72 Chrysanthemum Culture for America. 



In the south, where they are grown as an ordinary decora- 

 tive plant for the garden, they may be grown and flowered in 

 the open ground with the same attention to training and stop- 

 ping, as if grown in pots. If unsuitable varieties are chosen, 

 no amount of care will produce good standards, so that great 

 care must be taken in this particular. 



To grow large flowers, the same soil and treatment is 

 required as for the other purposes described. The plants 

 should not be pinched often, consequently there will not be as 

 many shoots, but they will be taller and less bushy. Some 

 plants grow eight feet high, others not half that height, 

 according to the variety. When the very largest flowers are 

 desired, only one flower should be allowed on a shoot, all side 

 shoots being rubbed or pinched out from time to time, and 

 the small flower buds removed. The terminal bud is the 

 largest and the ono usually retained. 



Growers for exhibition often confine their plants to one 

 stout stem, every lateral shoot being removed as soon as it 

 appears, and only one bud retained. By this means of devot- 

 ing the complete energy of a plant to the development of a 

 single blossom, it is wonderful to what size the blossoms will 

 attain, and where ample room is given and a good supply of 

 plants on hand, the intending exhibitor would do well to fol- 

 low this method, if he wishes to distance all competitors for 

 large blooms in the November exhibitions. Throughout the 

 season the plants must be well cared for, and manure water 

 should be constantly applied. A stout stake should be placed 

 at each shoot, to which it should be securqly fastened. Care 

 in watering and thinning the buds is the chief point in grow- 

 ing large flowers, and with all these points properly attended 

 to, there should be no trouble in securing the finest blooms. 

 The number of shoots allowed to remain on each plant is a 

 matter each grower must determine for himself, being gov- 

 erned by his circumstances and requirements, alwavs remem- 



