10 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



pot to grow them in for ordinary purposes is a five-inch or 48 size ; 

 for later flowering, use six-inch, or 32 size pots. The soil in which 

 they thrive best with me is leaf-mould thoroughly decayed, mixing 

 with it about a fourth of mellow loam and silver sand. Let the plants 

 he potted firmly in the soil, be careful not to allow water to lodge in 

 the crowns of the plants. The white varieties especially suffer from 

 an excess of moisture. 



CULTIVATION OF SPECIMEN CHEYSANTHEMUMS. 



BY. ADAil FOESTTH, 



Of the Brunswick Nursery, Stoke Newingtou. 



HAVE great pleasure in complying with your request 

 for an account of my mode of treating the chrysanthe- 

 mum as a pot plant. I attribute my success during the 

 pact ten years of my experience as an exhibitor at the 

 London shows, much more to my constant watchfulness 

 of my plants than to any secrets of management. However, if there 

 are any secrets I now unfold them, for in the following short essay 

 I have made lo reserve ; therefore I can honestly say that what I 

 have done, henceforth every reader of the Eloral Woeld may do. 



Specimen Pla]S'ts. — In treating of the cultivation of the chry- 

 santhemum in pots, I shall commence with the varieties that are 

 most suitable for growing as specimen plants, such as are shown 

 in eleven-inch pots, with round heads, three to five feet across. 

 The cuttings should be established in three-inch pots by the 

 middle of March ; they are then stopped — that is to say, their 

 points are pinched out. This induces them to throw out numerous 

 side-shoots ; this stopping, or pinching back, as it is sometimes 

 called, should be done with care and discretion, for as the object is 

 to secure as many laterals to start with as possible, the extreme 

 point of the shoot only should be taken off, for I have invariably 

 found that treated thus they throw out more freely. About the 

 first week in April the plants are ready for shifting into six-inch 

 pots, and I may remark here that nothing is more injurious to cliry- 

 ■santhemums in the early stage of their groioth than allowing their roots 

 to he confined or cramped ; therefore, as soon as they have filled the 

 pots, they should be immediately shifted to the next largest sized 

 pots. The plants are kept in a cold pit until about the middle or 

 end of May. The lights should be taken oft' on all favourable 

 occasions, and the plant frequently syringed overhead to keep the 

 foliage clean. As soon as I consider the weather sufficiently forward 

 that there is no more probability of frost, I plunge them about half- 

 way up the pot in a sheltered but open piece of ground ; and in 

 order to prevent the worms making their way into the pots, I stand 

 each upon a piece of slate, or perhaps what might do as well, a 

 small pot inverted. They remain here until about the end of June 



