1881. ] 
NOTES ON TREE CARNATIONS. 
71 
fact of it being placed amongst the gorgeous 
coloured Azaleas,—namely, Skimmia Foremanni , 
a new hybrid (S. japonica x oblata), which was 
awarded a First-class Certificate. The plant 
was raised and exhibited by Mr. Foreman, of 
Dalkeith, who crossed S. japonica with S. 
oblata, and out of a large number of seedlings, 
selected the only female which appeared, 
and this he again crossed with one of the 
best and most vigorous males, a brother of 
the female, which he named S. oblata rosea. 
The result is a most beautiful scarlet-berried 
plant, with large leaves, strong and vigorous in 
habit, and in every way what I consider a very 
valuable plant. I have not the least doubt but 
from this handsome berried female Mr. Fore¬ 
man will ultimately rear a fine progeny of 
Skimmias, which will become very popular. 
They must do so, not only because of their 
ornamental character, but from the fact that 
they are so thoroughly hardy, as the whole 
batch of seedling males, which were planted 
out, have withstood this winter’s frost. S. 
japonica has stood out well with me, and we 
have had 11° below zero. We have a row of 
them forming the backing of an herbaceous 
border. Of course, they were covered with 
snow, but for all that they may be ranked, I 
think, as hardy.—H. Knight, Floors. 
NOTES ON TREE CARNATIONS. 
Gprt)N visiting private gardens, both large and 
<s\ r|j small, I am often surprised not to find these 
QIQ plants more generally grown, especially 
considering the interest they usually excite in 
all lovers of flowers, when seen in bloom during 
the winter and spring months ; and also con¬ 
sidering their fitness for supplying choice 
flowers both for personal adornment, and to 
fill vases and epergnes for room decoration. 
Having for several years past grown a large 
batch with a fair amount of success, perhaps a 
few notes on the way we treat them, may be 
acceptable to at least some of your readers. 
A word first as to varieties. Our stock is 
made up of the following:—Oriflamme, Valiant, 
Zouave, Raphael, Covent Garden Scarlet, A. 
Alegatiere, Miss Jolliffe, La Belle, and a very 
dark variety which I am told by a good 
authority is the true old Clove Tree Carnation ; 
anyhow, it has the true clove scent, and is 
much prized on that account. The first six 
named are of different shades of scarlet, some 
self-coloured, some flaked ; Miss Jolliffe is, as 
is generally known, a pale pink variety of 
great excellence, and La Belle is a white 
variety, very useful, but not so strong in con¬ 
stitution as the rest of the collection. I have 
no doubt there are many newer varieties than 
those named above ; in fact, we have had a larger 
collection, but our present lot is somewhat the 
result of natural selection, since we have only 
propagated those that we found gave us the 
greatest quantity of flowers. 
We propagate one-lialf of our stock annually 
in March and April, keeping those struck, say, 
last spring for blooming early next autumn, 
since we find these to bloom more freely 
during the months of October and November 
than those struck the same year. We 
generally plant them out some time during 
the month of April, on an east border, 
about 18 in. apart, placing a stake to each 
for support. We keep the blooms pinched 
off during the summer, and lift them in Sep¬ 
tember, reducing the balls carefully, potting 
them into as small-sized jiots as we reasonably 
can, and keeping them close in a cold pit until 
established. We then put them into an inter¬ 
mediate house to flower. We find that all 
Tree Carnations, both spring or autumn-struck 
ones, bloom best during the winter months in 
a night temperature of about 50 u , though the 
warm end of a greenhouse will do for them. 
We find them to strike fairly well by taking 
off the points of the young side growths, cut¬ 
ting them at a joint, and leaving about four 
pairs of leaves. We insert these round the 
sides of 4-in. pots, say six or eight cuttings in 
a pot, in any light sandy compost, and plunge 
the pots in a bottom-heat of about 85°, keeping 
them shaded from the sun, and the frames as 
close as possible until they are rooted. It is a 
great advantage to them if the pots can be 
placed altogether, and a handlight, or a rough 
frame with a large square of glass on top, can 
be placed over them. As soon as they are 
rooted, we pot them singly into 3-in. pots, and 
keep them in a close frame or dung-pit until 
established ; then, say about the end of May or 
early in June, w r e finally shift them into 5-in. 
and G-in. pots, according to the size and habit 
of the plants. The best compost is a mixture 
of three parts good loam to one part of leaf- 
mould and river-sand together, adding about a 
peck of dry fowl or pigeon-dung to each barrow¬ 
load. A pit from whence bedding-plants have 
been taken is a good place in which to stand 
