152 



GARDENING FOB YOUNG AND OLD. 



ASTEES CHINA. 



We have now China Asters as large and handsome, as 

 double, and as perfect as the Dahlia. I know of no an- 

 nual flower that has been so wonderfully improved as 

 this, during the past twenty-five years. No garden 

 should be without its bed of Asters. You can not have too 

 many of them; they are in full bloom in autumn, when 

 most other flowers have disappeared, and they continue in 

 perfection until cut down by frost. The cultivation of 



Asters presents no dif- 

 ficulties that may not be 

 readily overcome by the 

 exercise of a little pa- 

 tience and skill. Asters 

 can be transplanted read- 

 ily, and, if convenient, 

 can be sown in a box in 

 thehouse,in rows aninch 

 and a half or two inches 

 apart, and two or three 

 seeds to each inch of 

 row; cover very lightly 

 with fine soil, or sifted 

 dry moss. When the 

 plants begin to crowd, 

 prick them out into 

 other boxes, or into a 



Fig. 34.-A 8 TE K -P^O N WEBE1>. 



more room. The oftener they are transplanted, and the 

 more room you give them, the more stocky and better will 

 be the plants. As soon as the weather becomes settled, and 

 the soil is warm and in fine condition, set out in the bed 

 or border, watering the plants before taking them up, un- 

 til the soil is thoroughly saturated. Do not pull up the 

 plants, but take them up with a hand-fork or trowel, and 



