CtlLTUKE OF THE ASTER, 31 



It is of special importance that this recovery should be as rapid as possi- 

 ble, so that the plant louse and gray spider (red spider ?) may not seize upon 

 this arrest of growth, which is occasioned by the transplanting, to establish 

 themselves upon the plants. Twelve or fifteen days after the transplanting, 

 I give a second dressing, remove the yellow leaves which show themselves 

 around the stalk of the plant, scoop out the hollows, and cover the surface 

 of the earth with a light mat of straw. 



Without being too lavish, I continue the watering whenever there is 

 need. Thus treated, the plants are perfectly rooted by the 1st of July, and 

 the flower stems which they develop are far stronger and stouter than they 

 could have been if deprived of air and light. Yet this vigor of growth 

 does not lead me to relax my care, for at first the principal branches must 

 be staked, and then the ramifications ; for, notwithstanding their elegant 

 habit and strength, it is otherwise impossible for the plants, especially the 

 dwarf kinds, which produce fifty to a hundred flowers expanded at a time, 

 to resist the winds and the rain storms which prevail during their flowering 

 season. If the weather is very dry, I water at the root more largely when 

 the flower buds form, to excite a more vigorous growth, which is always 

 advantageous to the flowers. During the flowering season, one must not 

 water the flowers overhead, for the water, settling in the blooms, will cause 

 the petals to fall or to curve back into a bad form. 



4. Arrangement of Asters in Beds or Clumps. 



The arrangement of the flowers in the garden is very important, and I 

 hold that nothing is more satisfactory than a clump or mass, composed of 

 one species or of a variety of plants. It is true, I always avoid planting in 

 the same clump or mass plants of a different size or habit, for they always 

 produce a disagreeable confusion. I am in the habit of gathering the seeds 

 of my asters from different varieties, and I sow and replant in the same 

 way ; (it is a most excellent rule never to mix the seeds or plants, and 

 should be oftener observed.) From this it results, as these asters possess 

 the merit of seeding freely (with some exceptions in colors, and these only 

 in varieties), that I give up the old method of gathering the seed and trans- 

 planting all the varieties together. This plan, still often followed, is most 

 inconvenient, for it obliges one, whenever he desires to plant a mass of 

 plants of the same color, to leave the plants in the nursery until they be- 

 come strong and almost expand their flowers. And this is not the only 

 inconvenience one has to contend with by the old method, for, if we wish 

 to obtain strong plants, we must place them on tlie spot where they are to 

 bloom when they are young, or of necessity must plant mixed varieties. 

 So we come to this — that during the flowering season the eye distinguishes 

 nothing but a variegated mass of different colors, always confused, and the 

 effect is less brilliant than if the colors had been separated. By the method 

 which I have practised, and which I cannot too highly recommend, I have 

 the advantage of being able to set out my asters by separate varieties, and 

 to transplant at the proper time. I have before said, that to obtain plants 



