l60 AMERICAN CARNATIONS IN ENGLAND 



their marks without much difficulty, for they are in the 

 happy position that up to the present the demand, during 

 the greater part of the year, is far ahead of the supply, 

 consequently they have been enabled to form a society 

 among themselves which fixes the prices of flowers and 

 plants from time to time, and these prices are such that 

 the margin of profit is a very substantial one. 



THE AMERICAN CARNATION IN ENGLAND 



The cultivation of the American Carnation, which is 

 styled in England the Perpetual Flowering Carnation, 

 has made greater strides upon the markets there than any 

 other flower, and today holds precedence in Covent Garden 

 Market, London. It is also interesting to note that Eng- 

 land supplies the best Carnations sold in Paris and other 

 Continental cities (or did until the war), while every 

 wholesale market throughout the British Isles has its daily 

 supply of Carnation blooms. The important part of this 

 is that the development of the flower over there has taken 

 place during the past ten years. 



The main difference between Carnation growing in 

 England and America is that American growers obtain 

 approximately one-third more blooms per plant in a year. 

 Naturally, the American can produce blooms at practi- 

 cally half the price that the English grower can. The 

 average cut per plant in England is, say, twelve blooms, 

 but many growers must content themselves with a lesser 

 quantity. It is now becoming a common practice to run 

 the plants on for two years, and, of course, during the 

 second season almost double the crop is obtained, but it is 

 questionable whether the quality of bloom is quite as good 

 the second year. This, to some extent, depends upon the 



