PROPAGATION 83 



plants on being placed out of doors in their summer 

 quarters should be provided with stakes without delay, 

 and if it can be arranged the plants should be stood in 

 rows and the top of each stake tied to a wire. So long as 

 the plants keep pretty strong nothing in the way of manure 

 is necessary, but immediately any sign of weakness shows 

 itself either in the wood or foliage a mild stimulant must 

 be given, but I very rarely find that anything is needed 

 except soot water till the end of August, when liquid 

 manure made from cow or sheep droppings may be given 

 two or three times a week. When flower buds have formed 

 the manure water may be increased, or a light application 

 of artificial manure may be given once a week, but this 

 must not be overdone, or there will not be that stiff- 

 ness in the flower stems so necessary for their proper 

 display. 



It is a common practice to pinch the Single and Deco- 

 rative varieties once or twice during the season to encourage 

 a bushy habit of growth, and when pinching is to be 

 practised, the young plants should be pinched the first 

 time when they are nicely established in the 3-inch pots, 

 giving them a second or even a third pinching as they 

 make growth, but the last pinching should take place before 

 the second week in June. 



I am not in favour of stopping or pinching decorative 

 Chrysanthemums unless it is with the object of keeping the 

 plants dwarf or to time the blooms when they are being 

 grown as half specimens. I allow my single and decorative 

 varieties to grow quite naturally from the time the cuttings 

 are put in until the plants flower, and they develop into 

 plants of a good shape and produce flowers of good quality 

 on good hard stems, being more freely flowered than 



