172 



THE CHRYSANTHEMUM, AND ITS CULTURE. 



roses, monk's-hood, digitalis, and a hundred 

 other plants that die down and come up 

 again, are planted and left without any 

 other culture than forking the borders after 

 they begin to grow, and giving an occa- 

 sional dressing of some kind of manure. 

 The chrysanthemum ought to be among 

 them, and form no small proportion of the 

 whole. The yellow, primrose, white, red, 

 brown, purple, and various other shades, 

 may be planted in the spring. The ground 

 ought not to be rich ; vigorous growth is 

 very much against hardiness. The plant 

 that will live through a frost in poor ground, 

 will perish in the same temperature if the 

 land be rich. This has been found by the 

 growers of brocoli. In hard winters acres 

 have been cut off in rich ground, while that 

 in less exciting soil has escaped. U the 

 border is anything like good ordinary loam, 

 it is better, merely to see that it is well 

 drained, and plant without any dung or 

 dressing. As the plants advance in height 

 stakes should be placed to tie them up to, so 

 that they may not be broken by high winds, 

 and in due time, if frost does not intervene, 

 they will flower the first year, though not 

 very strong. After the bloom is fairly off, 

 and the beauty of the plant gone, they may 

 be cut down to within four inchps of the 

 ground, and, if the weather be very severe, 

 and litter can be had handy, a little thrown 

 over the herbaceous border will protect 

 many half-hardy subjects from damage. 

 But there are many who do not think it 

 worth the trouble, and therefore let all 

 things take their chance. In the spring 

 the plants shoot up much stronger, and re- 

 quire the same care as to tying to stakes ; 

 but in these rough borders a single stake is 

 generally all that is bestowed, the branches 

 being merely tied somewhat loosely to- 

 gether, something like a wheatsheaf, for 

 the head of bloom covers all over the top, 

 and looks best in a mass, besides being less 

 damaged by hard weather. In this way, 

 year after year, the plants will grow up 

 and spread until they form huge bunches, 

 with great masses of flowers ; and, when 

 they become too large, they may be les- 

 sened by taking some of the roots away, all 

 round, with the plants attached to them. 

 This may be done by chopping off with the 

 spade ; the pieces chopped off may be plant- 



ed out elsewhere, or be used to mate good 

 any that are damaged or have died. The 

 same management would apply also to all 

 the other herbaceous plants of the kind, 

 but our business is with the chrysanthe- 

 mum. 



IN POTS AS DWARF FLOWEBING PLANTS. 



We have already described how the cut- 

 tings are to be taken and treated up to the 

 filling of the first pots with roots. At the 

 time when they are turned out as we have 

 described for the beds and clumps, when 

 dwarfing is an object, a certain portion may 

 be continued in pots, but they will at that 

 period require to be shifted into other pots 

 a size larger. Nothing more need be done 

 than striking the edge of the pot against 

 the potting-table, while held the wrong 

 way upwards ; the ball will leave the pot 

 whole. The crocks need not be disturbed, 

 but a few being placed at the bottom of the 

 new pot, and enough earth to just cover 

 them, the ball may be placed in whole, as 

 deep as may be, and the soil filled in all 

 round, up as high as the edge of the new 

 pot ; if the soil come higher up the plant 

 than before, so much the better ; a gentle 

 watering to settle the new earth round the 

 ball will be necessary, and they may be 

 then placed again in their out-of-door lo- 

 cality, attention being paid to their occa- 

 sional moisture. They will all be more or 

 less dwarf, according to the season, but in 

 the general way they require no other at- 

 tention. We have already stated that the 

 time to take these cuttings may be June, 

 July, or August ; some, indeed, may be 

 taken as late as September. It would be 

 always found that the latest struck cuttings 

 were the most dwarf when they bloomed, 

 but it will be sometimes found difficult to 

 strike the latest, and this is our chief rea- 

 son for striking at different seasons. There 

 will be no difficulty in procuring cuttings 

 from the pots or out-of-door plants, but they 

 answer better from potted plants, because 

 they are always forwarder. They may 

 again fill their pots with roots, and require a 

 shift, but they ought to bloom in thirty-two 

 sized pots, that is, pots of thirty-two to the 

 cast, and technically called thirty-twos, and 

 if they fill ever so much with roots, they 

 must not be shifted into any larger, be- 

 cause you rather wish to check the growth 



