8 
1HE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
April 1, 1905 
subsequent care and treatment of the seed- 
lings does in no way differ from that of 
other plants of the same nature. 
Marguerite and other types of bedding 
carnations, if nice plants are wanted for 
early planting. They all are good for the 
garden and useful as a chance pick flower. 
All of the marguerite section will flower 
the first season, and, if the seeds aré 
sown early, will produce any amount of 
picking material the entire summer, after 
which their usefulness is ended. To this 
class belong the really fine varieties of 
the Chabaud and Guillaud strains, raised 
in France, and a marked improvement on 
the old time, straggling, and small-flowered 
marguerite carnation. These are worthy of 
the choicest place in any garden. The 
plants are sturdy, growing into dense 
bushes and producing great numbers of 
very large, fragrant flowers on long, stiff, 
and upright stems. The colors are bright 
and. of eve ry shade to be looked for in car- 
nations, including: evey tint in yellow, 
‘selfs, and variegated. 
Those excellent old favorites, the dwarf 
Vienna and the Grenadin carnations, the 
latter in three or four fine varieties, should 
bo started from seeds in the first part of 
March, so that strong plants may be had 
by October, when they should ‘be potted up 
and given cool winter quarters. They 
flower the second season. 
Roorgep Curvincs. 
One of the most important features of 
this‘country’s plant trade to-day is the 
traffic in rooted cuttings. From a small 
beginning some twenty years ago, it has 
developed into an industry of immense pro- 
portions and far-reaching consequence. 
Tt has, in a great: measure, simplified and 
made less expensive and more convenient 
the intertrade dealings in most of the lead- 
ing kinds of bedding plants and greenhouse 
forcing stock. This mode of plant distribu- 
tion offers an excellent opportunity to all 
such florists, whose stock is deficient in any 
of the leading or some of the coveted new 
varieties, to complete their stock. In the 
packing and shipping of rooted cuttings, as 
practised now, a great improvement is no- 
ticeable over the careless methods in vogue 
not many years ago, and buyers find little 
cause for complaint on. this score. It must: 
also be admitted that the quality of rooted 
cuttings received from any quarter of the 
- country at these times is far superior to 
that of the diseased, shrivelled, and root- 
less rooted cuttings so often found im ship- 
ments delivered in former years. If, as this 
trade is conducted now, the cuttings re- 
ceived are true to color or name, as ordered, 
a failure of the new arrivals to come up to 
anticipations must then be laid to the short- 
comings of the variety, or those to be found 
in the cultural methods of the buyer. 
Much depends on how rooted cuttings 
are handled and cared for when received, | 
and even the soil used in potting them 
off frequently becomes a fertile ground. for 
the seeds of future trouble. The packages 
should never be torn or pulled in a ruthless 
fashion from out the box, but taken out 
carefully, following the packers courses by 
reversing the order and starting with that 
package which was the last one in packing. 
Unless sufficient help is taking part ini the 
work of unpacking and taking care of the 
contents of the new shipment, no more 
should be taken out and unwrapped than 
can be handled ata time. The less rooted 
cuttings of any kind are handled after their 
journey, the fewer roots and the less mois- 
ture at their roots will be lost. . 
Some people put great faith in a dip- 
ping of the roots in, water before potting ; 
especially is this, thought to be necessary 
when plants arrive in a shrivelled or dry 
condition, as is often enough the case. I 
do not approve of this plan, unless for the 
lack of time the immediate potting up or 
planting has to be postponed for an inde- 
finite time. If the planting is done at 
once, as it should be, it can be accomplish- 
ed in a quicker and more proper way with 
plants, not dripping wet, and a thorough 
watering after planting, or potting, will 
reach the roots just as well and will save 
them, too, unless they were beyond salva- 
tion before they were potted up, and in 
that case no dipping would have saved them 
ci brought dead plants to life. 
The grower anxious to get his new ac- 
quisition into. pots, should beware of old, 
stale, soil out of the next best bench. The 
freshest and sweetest soil on the place, with 
little or no manure in it, should be used 
for the new-comers, if they are considered 
of value at all, and sufficient of such soil 
should be ready and at hand at the time 
the cuttings are expected. Should these not 
be just what the order called for, or in a 
condition which justifies non-acceptance, 
the sender should be notified without delay. 
Meantime, air should be allowed to reach. 
the plants by removing the upper tiers, if 
there are more than cne, to a safe and 
shady place, and keeping the entire con- 
signment in good shape, until the arrival 
of final directions from the firm that sent 
the cuttings. No good florist should fail in 
this. 
There is one kind of rooted cutting I 
detest, although it is welcomed by most 
of the inexperienced growers. This is the 
early-struck, over-grown, lanky cutting 
with a green crown. and. am ossified stem. 
Tn the case of new and. high-priced carna- 
tions, the sending out of a lot of Fall-root- 
ed cuttings in February is nothing unusual, 
and the unwise buyer, who insists upon 
having his order filled early, is most likely 
to get these pickled cuttings. In nearly 
every case he cuts them in two, tries toi root 
the upper half, and nurses the inert, life- 
less lower part, until all doubts as to.its fit- 
ness for the dump pile have vanished. In 
the hope of obtaining double value for his 
money he runs the risk of losing all of it. 
Byven should he succeed in rerooting the 
top ends and in saving most of the stumps, 
the outcome will be a lot of plants, en- 
tively unqualified to demonstrate the good 
points vested in the new and perhaps most 
excellent, variety. It is safer to simply 
pinch, or pull, out the extreme tops of such 
cuttings when received, or pot them up 
first and stop them a week or two later. 
No halving of lanky cuttings should be 
practised, unless they are very long, well- 
rooted, and provided with fresh, healthy 
foliage clear down the stem, and even then 
it would seem a wiser proceeding to just 
nip away the soft top of cuttings so good, 
and give them a chance to do their best. 
Cuttings arriving in a frozen condition 
must be gradually, slowly thawed out, be- 
fore they are unwrapped, and will then 
show the extent of the damage done, if 
any. : 
Frep W. Tine, in “The Florists’ Bx- 
change.” 
HIGH PRICES FOR CARNATIONS. 
“That any one sould pay 20,000 doltars 
for a carnation seems, at first glance, a 
waste of good money, for a fad. A. wealthy 
resident of Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson is re- 
perted by telegraph to have paid this big 
sum, however, for a new flower developed 
by a Rockland, Mass., florist. But Thomas 
W. Lawson, the vigorous Boston, writer on 
‘frenzied finance,’ paid 30,009 dollars seve- 
ral years ago for the world-famous pink 
carnation which bears his wife's name, and 
last October Harlow N. Higgonbotham, of 
Chicago, who vainly endeavored to get pos- 
session. of the Lawson pink, paid 10,000 to 
a Lafayette, Ind., florist for a flower of tne 
game kind, which is said to rival Law- 
son’s in beauty. 
Jt is a mistake to suppose that these ex- 
traordinary investments in a single rare 
flowering plant constitute a dead loss to the 
purchaser or a clear profit to the seller. 
Each one of these rare plants doubtless re- 
presents to the producer years of inteili- 
gent and patient labor and experimenta- 
tion. Thousands of failures are recorded 
against one successful result, and hundreds 
ef florists work in vain where one scores 
a triumph. But the buyer of the costly 
prize invariably turns it to commercial 
account sconer or later, and more than 
likely gets back the principal with good 
interest in the long run. The newly-de- 
veloped. 90,000 dollar carnation is an eccen- 
trie production found in a bed of Lawson, 
which proves that the flower for which the 
Boston. millionaire paid 30,000 dollars has 
been made an extensive article of commerce 
‘since he made the investment.” 
This is a clear case of “many men, many 
minds,” but one thing is certain, that the 
carnation, on account of these extraordl- 
nacy alleged purchases and sales, has gain- 
ed more notoriety through the public 
prints than has ever before been accorded 
any other flower. And, surely, such pub- 
licity increases trade to an extent that 
ecunterbalances the evil which men do in 
spreading such stories, and which, like all 
other evil, supposed and real, is interred 
with their bones, the good alone remaining. 
' Florists’ Exchange.” 
