18 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 
cultivated in Scotland and the North of England out in 
the open garden; the best I ever saw were grown in 
cottagers’ gardens in the Tyne Valley. Cultivators allow 
the layers to be well ripened and rooted before planting. 
I wrote to one of the best growers at Swalwell near New- 
castle-on-Tyne, asking him to give me particulars of the 
treatment which produced such beautiful flowers. He said 
that the ground was enriched with manure obtained from 
the cattle market in Newcastle, that the manure was dug 
in three months or more before planting to a good depth ; 
5 or 6 inches of soil being placed over the manure. The 
second week in November is the best time for planting, 
but there is no hard-and-fast rule in the matter. The 
most important point is that the layers should be healthy and 
well rooted at the time of planting. They require careful 
cultivation, but, if this is given them, they grow vigorously. 
The late Mr. E. S. Dodwell stated, in one of the nume- 
rous papers he wrote on this type of Carnation, that the 
average life of a variety was about fifteen years. My ex- 
perience amongst all classes of Carnations is longer than 
Mr. Dodwell’s, and my conclusions are scarcely the same. 
Take, as an illustration, the variety Admiral Curzon, a scarlet 
Bizarre ; it is well known to every cultivator and exhibitor 
at flower-shows of this class. The variety was raised by 
a gardener named Milwood at Derby in the year 1844, and 
it is not only still vigorous, but it was awarded the prize 
offered for the “Premier” bloom in the Bizarre Carna- 
tions at the National Carnation and Picotee Society’s Show 
(Southern Section) in 1909, Admiral Curzon has been 
grown and propagated from layers year by year for a period 
of sixty-five years. It defies competition ; attempts have 
