Commercial Gardening 



the flower that is in demand by these latter is the flower for the commercial 

 gardener to produce, and that in quantity. The great vases of the flowers 

 seen in the windows of leading florists are as a free advertisement, and, 

 while well merited, tell a tale that the producer of flowers cannot afford 

 to ignore. 



CULTIVATION. The Pyrethrum, more so than the majority of hardy 

 perennial border flowers, requires to be dealt with from the cultural stand- 

 point in a systematic manner, albeit, generally speaking, it is not fasti- 

 dious. The plant itself is of tufted growth, its rootstock being made up of 



numerous crowns, often a hundred 

 or more to a single clump. It hap- 

 pens, too, that the plant readily sub- 

 mits to division, the spade, the crudest 

 of all implements, being often re- 

 quisitioned for the purpose. No 

 success worthy of the name has, 

 however, ever followed this practice, 

 and it is cited here as an instance 

 of what not to do. 



There are two seasons in the year 

 when the plants may be lifted and 

 divided with advantage the early 

 spring, when the new leaf growth 

 is a few inches high, and again, in 

 July or early August, when the 

 plants, having got over their flower- 

 ing, are seen to be pushing a new 

 leaf growth. At either season the 

 plants may be lifted, washed free of 

 all soil in water, and divided up 

 freely. Old flowered plants are best 

 if placed on their sides on the potting 

 bench, the clumps being wrenched 

 asunder by hand assisted by the 



point of a knife, or, better still, by placing two small hand forks back 

 to back, and pressing each in an outward direction. By repeating the 

 process a clump is readily reduced to small units single crowns if you 

 will and so long as each portion is possessed of root fibres it is capable 

 of making a good plant. Indeed these single -crown portions make the 

 best plants and yield the finest flowers in their season. When divided in 

 this way the plants require potting singly, and the protection of a cold 

 frame for a few weeks before being again planted out. 



GENERAL TREATMENT. The Pyrethrum being naturally of a voracious 

 appetite the soil cannot be too well enriched or too deeply cultivated. In 

 growth the plants delight in abundant supplies of moisture. Where com- 

 paratively light soils obtain, the surface of the beds should be kept at 



Fig. 239. Pyrethrums, single and double 



