MARKET PLANTS— CAMELLIAS, CARNATIONS. 



CAMELLIAS. 



Most of the plants flowered in this country arc imported from the Continent, as they 

 can be bought more cheaply than they can be grown on this side of the Channel. 

 There is only a limited demand for plants, and cut blooms are seldom asked for. Pure 

 whites, of which the best is the old alba plena, are used with good effect in memorial 

 wreaths and other forms of decoration, and whore there is a steady local demand for 

 floral designs, white camellias will bo found profitable. The blooms, if sent to the 

 market, must be packed with great care, as they are very liable to be bruised, also to 

 shatter quickly. Consequently, the returns are always uncertain. They may be 

 anything from Is. to 3s. per dozen. Buyers like to have stems with the blooms, but 

 those who market all they grow should leave at least two buds behind on each growth 

 after cutting, removing and sending away the earliest blooms without wood attached, 

 cutting the later blooms. Largo, healthy old plants, cither in tubs or planted out in 

 borders of loamy soil, under glass, produce numbers of blooms, and in some instances 

 no thinning out of buds takes place, five or six blooms being picked from each strong 

 shoot. In this way a long and valuable succession is obtained. These blooms without 

 stalks require to be carefully mounted on wire stems, with or without the addition of 

 leaves, to fit them for wreath-making. Strong, well-established bushes should be 

 syringed frequently in hot weather, and assisted with weak liquid manure. An 

 occasional surfacing of what is known as native guano is found to answer well. 



CARNATIONS. 



There are no signs of waning popularity as far as carnations are concerned, and 

 those who can grow them well will find them profitable. Haphazard treatment will not 

 do ; nor is there any pay attached to them if the plants are crowded among a variety of 

 other kinds. From first to last they ought to be kept by themselves. Under glass 

 their season should extend all through the winter, and till the border varieties are 

 available. This refers more especially to the tree or perpetual-flowering carnations, the 

 Malmaison section not producing many flowers till the spring. 



Varieties of winter-flowering carnations that have proved among the best for market 

 culture are — Miss Mary Godfrey (Fig. 173), Lizzie McGowan, Purity, and La Neige, 

 pure white ; Duke of York, crimson ; W. Eobinson, bright scarlet ; A. Alegatiere, scarlet ; 

 Daybreak, pale flesh pink ; Reginald Godfrey, and Mdlle. Therese Franco, salmon pink ; 



