THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 133 



during the entire season therefore see to it that its 

 roots are always moist. 



It also likes a good deal of root room. If kept in 

 small pots it will become root-bound before the middle 

 of summer, and this will give the plant a check quite 

 as serious in its effects as that arising from an insuf- 

 ficient supply of water. It is advisable to start young 

 plants off in three-inch pots, but as soon as they have 

 filled this size with roots they should be shifted to 

 six-inch ones, and about the middle of July another 

 shift should be given this time to nine or ten-inch 

 pots. In these the plants can be allowed to bloom. 



I would advise keeping the plants in pots through- 

 out the season, instead of planting them out in the 

 open ground, and leaving them there until the first 

 of September, as many growers of this plant advise. 

 1 do not approve of this plan, because it obliges us to 

 lift them at the very time buds are forming. And 

 no matter how carefully we do this work, the roots 

 of the plants will be more or less disturbed, and 

 any disturbances of the roots, at this time, when the 

 buds are forming, must seriously interfere with the 

 strong and satisfactory development of the flowers. It 

 is true that plants in the open ground make a much 

 stronger growth than those kept in pots, but by lifting 

 and potting them in the fall we are obliged to sacrifice 

 a good deal of this, therefore we gain nothing by put- 

 ting them in the garden beds. Of course plants so 

 treated will require much less attention, during the 

 summer, than those kept in pots, but what is gained 

 in this respect is more than offset by the labor required 

 at repotting time and the check which the plants are 

 sure to receive at a critical period of their life. Plants 

 kept in pots escape these ordeals, and are under better 

 control at all times. 



