486 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



Red and Bronze shades : Harvest Home ; \'esuve ; A. 

 Barham, and Billancourt. 



There are many more excellent varieties, but I am 

 merelv mentioning the very best and earliest for those 

 who may desire to confine their list to a few varieties. 



II.\RDV POMPON'S. 



This is the type of ']\Ium that is most largely grown 

 for outd(3or flowering, and is valuable if one secures 

 the right varieties. By the "right varieties" I mean 

 those that will flower early enough outdoors to de- 

 velop perfectly before the weather gets too cold. 



The best of all the Pompons is the variety Lillian 

 Doty, a large flowering pink, introduced to the trade 

 in 1912, which will make stems four feet long. The 

 color is delightful whether grown under glass or out- 

 doors, being the clearest bright pink imaginable. The 

 individual flower measures approximately three inches 

 across, and every stem will carry four to eight of 

 these flowers. 



A lis-t of twelve of the best varieties of Pompons in 

 assorted colors would be about as follows : 



Pink: Lillian Doty; Donald, and Minta. 



White : Queen of the Whites ; Jas. ISoone ; \^'acu, and 

 Myer's Perfection. I might also include in this white 

 section the variety Garza. This variety is really an 

 Anemone-flowered sort but I am assured by one of 

 my customers who has a summer home along the 

 Jersey coast that it is entirely hardy and has bloomed 

 at her place year after year until December 1. 



Yellow: Jeanette ; Wm. Lahey ; Golden Climax, and 

 Zenobia. 



Crimson and Bronze sorts: Julie Lagrevere ; Urith : 

 Tiber ; Sulky, etc. 



In addition to the above varieties, there are many 

 others very, very beautiful and well known, such as 

 Baby Margaret, a lovely white, and Baby, the tiniest 

 yellow variety known, but I have omitted them in 

 these notes oii outdoor Chrysanthemums because they 

 usually flower too late for one to derive much satis- 

 faction from them. 



The points cju which the Pompons suffer in com- 

 parison with the Early Flowering varieties are that 

 the former do not bloom for several weeks after the 

 Early Flowering varieties and are not nearly so large 

 when they do come. There is, of course, a place for 

 both varieties, since one type does not bloom until 

 after the other has gone and the Pompons have one 

 advantage in their cast-iron hardiness. I have seen 

 Pompon blooms come through ten degrees of frost 

 when the same temjierature has blackened the open 

 flowers of the Early Flowering type. 



S!Nr,LI£ CI-IUYS-VNTHKMUMS. 



It has been thought until very recently that the 

 Single 'Mums woukf not develop outdoors. This is a 

 great mistake, as some of you have perhaps discovered 

 by this time. .\ customer of mine, Mr. Francis H. 

 Bergen, of Summit, N. J., is perhaps the most suc- 

 cessful man I know of growing Single ']\Iums out- 

 doors. He has a border on either side of his front 

 drive leading to the front door of his home, and these 

 borders from the middle of October until late in No- 

 vember are "things of beauty," and the most striking 

 types in the collection are the Single 'Mums. 



A list of a dozen of the best single varieties would 

 be about as follows ; 



White: Elsa ; Gladys Duckham ; Mensa, and Snow-- 

 flake. 



Pink: Ivor Grant; Stanley Ven ; Mrs. Buckingham, 

 and Miss Svlvia Sleede. 



Yellow : l'(_ill}- Duncan ; Golden Mensa, and Marion 

 Sutherland. 



Crimson and Bronze : Ceddie Mason ; Brightness 

 and Margaret Walker. 



In the single types we have many very beautiful 

 varieties but they need a greenhouse for their proper 

 development, therefore I have omitted them. 



Granted that one has the best varieties in their 

 different types in each section, what is the best way to 

 handle them in order to get the best results? Secure 

 them from your dealer in the spring as soon as the 

 weather is warm enough and the soil is in good con- 

 dition outdoors. Set out the plants in rows eighteen 

 inches apart Avith twelve inches between the plants in 

 the rows. They should be kept pinched back during 

 the months of May and June in order to keep the stock 

 dwarf and robust and prevent the plants growing too 

 high, necessitating considerable staking. 



IBecause you are not going to get flowers until fall, 

 do not neglect the plants all summer and expect to 

 get them robust wdien you want them. If the summer 

 is hot and dry, watering should be resorted to once 

 a week and the plants sprayed in the cool of the even- 

 ing, which will in very hot weather work wonders in 

 keeping down the black and green aphis, which are 

 the worst enemies of the Chrysanthemum. 



Regarding feeding, you, I presume, are familiar with 

 the fact that the tremendous flowers one sees on ex- 

 hibition from greenhouses, have been fed with arti- 

 ficial fertilizer to bring them to their high state of 

 perfection. Here again the beauty of the outdoor 

 varieties is manifest, in that they do not need this 

 expert treatment as the exhibition varieties do. If the 

 plants when they are set out are planted in good, 

 rich, mellow, average garden soil they will get along- 

 very well. If the leaves on the plants are running 

 small and showing signs of not being as large as they 

 might be, a sprinkling of bonemeal applied to the soil 

 and several inches of well decomposed stable fertilizer 

 spaded in during the month of August will help won- 

 erfully in finishing the crop. 



As a rule in the early fall months the plants are 

 getting all the moisture they need from the rains 

 and therefore liciuid feeding may be dispensed with. 



One mistake that amateurs in gardening often make 

 is in assuming that the hardy types do not require 

 any attention from year to year. If one is to grow 

 these varieties to the highest point of perfection, the 

 chimps ought to be taken up in the spring and broken 

 into individual plants. These individual plants when 

 planted in new soil will invariably produce flowers 

 of much finer quality than the old clumps that have 

 been left undisturbed. In this respect the 'Mums do 

 not dift'er from other ])ereimial plants nf a like char- 

 acter, which are benefited by this annual or biennial 

 moving and rejuvenation. 



After the plants have flowered the question of pro- 

 tecting them through the winter is of paramount im- 

 portance. Mr. Bergen, whom I have previously men- 

 tioned, says that by his method he has carried his 

 plants over many years and has yet to lose a root. 

 After the plants have finished blooming, he cuts them 

 down to about eight inches from the ground and per- 

 mits the autumn leaves to blow in and fill up the beds. 

 If enough leaves do not blow in naturally he takes 

 leaves and covers the beds to a depth of six or eight 

 inches and then lays pine branches over the tops of 

 the beds to prevent the leaves blowing away. So 

 treated plants will not suffer from freezing and 

 thawing in February and early March, which is the 



