66 GREENHOUSE MANAGEMENT. 



ing three or more flower buds below them on the 

 stems, as seen in Fig. 17. As soon as these other buds 

 have become large enough to admit of its being done 

 readily, they should be removed. This can be easily 

 done with the fingers, or, as some prefer, with a pen- 

 knife, forceps, or pointed scissors. If in any way the 

 bud becomes injured, the next best upon the stem should 

 be taken and the others removed. It will be well to 

 begin the disbudding at the end of the stem, so that if 

 a bud is injured there will be one lower down that can 

 be left to form a flower. The flowers from terminal 

 buds will not require more than two-thirds as long a 

 time to develop as crowns, but as crown buds often form 

 from four to six weeks earlier than the terminals, upon 

 some varieties it may sometimes be necessary to take an 

 early crown bud, if needed for exhibition purposes ear- 

 lier than they can be obtained from terminals ; and early 

 crown buds are sometimes taken in the case of early 

 varieties from which early flowers are desired, but except 

 for these reasons, and for those above given, the termi- 

 nal buds are generally taken. Terminal buds seldom 

 are ready to be taken until the middle of September, 

 but whenever they appear the remaining buds should be 

 removed. 



Flowers for exhibitions need about the same care as 

 those for sale, except that it will pay to start them a lit- 

 tle earlier and to give them a more liberal space in the 

 beds. 



SINGLE STEM PLANTS IN POTS. 



A convenient size, whether for exhibition, decoration, 

 or for sale, is a single stem plant, either in a four-inch 

 pot or a five-inch pan. These can be taken from the 

 last batch of cuttings, and it is a common practice to 

 pot off for this purpose any plants that have not been 

 planted or sold. They will need exactly the same care 

 as the single stem plants in the beds. Another method 



