428 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 27, 1908. 
Layering Carnations. 
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Sditopiol. 
Sweet Teas from Quoem 
Sweet Peas have been making their ap¬ 
pearance at the early flower shows, parti¬ 
cularly at the Temple Show, but those 
had all been brought forward under glass. 
A correspondent, Mr. J. Crosthwaite Rad- 
cliffe, Clonskeagh, Quorn, Loughbor¬ 
ough, sends us a bouquet of Sweet Peas 
reared entirely in the open. He writes as 
follows:—- 
“As a subscriber to your valuable 
paper, I should be interested to know if 
many of your readers have earlier speci¬ 
mens of Sweet Peas than the enclosed. 
They were sown in the open on a south 
border on September 18th, 1907, put in 
with well rotted manure and bone meal. 
The varieties sent you are King Edward 
VII., Jeannie Gordon, Mrs. (?. Higgin- 
son, Agnes Johnson, Dorothy Eckford, 
Miss Willmott, and Mrs. Walter Wright. 
We are by no means over warm in this 
locality. I think they are fairly early. 
They commenced to bloom about 8th 
June.” 
The flowers sent were of large size, on 
stems 6 to 9 in. long, and beautifully col¬ 
oured, but unfortunately they had been 
packed in a box used for some other 
scented article, so that we could not judge 
of the scent of the bouquet sent. In the 
neighbourhood of London we can secure 
Sweet Peas in the open if sown early in 
March, provided, of course, the season is 
an early one. As a rule, however, June 
is far spent before they come into bloom. 
We think it fairly early for the Midlands 
in a season that has been characterised 
by a low temperature during most of the 
time since last Christmas and by sundry 
snow and thunderstorms since then. We 
should be pleased to learn if any other 
correspondent has succeeded in blooming 
Sweet Peas earlier or even as early by 
growing them entirely in the open air this 
year. 
The most satisfactory method of pro¬ 
pagating and increasing Carnations is by 
layering, and the sooner this operation is 
performed after the plants have ceased 
flowering, usually towards the end of 
July, the stronger will the resulting 
plants become before the arrival of un¬ 
favourable weather. Only strong healthy 
shoots that have not borne flowers should 
be selected for layering purposes, and 
several of the lower leaves should be 
stripped off the stems as shown in Fig. 2 
herewith. 
Prepare a number of layering pegs simi¬ 
lar to Fig. 1, stir the surface soil about 
the plants, and mix up some light sandy 
soil in which to layer the shoots, compost 
consisting of two parts light loam, one 
part leaf mould, and one part sand being 
suitable. Place some soil round the 
plants, and take the growth to be layered 
in the left hand, and with a sharp thin- 
bladed knife, make an upward cut in the 
underside, halfway through the stem, 
commencing halfway between two joints 
and finishing midway between the next, so 
that one joint is cut through as shown in 
Fig. 2. Gently bend the shoot inwards 
to open the cut, and peg it firmly into the 
soil, placing more soil on top as shown 
in Fig. 3, and making the whole quite 
firm. 
After the whole of the selected growths 
have been layered, give a gentle watering 
from a can fitted with a fine rose, and 
afterwards see that the. plants and layers 
do not want for water, and in six or eight 
weeks, roots should have been emitted in 
the manner shown in Fig. 5. Occasion¬ 
ally shoots that are being layered get ac¬ 
cidentally broken, and in such cases the 
best plan is to make the growths into cut¬ 
tings similar to Fig. 4, and insert them 
round the edge of a pot and root in gentle 
bottom heat. 
When the layers are well rooted they 
should be severed from the parent plant 
at the point indicated by the cross-line in 
Fig. 5, and after being left for a few 
days, should be lifted with a ball of soil 
attached to the roots, and be potted into 
small pots as shown in Fig. 6, and be 
wintered in a cold frame or, if in a favour¬ 
able locality, the young plants may be 
planted in a bed in open ground. It 
should be borne in mind that Carnations 
are quite hardy, and plants that are win¬ 
tered in a frame should have air admitted 
to them on all favourable occasions, 
whilst any layered shoots that have not 
become well rooted by the end of Sep¬ 
tember should be left attached to the pat¬ 
ent plant until the following March. 
ORTUS. 
-f+4- 
Southampton Rose Show. 
Under the auspices of the Southampton 
Royal Horticultural Society, a grand exhi¬ 
bition of Roses will be held in the County 
Cricket Grounds, Southampton, on June 
30th and July 1st, when valuable prizes 
for Roses and other flowers, etc., includ¬ 
ing the Challenge Rose Bowl, value 17 
guineas, will be offered in competition. 
Two military bands will be in attendance, 
and there will be side shows and displays 
of fireworks. 
Layering Carnations. 
