230 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ March 22, 1883. 
Rather than incur the trouble of stepping down and 
moving a ladder I have in years past spoiled numbers 
of hunches of Grapes, not knowing at the time that 
any real injury would result from my hurried work 
with the scissors and laziness of the limbs. I know it 
now, and it is because I desire others to know it also 
that, after a long silence, I pen these lines during the 
Grape-thinning season, the subject having been brought 
to my mind by a rebuke that I have been compelled to 
administer to a man who will have the mortification 
of seeing a small label with his name attached to the 
laterals bearing some bunches that he has injured, and 
which cannot possibly finish satisfactorily. 
Where a number of young men are employed in 
thinning Grapes it is advisable as far as possible to let 
each have a Vine to himself, his name being written 
on a label and attached to the rod where it cannot be 
seen except by those wdio know where to find it. Those 
who do the work in the neatest manner may be trusted 
to take care that the labels are not shifted; but the 
quality of the work cannot be fully tested until the 
fruit is ripe. — A Northern Gardener. 
CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES IN BEDS. 
In my “ salet days,” when George IV. was king, it was a 
very common practice to grow these beautiful flowers in beds, 
and some of the best collections I have ever seen were so 
grown, one especially. I recollect one which was cultivated in 
almost the very heart of Dublin, in the grounds of the Meath 
Hospital, whose Secretary, Mr. Shaw, was a very ardent and 
very successful florist. Here those of us who used to look out 
for what was new and good used to go to gaze upon beauties 
which were beyond our reach, but which still we might look 
upon. How well do I remember the anxiety with which we 
looked for the opening pods of a variety which is nowhere to 
be found now, but which the owner of the collection I allude 
to had paid two guineas to possess—Twickett’s Don John, and 
how fully we persuaded ourselves it was well worth the money ! 
Since then I have at various times and in different places 
endeavoured to grow Carnations in beds, not because I think it 
the best plan, but it is less expensive and less troublesome. 
The size of the pots considered necessary for growing them 
well has been considerably diminished of late years ; but, 
withal, the expense of pots, the expense of compost, the time 
taken in potting, all tend to make that method of growing 
them impossible to many. These same reasons influenced 
myself for some years ; but there is one very serious drawback 
to their culture in beds, and that is the layering. It is not 
quite so easy when fifty is passed to bend the back for this 
operation ; but when they are grown in pots it is easy to lift 
the pots on a bench and then layer them. On the other hand, 
ive get larger growths, as a rule, when the plants are in pots, 
although this may be considered by some a doubtful advantage. 
While, then, I think the balance of advantage is clearly on the 
side of pot culture, especially where there is the advantage of 
a glass roof under which to bloom them, there is much that 
may comfort anyone who cannot venture on this in being able 
to have a bed or two of these sweet and beautiful flowers. 
It is not advisable, where it can be avoided, to plant in the 
autumn. I have done so more than once, but a wet season like 
this, or a very cold one (such as we had two years ago), is 
very injurious to them ; and therefore, where a cold frame is 
procurable, it is better to winter them in pots, as if they were 
to be grown in pots afterwards— i.e., either singly or in pairs. 
During the winter they will require only to be watered occa¬ 
sionally, green fly being watched for and destroyed when it 
makes its appearance, dead leaves removed, and the surface of 
the soil stirred when it becomes (as it will sometimes) green 
from the growth of mosses. 
When the winter is fairly over, say in March, it is then 
desirable to transfer the plants to the beds, which we will of 
course suppose to have been prepared in the autumn for their 
reception ; and if they have been turned up roughly so as to 
expose them to the action of frost so much the better, as in all 
such operations a dry day should be chosen, and when the 
ground is in good order. This is a point which in all gardening 
operations is essential to success, but which is too often over¬ 
looked, and indeed sometimes almost impracticable. I have 
been waiting to plant various things, but it has been impos¬ 
sible to do so. I have grown mine in beds feet wide : this 
allows room for four rows of plants, placing them about 10 inches 
apart and about a foot in the rows. In planting they should 
be pressed gently into the soil so as to keep them firm, and 
then a small piece of stick should be put to each plant, to 
which it should be loosely tied, as nothing is more injurious 
than for the wind to twist them about, making a hole into 
which the water pours and so injuring the plant. There is one 
great enemy of the Carnation and Picotee which should be 
carefully looked after—the wire worm. One of these is quite 
equal to destroying the most robust plant, eating into it and 
ensconcing itself in the pith, and oftentimes when its work is 
completed then passing on to another. Where plants are grown 
in pots the compost can be carefully hand-picked and these 
destroyers killed, but it is not so easy when they are grown in 
beds. However, they are not so abundant in garden soil as 
in fresh pasture loam, and therefore when any of this is added 
to the beds in autumn it should be first carefully examined. 
As labels are so likely to be shifted and through carelessness 
or ignorance made useless, I find it to be a good plan, besides 
placing the label to the plants, to en'er them in a book accord¬ 
ing to the rows. Thus, first row Zerlina four, Mary two, &c.; 
then if the labels are disarranged they can be easily replaced. 
When the plants spindle for bloom stakes should be placed to 
each and the flowering stem loosely tied to it, and all other 
shoots which exhibit the same tendency should be removed. 
The after treatment is precisely similar to that when they are 
grown in pots as to disbudding, tying the buds to prevent 
bursting, &c.; and all this will depend very materially on the 
purpose for which they are wanted. If for exhibition, then 
severe disbudding must be the rule, two or three of the best 
being left on each plant. When they are grown merely for 
decoration then this need not be so much done. I have found 
it best to erect an awning over the beds, as this keeps them 
from the direct rays of the sun. and they continue longer in 
flower. Moreover, it is an advantage to be able to draw it 
over when the process of layering is going on. 
There is one question which has always been a puzzle to 
Carnation growers—what occasions them to run ? The older 
florists, and indeed many modern ones, attribute this to the use 
of manure, and have recommended growers to plant them in 
poorer soil than Potatoes are grown in. In my early days one 
of the most successful growers was Mr. John Puxley, a gentle¬ 
man of large fortune in South Wales, but who was also the 
principal owner of a very rich copper mine at Castleton Bere- 
haven in the county of Cork. His name is still commemorated 
in our catalogues as being affixed to Jenny Lind, Orestes, 
Lord Clifton, Illuminator, and others. The plants used to be 
grown in the pure air of that lovely neighbourhood and in the 
excellent loam which the limestone range there produced, and 
there I used to be told that run flowers seldom occurred. It is 
hardly possible to alter the character of the soil when grown 
in beds, but is easily managed when grown in pots. 
Anyone who has a catalogue of the varieties grown twenty 
years ago, and will compare it with those of the present day, 
will be struck by two facts. One is that many of the older 
varieties still hold their own ; the other is, that the last few 
years have seen a considerable displacement of the older 
varieties by new ones, especially those which have been raised 
by Mr. Dodwell, who, returning to their culture after several 
years’ retirement, has considerably added to the Show varieties. 
Messrs. Fellowes, Hextall, and others have also contributed 
sorts which are more vigorous and easily grown than the older 
varieties. In an article by Mr. Dodwell in 1857 he only enu¬ 
merates one variety as likely to displace that fine old flower 
Admiral Curzon in the S.B. class—Mr. Ainsworth, but which 
is not now in the list, while the Admiral still remains ; but in 
this very class Mr. Turner, who is by no means inclined to 
swell his ca alogue with padding, has no fewer than twenty- 
