174 



THE CHRYSANTHEMUM, AND ITS CULTURE. 



ed out from the cutting-pot, and well estab- 

 lished again, take off the top, leaving 

 three inches, or if the plant be as short 

 as that, merely pinch out the heart ; as 

 the laterals come out to the same length 

 as the old plant was, they require to be 

 stopped in the same manner, and in their 

 turn will give out their laterals ; and where 

 these cross one another, or are in the way 

 of each other, or are too thick for their 

 general appearance, they should be re- 

 moved entirely ; but this may be continued 

 so as to prevent flowering altogether, so 

 that when the plant has become moderately 

 bushy, all the shoots should be allowed to 

 go up to bloom, and that without forcing, 

 or heat of any kind, but merely protected 

 from the weather by a frame and glass, 

 and allowed all the air, 



DWARFING LARGE SPECIMENS WITHOUT STRI- 

 KING. 



We cannot prevent large plants from 

 growing to a considerable height, but we 

 can at least check them a third of the ele- 

 vation they would acquire in an ordinary 

 Way. The pots which have contained the 

 plants of last year are at the close of the 

 bloom placed in winter quarters, and the 

 plants are cut down to within a little of the 

 soil. In the spring, when these begin to 

 grow, they should be turned out of these 

 pots, trimmed, the top surface of the soil 

 taken away, pots a size larger should be 

 procured, fresh drainage and fresh soil ap- 

 plied to the plants, the soil pressed well 

 round the ball of earth, which if much 

 bound should be loosened; the whole should 

 be well watered to close the earth about 

 the roots, and the pots should then be re- 

 placed in the pit or frames they were in 

 before ; these plants will in general throw 

 up more shoots than are wanted, a selec- 

 tion of the strongest and best should be 

 made after they have grown up a little, and 

 all the lanky ones should be removed alto- 

 gether. As they all advance they may be 

 allowed to grow until the earliest cuttings 

 are wanted, and the strongest shoots may 

 be topped for that purpose. The length to 

 which the shoots are shortened should be 

 different; and in proportion to their strength 

 the strongest should be left a good deal 

 longer than the weakest, because they are 

 capable of supporting the greater number 



of lateral branches, but the tallest should 

 not be more than six or eight inches high, 

 and the weaker ones not more than half 

 the height ; they may now be put out of 

 doors, in the same way that young plants 

 are, in the shade a little, and watering 

 must be attended to. These plants v/ill be 

 considerably shorter, and more bushy in 

 their habit, and bear a great many more 

 flowers. Bui there is no way of producing 

 the chrysanthemum so well, so elegant, in 

 such good colour and condition as to foliage 

 and flower, as that of taking the tops of the 

 shoots at different seasons, and growing 

 them without heat. 



PROPERTIES OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 



We expect a sort of remonstrance against 

 the properties which we shall set down as 

 desirable in the chrysanthemum, because 

 the forms of the present varieties are as 

 numerous as were those of the dahlia when 

 the published rules first set to rest the proper- 

 ties of that universal favorite. There were 

 among them at that time anemone-flowered, 

 China-aster-flowered, globe-flowered, sin- 

 gle, and sewi-double, flat, starry, and rag- 

 ged flowers, to say nothing of colours. 

 In the chrysanthemum, we are told in 

 a very recent publication, that there are 

 the ranunculus-flowered, the incurved, the 

 China-aster-flowered, the marigold-flower- 

 ed, the clustered, and the tasselled, all of 

 which, except the ranunculus-flowered, are 

 untidy and flimsy. Great efforts have been 

 made to bring these flowers into notice, and 

 shows have been established at which the 

 judges have not known by what rules to 

 award the prizes, or which flower was the 

 best. We aflirm with great submission to 

 those who pride themselves on this flower, 

 that it is impossible to select one less fit to 

 exhibit, cut from the plant, and that indi- 

 vidually there is nothing to hope for in the 

 bloom itself that should raise it to the dig- 

 nity of a florist's flower ; but as there is 

 great merit in growing the plant well in 

 pots only, and as the plant is showy when 

 there is a scarcity of bloom in a house, 

 they ought always to be shown in pots 

 only, and the merits of the plant be taken 

 into account quite as much as that of the 

 bloom, and as such we shall notice both. 



1. The plant should be dwarf, shrubby, 

 well covered with green foliage to the bot- 



