44 



GARDENING. 



Oct. 75, 



In the first place make due calculation 

 as to the space which can be devoted to 

 this flower, next decide what pot plants 

 are desired for decorative purposes, and 

 how manv fine exhibition blooms are 

 wanted. For the first, choose nice, 

 healthy young plants about the first of 

 April of such varieties as are given below. 

 If they are at that time growing in a 

 2-inch pot, they should be shifted into a 

 3y 2 or 4 inch pot, using a few broken pot 

 sherds at the bottom to insure perfect 

 drainage, No plants suffer more from 

 being over-watered than does the chrys- 

 anthemum. When the plants have been 

 shifted, place them in the most airy part 

 of the greenhouse, and water only wlien 

 they need it; should green fly or oilier in- 

 sects appear, lose no time in killing the 

 same. As soon as the plants have made 

 new roots sufficiently to be seen on the 

 outside of the ball of earth, the tops of 

 the shoots should be pinched outof them, 

 leaving four or five sound leaves on the 

 plant. In about fourteen or sixteen days 

 each of the eyes at the base of these leaves 

 will breakinto growth; each shoot should 

 be encouraged to grow freely, and as soon 

 as the pots are well filled with roots, the 

 plants should be repotted into 6-inch 

 pots, giving a little more drainage in 

 each pot than for the last shift. Keep 

 plants spread out, as they require more 

 room, otherwise they will lose their bot- 

 tom leaves and become unsightly. En- 

 courage six or eight ol the side shoots to 

 grow freely, and should any of them indi- 

 cate stronger growth than the others, 

 pinch the top out so as to keep them 

 shapely in form, and as soon as the pots 

 are a<*ain fairly well filled with roots, 

 shift them into 8 or 9 inch pots When 

 fairly well started to make roots into the 

 new soil they can all be placed in the open 

 ground; in I oing this it is advisable to 

 choose a position somewhat sheltered 

 from strong winds. If the plants can be 

 plunged in the soil nearly to their rims 

 they will be much easier cared for during 

 the summer; after this the principal atten- 

 tion necessary is careful watering, and as 

 the shoots advance in length, a lew small 

 stakes should be put into tne pots, and 

 the shoots lightly tied to them to prevent 

 their being broken by storms. In doing 

 this they should be tied with a view of 

 making a symmetrical plant. As soon as 

 the flower buds are about the size ol peas 

 they should be thinned out, leaving only 

 from three to six buds on each shoot. 

 When this is done, and the buds begin to 

 swell freely, the plants should be given a 

 watering about once a week with weak 

 liquid manure. One week it can be made 

 by putting about a peck of droppings 

 from a stable in a barrel of 50 gallons of 

 water, allowing it to stand 36 or 40 

 hours before using; alternate this the 

 next week by using 6 or 8 ounces of sul- 

 phate of ammonia in 50 gallons of water. 

 By the end of September the plants 

 should be placed inagreenhouse or where 

 they can be well protected from Irost, 

 but they should never be placed where 

 they cannot get an abundance of air. By 

 this method nice bushy stock with nice 

 quality of flowers can be had. 



The method for producing the extra 

 fine flowers that are seen at exhibitions 

 is somewhat different. If it is desired to 

 grow them in pots, the easiest way is to 

 start with a healthy young plant from a 

 2-inch pot about the middle of June; put 

 it on in the same way as described above, 

 but allow only one shoot to grow from 

 each plant; repot as necessary till the 

 plants get into a 6 inch pot; stake the 

 plants as required, and when the buds 

 are ready to thin out, pick out all but the 



best looking one; feed as advised for the 

 bush plants, and you can get magnificent 

 flowers. 



The other method to follow is to plant 

 on benches under glass about July first, 

 and grow two flowers to each plant; 

 only in planting in the greenhouse for 

 this purpose they should be planted about 

 eleven to twelve inches apart each way, 

 and trained to stakes or strings as needed; 

 but the plants must have an abundance 

 of airdayand night all through the grow- 

 ing season. The best soil for growing 

 chrysanthemums is a good loam of rather 

 heavy nature with a liberal amount of 

 well decomposed manure added and about 

 fifteen pounds of pure ground bone to 

 each cart load of soil. The whole should 

 be thoroughly well mixed before using. 

 This will give you a compost that will 

 grow chrysanthemums as fine as you 

 wish. 



The varieties most suitable for bench 

 plants are: 



WHITE. YELLOW. 



Mine. K. Bergmann. Yellow Queen. 



Mrs. H. Rjbinson. Fascination. 



Ivory. H. L, Sunderbruch. 



Miss II. Wr-ght. Minerva. 



Mayflower. Challenge. 



Niveus. W. H. Lincoln. 



Mrs. J. Jones. Liberty. 



PINK. RED. 



Nemesis. Sunrise. 



Achilles. Geo W. Childs. 



[Catherine Leech. Creole. 



Dean Hole. John Shnmpton. 



Maud Dean. 



V. H. Hallock. 



Titian. 



And nearly all the smaller anemone and 

 pompon varieties are very useful for this 

 purpose. The above are named in the 

 order of their season of flowering, which 

 covers from October 10 to December 1. 



For the single flowers either for pot or 

 bench culture the list of extra fine varie- 

 ties is very numerous, but amorg the 

 best are, in addition to the list above, 

 Infatuation, Mrs. J. Peabody, Mrs. Per- 

 rin. Modesto, Sibyl Kaye, F. L Atkins, 

 Helen Bloodgood^ H. W. Rieman, Mrs. S. 

 T. Murdock, Olympus, Philadelphia, Eu- 

 gene I lailledouze, H F. Spaulding, Iora, 

 Mrs. F. Gordon Dexter. Mrs. A. J. 

 Drexel, and Robert Mclnnis. 



John N. May. 

 Summit, New Jersey, October 13, '96. 



Vegetables. 



STORING VEGETABLES FOR WINTER. 



One of the first requisites for the suc- 

 cessful wintering of many vegetables is 

 protection from hard frosts during the 

 latter days of October. This is especially 

 true of carrots and beets. These should 

 be pulled during the month of October, 

 taking only dry days for the worL. Pits 

 for their keeping should be narrow and 

 deep, not over two feet wide and three 

 feet deep, if pits are very wide the vegeta- 

 bles may be spoiled be heating. In pitting, 

 cut oil all surplus roots and tops and 

 form the heap above the surface of the 

 ground, so that when covered the water 

 will readily escape. 



All vegetables stored in pits should be 

 thickly covered by straw for a first coat, 

 then apply two or three inches of dirt, to 

 be followed by six inches more when win- 

 ter promises to set in The usual method 

 of burying cabbage is to place it in a 

 shallow trench heads down; running the 

 rows east and west is preferable, as dur- 

 ing the winter it can be taken out easier, 

 the south side of the row not being apt to 

 be frozen hard, incline the roots to the 

 south side of the row to facilitate getting 

 the heads out. In storing celery for win- 

 ter dig a trench a few inches deeper than 

 the length of the celery and as narrow as 

 can be dug with a spade, pack the celery 

 close in the trench in an upright position 

 and cover each root with earth to keep it 

 from wilting, cover the tops with straw 

 or leaves, over which place two boards 

 nailed together in the form of an inverted 

 trough, then cover with earth Potatoes 

 to be kept in first-class eating condition 

 should be excluded from all light. The 

 bins in which they are placed may be 

 kept covered with blankets and the win- 

 dows of the room darkened. Turnips and 

 ruta bagas may be kept in the same man- 

 ner as beets and carrots, salsify and 

 parsnips may also be kept or packed in 

 barrels of moist sand in the cellar. For 

 spring use salsify and parsnip should be 

 left in the ground where grown as kept in 

 this way it is of superior flavor. Winter 

 radishes should be kept in boxes of moist 

 sand in the cellar. 



H 



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