24 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



CHAPTER II 



RAISING CHRYSANTHEMUM SEEDLINGS 

 BY CHARLES E. SHEA 



IT is inevitable that the Chrysanthemum enthusiast 

 possessing ambition and a scientific bent of mind should 

 include within his ambitions the desire to create new and 

 original varieties of his own raising. A generation ago 

 the raising of Chrysanthemum seedlings in this country 

 was regarded as practically impossible, and so for a time 

 efforts in that direction appeared to be absolutely lacking. 

 However, experiment soon proved that the apparently 

 impossible was possible, and that seed might be obtained 

 in this country, the necessary trouble and attention to 

 essential details being forthcoming. 



Before proceeding to a description of the modus 

 operandi of seedling raising, it may be well to consider a 

 few general principles. Haphazard cross fertilisation of 

 any sort of variety with any other may doubtless by chance 

 produce a new variety of great excellence, but the vast 

 majority of the resulting offspring will be, in a sense, 

 characterless. As with Narcissi so with the Chrysanthemum, 

 crosses made with a definite aim, and varieties employed 

 which experience has shown to have given a high percentage 

 of first-class flowers as Narcissus " Princess Mary " has 

 demonstrated for the Daffodil world will produce a far 

 higher percentage of new varieties which are likely to make 

 their name. Therefore it is important that every cross 

 should be made with a definite object in view: for instance 





