Perpetual Carnations In The Open Air

Perpetual Carnations In The Open Air - For open-air gardening these have the decided advantage of continuous flowering over the border types of Carnations, and for bedding out are increasing in popularity. To ensure success, however, they require to be specially grown for the purpose. Cuttings should be rooted in July, and the young plants grown on in pots and wintered in a frame or cool greenhouse. By removing the point of growth so soon as the young plant is established in September, and again six weeks or so later, bushy plants having six or eight shoots result, and towards the end of the year should be potted into 5-inch pots. Hardily grown subsequently they will be ready for bedding out in March or early April, and will flower long and continuously during the ensuing summer and early autumn months. Stake and tie the plants as necessary.

Some thousands of these flowers were grown for years at Gravetye in the open, and while the result was often beautiful, our cold retentive soil never gave the same growth as one finds on the chalk hills, on the warm limestone soils of Ireland, or on the satiny loam round Edinburgh. In wet winters the plants, on our soil, became gouty. After many years of labor in layering and planting, the attempt to grow named varieties in the usual way was abandoned, and the plan was adopted of raising seedlings, the Carnation being thus treated practically as a biennial. Unquestionably more vigorous plants and more abundant and continuous bloom are obtained by raising the Carnation from seed, though the average quality of bloom may not equal that of selected and named varieties. These, however, may be had by wintering layers under glass and planting them out in late April or early May. At the same time, Carnations, however carefully managed, are liable to have their blooms spoiled in the open by continuous rains, so that where the soil is not specially favourable to Carnation growing, it might be found advisable to substitute the stronger-growing Pinks, which are bright in color and fragrant, and less liable to decay in damp winters than the Carnation. Both the Carnation and the Pink, from the beauty and sweetness of their bloom and the cheerful effect of their foliage in winter, are well deserving of cultivation in all gardens where soil and climate suit these flowers. Our mild and moist southern winters are really less favourable to the cultivation of the Carnation than the more rigorous winter of the north, where a covering of snow secures for the flower a complete period of rest. It is damp and not cold that tries the constitution of the Carnation in winter.

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