CULTURE OF PINKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 October 1940, Page 9

CULTURE OF PINKS

ONE COMMON NECESSITY. Close relations of the carnations are the pinks. There are the strongly-clove scented, ragged flowered white border pink, the rosy coloured fringed pink the more refined and aristocratic laced pink, and the modern races which have resulted from the labours of plant breeders. The culture of all the pinks and their hybrids involves one common necessity. They all require a porous, lime impregnated soil on a perfectly drained; base. They will not tolerate clammy sourness and stagnant damp. Richness, as interpreted to mean abundance of animal manure or rotted vegetation is not to their liking. Where, however, some well decayed cow manure is available, it will add greatly to the strength of growth and abundance of flowers.

Be cautious about using nitrogen in the form of ammonia or soda. Weak liquid manure may be given from the time of the springing flower stems onward. Let it be weak and plentiful. If lime is scarce in the soil, add it. using slaked lime for heavy soil, or carbonate of lime where the soil is sandy. Old soot makes a good dressing. Prompt removal of old flower stems will prolong the flowering period. Those kinds which tend to become straggly should be pegged down and mulched with gritty loam after the flowering season.