IN MY LADY'S GARDEN 



from the stem of the plant, which should be cut down to 

 the ground directly the blossoms are over. Chrysanthe- 

 mums which have been too highly fed and kept in a warm 

 conservatory often fail to throw up these sturdy shoots ; 

 the plants should be given all the air possible, and kept 

 fairly moist and sheltered from frost only where cuttings are 

 required, a cool frame being a very suitable place for them 

 after the stems are cut down. Each cutting, having been 

 relieved of its lower leaves, should be placed in a thumb-pot, 

 with a little fine moist soil, consisting of loam, sand, and 

 leaf-mould in equal parts, with a dusting of powdered char- 

 coal, making it firm, and placing the pots in a cutting box 

 out of frost's way until the little plants are rooted. This 

 useful aid in rooting cuttings is merely a common deal 

 box, about I foot deep, and of about the same breadth, 

 which should contain a few inches of fine coal ashes at the 

 bottom, and can be fitted with one or two pieces of glass as 

 a covering. The ashes below the pots should be kept 

 constantly damp, in order to afford the necessary moisture 

 to support the foliage of the cuttings whilst they are forming 

 rootlets ; the soil in the pots should not, however, be over 

 watered, only supplying water (always tepid) when it is fairly 

 dry, for otherwise the cuttings may rot. Every scrap of 

 fading leaves or other debris must be removed at once from 

 a cutting-box, as mildew will be likely to appear on decaying 

 material, and the amount of air afforded should be regulated 

 by the length of time the cuttings have been made, increasing 

 it as they form roots, and removing the glass entirely as soon 

 as practicable, for chrysanthemums must not be coddled 

 or allowed to become drawn up and weakly. When the 

 glass is removed the little plants should be placed on a shelf 

 near the glass for a few days, transferring them to a cold 

 frame early in March ; then they should have plenty of air 

 in mild weather, but be covered with a mat on frosty nights. 

 When the rootlets reach the hole of the pot the plants 

 should be shifted into 4-inch pots, adding a little well- 

 decomposed manure to the compost before mentioned ; 

 and this potting- on must be repeated early in June, after 



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