Al-gust '^S. I'.iOl' 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



435 



Exhibit of H. A. Dreer at the Asheville Convention. 



enrich the soil now, or wait until after 

 trimming them? H. B. R. 



These roses should be dried off by 

 gradually withholding water for three 

 weeks, taking care not to get them so 

 dry that they will wilt or shed their 

 leaves, and the syringe must be kept 

 going to keep down spider. After they 

 are thoroughly ripened trim out all the 

 weak, blind wood and cut back the 

 stronger stems to four eyes; tie them 

 neatly down, binding the stems to nearly 

 right angles, as this will help them to 

 break the eyes nearer the base of the 

 stem. Give the benches a thorough 

 soaking and keep the house rather close 

 for a week, syringe twice a day; after 

 the eyes have started gradually in- 

 crease the supply of water and give more 

 air. As soon as the young leaves have 

 expanded give the benches a light, rich 

 mulch composed of one part fibry loam 

 and two parts well decomposed cow ma- 

 nure, adding to every bushel of this a six- 

 inch potful of desiccated bone meal. 

 Mix thoroughly and spread on the bench 

 to the depth of an inch. Eibes. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Buds. 



Just at this date the question of bud 

 selectioH is the all-important theme of 

 the mum grower, and though volumes 

 have been written on this subject, there 

 seem to be many growers somewhat at 

 sea as to the proper bud to "take" to get 

 the best results. 



Chrysanthemums as generally grown— 

 that is to say, young stock planted out 

 from June 1st to loth or thereabout— 

 will produce three buds. An early crown 

 (also often called a summer bud), about 

 the end of July; a second crown about 

 the end of August, and a terminal in 

 September or later. There are of course 

 exceptions to this general rule, such as 

 \. -Morel and its sports, Chenon De 

 Leehe, and others which are producing 

 buds all the time; but the most of the 

 varieties will follow the lines indicated. 



The early crown bud may be consider- 

 ed as useless, so far as producing a flower 

 is concerned. It seems to be nature's 

 method of checking the growth to enable 

 it to catch up with itself, as it will be 

 noticed that the plant thickens in stem 



and improves in foliage before the new 

 slioots move up again. The second crown 

 bud, appearing by the end of August or 

 first few days in September, will, if 

 taken, come out all right and produce a 

 good flower on most varieties. This is 

 tlie bud mostly used by the grower of 

 exhibition flowers who desires to get his 

 t'uwers as large as possible. Some varie- 

 ties produce a "better colored, neater 

 flower on the later bud, such as the 

 greater part of the pink varieties, which 

 come pale and unsatisfactory on this 

 hud, and also Colonel Appleton, Gold 

 Mine, Mrs. Trainor L. Park and Chad- 

 wick, all of which we find do best on a 

 liu<l taken well into September. 



Those growers who complain of Apple- 

 Ion having a long, weak neck, coming de- 

 fi;-ient in petalage in the center of the 

 flower, bacl-shaped, etc., can put it down 

 as their own fault in taking the bud too 

 early. I mention Appleton more par- 

 ticularly, because it would seem that 

 there are as many plants of Appleton and 

 Eaton grown this year as of almost all 

 the other varieties put together. Eaton 

 comes all right on any bud taken after 

 the 20th of August, though the flowers 

 produced from earlier buds show more of 

 the hollow center than flowers produced 

 from later crowns or terminal buds. 



The terminal bud is the last one pro- 

 iluced, being, as its name implies, the ter- 

 minus of growth. If previous buds have 

 been removed this one must be taken, 

 since no others will appear, the growth 

 of the plant being completed. There are 

 more terminal buds used in growing 

 flowers for market than any other, the 

 reason being that it is a safe bud in the 

 hands of the veriest novice, while crown 

 buds require more or less of experience 

 to manipulate. The terminal bud always 

 carries the foliage up close to the flower 

 and will develop in a very low tempera- 

 ture, the chief objection to its use being 

 that the flower is much smaller and lack- 

 ing in depth and solidity, although in- 

 variably the pink varieties come cleaner 

 and deeper in color. The variety Nellie 

 Pockett is utterly useless on terminal 

 buds, while the crowns produce beautiful, 

 large, artistic flowers. 



Plants grown for market are generally 

 planted closely together, and in such 

 cases, where the growth is drawn up it is 

 not advisable to use the crown bud, be- 



cause oftentimes it will run up with a 

 long, weak neck, which is unable to sup- 

 port the flower erect, and a long naked 

 stem is by no means inviting. There 

 seems to be a very general idea that by 

 taking crown buds, or planting out 

 early, one is certain to get early flowers. 

 This does not follow by any means. You 

 are not likely to get flowers any earlier 

 from stock planted in May than from 

 plants put out in June or July, though 

 you are certain, if you have sufficient 

 head room, of getting much larger 

 flowers from the earlier stock. Neither 

 does it follow that by taking crown buds 

 you will get earlier flowers. A crown 

 liud takes much longer to develop than 

 a terminal, and with the exception of a 

 few early varieties the two buds will de- 

 \ elop almost together. 



A crown bud takes from eight to ten 

 weeks to develop, and while the late bud 

 i-as had to make an additional growth, 

 thus taking much of its nourishment, the 

 crown bud has been developing petals in 

 the meantime, and consequently produces 

 a much larger flower. It is perhaps un- 

 recessary to remind the grower that dis- 

 budding is best performed in the morn- 

 ing, when the shoots are brittle and 

 easily removed. Use the thumb nail and 

 \vork from the bud downward; then if 

 you happen to injure the bud you have a 

 shoot beneath to fall back on. Disbud- 

 iling is a simple operation, but don't for- 

 get that it should be attended to as soon 

 as possible. Brian Boru. 



CHR YS AN THEMUMS. 



We have a house of yellow Bonuaffon 

 anil Jerome Jones chrysanthemums that 

 seem to have a sort of rust on the leaves, 

 r send you enclosed a sample of how it 

 affects the Bonnaft'on leaves. The 

 healthy plants seem to be troubled with 

 ii more than the others. Kindly let me 

 know through your paper if there is any 

 way of getting rid of this rust, and 

 what is the cause of it. H. F. 



1 regret that the leaves reached me in 

 such a shriveled condition that a micro- 

 scope fails to reveal whether H. F. is 

 troubled by the genuine rust or not. It 

 is, however, most likely that he is, since 

 lie calls it "a sort of rust." 



The rust is easily identified, it being 



