249 
ON WINTERING CARNATIONS AND PICOTTEES. 
Sir,— Having been benefited on several occasions by various 
hints and suggestions in the Florist’s Journal relative to as 
many, and different subjects connected with floriculture, in re¬ 
turn I offer the following remarks on the preservation through 
the winter of that beautiful flower, the carnation. 
It often happens that the amateur grower, who, perhaps of 
all others feels the greatest interest in the well being and doing 
of the particular flower he selects as the object of his fostering 
care, after seeing a fine bloom of them at a neighbour’s or at an 
exhibition, is at once a confessed admirer, purchases a number 
of plants, which he receives in fine healthy condition, and of 
course wishing to keep them so, puts them into a nice warm 
frame or some such place, and after a time is annoyed at find¬ 
ing his favorites going off one at a time through damp, or the 
foliage spotted, leopard-like — and eventually, at the time for 
potting, he has probably half the number he bought, and those 
drawn up so delicately as scarcely to have sufficient strength 
left to keep their leaves erect. Such, at least, was my begin¬ 
ning : the sole cause of the failure being in the mistaken kind¬ 
ness given the plants through the winter. 
Much has been said on the subject, but the whole of it may 
be condensed into few words. Keep the plants freely exposed 
to the air, so as to induce a hardy robust constitution and ne¬ 
cessarily a dwarf habit, and the rest is certain. To do this 
when the layers are potted in the autumn place them on a stra¬ 
tum of coal ashes, (not plunged,) and so let them remain till 
about the middle of November, unless the season is very wet, in 
which case it would be advisable to remove them sooner; but 
in moderate weather they may be continued out till the time 
stated, when a protection should be constructed for them by 
driving stout stakes at the corners and sides of the area they 
are likely to fill, which should have a southern aspect; on the 
top of the stakes cross pieces should be fixed to support either 
glazed lights or wooden shutters, whichever is procurable; 
these of course must be slanting, to throw oft rain and snow, but 
B B 
voL. nr. no. xi. 
