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10 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Febbdart 15, 1012. 



STIGMONOSE. 



As we are beginners in the grow- 

 ing of carnations, will you kindly tell 

 us what ails the plants of which we 

 are sending you samples? The varie- 

 ties we are sending are White En- 

 chantress, White Lawson and Lady 

 Bountiful. They are all planted in the 

 same bench. In another bench we 

 have other varieties of Enchantress, 

 Harlowarden and Victory, but they are 

 doing well. Please give us the name 

 of the disease and state whether it 

 spreads, as we believe it does. Is 

 there any cure for it? Would you ad- 

 vise us to take cuttings from the plants 

 or not? J. IxM. 



The disease you complain of is stig- 

 monose, which has been the subject of 

 numerous discussions in these columns 

 this winter. By looking up your back 

 numbers you will find the information 

 you seek. I might add that this dis- 

 ease does not spread from one plant 

 to another, except in case a plant is 

 inoculated by means of the punctures 

 of insects. Unless you keep your 

 plants scrupulously clean, there is, of 

 course, great danger of this. 



A. F. J. B. 



CUTTINGS OR BILOOMS— WHICH? 



I write to ask something about the 

 rooting of carnations. I read each 

 week what A. F. J. B. has to say and 

 think he is O. K., but what I wish to 

 know is this: My carnation plants are 

 making a good many shoots around 

 the bottom of the plants, about five 

 to six inches long. Will these make 

 good cuttings? Or, if left on the 

 plants, about what month will they 

 flower? I can sell 25,000 to 40,000 

 cuttings from March to the first part 

 of May, if I had them. In other years 

 I bought them unrooted and rooted 

 them, but I have been thinking of 

 taking those bottom shoots instead of 

 buying unrooted ones. I also remem- 

 ber that when I threw the old plants 

 out, about the first part of July, there 

 were about twelve to fourteen nice green 

 tops on them, about twelve to sixteen 

 inches long, and if these had been put 

 in sand when four or five inches long 

 I would have had more rooted cuttings 

 and would thus have been turning these 

 green tops into cash. I shall be much 

 pleased to have A. F. J. B. 's opinion 

 on this point. G. A. B. 



You are in exactly the same fix in 

 which most of our carnation special- 

 ists have found themselves at one time 

 or another, especially those who grow 

 for both cut blooms and cuttings. 

 Each has also found, sooner or later, 

 that it is impossible to secure both in 

 satisfactory quantity from the same 

 plants. To get a maximum of cut 

 blooms from your plants, you must 

 take oflf no shoots except those which 

 would be taken oflf with the blooms. 



When growing for cut blooms alone, 

 you can secure enough of these shoots 

 to supply all the stock needed for your 

 own planting, but not much more. To 

 get a maximum of cuttings it is neces- 

 sary to keep the blooming shoots 

 topped back from the very beginning 

 in the fall, to induce the young breaks 

 to come. With a fair market, either 

 one will pay better than to try to mix 

 the two, as has been found by expe- 

 rience. 



M'hen we buy new varieties we let 

 them come into crop, and then, about 

 the first of the year, or whenever we 

 begin to propagate, we go through them 

 and take off all the available cuttings. 

 Then, as the breaks appear where the 

 blooms were cut, we keep taking them 

 ofif. By the last part of March there 

 are usually few buds left and we are 

 running the plants for cuttings, as 

 long as we wish to propagate them. 

 Wo practice this method because it 

 gives us a chance to get an accurate 

 line on the productiveness and desira- 

 bility of the variety through most of 

 the season, and at the same time we 

 manage to get a good lot of stock for 

 the next season. 



But, to get down to your own par- 

 ticular case, I take it that you want 

 to cut blooms, and about all you can 

 cut, up to the end of the season, which 



would be July 1. Cuttings which you 

 would sell during March and April 

 would have to go into the sand at 

 least four weeks earlier than the time 

 of delivery. That would mean that 

 you would take off the shoots during 

 February and March. These same 

 shoots would flower during May and 

 June. The shoots of which you speak 

 as being twelve to fourteen inches 

 long when you take the plants out in 

 July would have been too late to 

 propagate satisfactorily. So you can 

 see that it simmers down to the ques- 

 tion of whether you want to grow for 

 a maximum cut of blooms during May 

 and June, or whether you are willing 

 to sacrifice a part of the cut for what 

 cuttings you propagate. But this much 

 is certain: Every young shoot you 

 take off in late winter or early spring 

 means one flower less ten to twelve 

 weeks later. You can not eat your 

 cake and have it too, and, in the lan- 

 guage of the faker, "you pays your 

 money and takes your choice." 



A. F. J. B. 



SUBSTITUTE FOB HARLOWABDEN. 



Will you please give me the name 

 of a good carnation that will take the 

 place of Harlowarden? Our stock of 

 it seems to be going backward and is 

 not giving the satisfaction it should. 



L. S. H. 



Since the time when Harlowarden 

 was introduced there has not appeared 

 a crimson variety which took among 

 the trade as Harlowarden did. In the 

 west it has been Harlowarden and in 

 the east it is Harry Fenn. Nothing 

 seems to have been able to displace 

 them. Last season my firm dissemi- 



Varieeated Seedling No. 94, of Chicaco Caroation Co. 



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