Culture of the Carnation at Forres, 153 



Art. XVII. On the Cultivation of the Carnation at Forres Nurseries. 

 By John Grigor. 



During the last eight or ten years the cultivation of the 

 carnation in our nurseries at Forres, North Britain, has been ex- 

 tensive and successful. We therefore trust that a few remarks 

 on our treatment of this most beautiful flower will not be destitute 

 of interest to English growers, since our mode of culture is neither 

 that which is generally practised in the South, nor that which 

 many would consider well adapted to the North of Scotland. 

 Previously to the year 1830, our stock of carnations con- 

 sisted chiefly of the named sorts then known in the vicinity of 

 London, whence we received them, and our treatment then was 

 similar to that bestowed on the plant in that quarter, the soil 

 being a composition of loam, vegetable mould, road sand, &c. 

 The plants were generally grown in pots. With the exception 

 of a few kinds of least value, the whole assumed an enfeebled 

 and victimised appearance, were difficult to propagate even by 

 laying, and apt to die during winter. With all our care and 

 desire for the plant, we were unable to make its cultivation either 

 ornamental or profitable. About the period referred to we re- 

 ceived from a friend in France a parcel of 200 carnation seeds 

 grown from select flowers ; these were sown in the open ground 

 in the month of May and produced about 160 plants, which 

 were transplanted into beds in August following, and twelve 

 months thereafter were in full bloom ; about nine tenths of them 

 were double, and a fourth part of the whole consisted of valuable 

 flakes, bizarres, and picotees, equal to many named flowers, 

 and far healthier than any carnations of equal quality we had 

 ever seen. We have since had frequent supplies of seeds of like 

 quality from France and Germany, &c. In growing seeds in 

 this country we have uniformly found that the earliest blooms 

 of a seedling double carnation, the first year that it flowers, 

 will more readily produce seed than the flowers of after years. 

 From the first blossoms of fine seedlings we have, in seasons not 

 the most favourable, obtained well-ripened and valuable seeds, 

 but we have never been able to gather seeds again from the same 

 plant nor from its produce of layers. Seeds grown on bizarres 

 and flakes frequently produce picotees. Our stock of stools, 

 from which we propagate the various kinds of this plant, occupies 

 about half an acre of ground, situated in an open and airy ex- 

 posure without the shelter of walls, and the plants receive no 

 covering at any season. The soil is strong, dark-coloured, and 

 clayey, with a subsoil of blue clay, at the depth of 18 in. Water 

 rises to within 2^ ft. of the surface. The ground is therefore of 

 that description generally termed " damp," and the weeds which 

 it is most subject to produce are Montia fontana and Cardamine 



1840. March. m 



