PREFACE THIS little volume is a companion to Sweet Violets and
Pansies, which formed the first of the smaller gardening books in
the Country Life Library. It has been written at the request of
many readers of Country Life and The Garden, and it is to be hoped
that the ripe experience of the con- tributors to its pages, and
the simple directions for the growing of the Carnation, Picotee,
and the beauti- ful wild Pinks, will have their value. The brave
masses of old Clove Carnations in the gardens of our forbears, the
sweet drifts of white Pinks, and the warm fragrance scenting the
summer air, are pleasant reminiscences. With a greater choice of
varieties, the Carnation has developed in interest and popularity,
and a garden is not a garden that is without the silvery tufts of
growth which have a quiet beauty even in winter days, when we are
wise enough to group them with grey-leaved shrubs, such as Rosemary
and Lavender. Although Pinks and Carnations are welcome in so many
ways of gardening, perhaps their greatest use, other than in wall
and rockwork, is as edgings and underplantings to Roses, or
something of taller stature than their own. By edgings is not meant
the white straight or stiff borderings only, though Pink and its
forms are among the very best plants for this use, but informal
fillings of the outer portions of beds and borders. Used like this
with Roses, they are admirable, each plant enhancing the beauty of
the other. They are perhaps least suited for filling up whole beds,
unless the beds are quite small, and especially narrow, in form.
The deepening love for hardy flowers should have a good effect on
floral exhibitions, which have not always directed the would-be
gardenerinto wholesome channels. The showing of Carnation flowers
in little paper collars is grotesque and without reason. Surely it
is more instructive to show a flower in its natural beauty, and not
attempt to cheat the visitor into the belief that the flower there
arranged in a paper collar will reveal the same sym- metry of form
and colouring in the open garden. A Carnation that is fit only for
a show box, and is useless in the garden, should have no claim upon
our consideration. Raisers must strive to obtain flowers that keep
their petals within bounds. A Carnation that splits has little
garden value, and whether it splits or not, if it is without
fragrance, we would have none of it. The crimson Clove has the
charm of a distinctive and deliciously warm fragrance, but there
are varieties as scentless as a Baroness Rothschild Rose. This
should not be tolerated. The first act generally of a buyer of
Carnations is to smell them, and it is in the interests of the
trade as well as the gardener to intensify rather than obliterate
one of the great charms of the flower. I thank most heartily the
contributors to this little book and if the reader wishes to
consult other writers, the following works may be recommended Le
Jardinage des Oeillets. A. Paris, 1647. Nouveau Traite des
Oeillets. A. Paris, 1676. A Practical Treatise on the Carnation. By
Thomas Hogg, Florist, Paddington Green, 1839. The American
Carnation How to Grow it. By Chas. Willis Ward. A. T. De la Mare
Printing and Publishing Company, New York. Reas Flora. By John Rea,
London. Printed for George Marviott, Fleet Street, 1676. Dodwell on
the Carnation. Derby, W. Bacon, Beckett Hill Works. Carnation
Manual. Published by the CarnationSociety. Messrs. Cassell Co. The
Book of the Carnation. By R. P. Brotherston...
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