Yes, you can grow carnations outdoors. The lovely big florists’ kind!
We had long been eager to try and one day ventured to order some with our big chrysanthemums. The only trouble was that we needed instructions to go by.
Except for some dated books for English gardens where conditions are quite different from ours in New England, we had nothing but determination and the briefest directions in the carnation grower’s catalog.
Peppermint Stick Littlefield bloomed that first season beautifully. But, after that, pink Northland faded and died dishearteningly. We could only wonder why.
Before the next summer, we came on a florist trade publication. Here, we learned that in the U.S., carnations are largely greenhouse flowers. If they are field grown, for the florist trade, it is most often as young plants which are moved inside as soon as there is room for them.
We, however, gratefully applied all hints on growing thousands of carnations under glass to our few plants in the garden.
We take special pride in the precise perfection of blooms like the fragrant white Mamie with its irregular streaks and splashes.
Our new carnation plants arrive by air mail-special delivery early in May. We used to set them out at once, carefully labeled, in a spot shaded by fence and shrubs, then water them with a liquid fertilizer.
Transplanting Carnations
To avoid shocking plants when transplanting later, we first put them in fibrous Jiffy-Pots, in a mixture of ⅓ each of sand, peat moss, and garden loam, and sink the pots in the ground in the same location.
Since plants can be left in such pots permanently, roots are not disturbed by the next move. However, we are careful to keep them in the pots as far as they were originally planted, for rot may destroy tender stems buried by soil.
During that part of the day, when shade is not naturally provided, we cover plants with baskets or a lattice frame.
Each morning we check to ensure they have not dried out and water them if necessary. In two to three days, plants are usually established.
After about two weeks, we move them to a semi-raised bed which is deeply spaded and fortified with superphosphate and bonemeal.
Carnations tolerate various soil conditions but must have full sun, good drainage, and plenty of ventilation. Their chief problem is rot. Avoid this, and carnations are not hard to grow.
In the raised bed, we set the plants 6” to 7” inches apart, shade them for a few days, lightly cultivate them, and water them as soon as the ground appears dry.
Now begins a feeding program. Because it is easy, we use liquid fertilizer to dissolve the powder, known as VHPF and pronounced VIP, in our 2-gallon watering can. We apply it bi-weekly throughout the summer, watering it well, so roots have to reach down to get the food.
Watering Carnations
We frequently water, always early in the day if possible, using a water wand attached to the hose, so the ground is soaked well, but the foliage of plants is not splashed.
Cultivation continues, frequent but shallow, to avoid damaging roots. We do not use mulch because this increases soil moisture too much for these plants.
Every 10 days, we put in our 3-gallon spray tank 1 tablespoon Parathion 15% percent wettable powder, a half tablespoon DDT 50% percent wettable powder, a half tablespoon wettable sulfur, 1 tablespoon Fermate, and a spreader such as Dreft.
So our insect problems are few. One application of this takes care of red spiders, aphids, thrips, and fungus diseases. Slugs we have never encountered, but should they appear, we are forearmed with metaldehyde bait.
A single pinching causes plants to bush sufficiently for our purpose. Three or four branches are all we want per plant.
This produces on each branch a bloom as huge as the ones you buy from florists. A second pinch would cause more branching and give more, but smaller, flowers. Also, it would delay bloom by at least a month, too late for our New England garden.
Cuttings For Carnations New Variety
With a new variety, we pinch when the plant is 8” or 9” inches high, removing the top 3” to 4” inches by snapping the piece out with our fingers just above a joint or leaf node early in the morning when the stems are crisp.
We have two good reasons for making cuttings from these tops:
- One, to double the number of a new variety
- Two, these (or later cuttings made from side shoots), while they will not bloom that summer when wintered over, will flower by June or July of the next and so lengthen the cal-nation blooming season.
We remove the lower leaves of cuttings and insert them up to a ½” inch in moist sand or perlite (an expanded aluminum silicate) or a mixture of the two. The reason for this shallow placement is, again, the threat of rot.
Window wells on the north side of our house provide a protected and shaded spot to keep cuttings moist, but not wet, by an almost daily sprinkling. Cuttings are slow to root, requiring at least a month.
By July, lengthening stems need support. For a few, individual stakes would do. However, for a mass in a bed like ours, we use the florist wire-and cross-string-between-posts method, training flower stems through the openings and adding higher support layers as needed.
By this time, buds are forming. The center bud is easy to recognize. If you want large flowers, it is simple to keep removing any buds around it or along the stem so that all strength goes into one bloom.
With each trip to the garden, the suspense increases for August, bringing the first long-anticipated blooms.
Low Temperatures for Carnation
Carnation plants stand low temperatures in our Connecticut garden, but their blooms do not. By October, we have had flowers for nearly three months but cannot bear to sacrifice full buds, vibrantly colored, to autumn weather.
So they share the same frost protection we give our big mums. This is a temporary pipe frame shelter covered with heavy waterproofed material.
With the occasional help of a little kerosene stove on the most bitter nights, we enjoyed our own mums and carnations until Thanksgiving time.
While many florists expect splits (spilling out of the petals from the calyx when temperatures drop suddenly), we have not found this condition more frequently outdoors in autumn. A few varieties are especially prone to split we have discarded.
In our climate, the large chrysanthemums and carnations must be moved to a cold frame in winter or protected by a similar cover where they were.
Last winter, some of our carnations (crowded out of the cold frame) fared nearly as well under a crude tent-shaped frame of wood covered with dry cleaners’ plastic bags.
Carnations In Spring
In spring, we start new plants from cuttings. These give us flowers by summer. So do second-year plants, which bloom again and often produce more if smaller blossoms. As with gladiolus, a new location helps fend off disease each year.
Our carnations start blooming when delphiniums and snapdragons are at their best and continue through the chrysanthemum season.
While white and light pink carnations have been the florists’ stock in trade, rose varieties and red, yellow, orange, apricot, and lavender constantly tempt us.
Rose Beauty is a pale pink brushed with streaks of rose. Red varieties range from the brilliant Tetra-Red to the shapely Scarlet Littlefield to the daintier Crimson King, whose vivid color is sobered by splashes of maroon.
The large, clear Miller’s Yellow blends delightfully with bright Anna and an apricot edged with rose. Pride of Woburn, a fuchsia and orchid, or Grace, a purple-bordered white, bring us full circle to such florists’ favorites as the delicate Pink Sims or the deliciously spicily scented White Sims.
And what of Gem, with maroon penciling on gold, or of shrimp-colored Flamingo, or Maroon Mandalay? For these, we await this summer with impatience.
44659 by Carolyn S. Langdon