Plate 264 . 
PICOTEES, MILTON. AND MBS. EISHEB. 
The complaint made some time since in the columns of one 
of our most influential gardening-papers, that the culture of 
Picotees and Carnations has rapidly declined of late years in 
the South of England, is unquestionably true ; nor is it diffi¬ 
cult to find the reason, for, independently of the fact that the 
rage for bedding-out plants is fatal to florists’ flowers, and, 
indeed, to many other branches of gardening, there is so much 
of care and trouble required in their cultivation, that when 
the stimulus of prizes is withheld, those who have grown them 
abandon their culture, and give their attention to other 
matters. 
When we state this, we do not mean to imply that they are 
difficult of cultivation (not one-tenth part so much so as the 
Auricula), but that they require patience and attention in a 
larger measure than the bedding-out system demands at the 
hands of its followers: unlike the Bose, too, they will flourish 
in the centre of a town, provided there be sunlight and air; 
indeed, two of the most successful growers we ever met with 
grew their flowers in a crowded part of the Irish metropolis. 
It were needless for us to enter into the details of their culti¬ 
vation, but simply to correct an error which many persons have 
fallen into, viz. that of growing them in very highly manured 
soil; this has not only the effect of causing many of the flowers 
to run, but also to engender a highly artificial state of consti¬ 
tution, which becomes, after a time, fatal to them,—a less ex¬ 
citing compost, thoroughly sweetened and well exposed to the 
action of frost, being much more suitable for them. 
The only place in the neighbourhood of London where these 
beautiful flowers can now be seen in perfection 
Ch 
aides 
