S(')() TIIF. rRACTICAL GARDENER. [Mai\ 



therefore be found a suitable place for them ; or they may, in 

 unfavourable situations, be sown in shallow boxes or pans^ and 

 placed in a situation where they can be shaded from the raid- 

 day sun. 



Carnations. — Carnations raised from layers and pipings last 

 season, should now be potted off into full-sized pots, in which 

 they are to perfect the flowers. These pots should be not less 

 than one foot in diameter at top. The roots of this plant are 

 subject to injury from excessive damp ; therefore the pots should 

 be well drained for them, and a sufticient quantity of mould 

 prepared for potting them. Like all other plants which come 

 under the above denomination, or which have attracted the at- 

 tention of the florist, many soils have been recommended ; and, 

 as in most other cases, each individual estimates his prepara- 

 tion as the best. 



We will subjoin the soils used by two respectable florist6, as 

 they have themselves published them, and as they appear 

 rational and free of that quackery which is so much practised 

 in compositions for florists' flowers. 



Mr. Hogg of Paddington, notoriously known as a first-rate 

 cultivator of the carnation, gives the following as his prac- 

 tice : — 



" 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 to- 

 wards 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 farther 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, 1 take about seven pounds 

 of damaged salt, and add them to it, either dissolved in water 

 or strewed over it with the hand. This, from an experience of 

 three years, 1 have found to be attended with the most bene- 

 ficial effects upon the future health and vigour of the plants. 



