Never try to save the tops to increase 

 your stock, even if it is a new variety and 

 cost you $12 a hundred. The tempta- 

 tion is great, but the profits will be less 

 the next winter. Also this may cause 



you to say the variety is "N. G." and 

 heap abuse on the disseminator. 



Keep the young plants growing con- 

 tinuously; never fail in your attention. 

 Water, top and feed. Do not hurry to 

 put them in a coldframe until the weather 

 is warm enough to have the sash off in 

 the daytime. I prefer a coldframe to a 

 hotbed. 



Now for the spring rush td^plant out- 

 side; we are all anxious to get the car- 

 nations in the field. Here, in Massachu- 

 setts, we commence about April 25 or 

 May 1, if the weather is favorable. Of 

 course, the land must be dry enough and 

 properly plowed and smoothed. 



Planting Outside* 



Our system is as follows: Set the line 

 across the piece to be planted. Take a 

 Plant, Jr., wheel hoe, with the small plow 

 attachment, and make a small furrow 

 right across. This is just as good ai 

 chopping with a spade and ten times as 

 rapid. Have a boy drop the plants 

 (which have previously been cut out), six 

 inches apart. After planting, rake or 

 smooth off a couple of feet next to the 

 row and repeat the operation, setting the 

 line this time fifteen inches from the 

 starting point. This will give ample 

 room to run a wheel hoe through for 

 weeding and cultivating. 



Never let the weeds get ahead of you. 

 Keep the wheel hoe going once a week 

 and hand-weed every two weeks. We 

 never use a hand hoe, as too many plants 

 are injured by carelessness on the part 

 of the operator. I find we can do the 

 work faster and much better by getting 

 down on our knees and weeding, leaving 

 the weeds on the right-hand side of the 

 row. This accumulates all weeds in every 

 other row, where they can be more read- 

 ily taken off with a fork, if the weather 

 is unfavorable for killing them. 



Topping in the Field. 



The most important work to be con 

 sidered at this stage is the topping or 

 pinching back. Here is where your 

 foundation is laid for next winter's suc- 

 cession of blooms. Never pinch bj^ck ev- 

 ery shoot at one time. Go over the 

 plants at least once a week and removf" 

 the longest shoots, pinching them back 

 hard to secure good, strong growths. We 

 never use a knife. 



I believe that one can regulate the 

 crop right through the winter by this 

 style of topping, at least until spring, 

 when carnations will crop anyway.,. 



We commence planting inside early Ib 

 July and plan to finish during the first 

 week in August. 



