840 



THE GARDENERS* MAGAZINE. 



NOVEMUKR 2, 1912 



_ RAISING PERPETUAL' 



FLOWERING JCAR NATIONS 



FROM SEED. 



I 



The carnation is an old, old flower, and 

 much time and money have been spent on 

 tracing its history. The perpetual-flower- 

 ing carnation is, as we all know, a florist's 

 production of recent years, and those of 

 us who were associated with the raising of 

 new varieties when Miss Lizzie MaeGowan 

 was considered the limit of productiveness^ 

 realise the progress and great possibilities 

 which lie before iis. This work, however, 

 can never progress un.loss seedlingis are 

 raised. 



The percentage to-day is about one good 

 novelty in five thousand seedlings, so that 

 the chances of great sm-cess are small. It 

 does not follow that if you raise five thou- 

 sand seedlings you will procure a good 

 novelty. On the other hand, you might 

 raise only half a dozen and obtain a second 

 Enchantress. ITie glorious uncertainty of 

 it all adds interest to anyone possessed of 

 a speculative mind. Only recently we paid 



T>e 



perpet 



country, and jet the variety was procured 

 quite by chance ; and last year I gave a 

 city clerk a price well into two figures for 

 a perpetual carnation seedling he obtained 

 irom an eighteenpenny p.icket of seed. 



This may read like a chapter from tlie 



Arabian Nights," but such are the pos- 

 sibilities if the best seeds are sown. You 

 have to open quite a number of oysters 

 before finding a pearl. Human nature it- 

 self is very much mixed, as one finds by 

 taking stock of ? crowd, and it is not to 

 be marvelled at if seedlings of the per- 

 petual carnation are mixed in quality. 



The charm of perpetual ciirnation seed- 

 lings is that they will flower within nine 

 months fi-om the date of sowing the seeds, 

 and the percentage of singles and '^split- 

 ters from good seeds is comparatively 

 small. It is unnecessary to deal with the 

 simple methods of raising seedlings and 

 their culture afterwards, because those 

 who grow carnation plants enn raise seed- 

 lings. The best season to sow is a debat- 

 able point, but there is less importance in 

 the best season to sow the seeds, than there 

 is in when it was fertilised and ripene<l. 

 As a rule, it is best to sow the seeds now 

 or during the Avinter, so thit the seedlings 

 flower for the first time during spring and 

 summer, when the useless ones can be dis- 

 carded, and the others grown to produce 

 flowers during the following dull season. 

 If seeds are sown in spring large plants 

 will be utilising v.'ilu;ihl(^ room in winter, 

 and some of tiieni will h(^ useless. Hence 

 winter sowing is the l>est. 



It is always a surprise to me to see Mar- 

 guei'ito carnations grown in pots for 

 autumn flow(^iing, wheii I)eantifu] seedling 

 porp( Tmil virieties could be grown for tb(> 

 sam- *^xp"n-o in laboui*, and in the case (tf 

 the latter there is always the chance of ob- 

 taining something of phenomena] merit. I 

 believe there are instances of men having 

 dug a well in their back garden and struck 



gold. But that does not occur as a general 

 rule. 



The perpetual carnation is a floristV 

 flower, but no flower can live upon the 

 past, and the present is soon gone. That 

 is whv new feedlings must be raised, so 

 that the good work may go f)n. and ()ur<'ol- 

 lections enrichinl frorn' tini*^ to time with 

 varieties that in some attributes are 

 superior io tlw^ older tortus. 



^loNTAGtT C. AlLW^OOO. 



Hay ward's Heath. 



GARISH DAHLIAS. 



I ani afraid the remarkable efl'usion, or 

 shall 1 call it a tirade, against the j)aeony- 

 tlowered dahlias from your correspondent, 

 "C. T. D.," on page 7B3, has come rather 

 late in the day to affect their popidarity as 

 garden flowers, a popularity they are fully 

 entitled to, and this I venture to assure 

 " C. T, D," they are likely to maintain. But 

 evidently your correspondent judges the 

 flowers as lie sees them at the autumn flower 

 shows^ and he bewails the fact that they are 

 iriegular in outline and petal. Why, this is 

 the very reason they caught the public eye, 

 and came into favour at once a^ beautiful 

 garden flowers. They were never intended 

 to be exhibition flowers in any sense of the 

 word, and are taken to flower shows by trade 

 firms so that the public may have an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing them, and if your corre- 

 spondents knowledge of this section has 

 only l>een obtained by these means, I feel 

 sure he will excuse my saying his know- 

 ledge of this flower is very imperfect. 



As to gari^hness, save the mark ! Why 

 should a bright colour be beautiful in one 

 flower and garish in another? Why should 

 scarlet in the double dahlia be a gem, and 

 in the paeony-flowered simply awful ".^ To 

 m-e it is inexplicable. I have never yet 

 heard anyone who even suggested that the 

 paK>ny-flowei^ forms were an improvement 

 on any existing class of dahlia, and I think 

 "C. T. D/' must have drawn on his imagi- 

 nation in making the suggestion. There is 

 no doubt that this section owes much of its 

 popularity to the superintendents of our 

 ])ublic parks and gardens, as in these latter 

 they have been, and are still, extensively 

 used, and I do not think even " C. T. D." 

 can regard these gentlemen as lacking in 

 horticultural taste, but I do think they'' are 

 often leaders of such taste, as seen in this 

 particular flower, 



I do not believe any single person is under 

 the impression that the paeony-flowered 

 dahlia is perfect, but to reduce it to the 

 so-called refinement of the other dahlias 

 would effectually kill its mission in this 

 world, viz., to provide a bright display of 

 flowers in our borders and beds during the 

 autumn months. I admit it wants improv- 

 ing, not so much in the flower itself as in 

 the stems. Many of the first introductions 

 should now^ be consigned to the rubbish 

 heap to make way for the improvements 

 that have already been made in this direction 

 during the past few years^ as these have 

 good sturdy habits and strong stems. As 

 to colours, that is only a matter of indivi- 

 dual taste, for we have in the section quite 



as many soft shades and tones as loud or 

 bright ones, 



I also notice " C. T. D." would like to put 

 the old florist's rule-of-thumb round the 

 collarette section, but I am afraid it is too 

 late in the day to attempt such a thing, for 

 there are already two distinct forms of the 

 flower recognised— the French type, with 

 rounded petals and a close-fitting collar, and 

 the German type with pointed star-like 

 jxtals and a loose, open collar. I am afraid 

 your correspondent's knowledge of this sec- 

 tion is of a somewhat cursory character, 

 for he says their collars are invariably irre- 

 gular, like a tad set of teeth; this is erro- 

 neous, for some sorts produce perfect collars. 

 I have seen scores of them during the past 

 season. To my mind it would be "a mistake 

 to attempt to adopt a ck 

 the star-like type, for it would be entirely 

 out of character, and take away that light- 

 ness and delicacy which at present is their 

 chief charm. 



T trust nothing in the shape of a standard 

 (M jiovfectmii will be drawn up by any 

 - rii'ty. Such a standard has not bceu 

 ;Kl(H)t<(I ior tlic cactus varicli^-s, ami i h^v 

 M'cni \i> h:iV(^ conir along pretty well durin^r 

 IIk' pa4 tliirly years witliout one 



l)o,il)th>. '•('. T. D.," in his closing re- 

 marks and advice to dahlia raiders and 

 growers, thinks he is likely to guide the 



dahlia world, but in spite of his aflnnf 

 the editorial ^' we,- he is not ifke f'^ 

 l^rsuade people to follow him in his mrr' 

 cular direction. b. Riding 



^^^^^/,^t^J>^^",(^^rish Dahlias" from tb 

 pen of C T. must, I feel sure, S 



lorth criticism trom many lovers of th 

 paeony-flowered dahlias. This section hal 

 assuredly come to stay, for every year r 

 placing them on a firmer footing, ana I con' 

 rend tnat they are most beautiful for warden 

 decoration. ^ 



I raise no objection to "C. T. D.'s" eulo 

 gistic remarks about the more symmetrical 

 show, fancy, pompon, and single dahlias- 

 indeed, I go further, and say I heartily agre^i 

 with him that they are perfectly lovely I 

 however, take a broader view, and see beauty 

 in the "ragged-looking paeony." May I 

 suggest that he takes a somewhat autocratic 

 view, and forgets that we are now living in 

 the twentieth century, and faced with the 

 problem of suitings a far wider range of 



tastes than was tue case in 'the Victorian 

 era. 



In these gardens we grow all sections 

 of dahlias. This year about 2,000 plants 

 were used to furnish the dahlia garden, and 

 nearly half of these belonged to the pseony- 

 flowered section. The giant decorative, col- 

 larette, single, and pompon sorts we grow- 

 freely, and the show, fancy, cactus, dwarf 

 cactus, stars, etc., in moderate numbers. 

 The garden devoted to them was a magnifi- 

 cent sight from early in July to early in Octo- 

 ber, and was seen by many hundreds of people 

 of all classes. It was interesting to observe 

 the opinions expressed on the various sec- 

 tions, but I unhesitatingly say that the 

 paeony-flowered and the collarette sorts 

 strongly appealed to all. 



Surely it is not too much to expect that, 

 some few out of these hundreds of visitors 

 possessed taste. Among the number was a 

 member of one of the oldest dahlia-growing 

 firms in this country. AVhen the pseony- 

 flowered section was introduced he had a 

 strong objection to them but now he is a most 

 enthusiastic lover of the section. I am sorry 

 that " C. T. D.^s " protest did not appear a few 

 weeks ago, before the frosts put all types on 

 the same footing, as I should have been 

 pleased to have extended to him an invita- 

 tion to come and see our dahlias. Once 

 haying seen them, I should have been sur- 

 prised if he had gone away unconverted as 

 to their beauty and usefulness for garden 

 adornment, or at least if he had gone away 

 without a very considerable broadening of his 

 view. ' Arthur Cobb. 



Duffryn Gardens, rear Cardiff. 



STORING DAHLIA ROOTS. 



Many roots of valnablo dahlias are often 

 h)st tluongh bad storing. Frost is not the 

 •rause of tlie l(,'ss in eveiy case, althout^li 

 it does destroy great ininihcrs. Wlien only 

 stored under loose straw on ;i llniu*. wlieie 

 cold dran^lits- -of ton tiasty ones pene- 

 trate, the r(M)ts ar(> soon rninVd. Too often 

 no fine, close-fitting material is used i" 

 addition to the straw or other litter, and 

 then frosts reach the roots. Again, dahlia 

 tubers are often stored in damp cellars or 

 similar places, and the crow^ns become 

 badly infested with fungus, and decay i" 

 th^ spring-time. 



The best way to store the tubers is to 

 select a comparativolv <{rx shed free from 

 eold draughts, to well embed the roots in 

 clean sand, the latter just covering the 

 crowns, aird to ])nt on a thin cov(M-ing ot 

 ■^traw, and moro -^traw ni- i-Kits in ase or 



vcrv s(^v»'r(' I i >)^K. Vorv i-aroly in<Ie«'(l 

 \vill fungus ;i[t;u-k ilir tnliiMs avIhmi 

 »n soffi conditions. dikI in spring Ih*'^' 

 he plMtn|) and sound. ;ind soon prochu'e 



number of voung snck.M s suitable for pro- 

 pagation. ^ Geo. Garner. 



