Febbuart 22, 1912. 



TheWeckly Florists' Review. 



15 



CJUTTINQS DO NOT BOOT. 



I am having considerable trouble 

 with my propagating bench, especially 

 in regard to carnation cuttings. They 

 seem to rot a few days after being 

 placed in the sand. I treat them in 

 the usual way; that is, I take the slips 

 from the flower stems and place them 

 in damp moss for the night man, who 

 cuts them on the slant so as to strike 

 a joint and replaces them in moss. The 

 following morning we put them in the 

 sand, which has been well soaked, lev- 

 eled and pounded. The sand bench is 

 of wood, with four to five inches of 

 sharp sand. Under the bench, closed 

 up, are three runs of steam pipe, which 

 are regulated with a valve at one end. 

 On sunny, bright days I sprinkle the 

 tops of the cuttings lightly and cover 

 with newspaper to protect from sun 

 and drafts. Any information as to the 

 cause of my trouble or the remedy 

 will be gladly received. J. P. 



You are certainly not following a 

 course which would be calculated to 

 bring success in propagating carnation 

 cuttings. Unless your night man is dif- 

 ferent from most of the men who are 

 employed in that capacity, he should 

 not be entrusted with the trimming 

 of the cuttings. We think that our 

 cuttings are worthy of the time and 

 attention of the best men on our place, 

 from start to finish. When you take 

 the cuttings from the plants or flower 

 stems, dip them into a pail of clear, 

 cool water and place them in a box, 

 covering them with paper, and set them 

 in a cool place until you can trim them. 

 After they are trimmed they should 

 be stuck into the propagating sand as 

 soon as possible. 



Three steam pipes are too many un- 

 der your propagating bench, especially 

 if the front and back are boarded up. 

 Did you ever put a thermometer under 

 there, to see what the temperature is? 

 Our propagating bench is against the 

 north wall and we have under it one 

 2-inch steam pipe hanging against the 

 wall. We are taking out batch after 

 batch of well rooted carnation cuttings, 

 ^"our to five weeks from the day they 

 were stuck. With this excessive bot- 

 tom heat, covering the cuttings with 

 newspapers would help to start fungus 

 in the sand by holding in the moisture 

 and producing a humid atmosphere. We 

 use a muslin curtain, hung in front of 

 the bench, and just recently we have 

 placed another one over the top of the 

 bench to keep oflp drafts which come 

 through the open ventilators on bright 

 ^ays. Again, you may have some bad 



sand, which may be polluted in some 

 way. 



Spraying overhead is also frequently 

 the starting of just such trouble. There 

 is a certain happy medium in both 

 spraying and shading, and the propa- 

 gator who succeeds in maintaining it 

 does not have any trouble in rooting 

 his cuttings. You want to keep your 

 cuttings fresh at any cost, but you 

 want to do it with just as little of 

 either shading or spraying as possible, 

 especially the latter. Carnation cut- 

 tings, like carnation plants, do not 

 want too much water on the foliage as 

 long as there is no wilting. 



If you have failed to root your cut- 

 tings during the last two months, you 

 will probably not be able to root them 

 from now on, as the conditions are not 

 likely to be nearly so favorable. With 

 the ad'ded strength of the sun, neces- 

 sitating more ventilating, which in 

 turn will produce drafts, even the ex- 

 pert often finds it difficult to get a 

 good strike. Better buy what cuttings 

 you need for this year and try your 

 hand at propagating again next winter, 

 under the most favorable conditions. 



A. F. J. B. 



STOCK TO GO TO EX7B0PE. 



I should like to get some information 

 about the packing of carnation plants 

 or rooted cuttings for shipment to Eu- 

 rope. I wish to send a few carnation 

 plants to Germany. Would it be better 

 to ship cuttings or 2-inch plants f How 

 would you pack them and what is the 

 best way to ship themf How about the 

 duty? A. V. B. 



The packing of plants for shipment is 

 a problem which bears close study and 

 has by many of the large shippers been 

 reduced to a science. An expert plant 

 packer is as valuable to the plant 

 producer as a first-class grower, for 

 of what use is it to grow fancy stock 

 only to ruin it in sending it to your 

 trade? 



To ship plants to Europe requires 

 the best packing you can possibly do, 

 and even then it is more or less of a 

 lottery as to whether they will get 

 through in good shape. Firms who have 

 shipped heavily to European points 

 agree that it is almost entirely a ques- 

 tion of what part of the hold of the 

 ship your boxes are stored in. If they 

 are placed near the boilerB there is 

 little chance of their surviviig the trip 

 and I am told that this frequently hap- 

 pens. There seems to be no guarantee 

 by the transportation companies that 

 this will not happen. 



Many thousands of carnation cut- 

 tings are shipped over right from the 

 cutting bench, usually by parcels post. 

 If shipped this way, use a waxed or 

 glazed paper to wrap them in. Put 

 only about ten plants in a bundle and 

 see that the moss does not come up 

 higher than the base of the cutting, 

 where the roots start. The moss does 

 not need to be more moist than if you 

 were shipping them on a three days' 

 journey. When placing them in the 

 box, use plenty of fine excelsior be- 

 tween the bundles. This is to keep 

 from having too much foliage in a 

 bunch. You will also find it a good 

 plan to dust a little sulphur or Grape 

 Dust among the foliage as you wrap 

 the cuttings. 



Before packing up the cuttings, make 

 inquiry as to the leaving time of the 

 ships which carry this kind of freight, 

 so you can start your shipment at the 

 proper time to meet the ship, else they 

 may lie around the docks several days. 



Your custom-house officials will glad- 

 ly furnish you all the information you 

 want regarding the duties imposed by 

 the different nations in Europe; also 

 the rates for transportation, etc. 



Plants from pots can perhaps be har- 

 dened off a little more than the cuttings 

 and would therefore stand a little more 

 hardship. Shake all the soil from the 

 roots and pack as recommended for 

 the cuttings. A. F. J. B. 



THE WOERY ENDED. 



Relative to carnations, we have been 

 growing them for more than fifteen 

 years, making them our specialty, and 

 have always carried out the general in- 

 structions to use cow manure, but have 

 lots of trouble with a living fungus 

 which starts in the soil from lumps 

 of the manure and spreads rapidly 

 through the bench. This seems to 

 stop as the cold weather comes on. We 

 are also troubled greatly in our section 

 with eel or earth worm, which seems 

 to spread and thrive better in cow 

 manure than any other kind. 



Last season we found it difficult to 

 procure the cow manure and decided to 

 try pulverized sheep manure, which we 

 did. We had a heavy, sandy loam soil 

 and put on 800 to 1,000 pounds of the 

 manure to the house, 20x80 feet. The 

 results were all that we could ask. We 

 have many thousand plants in the 

 finest condition, producing the finest 

 flowers. We will not worry about cow 

 manure any more for carnations. 



J. L. O'Quinn & Co. 



