August 8,1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
683 
READERS’ COMPETITION. 
For details of this competition and prize offered, please 
see page 879. Please post on Friday night. 
Layering Carnations. 
As the time is upon us for the layering of Carnations, the 
following may be of interest to some readers of The Gardening 
World. The first thing to be done is to get together some old 
potting soil or good garden soil, and pass it through a sieve 
with a liberal amount of sharp sand added, some wire pins 
and a sharp knife being all that is necessary for the operation. 
A very ready way of making the pins is to get a plate of iron 
about 7in. square and fin. thick, with the sharp edges tiled off. 
On this plate wind a layer or more of wire of the requisite thick¬ 
ness. Then take a hammer and chisel and cut the wires 
through on both sides of the plate in the middle. A r ou will 
then get a good number of pins, resembling hairpins, 3gin. 
long, which will only take a few minutes to make. They are 
always useful for pegging down various plants to the soil. 
Where the Carnations to be layered are too thick to layer com¬ 
fortably it is a good plan to thin them out by stripping some 
of the shoots off the plants, pulling them downwards so as to 
get them off with a heel, when they can be split a little at the 
heel and inserted in sandy soil as cuttings, planting firmly in 
a shaded spot. 
To proceed with the layering, put a small shovelful of the 
sifted soil round each plant to be layered, working well round 
with the fingers. Then with a very sharp knife cut a slit in 
the stem, of each shoot, commencing just underneath a joint, 
and cutting upwards for about §in., and rather more than half 
way through the stem, taking care not to completely sever the 
shoot; bend the shoot upwards, and f press the cut part well 
into the soil, and pin down firmly with one of the wire pins, 
placing the pin just over the cut part, and so holding the 
layered shoot in position ; then over this add more soil, when 
the work is completed. 
In a few weeks each layer will make a good-rooted plant, 
when they may be cut from the old stem, just beyond the layer, 
and lifted carefully with a hand fork or trowel, and planted 
in their flowering quarters for the following summer’s display. 
Where the shoots to be layered are long and drawn, cut the 
slit far enough away from the old stem so as to get nice stiff 
plants instead of leggy ones. J. Smith. 
Arum Culture 
As this time of year is very suitable for a few notes on 
that useful winter and spring fiower Richardia africana, I 
will give details of the culture I find most successful to pro¬ 
duce plenty of flowers at Christmas and on till Easter. Many 
of our old gardeners used to turn the plants out and plant them 
in rich soil, and get them as gross as they could with the hope 
of getting plenty of bloom from so strong a growth, which was 
a wrong idea, as, in the first place, however carefully the opera¬ 
tion is performed, the plants receive a check just when they 
ought to be ready for flowering. I never plant out unless 1 
want to increase stock, and then I advise to plant the little 
corms out and pot up in the autumn, but otherwise I should 
always keep them in their pots; that is, 9in. or 10in., which 
is large enough to hold three good corms. After flowering 
stand them out on a good hard bottom, and give them a little 
water occasionally to keep the corms plump ; at the same time 
keep them dry enough to induce a rest, as that is the life of 
all bulbous flowering plants. 
Bv this time they will have died down and be ready for stari 
mg next season s work. I simply stir up and take about a 
inch of the old soil and stand them on an ash-bed, taking o 
a 1 the little corms, and leaving only the three large corm 
before mentioned. I then topdress them with a fairly goo 
compost, not giving any artificial manure until the roots 3 ai 
beginning to move, as I think it is wasting the artificial t 
give it now, as the roots are not active, and a great part of th 
goodness would be washed out of the pots before the Arum 
begin to move. Then I give them a handful of artificial an 
water m, and again at short intervals I give them soot in ih 
same way, and I find by housing time they make good liar 
plants ready to start flowering as soon as they are housed, s 
different to those planted out, with their soft and sappy growth 
formed at the expense of flowers. 
Of course, about every three years they want potting up again, 
as the soil works down amongst the crocks, which is detri¬ 
mental at any time to the Arum, as it is a lover of plenty of 
water as long as there is no stagnation. The chief items I find 
m Arum culture are a rest, and keep them as potbound as 
possible, with good drainage ; and feeding with plenty of water 
vvill produce plenty of flowers during the season above men- 
tioneu, when they are most valuable to the market or private 
gardener. I trust some of the readers of “ G. W.” will give 
my methods a trial. Arum. 
How Opinions Differ. 
< r> am a vei T careful reader of the “ G. W.,” especially of the 
"Readers’ Competition” page. In it I must confess to have 
obtained a good few "wrinkles,” but at the same time have, 
often been astonished, at the different and opposing opinions 
held on any given subject. I am hardly correct in saying that 
I am astonished, for truly anyone who takes an intelligent in¬ 
terest in the profession, and who keeps his eyes and ears open 
when visiting his gardening friends, finds much to interest, if 
not astonish him—so much so, indeed, that one soon gives up 
being astonished at any method adopted. 
We will now discuss a few facts in this connection that occur 
to me at this moment. Perhaps few plants have given so 
much trouble to the average grower as Begonia Gloire de 
Lorraine. I know many good gardeners who have given this 
up m disgust, (I came very near doing so myself, but have 
at last succeeded in making a fair shape at least.) Others, 
agam, seemed to succeed from the first, and the curious thing 
is none seem to give quite the same treatment. I know some 
who claim to give little or no water at the roots, but use the 
sinnge freely on the foliage. Others, again, water heavily, and 
never syringe, yet both succeed. Some use peat freely ; others 
swear by loam and leaf mould alone and succeed, and why some 
of us poor devils that try all plans make such a bad job of it 
is hard to tell. Again, with the tuberous Begonia some refuse 
to use any artificial manure, while others like myself have 
splendid results by the free use of these. Is this a matter of 
soils or more careful methods of using these chemical com 
pounds ? I would be glad to get the opinions of readers on 
some of the points I am raising. In Strawberry culture nearly 
all writers maintain that to cut off the runners with a spade 
and dig between the rows can only lead to failure, and yet the 
best hardy fruit grower I ever served under followed this plan, 
and finer Strawberries no man ever grew. I myself now follow 
this plan with excellent results. At the same time, I will 
admit that had I very light soil I would take another method. 
iresh soil is almost universally recommended for successful 
lomato culture, yet for six or seven years I grew Tomatos very 
successfully in the same soil, except that I took out 4in. of 
the old soil each season and added new, which I forked into 
the border. We have all heard the controversy about Pea 
culture. I do not know what amount of sustenance the Pea is 
able to obtain from the atmosphere, but this I have proved to 
my own satisfaction at least, that the best Peas are always, 
without fail, had from heavily-manured and well-worked soil' 
It is often maintained that it is imperative that both soil and 
seed be changed to obtain good Potatos. The following fact 
will prove that this is not always quite so. In a certain 
cottager’s garden in Dumfriesshire the same plot had been 
planted with the same variety of Potato for 20 years, the seed 
m all that time never being changed, and finer Potatos I never 
saw. The variety was a red kidney, of which I never could 
obtain the name. All the above methods have come under my 
own observation, and not my own or other folks’ theories. 
Preston, Linlithgow. C. Blair. 
*** The prize last week in the Readers’ Competition was 
awarded to J. Bean for his article on “ Gymnograimnes,” 
page 654. 
