858 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



preserve it iii a dr>- state ; the stems should not be sufffered to hang so loose as to be in danger of breaking 

 off with everj'puffof wind. The seed ripens from the end of August to the beginning of October: the 

 pericarpium becomes brown, dry, and hard, and the seed, when ripe, is of a black or very dark brown 

 color ; those who are not sufficiently attentive to the ripening of their seed are apt to gather it too soon, 

 before it is perfectly matured, in consequence of which the greatest part proves small, pale-colored, and 

 unproductive. When gathered it should remain in the pericarpium, in a dry room, till the beginning or 

 middle of May ; it is then to be sown in pots filled with the compost, and have a little fine mould sifted 

 upon it, barely sufficient to cover the seed : at this season of the year artificial heat is not required, the 

 pots should therefore be placed in an airy part of the garden, be shaded from the heat of the sun, and kept 

 moderately moist, but never very wet. As soon as the young plants appear with six leaves, and become 

 about three inches high, they should be planted out on a bed of good rich garden-mould, at about ten or 

 twelve inches asunder, and be defended from excess of rain and severe frosts, by mats on hoops, placed 

 over the bed in the usual manner : they will in general blow the following summer. Some persons have 

 advanced an opinion, that the seed of run plants produces as great a proportion of variegated flowers 

 as any other : but the validity of this assertion has not yet been sufficiently demonstrated by experiment." 

 (Maddock.) 



6420. Hogg's directions differ in nothing of importance from those of Maddock. He says it often hap- 

 pens, that out of 200 blooming plants you will not be able to get even two pods of perfect seed. More 

 was saved in the dry summer of 1818 than in any seven preceding years. Seedlings require two years to 

 bloom, and the chance of getting a good new flower he reckons as one to 100. If a florist raises six new- 

 carnations in his lifetime, he is to be considered fortunate. Seed out of the same pod, he says, is reported 

 to produce flowers of all the different varieties, flakes, bizarres, &c. Emmerton experienced that seed 

 from a scarlet flake will produce a scarlet bizarre, and a rose or pink flake. 



6421. Sail. The compost Maddock recommends is as follows : " one half rotten horse-dung, one year 

 old, or that has been used as a hot-bed for cucumbers, melons, &c. ; one third "fresh sound loamy earth ; 

 one sixth coarse sea or river sand. These ingredients are to be mixed together in autumn, laid in a heap 

 about two feet thick, in an open exposure, and turned three or four times during winter ; or, otherwise, 

 the dung alone, after being used as a hot-bed, may be thrown together in a heap, in a conical form, in 

 order to rot more perfectly ; and, as its surface freezes in winter, it should be pared off, and laid on one 

 side, till the whole mass has been thoroughly frozen throughout ; this may be repeated as often as the 

 season pemiits, and it will be completely tit for use the following spring : the earth and sand may be 

 added to it in March, when wanted to fresh pot the plants for bloom : the whole should then be well 

 mixed and incorporated together, and passed through a coarse screen or sieve, to reduce its parts and 

 take out stones, or any other extraneous substance which it may contain. In country places, where the 

 air is more pure, experience has pointed out the propriety of using less dung and more loam ; the pro- 

 portions of which, for such situations, may be reversed, viz. one half loamy earth and one third dung, 

 with the sand as before specified : the preparation of the compost, in other respects, is to be exactly the 

 same in all situations." (Florist's Direct.) 



6422. Hogg takes "three barrows of loam, one and a half ditto of garden-mould, ten ditto of horse- 

 dung, one ditto of coarse sand ; let these be mixed and thrown together in a heap or ridge, and turned 

 two or three times in the winter, particularly in frosty weather, that it may be well incorporated. On a 

 dry day towards the end of November, I take a barrow of fresh lime, which, as soon as it is slacked, I 

 strew over it while hot in turning the heap ; this accelerates the rotting of the fibrous particles in the loam, 

 lightens the soil, and destroys the grubs, worms, and slugs. Lime is too well known as a manure to say 

 any thing further in its praise here. If there has been much rain during the winter, so that the strength 

 of the compost is reduced, and the salts washed from it, I take about seven pounds of damaged salt and 

 add them to it, either dissolved in water or strewed over with the hand. This, from an experience of 

 three years, I have found to be attended with the most beneficial effect upon the future health and vigor 

 of the plants. During very heavy rains, many florists cover their compost with tarpawling or double mats, 

 to prevent the nutritious particles from being washed out ; this is also an excellent precaution. If any 

 objection be started that the quantity of dung is too great in proportion to that of the loam, I answer, that 

 such an objection might be well founded, if the compost were to be used immediately on its being mixed 

 together; but as it has to lie six months before it is used, I am decidedly of opinion, that the quantity is 

 not more than is necessary in order to ensure a luxuriant growth and a generous bloom." For flowers 

 that are apt to sport in color, such as Humphrey's Duke of Clarence, Plummer's Lord Manners, &c. he 

 lowers the compost, and uses " three barrows of sound staple loam, two ditto old rotten cow-dung, one 

 ditto horse-dung, a half ditto sand, a half ditto lime rubbish, or old plaster; to be prepared, and well in- 

 corporated, as before." He also uses the same compost for yellow picotees. (Treatise, &c. 45.) 



6423. Justice says, " One article with respect to the soil for carnations you must certainly observe ; 

 never to use for it the ground wherein hyacinths have been planted; they, from certain experience, being 

 a sure poison to the carnation, and vice versa." (Brit. Gard. 427.) 



6424. Manner of growing. The commoner sorts are planted in beds or borders, but the select kinds 

 always in pots. 



6425. Pots and potting. Maddock uses pots for flowering plants, " at least twelve inches wide at the top, 

 six inches at the bottom, and ten inches deep in the inside, with a circular aperture in the centre of the 

 bottom, of about an inch in diameter ; also three or four smaller holes round the sides of the pot, close to 

 the bottom, to prevent the possibility of water lodging or remaining in that part." Hogg uses pots of 

 twelve or sixteen to the cast, being smaller than those recommended by Maddock. 



6426. The oreration of potting, according to Maddock, " should commence about the middle of March, 

 if the weather is not extremely unfavorable ; but it should not, on any account, be deferred later than 

 the end of that month. The pot is, in the first place, to be half filled with compost, having an oyster- 

 shell, with its hollov^ side downwards, placed over the hole in the centre of the bottom : this compost is 

 to be higher at the sides than in the centre of the pot, and the plants intended for it, which are supposed 

 to have been wintered in small pots, containing four plants each, are to be carefully turned out of their 

 pots, with all the earth adhering to them, in a ball ; and after rubbing off about half an inch of the sur- 

 face of the old mould, round about the plants, above their fibres, cleaning them and cutting off the decayed 

 points of their leaves, the ball is to be carefully placed in the centre of the pot, and the space between it 

 and the sides filled up with the prepared compost. It is very necessary to be attentive in placing the plants, 

 that they be neither planted deeper nor shallower than they were before ; the compost should therefore be 

 high enough to replace the old earth that was rubbed off on potting, exactly to the same height as before, 

 i. e. half an inch higher than the ball of old earth and fibres : and the whole surface of the earth in the 

 pot, when the operation is finislied, should be nearly level or flat; but by no means higher at the centre 

 than at the sides, because the plants would thereby be kept too dry ; nor should the compost come nearer 

 than within an inch of the top or rim of the pot, after it has been gently shaken, or struck against the 

 ground on finishing, as an inconvenience will attend its being too full, whe"n the operation of laying comes 

 to be performed, which requires some additional mould on the surface, for the layers to strike into." 

 Hogg considers the first week in April as the safest and best time to pot carnations, and he performs the 

 operation in the same manner as Maddock. 



6427. General culture. When the plants are potted off for bloom, the pots should be placed in an 

 open airy part of the garden, under an arch of hoops, that in case of cold drying winds, heavy rains, 

 or frosty nights, mats may be thrown over, to preserve them from the effects of such unfavorable weather : 

 in this situation they are to remain, always open to the air, except in the cases above mentioned, and be 

 kept regularly watered with soft water from a finc-roscd watering-pot. 



