CHAPTER X 



Specimen Plants 



The Chrysanthemum, when allowed to grow 

 naturally, makes a much-branched bush that ,will 

 produce flowers in great number. The culture described 

 in previous chapters, has been for the production of 

 large individual flowers only, and from the cutting stage 

 to that of bud formation growth has been confined to 

 one shoot; all others, as they appeared, have been 

 removed. 



BUSH PLANTS 



Availing ourselves of the plant's natural disposition 

 to branch, we can pursue its culture along entirely 

 opposite lines, and, by developing, with timely assist- 

 ance, its branching proclivities, grow plants that 

 will attain a diameter of from three feet to five 

 feet, jet not exceed three feet in hight, producing 

 from 200 to 500 flowers on each plant. These 

 are called specimen bush plants, and are obtained 

 by a systematic pinching of the growing shoots, thus 

 encouraging the growth of many more shoots than 

 would otherwise appear were the plants left to grow 

 entirely their own way. The accepted form of bush 

 plants for exhibition is one trained in a semi-spherical 

 shape, with its flowers regularly disposed all over by 

 training and tying, and, if well done, it presents an even 

 mass of flowers which individually nearly touch each 

 other. It is usual for the plant to show about one inch 

 of clear stem above the soil of the pot in which it is 

 grown. The foundation for such a plant is laid by 



