156 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS 



slips will take root in from two to four weeks if kept wet; the sand 

 should never be allowed to dry out." 



Mr. J. Seulberger of Oakland prescribes the other method, viz.: 

 "In making the cutting, take the top of a fresh stock, such as sprouts 

 from the old stock, early in the spring, and allow a cutting long enough 

 to contain about six eyes, three to be placed under the ground and 

 three to remain above. The best way is to put these cuttings where 

 they are to stay, so ias to avoid transplantation. Chrysanthemums are 

 the easiest of all plants to root from cuttings, and so the beginning of 

 the amateur's work is made easy. Put the cuttings out in rows, about 

 12 inches apart, with 6 inches interval between the different cuttings. 

 To divide the old plants or use root growths gives plants which do 

 not produce good flowers. The sappy tops make the quickest growth 

 and the most productive plants." 



With reference to Mrs. Wills' 'advice to break rather than cut, we 

 consider it useful for the sake of determining if the shoot is really soft 

 and "snappy," see Chapter VIII. Mr. Seulberger's specification of 

 such close planting has in view the training of the plant to a single 

 stem bearing one flower. For common garden desirability we would 

 give the plants greater intervals and allow them to make more stems 

 still, however, limiting them considerably. 



TRAINING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



The chrysanthemum is more systematically curbed and trained than 

 any other plant which is grown for one season's service. It is natur- 

 ally very floriferous and will keep rushing out new shoots and develop- 

 ing flower-buds on them until in three or four months it has assumed 

 the aspect of a large flowering shrub. But it will accept training to 

 a single stem with several good branches or blooms even to the 

 extreme of growing one thick stem, three or four feet high, and pro- 

 ducing one globular bloom as large as one's head, and it will cover that 

 with a wig of flowing locks or of ringlets, if you choose those kinds. 

 This writer has never done that and so he invites Mrs. Wills of San 

 Jose to make the toilet for the que.en of autumn flowers: 



"When the plants are well rooted in the sand transplant them with 

 care into mellow soil and shade them from the direct sun for a few 

 days. The plants must not remain long in sand after they are rooted, 

 as they will be weakened. 



Dis-Branching. "The plants will begin growing in about ten days 

 after setting out. When they are from eight to ten inches high and 

 have put forth at least two pairs of leaves, pinch out the terminal leaf 

 bud. In a short time a branch will start at the axil of each leaf. Break 

 off all these branches except two or three nearest the top. When these 

 branches have made a growth of five or six inches and have put forth 



