THE GARDEN.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 281, 1 June 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE GARDEN.

CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES. At a meeting held in the Dunedin Technical School under the auspices of the Dunedin Horticultural Society recently, an interesting* paper on " Carnations and Picotees" was reaa by Mr S. Cousins. In the course of his remarks Mr Cousins said: — Carnations and picotees to me are the most beautiful of all flowers, and I have, during the last 25 years, continually grown them — they have been my hobby. In the early days we only had show flowers, such as flakes, bizarres, and white ground picotees. I The carnation as a garden flower wae practically unknown, and the beauti* ! ul yellow-ground^, picotees of to-day had not come into vogue. But now selfs and yellow grounds are the coming flowers. I don't know of anything so beautiful as a bed of carnations, such as my friend Mr Tan nock had in the Botanical Gardens this year. It certainly received more praise and admiration from visitors and townsfolk than any other flower bed that has ever yet been in any of our public gardens. The old bizarres and flakes were from a decorative point of view, useless — most of them were poor growers, and a great number not able to produce two or thre perfect blooms during the whole season. But fully 90 per cent, of the present new varieties are very strong, robust t.iowers, thriving and blooming in almost any soil and situation, provided, of course, that they get some little attention. I have noticed that in places where the rose is a failure the carnation is a great success. I refer now to the peat soils of the flat round Musselborough and South Dunedin. There the carnation seems to have found its home, and grows most luxuriantly. Every year I flower a batch of seedlings. It certainly gives me a great deal of pleasure watching them, as one is always expecting something new or novel to turn up; however, I am generally disappointed, as I very seldom get anything that is in advance of existing varieties. This year I flowered about 3000 seedlings, and out of that number have only set aside about two dozen. These are all layered, and I intend to test under glass twoiayers from each plant. Raising from seed is very simple. Ah that is necessary is a little loam, leaf mould, and sand sown in — seed boxes with about 3in of soil in each box. Make the soil fairly firm, and

sow seed thinly on top, and_ cover lightly witll the fine sandy soil. A sheet of glass placed on top helps to prevent evaporation. When the.y have shown the second leaf, transplant into boxes about 2in apart. When these are strong they can be planted out in the garden, and some of them will probably flower the first season. To the ordinary amateur I would not ad (rise raising seedlings. It would be far better to buy a dozen of the best named varieties to start with. I find that the month of May is the best time to make a bed «of carnations. The ground at this time of the year has not got quite cold, and the plant makes a start before winter. The ground should be well broken up to the depth of 2ft, and a fair amount of old manure and burnt refuse of any kind added. The carnation likes a very free soil ; stiff clay soil is not suitable. They can bo planted fairly close — about loin apart— and should give a fair amount of bloom the first season. The second season a good plan is to give a good dressing of artificial manure. The second year your plants will produce a large amount of growth, and will flower prof Ußely all over. When tho plants have finished flowering a few layers of each should be pegged down. Once the layers are rooted they can bo taken off, and a fresb bed made. The old plants then are [ practically done, and unless something special, are not worth keeping. There are several classes of carnations: — (a) Flakes and bizarres — these are the old florists' varieties. Form and colour were the two priii cipal things required in these varieties. Bizarres had two colours on a white ground, and the flakes one colour. These are mostly grown in pots in England for show purposes. The groat trouble with the bizarres is that they are very hard to keep true, as they are apt to sport to selfs. Indeed, you may have a plant beautifully marked this year, and next year they will be selfs. (b) Yellow grounds and selfs. Now I come to the variety which is undoubtedly tlr* best for anyone who wants to take up tho cultivation oi carnations. When I speak of yellow ground I refer to yellow ground picotoes as well. The only difference betwoon tho picotees and the carnations i(j that tho picotees are laced with various shades of colour round the outside of petals, and the carnations aie usually, striped or marked. The next class I would refer to i» the tree or American carnation. These are grown largely by the Americans. The Enchantress and Mrs Lawson have been the means of giving the tree carnation a name all over the world. This class is in bloom all through the winter when flowers are so scarce, and last year at that time blooms of Enchantress and Mrs Lawsou realised as much as 8s per dozen. In England large establishments are devoted solely to tbeir culture. The English growers have started to cross the American varieties with some of the best English tres carnations. Some magniti cent varieties are now on the market. I hope to have a large number of them in flower next winter. I r.<ay say that the American tree carl ation is totally distinct from tho English. The American type hav<» all fringed flowers, and are mueli more robust growers. It is possible to get them with steins 2ft long, and this enables them to bo used for all forms of decorative work. Thougl' called winter blooms by our American ft iends, I find they bloom freely ii> •autumn an-1 early spring. Indeed 1 would advise anyone who has a nice warm fence to grow these tree earrations as climbers on wire netting. They will bloom nine months out of the twelve, providing the situation is suitable. Tho American system of culture is fi3 follows: — The object is to havo these flowers in bloom in the middle of winter. Cuttings are tak<*n through the winter. They arc struck in spring with a gentle bottom 1 eat, and potted into small pots as soon as rooted and gradually hardened off; then repotted into sin pots, or planted out in the garden. The cues that are planted outside can be lifted about the end of February with a hall of earth, and planted in about Gin of soil on a bench inside a consoivatory; when the plants shoull epch produce about 12 to 18 perfect I/looms, on stems about 2ft long. All through the winter I have tried both n cthods, but prefer pot culture myself. In pote, the plants are more •..tider control. They want treatment similar to a enrysanthemunr-. only the soil should not bo so rich or the pot so large. A temperature of from about 50 deg to 60 deg suits them best. The following are all fiist class sorts: — Mrs T. W. Lawson, Enchantress, Floriana, Harry Fe-niij Hallowarden, Nelson Fishe-, TVlrs % M. A. Patton, Lilian Pond Y\*hite Lawson, Lieutenant Perry, Ethel Ward. They are all procurable in Dunedin, and are the cream of the American varieties as yet raised. . Malmaisin Carnation. — Another \ariety is th? Malmaisin carnation, which is largely grown for greenhouse Milture. The popularity of the Malmaisin is largely due to their ininioiise size and rich porfumo. These I can only lecoramend to anyone who has a nice greenhouse. Down in this part of the island they axo rot a success outside, though I ha vo seen some plants in one or two places flowering very well; but for anyone who lias the convenience, they can grow nothing finer than a few well? grown Malmaisins. They require careful watering and good, loamy soil. The great secret in growing ]V!ahi aisins is to never let them get too wet. iiordt-r Carnations. — The propagation may hv effected by layers, cuttings, or seeds, layering 1 consider tl; > b<:-«t method of propagation for i-i ising healthy plants. The end of 1: !)iiii«;y :>r March is the best time lor layering here. Betoio con»---t if ; icing a compost oi' fine soil and bhfirp sand should be prepared, ami some pogs uindo from galvanise,! l wive. A layer oi the compost abouc 2 in in thickness should be placed round each plant. The shoots selectid for hyenng should be cleared of a few bottom leaves, about ah inch of soil being placed o*er the layered l-i'.rt, and the whole well watered. In ai out ei^ht weeks the plants will be ready for -taking off, and should cither bo planted in 3in pots, the potting compost to consist of — loarc. throe parts; well- rotted horse-dror • ]/ii!gs, one part; and one 'part of charcoal-crusted ' oyster shells and sand. This mixture will do all Ft gee of potting. The ones that aio intended for show purposes Bh-iild bo kept in 3in or 4in pots all w later, and in August they can be shifted into their flowering pots, i find 6in pots are quite large enough. ! 1 use about, a 6in pot full of bonedust and superphosphate mixed in the soil for the final potting. I never use liquid manure for carnations in pots, as they never seem to have the colour that the flowers grown without it have All carnition plants are bettter if establish ed in small pots; by so doing you can extend the planting season right up to the end of October. To anyone in a cold, damp situation this is a great advantage— in fact ; to anyone so situated I believe in spring planting, and I must mention here that layers taken off the plants in spring and not potted give very poor results. I would like also to add the following names to the 12 best varieties urocurable here, either for show ot border. They are all strong growers, and will do in almost any situation: — H. Falkland, Agnes Sorrell, Lady Hermione, Banner, Miss Shiffna,' Professor Cooper Mrs Walter Heriot, Lady St. Oswald, Benbow, Almoner, Trojan, Midas. I believe that Dunedin has at the present time the finest collection of r.nm«d English carnations and picotees in Australasia, and I hope that our flower-lovers will continue to keep it so.