January 18, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
39 
Carnation Winsor. 
In the matter of colour, this variety 
may be regarded as intermediate between 
Enchantress and Mrs. T. W. Lawson, 
(though there are a good many shades of 
difference between them. The blooms 
are of a pleasing shade of silvery pink, 
,and quite equal in form to those of Mrs. 
T. W. Lawson. The substance, however, 
Is good and the blooms deliciously scented 
when the temperature is sufficiently high 
to bring out that desirable quality. The 
calyx is strong and not liable to burst, 
so that growers may be tempted to take 
jthis in hand who dislike to have the 
trouble of tying up the calyx of such 
varieties as the Malmaison Carnations. 
The stem is only of moderate length, 
but can usually be obtained of sufficient 
length for most purposes for which it is 
employed in private establishments and 
for vases generally. It originated in 
America, and is quite new here, yet not 
old there, so that it is likely to hold its 
own in this particular shade of colour for 
some years to come. Our photograph 
was taken on December nth in the ex¬ 
hibit at Regent’s Park put up by Messrs. 
Hugh Low and Co., Bush Hill Park, 
Middlesex. The varietv may be stopped 
up to the second week in September, and 
the temperature in winter may vary from 
a little under to a little over 50 degs. at 
night. 
Carnation Winsor. 
\Maclaren and Sons. 
R January Day in a Greenhouse. 
Some Seasonable Operations. 
It is damp and cold to-day, and a white 
fog hangs like a pall over the land re¬ 
fusing a passage to the struggling sun, 
and making outdoor conditions so un¬ 
pleasant that we may as well see what 
wants doing in the greenhouse. Surely 
there will be found sufficient arrears of 
work to justify' us in relinquishing for 
a while our labours among the trees and 
shrubs, imperatively as these are calling 
for transplantation. 
Yes, here at the very door is our justi¬ 
fication—a big batch of old Geraniums in 
pots which were hurriedly bundled indoors 
when that sharp frost of* October 16 
swooped down on us. Already many of 
the leaves which were seared on that fate- 
iful night, fateful to our Dahlias and to 
many other things, have gone from black 
and brown, and now hang, limp and 
mouldy, round the stems. These must 
certainly come off, as must, too, the one or 
two blackened tops which tell of the 
(severity of the frost. At the same time 
we notice that the soil in the pots has be- 
: come hardened on the surface, and that in 
one or two pots a fissure is developing be¬ 
tween the side of the pot and the soil. 
These fissures are a real menace to por- 
grown plants, and many a well-started 
specimen could trace its ruin, could it but 
speak, to the development in its company 
of one of these. You see, the water in¬ 
tended for the plant escapes down the 
: fissure, and while the cultivator is plum¬ 
ing himself upon his liberality with the 
water-can, the poor plant slowly, but 
surely, starves to death, knocked out of 
existence by a lack of moisture. He will, 
then, hasten to close up all these fissures, 
and a strong label dug into the soil all 
round the sides of the pot, followed by a 
firming of the loosened soil with the 
thumbs or fingers, will soon put things 
right. 
If the fissures lead us to exercise our 
label upon the soil in other pots besides 
those afflicted, they will have been friends 
in disguise. Friends, that is, because an 
occasional stirring of the soil of pot 
plants is the best cultural operation that 
can be performed at the same cost. It 
lets in sun and air, enables water and 
liquid manure to gain access to the roots 
that so greatly desire them, and prevents 
the formation of green, slimy matter, 
moss, or livewort on the soil. A label 
may well be called a greenhouse hoe, 
and it should be used just as freely as is 
the garden hoe. 
In stirring up the surface soil, we no¬ 
tice that many of the plants handled re¬ 
quire staking or re-staking. Or some of 
their shoots are becoming so straggling 
as to suggest a timely pinching out of the 
tops. Either this or the staking will pro¬ 
bably reveal to us the presence of green¬ 
fly in the tips of the shoots, and we are 
lucky to find it there at this early stage, 
for we can readily wipe the pests out of 
existence with a convenient thumb and 
finger, whereas did they become diffused 
over the plant, fumigation would have 
been necessary. 
Mealy bug may also be met with if 
our house is kepr fairly warm, and on the 
fronds of the Ferns, especially the old 
fronds, we shall undoubtedly find that 
annoying sucker of the life juices of 
plants, the brown scale. A pointed stick 
removes either, but we will carefully paint 
over their erstwhile resting places with a 
little methylated spirit and water, half of 
each. 
Whether we find mealy bug and scale 
or not, we shall doubtless find dirty flower 
pots, and these must be cleaned without 
delay; a green pot is an abomination to 
the true gardener. In scrubbing the 
pots, scrub round them, not up and down 
them, or a woeful tale of dirty foliage 
will have to be recorded to-morrow. 
Stretching our backs after this bout of 
pot scrubbing, we perceive that, while 
there are at present plenty of flowers, 
there promises soon to be a dearth of 
bloom. Clearly we must fetch in another 
batch of Roman and Dutch Hyacinths, 
Tulips, and Daffodils, Lilies of the 
Valley, too, should come in, and a few' 
Spiraeas and Mollis Azaleas, with some 
Christmas Roses and potted forcing 
shrubs. Yes! but where can room be 
found for them? Every place seems al¬ 
ready full! 
Just so, the usual condition of an 
amateurs greenhouse in winter! But 
wait! What is that long shelf on an al¬ 
most inaccessible part of the back wall 
(the house is a lean-to) doing ? Why, is 
it empty? Difficult to get at for watering 
purposes! Fiddlesticks! Why, it is just 
the place for those old Zonal Geraniums 
we have been looking over! Hand them 
up! And those Fuchsias, those Clivias, 
all those Phyllocactuses, Aloes, Hawor- 
thias, Gasterias, and other Cactaceous or 
