.-*** 



%o r 



*> "HJUS?) 



Plant of " Snowdrop" 



A Pompon ChrysanUiemum 



Spray of " Baby " 



Smallest Flo wered Mum Grown 



Spray of * ' Jnlia Lagravere" 



A Pompon 



Spray of " Klondike" 



A Yellow Pompon 



Chrysanthetnutns for the Home 



Wm. Hunt, Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph 



THESE popular autumn and early 

 winter flowering^ plants cannot, on 

 account o,f their rather short period 

 of effectiveness as decorative plants, b^ 

 considered as ideal window plants. A 

 plant or two, however, when in full 

 bloom will help to brighten up the win- 

 dow during the dull days of November 

 and early winter, better perhaps than 

 any other window plant grown. 



STARTING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS 



To secure a good flowering plant by 

 fall the cuttings should be started dur- 

 ing February or March, although cut- 

 tings rooted in April will often make nice 

 plants. The cuttings are taken from the 

 young growth that is produced around 

 near the base of the flowering stems of 

 old plants that have been kept over from 

 last season, or from tops of young plants. 

 Root the cuttings in clean, sharp, gritty 

 sand, not too coarse. The cuttings will 

 root in a temperature of from fifty-five to 

 sixty degrees. 



When rooted, which generally takes 

 from five to six weeks or longer, pot the 

 cuttings singly into small two and a half 

 or three-inch pots, or several cuttings in 



larger pot or box. The pots or boxes 

 iiist h:\\f holes in the holtom to secure 



good drainage. Some broken pieces of 

 flower pot or some coal cinders, coarse 

 gravel or pieces of lump charcoal, should 

 be placed in the bottom of the pots or 

 boxes, also, for drainage purposes. 



Good potting soil with about one part 

 of sand to four or five parts of potting 

 soil should be used for the first potting. 

 When the plants are well rooted in these, 

 re-pot them singly into larger pots. In 

 re-potting the plants, give them a strong- 

 er or richer potting soil than before, using 

 only one part of sand to seven or eight 

 parts of rich soil. In potting these plants 

 the soil should be packed quite firmly 

 around the roots ; packing the soil firmly 

 is very necessary when re-potting them. 

 The plants can be stood out of doors on 

 fine, warm days towards the end of May 

 to harden them. 



About the first week in June the plants 

 can be removed carefully from the pots 

 and planted out in the open garden in 

 rich, loamy soil. The tips of the young 

 shoots should be kept pinched or cut off 

 from all the ground made, when the young 

 shoots have attained about seven or eight 

 inches in length. This should be done 

 at intervals, from the time the cutting 

 first rcnrlips the height given, until about 



the second week in July. After this time 

 the shoots should be allowed to grow 

 without being cut off or stopped. Check- 

 ing the joung growth in this way pro- 

 duces a nice bushy plant and a larger 

 quantity of bloom, than if the plant were 

 allowed to grow unchecked. Young 

 plants of chrysanthemums can also be 

 purchased in spring and grown as 

 directed. 



PLANTS FROM DIVISIONS OF ROOT 



Instead of starting the plants from cut- 

 tings the old plant may be taken out of 

 the pot and divided into small sections 

 or divisions in March or April. Each 

 division or section should have from one 

 to four or five young shoots of growth 

 attached to it, with a fair portion of roots 

 attached to each division. Pot these 

 divisions into suitable small sized pots 

 first — according to the size of the division 

 or clump of roots — into the same kind of 

 soil, and so forth, as mentioned for 

 rooted cuttings. Re-pot them when well 

 rooted in the small pots into larger ones 

 as required, and plant out in the ground 

 early in June. The tips of the growth 

 of these should also be kept pinched or 

 cut off until early in July. 



The plants require to be kept well 



Rooted Cutting Ready to Pot 



Rooted Cutting in a Three-inch Fot Pinched Back to Induce Buihy Growth 



