CARNATION CONFERENCE. 



483 



sand and some charcoal broken up to the size of peas and 

 shaken over the compost to keep the whole sweet. The loam 

 may be either sifted or broken up, but must be looked over very 

 carefully in any case for wireworms. 



The most forward plants should be taken for potting first, 

 and, as the plants vary in size and vigour, it is necessary to use 

 more than one size pot for them. For the largest and most 

 vigorous 9-inch, for the average 8-inch, and for smaller growers 

 7-inch pots are the most suitable— two plants being placed in 

 each. Varieties which are scarce with us should be potted 

 singly in 5- or 6-incli pots, as their size and root- development 

 may demand. The pots should be well drained and the plants 

 potted rather firmly. If the weather be calm and dry I 

 place them at once on the stage where they are to bloom. 

 If squally and rainy I keep them close in the frames for a week 

 or ten days, while they are establishing themselves, and remove 

 them in batches as they have been done to the stage. 



Up to the end of May the plants will need only the same 

 attention as to staking and tying and watching for insect pests 

 as those in the borders. Green-fly will need to be specially 

 watched for, and may be removed with a camel-hair brush. If 

 the plants should be much infested, as in common with almost 

 everything else they were this season, it will be necessary to 

 dust them with tobacco-powder, which must be syringed off 

 again. The soil should be stirred occasionally, as it may have 

 got hardened or green through rain or watering, the oppor- 

 tunity being chosen for this when it has become dry. A top- 

 dressing of equal parts of loam, leaf-mould, and rotted manure 

 is commonly given at this time, but I do not myself regard it as 

 a very essential matter ; and as it takes time to go through the 

 whole collection, I have never practised it except in a very 

 partial way. 



Only the main stem of each plant is allowed to go up for 

 bloom, the lateral flowering shoots being stopped. Disbudding 

 should be commenced as soon as the buds can be taken between 

 the finger and thumb. Usually only two are left on the plant, 

 but in the case of some very vigorous varieties there may 

 remain three. These are the crown or main bud, of course, and 

 the third and fourth from the top. 



Many of the buds when they have swelled will need tying 



