GARDENING. 



85 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



serai-double purplish ones. They are a 

 little fickle in their behaviour, however, 

 doing better in some places than in others, 

 but where they thrive well they grow 

 with much vigor, getting to be from 

 three to five feet high sometimes, and 

 always, in their season, full of blossoms. 

 They are increased by division of their 

 roots; the fleshy roots are cut into pieces 

 and inserted in sand either indoors or in 

 a frame, or bed in the garden. 



THE LflWN. 

 Having raked off the roughest of the 

 tree leaves we are now prepared to apply 

 a Uttle top dressing. This is alight coat- 

 ing of loose manure, either fresh horse 

 manure from the city stables, or rotted, 

 well broken up farm yard manure pre- 

 ser\-ed on the place. This dressing may 

 be put on any time after the middle of 

 November, but as there is so much lawn 

 to go over here we wait till a frosty spell 

 of weather, when we can drive the loaded 

 wagons on to the grass without cutting 

 into the turf. This saves labor, and we 

 do better and cleaner work. But where 

 there is only a small lawn, or it isn't nec- 

 essary to drive the wagons on to the 

 grass, don't wait for a frosty time, but 

 spread the top dressing at once. It is 

 nice to get it on before snow comes. Put 

 it on about half or third as heavy as you 

 would on to cultivated garden lands. 



Chrysanthemums. 



RAISING NEW CflRrSflNTflBMUMS. 



The raising of seedlings is a source of 

 unbounded pleasui'e and hopeful antici- 

 pation to the amateur. He sows the seed 

 in early spring, saves and plants every lit- 

 tle seedling, watches over them in sum- 

 mer, attending to their wants and help- 

 ing them by staking, disbudding and pro- 

 tecting, and if need be a little extra stim- 

 ulating to induce them to do their utmost. 

 The excitement and pleasure when the 

 flowers are developing, from the time they 

 begin to show color until fully expanded, 

 is immeasureable. To the amateur every 

 opening blossom is a prize, but the com- 

 mercial florist has to face the cold facts 

 that on an average only one seedling in 

 500, maybe in 1000, is an improvement 

 on existing varieties, or worthy of being 

 retained, named and disseminated. Many 

 large, fine and promising buds that com- 

 mence to unfold and from which we 

 expect something great, to our sorrow 

 turn out large disappointing singles or 

 ragged blooms of an unsatisfactory color, 

 while some of the smaller and at first 

 unnoticed buds grow and swell slowly, 

 developing eventually the best of blooms. 

 Mv experience has been that in a lot of 

 seedlings the best are to be fouiul amont; 



those opening last, although thenext sea- 

 son they may come earlier. When care- 

 fully tested this may be on account of the 

 larger number of petals which the good 

 ones have, causing them to take longer 

 to unfold than do the single flowers. 



Helen Bloodgood is the best, first and 

 only clear true pink we have got. The 

 flower is a large round ball borne on a 

 stiff and erect stem. It was awarded a 

 certificate in New York in 1893, and 

 received the certificate of the American 

 Chrysanthemum Society at New York 

 and also at Philadelphia this year— '94. 



Miss Gladys Spaulding is a grand 

 flower of a fine, clear white color. It is 

 of perfect Chinese tvpe.in shape and style 

 of Mrs. Robert Craig, but almost twice 

 as large and a great improvement on 

 that varietv. It has received certificates 

 from the American Chrysanthemum So- 

 ciety at both New York and Philadelphia. 



Helen Dean is a beautiful self light j-el- 

 low chrome colored flower, large and full, 

 and in shape like Kioto, but it is almost 

 twice as large as that variety, and it has 

 stiff stems. It opened about October 15 

 and is now (November 23) in bloom. 



Bronze Giant is a large, full, round, 

 heavy flower composed of innumerable 

 petals notched at the ends; the color is 

 deep golden yellow and bright red mixed 

 and intermixed. The stem is stiff and the 

 foHage fine. A good exhibition variety. 



