92 FILLING BENCHES AND PLANTING 



FILLING THE BENCHES AND PLANTING SUGGESTIONS 



To the beginner let us call attention to the drainage 

 question; it is an important one with Carnations. You 

 can feed poor soil after it is in the benches, but you cannot 

 do much for soil made sour by improper drainage. Lay a 

 good covering of straw manure all over the bottom to 

 prevent the soil from stopping up the openings. This is 

 important, no matter whether you make use of heavy or 

 light soil. Five inches of good soil is enough to grow any 

 Carnation in, but let it be sweet soil, full of fiber and life. 

 Worn out soil, or such as has been piled up somewhere for 

 four or five years, will not grow good Carnations, no matter 

 how good the drainage or how much feeding you do. 



PLANTING SUGGESTIONS 



The shorter the time the plants are out of the soil the 

 better, and of course it goes without saying that the roots 

 of the lifted stock should never be exposed to sun or wind 

 any longer than is absolutely necessary. We all know that, 

 and yet it does some of us good to be told again. Any 

 intelligent man can arrange to suit his own particular case 

 about how best to mark off his benches, how to get the 

 plants in the shortest time from the field to the house, to 

 space the plants properly, which depends a great deal on 

 the varieties and the size of the plants, and to water thor- 

 oughly after planting. A Carnation plant ought not to 

 lie on its side after the first watering is done, nor should it 

 be planted so deep that it cannot fall over; both are 

 wrong. Shallow, loose planting retards the re-establishing 

 of the plant, and deep planting invites stem rot; therefore 

 right planting is of the greatest importance, and you 

 cannot press the soil around the plants too solidly. 



