16 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
ON WINTERING CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES. 
BY A SUBSCRIBER. 
HE mode of wintering these beautiful flowers has been so 
often given to the public by the largest and best growers 
of the present day, that it may appear something like 
presumption in me to offer anything with a promise of 
being either new or interesting. But in compliance 
with the request of some of my brother novices, who witnessed the 
healthy appearance of my plants all through last winter, which was 
by far the most trying I have known since I have grown this 
goddess of flowers, I will, with your permission, lay before the readers 
of the Floral World, as concisely as I can, my system of manage- 
ment. I will not say that my plan is the best, but it shall be what 
it professes to be — namely, a plain account of the treatment given 
to them throughout the winter. I ought here to say, that I am 
but a very small grower to many of your readers, as my stock for 
blooming never exceeds three hundred pair, but, of course, I winter 
double that number. The kind of frame, or rather pit, I use, is 
different to any I have seen, but at the same time very simple, and 
useful in the summer for other things when the carnations are in 
their summer quarters. My pits are fifteen feet long by four wide ; 
I build three rows of single brick piers, five feet apart in the rows, 
the two outside rows are two feet high, the middle one two feet four 
and a half inches, or one brick higher than the outside ones. On 
these I lay a plank, three inches thick by six inches wide, the long 
way of the pier. I then get some common house slate, and place one 
on the outside plank, the other on the centre one, and nail each end 
of the slate to the planks, to prevent it slipping, taking care to 
place the plates about one inch apart, to admit a thorough circulation 
of air to the roots of the plants ; by having the centre higher than 
the outsides it forms a slope, and prevents the water from lodging 
in any part of the pit. I then make a frame-work of board one inch 
and a half thick, and one foot four inches deep ; this is placed on the 
wall plates which form the pit. I put in my drainage six inches 
thick all along the pit; what I use is four inches of coarse coke, 
and two inches of ashes on the top. I then put in my soil, and fill 
up even with the frame-work. I have a span-roof frame for the top, 
with three glazed lights on each side, hung from the top with hinges, 
so that the lights from one side will turn over the ridge and fall flat 
on the other ; the lights are six inches wider than the pit, so that 
the rain is thrown clear from the pit. I leave a space of five inches 
between the frame-work of the pit and the frame of the roof, 
which gives a thorough ventilation of air to the plants, and by having 
the lights six inches wider than the pit, it prevents the rain blowing 
in on the plants. My pits run north and south ; on the east side 
and north end of the pit I have a board with hinges screwed to the 
pit to shut up in case of very cold cutting winds from the north-east. 
The south and west sides do not require it, as I don’t think we ever 
