April 4th, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
485 
all probable that the Cyclamen -will ever produce 
double flowers which will prove acceptable, because 
so far all doubles and semi-doubles have but been 
good flowers spoiled. We prefer to look for pleasing 
variations in diverse directions. Market cultivators of 
Cyclamens are our chief jjrowers;of them, and in the 
direction of obtaining diversity in form or attractive¬ 
ness, we must hardly look to them, but rather to some 
successful private grower who is not fettered by 
obligations to grow only what will sell, as the trade 
growers are. Thus, should they find in their collec¬ 
tions any plant producing flowers that exhibit a 
tendency to break away from the regulation form, 
they will probably condemn it as dangerous and 
useless. 
In the group of dark red kinds which Mr. Clark 
staged the other day was one plant producing flowers, 
each one of which was clearly margined or edged 
with white. The margin was a thin one, and on the 
older flowers rather gave the appearance of having 
been burnt, to use a common expression often 
applied to coloured flowers. Mr. Clark thought this 
plant of very doubtful value ; we on the other hand 
thought that it might well have been made the 
progenitor of a race of edged flowers, and assuming 
that the edging could have been produced a little 
broader and brighter, then a very striking and distinct 
race would have resulted. If these would not sell in 
the market, and of that -we are far from being 
certain, surely they would be popular with private 
growers. 
In a group of these plants recently exhibited by 
another first-class market grower, Mr. H. B. Smith, of 
Ealing Dean, was one producing blooms that had the 
edges distinctly laciniated or feathered. This might 
again have been made the parent of a novel and 
beautiful race, and the addition of a pretty laciniated 
edge to the bloom of the Cyclamen would tend greatly 
to popularize this plant amongst those who care 
little for smooth edges, precise foims, flat petals, and 
those other elements which the present grower strives 
so eagerly to secure. 
PROPAGATING CARNATIONS. 
For the past few years I have been a somewhat 
successful propagator of these favourite flowers, and 
as I have already this year rooted a considerable 
number of the leading varieties, a few remarks on my 
practice may not be out of place. In some particulars 
my mode of procedure differs from that of Mr. 
Warden, cited at p. 138 of The Gardening World ; 
still that is no proof that my treatment is the best, 
since different opinions are sure to emanate from 
different men labouring under different conditions, 
both being founded on sound practice, and both 
followed with good results; I think, however, I 
may be able to throw a little light on the question 
as to why the cuttings inserted by Mr. Warden’s 
correspondent continue to die. 
I do not think the cause is to be found in the cut¬ 
ting touching the drainage of the pots, for in that 
case cuttings only 1£ ins. long would be buried 
nearly their whole length, and this is certain death to 
them. I attribute the cause of failure in a great 
measure to the size of the cuttings themselves, for 
cuttings of such a size I should pass by, deeming 
them of insufficient length, and those desirous of 
becoming successful propagators will, according to my 
experience, do well to leave their cuttings on the 
parent plant till they are at least 3 ins. long. When 
only 1J ins. long the cuttings made on the flower 
stems will be seen to be composed of some half-dozen 
somewhat flattened leaves — an elongated bud in 
reality, which being detached from the parent at this 
stage, while the heart-leaves are yet forming, cannot 
be considered sufficiently strong as a cutting which 
in a great measure has to depend upon its own 
stamina for support till roots are formed ; therefore I 
am strongly in favour of cuttings 3 ins. or 4 ins. long, 
produced in a temperature of from 50 degs. to 55 degs., 
the last the maximum, except by sun-heat. 
It is impossible to have a cutting that is too old or 
too hard, and it may be useful to not a few of your 
readers to know that cuttings quite six months old, 
with a firm, woody base, will emit roots far more 
readily than do soft cuttings formed in the spring; 
still the fact remains, and the best cuttings which are 
produced will be found about the woody base of the 
parent plant. Strip these off with a heel attached, 
and keep your knife in your pocket, that is if you 
value your cutting. I have now a quantity of rooted 
cuttings awaiting potting, which were inserted early 
in January in 5^-in. pots; the soil used was sandy 
loam, with half an inch of sharp, dry, crystal grit on 
the surface. In each pot I placed some twenty cuttings 
or thereabouts, and my average losses have been 
about ten per cent., though in some pots not a cutting 
has failed. The pots were plunged in cocoa-nut fibre 
in the propagating house, and from the time the 
cuttings were inserted till they were rooted a tempera¬ 
ture of from 50 degs. to 55 degs. was maintained. They 
were fully exposed in the house, and the results are as 
above described. 
I do not approve of bottom-heat nor yet of the 
system of giving it as adopted by Mr. Warden’s 
correspondent. It is natural for the temperature to 
be considerably lower at night, so that it cannot be 
considered prudent to give bottom-heat by night and 
dispense with it by day. Last year I rooted some 200 
or 300 on a bed of coal-siftings in the propagating 
house, the pots in this case being covered with 
bell-glasses. One good watering, sufficient to pene¬ 
trate the whole of the soil, was given, and the glasses 
were not put on till the day following, when the 
cuttings were quite dry (which is very essential), the 
glasses being removed daily and wiped out. Here 
they rooted freely and well in about three weeks. 
Some five or six years since I was much in favour of 
the dung-frame for propagating these Carnations, but 
my losses were considerable. Many things in a cutting 
state delight in such a place (and none more so than 
Bouvardias), but the Carnation, always impatient of 
superfluous moisture above and below the cutting, 
•was evidently unhappy, and owing to this and my 
great losses, I altered my course, and am well satisfied 
•with the change. 
There is much difference in the varieties, and the way 
in which the cuttings are produced, as all do not grow 
alike, and it is not always possible to obtain cuttings 
from the base of the plants. That fine scarlet Ale- 
gatiere furnishes an illustration of this, unless the 
plants are two or three years old. One of the worst 
to root from cuttings is The Bride (Hodges), though 
it is not a perpetual flowerer strictly speaking, but 
by means of layers it is propagated easily enough 
Among the sorts now rooted I may mention White 
Swan, La Belle, Sir Garnet Wolseley, Vulcan, Ale- 
gatiere, Miss Joliffe, Hector, Bose Perfecta, Lady 
Musgrave, and others. Marguerita Bonnet is pro¬ 
bably the finest winter white in cultivation. I have, 
however, lost sight of it, and would like to make its 
acquaintance again. With a view to illustrating these 
remarks, I have forwarded a 2-in. unrooted cutting, 
also a rooted cutting with firm wood, and which, if 
engraved, will give many a better idea of the difference 
than can be obtained from a mere description.— 
E. Jenkins. 
SPIRAEAS AND OTHER SPRING 
FLOWERS. 
Some plants of the pretty Spirsea japonica were 
shown the other day at South Kensington, accom¬ 
panied by the remark, “ Why pay foreigners for what 
can be grown as well at home?” True; but it is a 
fact that plants of this Spirtea can be grown abroad 
and delivered in London cheaper than growers can 
supply them from Kent. Moreover, how many of the 
home-grown plants will miss flowering compared with 
the imported clumps ? The answer to this question 
is, All depends on the treatment which the plants 
receive. If carefully potted and well managed after 
the flowering period is over, it will be found that 
home-grown plants will flower well year after year— 
quite as well, in fact, as the best inqiorted ones. The 
treatment which Spiraeas receive from the market 
growers is not conducive to the permanent well¬ 
being of the plants. The roots are crammed into 
5-inch pots, with little or no soil at all to grow in. 
They are rapidly forced, and the plants are not, as 
they ought to be, inured to a cooler temperature in 
which to develop their blooms. The treatment which 
the plants ought to receive is this: Use pots large 
enough to admit of some good potting soil being 
pressed firmly round the roots, which should be 
potted as soon as received and plunged in cocoa-nut 
fibre refuse. They may be placed in heat as required, 
and they ■will succeed best if plunged in a gentle hot¬ 
bed. As soon as the first flowers show signs of 
opening, take them out of the bottom-heat for a day 
or two before removing them to the greenhouse or 
conservatory. While in the greenhouse they receive 
ordinarily good treatment, but not infrequently they 
are turned out of doors after blooming-time is over, 
where they are chilled by the cold or scathed by 
frosty winds, and perhaps suffer from want of water. 
The treatment they ought to receive after blooming 
is to place them in a cold frame and water them 
freely. In May, plant them out of doors in a border 
in rich garden soil, and after that they require little 
attention until it is time to repot them in autumn. 
A quantity of plants grown and forced for many years 
is now in flower, and very satisfactory they are ; some 
of them are in pots 10 in. or 12 in. in diameter. 
With Deutzia gracilis, loaded with snowy blossoms, 
our houses are now crowded, and all of them are 
home grown; indeed, they were propagated from 
cuttings made of young wood struck in hotbeds in 
spring. Our best plants are just twenty-one years 
old. They have been grown in pots for the whole 
of that time, and are now in 13-in. ones. We pot 
them once in three or four years, and the reason 
they flower so •well and strongly every year is because 
they are encouraged to make their young wood 
without any check to their growth. When done 
flowering they are kept in the greenhouse until the 
weather is favourable enough for their being placed 
out of doors; indeed, nearly all failures in such 
matters may be traced to the plants being exposed to 
cold after they have done flowering. It is very 
difficult to get people to understand that plants 
require quite as much care after they have passed 
through the blooming period as they did before it. 
Another plan is to inure the plants to the open air, 
and plant them out the same as is done in the case of 
Spiraeas. Spiraia palmata is a very pretty plant, and 
well adapted for forcing, but it requires good treat¬ 
ment and it well deserves it. It makes a much 
taller plant than the more elegant S. japonica, but 
its pleasing rose-coloured flowers are so pretty that 
they are admired by everyone ; its bright green leaves, 
too, are very attractive. 
Lily of the Valley, when forced, often fails. Some¬ 
times the cultivator is to blame when imported crowns 
