92 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



"Mum," grown as a tree plant. 



hold and smile upon the strangers in the 

 street. 



Training and Staking. — The method 

 of training the chrysanthemum depends very 

 much upon the object sought. If the grower 

 desires to get an extra large bloom the plant 

 should be trained to a single stem. All of 

 the lateral buds should be pinched off as 

 they appear and the terminal bud allawed to 

 develop a bloom. In this way we get an 

 immense flower, but the plant is, to say the 

 least, top-heavy and unsightly. 



The best looking specimens, both plant 



and bloom considered, are grown as bush 

 plants. To obtain a plant of this kind the 

 terminal bud must be pinched out when the 

 plant is five or six inches high. In a short 

 time five or six shoots will branch out, which 

 must also be stopped when four or five 

 inches long, and the operation repeated upon 

 the shoots which branch out from these until 

 we get a bushy symmetrical plant, having 

 plenty of good strong branches upon which 

 the bloom will appear later on in the season. 

 If quality rather than quantity of bloom is 

 desired the weakest of these flower buds 

 may be pinched out and the vigor of the 

 plant directed into the larger buds left. 



Staking will be found necessary to sup- 

 port the branches by the time the plants are 

 half grown. The neatest and least conspicu- 

 ous stake we have yet found for the purpose 

 is made out of stout, corrugated steel wire, 

 like that used for stays in wire fences. 

 These may be painted so that they will hard- 

 ly be discerned among the dark green of the 

 foliage. We use three of these stakes to 

 each plant, the length varying from two to 

 four feet according to the height of the 

 plant. Two or three hoops of much smaller 

 wire are tied around these forming a circu- 

 lar trellis with the plant in the centre, keep- 

 ing it in shape with as little unsightly stak- 

 ing as possible. 



Growing Exhibition Plants. — For the 

 growth of large exhibition plants more care 

 is necessary than can usually be given by the 

 amateur, and unless he has a greenhouse it 

 is hardly worth while attempting it. To get 

 a standard plant, which is expected to as- 

 sume tree-like proportions by October, a 

 vigorous growing variety must be selected 

 and started early. It must be trained to a 

 single stem and allowed to grow to a height 

 of from three to four feet before it is stop- 

 ped. A bushy head may then be formed by 

 repeatedly nipping back the branches at 

 every first or second joint. 



(TO BE CONTINUED.) 



