Someone need me recently if I ever feel as if I am fit to run out of things to try growing , and when I thought about it , I somehow felt a little dismayed – as if someone could enquire ” do you ever feel as if you will run out of ideas and never be originative again ? Maybe it ’s the creative in me , the creative person who must remain ever vigilant in source inspirations or influence , but approximation , for me , are never a trouble , If anything , they can be a burden . So much to do , so short prison term !
Most of you already recognize about my other obsessions with plant , my 30 year relationship with cut flower exhibition sweet pea ( sometimes I think I even started the current trend ten long time ago ! ) , my current calf love with exhibition and Japanese Chrysanthemums , on the deck are Dahlias , but even more tempting to me are carnations . Particularly , the old , shortened flower ones , and most recently , the very choice and hard to find ‘ Malmaison ’ carnation . I ’ll add this tag personal line of credit , since it usually keep an eye on many of my mail about old bloom , but here go – The mid 19th century cut flowers , are perhaps the ‘ slowest ’ flowers of all . Localists celebrate what could only be raised underglass , locally . Camellias , violets , roses , chrysanthemum and carnation . Along with the tuberose and lily of the valley , these were the most common cold shoulder bloom in florist shops , and in conservatories kept on the grand , American the three estates .
The level behind this once – most democratic slice flower for Amercian florists to turn , might just be the perfect example of humans gain the benefits of a global market . Once , 2d only to the rose , the carnation was so popular that 100 of millions of flowers were grown , just in this land alone . As air change of location became more efficient , the wooded box that wholesale agriculturalist once packed and bundled for train change of location , evolved to meet the motive of a global market . The lite caliber postulate for Carnations moved the center of carnation polish from New England around the twelvemonth 1900 , to the gamey mickle of Colorado in the 1970 ’s , where the light quality was far skilful , to Israel , the Gaza Strip , Columbia and Peru where today , most of our carnation crops comes from .
Only in England , do garden center and baby’s room still betray carnations for the home grower and the few carnation enthusiasts , while in North America , they have become essentially , unavailable anywhere . So commence my Richard Morris Hunt to find more about the mislay carnations of America , and why we can not find the anywhere today ( aside from some seed line of a rather poor , smaller type sell as ‘ Chaubaud Gants ’ , not worth leaven in one require the gorgeous and telling long - stemmed varieties with with child heyday , once so popular , or if one wants to grow carnation that look overmuch like Dianthus caryophyllus . What ’s a gardener to do ?
I put an ‘ all points bulletin ’ type postulation out on my social media last fall , tring , plead , actually , to determine some beginning for carnations . No fortune , but I am sealed that some exist still in private estate collections or in some hush-hush nursery at places like Longwood . I did find a couple of the lost and rare ‘ Perpetual ’s ’ at Annies Annuals , which I ordered and have planted in the nursery , as well as a fantastic discovery of a very onetime one last week at Logee ’s Greenhouses , a Dianthus caryophyllus distinguish ‘ Duchess of Westminster ’ , which itself , has have me on a bit of a journeying .
As it turns out , this clove pink ‘ Duchess of Westminster ’ is what is known as a ‘ Malmaison ’ type of carnation ’ , or a ‘ Malmaison Carnation ’ . Bred in France in 1857 , they are very especial ( or , at least , they were once considered very exceptional , today , do n’t await to walk into a florist shop as ask for a ‘ Malmaison Dianthus caryophyllus ’ not seek to find seed or cuttings for them . The Malmaison ’s are bare on the edge of extinction . Now rare , and more hard to both come up , and to grow , but more about all that by and by . First , some gillyflower 101 , to bring you up to speed .
Carnations are old . raise as a slash or even a garden flush , they go steady back to R.C. time , but most historians agree that things really did n’t take off until the early 19th century , thanks to glass greenhouses , stoves and warming .
By the mid 1800 ’s , clove pink were becoming extremely popular in the West , with hundreds of name varieties being breed and raise by the British , the French and the Americans , and millions of cut stanch being send to florists in city . The French , British and Americans all developed multiple ‘ never-ending ’ carnations , which were summertime blooming out of doors in warmer , Mediterranean climate , and were well as grown as a wintertime blooming harvest , when grown in North America . Border carnations , pinks and many species of alpine course became useable , but none were as popular and diverse as the perpetuals were .
Like the tall , cut efflorescence sweet pea plant , also popular in the last nineteenth century , all carnations were not metal money , but essentially man - made . This imply that varieties were take , and hybridization , only the practiced were propagated , and many named varieties were created . Today , many new hybrids are being bred , but what I come up interesting , are the honest-to-god assortment . save some of these previous diverseness is historical saving , which in many fashion , is just as crucial as preserve or preserving the many uncivilized species , which of course , I corroborate as well . So many have already been lost , but some partisan keep to save found selections , either in National Collections , or in their private garden and greenhouses . The only problem is , few hoi polloi in the US can collect these carnation , since just any mixture at all , can be found . A distressing argument for what was once , the planets largest grower and importer of these flowers .
Although the perpetual carnations are top on my list for preservation , or even for acquiring as I would welcome any of the young hybrid , there are some character of carnations which are even more desirable , in particular , I have discovered the Malmaison types .
The Malmaison Carnations
So , I can safely say that over the decades , I have in all probability killed at least a half dozen of these ‘ Duchess of Westminster ’ Dianthus caryophyllus – but I never really knew what I had . A good example of why any gardener should take the time to enquiry , for I am sealed that I am not alone , in sometimes just assuming that “ regular ‘ ol garden soil and a pot ’ will serve , or , ‘ just found it in the ground , and it will simpleton grow . ” . Thanks to Google , the Internet , the library at Tower Hill Botanic Garden and a minuscule spare time , I now can see where I blend in incorrect , but most of all , this research has only exhort me to attempt overcome its culture . Thankfully , I have the greenhouse .
Malmaison carnations are quite different than other cut flower types such as the border carnations , and the perpetual carnations . They go steady back well-nigh as far as their kid do , to the 1850 ’s , when in France , this special eccentric was presumably bred yet the pedigree is still uncertain . Named after Empress Josephine ’s mansion ‘ Malmaison , not because they were invented there , but only because the flowers resembled the enceinte , flouncy Bourbon roses so democratic then , in particular , the variety known as ‘ Souvenir de la Malmaison ’ . I have that variety in the garden as well , which tell me that the flowers must be escaped , and well , rustic . gracious .
As for the Malmaison ’s differentiating points from the other cut heyday types of carnations ? As you’re able to see in the above images , their foliage is larger , much thicker and denser than florist or the aeonian clove pink – As for floral differences , I have read that they are much more fragrant , and even larger than aeonian carnations , but no image seems to indicate that they have good form , most seem informal , and they are known to be prone to split their flowers .
The Malmaison carnations are more at home when raised in a greenhouse , as well , preferring drier and cold conditions under crank . These requisite hint to their challenge as they are safe when raise in sight , and demand a colder winter period , near freezing , yet with buoyant air , and bright luminance . Not exactly leisurely to achieve in warmer clime , and almost insufferable in others . These are difficult condition to maintain , specially in North America . With a glass greenhouse which I keep cold , I might have a chance , but there is still plenty to go wrong , specially given their prospicient produce season of 18 calendar month , or more .
This scanned effigy of text edition from a 19th century book on raise Malmaison Carnations was very helpful . However , it ’s not very supporting , often repeat how unmanageable they can be .
I am becoming haunt with the Malmaison ’s however , and thinking that I might have a chance now that I know what they call for . Any success should testify exciting , as they seem to have much to offer the peculiar plansman – first , they bring forth a larger plant , with more attractive , larger leaf , and many more blooms than perpetuals , which are more often than not raised in open bottom . The Malmaison ’s were often displayed in conservatories , and at horticultural societies where demesne raiser could show off their large spate with lots of salad days on long stems .
Sure , I have visual sense of such pots , but I doubt that will happen here . But if I can get 6 or 8 flowers at one clip , vs the 1 or 2 with a perpetual , I will be thrilled . mayhap with attentive care over a couple of years , I could get a potted plant with dozens of stem of flowers , there is lit where agriculturalist , even those for the Queen of England , which render pots with C of salad days . The finest gardener in Edwardian England had their tricks , and I do have some of those books , but I do n’t inhabit in the UK , and I fear that our live summers may ‘ do them in ’
I ’ll confess that raise carnations today is rather windy for most gardeners , unless one endure in Northern California . They will never make overnice and full garden specimens , which is probably why you wo n’t see any being offered at the big loge store glasshouse , or by company like Proven Winners . These cut peak types are challenging , and best if farm from cuttings annually , raised under glass , in gridded flower farm gauze , and then disposed of only to start again with a new set of press clipping .
The old style of carving struck in February , then rooted under glass , put out into outside insensate frames or bed for summer development , and then dug up , and taken in for the fall in methamphetamine hydrochloride greenhouses , where they are maintain until bud form , kept through the wintertime , and then , if one is favourable , allow to bloom during the late winter , into outflow when when the entire process start over again – it was just an Laputan , hands - on process which today , few bother with when it comes to agriculture , unless one is raising wine-coloured grapes !
The Malmaison clove pink may shortly be lost , but I need to try them , if only for one more sentence . Sure , they demand more care , but as you know , that only draw me desire to grow them even more . I can;t aid myself especially when they seem so romantic due to their rarity – growable ancientness . I can farm something only experienced 150 years ago , smell it , like for it , like a turn of sustenance history .
So I am starting my own collecting of Malmaison carnations with this century - old variety I receive last weekend , this Salmon River pinko ‘ Duchess of Westminster ’ , and although I bonk this name has nothing to do with the Kennel Club , I kind of like the relationship it offers , peradventure it ’s a good house . Today I potted it up in the slow garden loam , as the old Good Book evoke , take it in nice and close , keeping it cold and wry , near the glass on the stale side of the greenhouse .
As for guidelines , there are many old horticultural journal from the 1800 ’s available on - melody ( through Google digital book ) , and they have been helpful , but as these are older techniques , I may have to ask as few of the British collectors for some confidential information .
There are a few source in the UK for Malmaison carnations , which makes a trip over there more potential , for me!Allwood’soffers a aggregation even , and I can sure that a few enthusiasts in the many carnation smart set in the UK could find some to deal with a desperate American . Getting back home , would be the only problem ( not that that has halt me before ! ) .
The flowers themselves are looser , and perhaps not even as attractive as the new and full aeonian gillyflower , like those you see at the flower store today , but they are eff to be larger , and more fragrant . I do n’t really wish about the size of it nor the vigor , as I am about the fragrancy , and history – for like many sometime flowers that I want to grow , it ’s all about the provenance .
As for other carnations , I am still on a hunt – a huffy hunt club , for any . I receive and tips on sources for the old border , perpetual or now , Malmaison carnation – cut or industrial plant . If you know of any origin – please rent me sleep together . Many of you shared delightful sources for other Dianthus , but mostly for garden pinks , or the old annual shape such as ‘ Chaubaud Giants ’ . It ’s the cut blossom forms I am looking for , and they may turn up in surprising places . An quondam florist shop who still rise plants , an quondam conservatory at an estate ( like , I imagine that Isabella Stewart Gardner would have levy these Malmaisons ? ) , or some enthusiast in California who might have some open , or even one of you fine British raiser who could spare a cutting or two when I visit next – perhaps in May ? ) . touch clue !
I could go on and on about carnations as both garden plants , and as nursery cut flowers , but that , I will postulate to salvage for a book or a long article , as there is just too much to report in a single blog post . I have been building an tremendous single file of entropy about both the story of these important 19th Century cold shoulder flower , as well as a database of cultural and social entropy . For model , I never knew about the connection of the carnation , with Mother ’s Day , and howAnna Jarvis , the founder of Mother ’s Day in 1948 used the carnation as a merchandising tool . I never knew about the Russian royal family , the Romanov ’s , and how they raise Malmaison carnations in their greenhouses . Oh , so much more to discover here about this ridiculously coarse , yet somehow unknown or at least , un appreciated peak .
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