87 



MR. BROOME ON THE CULTURE OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 

 The Chrysanthemum is one of the " border culture. 



most fortunate of flowers; its popu- , - The plants having been kept over 

 larity increases, and keeps pace with winter in a sheltered spot, in March or 

 its steady improvement, and it is a ! April they are to be divided, and 

 favourite" everywhere, even in the ^ planted for flowering; the ground 

 murkiest of otherwise flowerless cities, having been well turned over pre- 

 There are now as many separate | viously to the depth of eighteen inches 

 societies established for the encourage- 1 Q r two feet with Parkes's fork, and 

 ment of its culture, as ever the Tulip dressed with rotten dung or other 

 had in its palmiest days, and the j manure. "With those, however, which 

 annual Exhibitions are thoroughly i break later, and whose suckers are 

 established as the most popular of , but just appearing above the ground, 

 floral fetes. Coming at the very close \ great care should be taken ; they 

 of our season, its grandeur is, perhaps, ; should not be disturbed until later in 

 more conspicuous than it would be the season, but should be completely 



were it a competitor with our summer 

 flowers, and it is indeed a noble finale 



covered with finely sifted ashes, saw- 

 dust, or leaf mould, and allowed to 



to the annual festival of the bright j re main so until the time for planting, 

 goddess Flora. An immense number j "When the youngplantshave reached 

 of treatises on Chrysanthemum cul- j t he height of eight or ten inches they 

 ture, have appeared within the last mus t be pegged down, which not only 

 three years, and now Mr. Broome, who prevents them from growing too tall 



has done so much to vindicate its 

 claims as a London flower, gives us 

 the result of his twenty five years' 

 experience in a neat little pamphlet. 

 The tone, getting up, the style, and 



and overrunning the other flowers 

 which bloom during the summer and 

 early autumn, but preserves the foliage 

 around the lower portion of the ilower- 

 stem, and saves a good deal of labour 



the actual information conveyed are i m tying up; of course, this treatment 

 all alike worthy of him and his es- j nee d not be applied to those plants 

 pecial pet.* There is, too, in Mr. j w hich are intended to form back rows, 

 Broome's book, much that is positively | or to bloom against walls or palings. 

 new, and that which is not new, is | When, after this, they again reach the 

 agreeably told, and every direction is j height of one foot or eighteen inches, 

 conveyed in the plainest language. ; commence tying them up to slender 

 This work may be compared with any | sticks, which can be procured in bundles 

 previous publications on the subject j f or the purpose, and continue doing so 

 without detriment, and we commend | until they show their flower- buds. 

 it to the Floral World at large as a "In the heat of the summer, when the 

 valuable contribution to the literature , plants begin to flag and the fibres to 

 ©f the garden. In reading it, we s h w themselves on the surface of the 

 marked a number of passages for ground, a top-dressing of dung or mould 

 quotation, but we find that we have should be given them, and great at- 

 room only for a few, and these we tention paid to their watering. The 

 offer as specimens of a work which plant being of a succulent nature re- 

 we should hope, everyone of our quires a great quantity of fluid nour- 



readers will at once become possessed 

 of. Mr. Broome recommends as the 

 best compost for the Chrysanthemum 

 one half stiff loam, one third decayed 

 frame dung, and one sixth pit or 

 river sand. For the growth of plants 

 in the open-air border he gives the 

 following directions : — 



ishment, which should be given to it 

 regularly twice a day, in the evening 

 and at early morning, before the sun 

 has got any great power. Manure water, 

 without copious doses of Avhich fine 

 flowers connot be insured, and which 

 can be made by adding water to horse, 



: Culture of the Chrysanthemum, as Practised in the Temple Gardens, with lists of plants, 

 &c, &c— By' Samuel Broome, F.H.S. The Lodge, Inner Temple Gardens. 



