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CARNATION CONFERENCE. 



JULY 22, 1890. 



A Conference on Carnations was held at the Chiswick Gardens 

 on Tuesday, July 22. 



The Chair was taken at 2.30 p.m. by Martin R. Smith, Esq., 

 F.R.H.S., President of the Conference, who, in opening the pro- 

 ceedings, said : — 



It is my privilege on opening these proceedings to make a 

 few remarks, and I shall commence them by an apology for pre- 

 suming to address you at all, possessing as I do but a mere 

 amateurish knowledge of the subject upon which I am going to 

 speak. 



I am, however, a sincere lover of that most beautiful of our 

 flowers — the Carnation — and I avail myself of my privilege to 

 point out an error into which I believe the great growers of 

 Carnations are falling, and that is, that I believe they are raising 

 their plants from a pampered and weakly parent stock, and thus 

 rendering them unfit to bear the vicissitudes of our severe English 

 winters and springs. 



Now and again a few beautiful, and at the same time 

 thoroughly hardy, varieties are produced, such as Alice Ayres, 

 Princess Alice, Paul Engleheart, and others ; but, out of the 

 thousands of seedlings that are raised annually, how many of 

 them are fit to stand the wet and cold of our winters ? Very few 

 indeed ! and I maintain that practically it comes to this, that 

 the modern Carnation is not a hardy plant. 



No doubt the fault lies somewhat in the habit of the plant 

 itself, which renders it intolerant of snow or continued wet, but 

 the main fault is the consumptive tendencies of the plant itself. 

 We ourselves are to blame for raising our Carnations so habit- 

 ually under glass instead of in the open air, and being contented 

 and satisfied with the beauty and colour and form with which we 

 are rewarded. 



What I maintain is that the same beauty of form and colour 

 can be obtained in due time from varieties absolutely hardy. 

 Nevertheless it must be allowed that there are difficulties in 



