yo Chrysanthemum Culture for America. 



do above the bush and trained specimens. To amateurs, and 

 others not familiar with the growth of chrysanthemums, the 

 standards are all looked upon as plants of several years growth. 

 A massive specimen six feet high, with a finely proportioned 

 head of bloom, appears to the uninitiated as something impos- 

 sible to produce in a period of ten months. 



The plan best suited to this particular mode of culture, and 

 the one usually adopted by the most successful growers, is to 

 take the first strong healthy shoots that spring up after the 

 first of January, cutting them off about three inches long and 

 placing them in pots or sand, as with other cuttings, in a cool 

 propagating house. In about two weeks they will be rooted, 

 when they are potted into two and a-half inch pots, if rooted 

 in sand, or if propagated in pots, they are shifted into a larger 

 size. They should be placed in the greenhouse, kept grow- 

 ing without a check of any kind, and repotted from time to 

 time, as each pot in turn becomes filled with roots. They 

 should be put into large pots at the end of June, and each 

 confined to a single stem until the desired height is reached. 

 They must be kept loosely but securely tied to straight stakes, 

 and no branches, under any circumstances, be allowed to 

 grow. 



The height of the standards is a matter of taste or conve- 

 nience, some preferring to grow them six feet high, while 

 others consider three feet a more desirable height, unless it is 

 desired for some particular purpose. When this height is 

 reached, the top is pinched out. In a few days side shoots 

 appear ; these are trained outward, and pinched again and 

 again until the first week of August. The shoots are so 

 arranged as to form an evenly balanced and well proportioned 

 head, which gives the plant a unique appearance. No shoots 

 should be allowed to start from the roots or anywhere upon 

 the stem. Standards should if possible be sheltered from the 

 winds in fall, when their growth is completed, as they are apt 



