114: THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 



A TYPE: ITS TREATMENT IN THE SOUTH* 



Surprising as it may seem, the modern Chrysan- 

 themum is yet a novelty in many parts of the extreme 

 South. Our native florists have not been alive to the 

 spirit of progress and those who have come to us 

 schooled by the contact with thrift have been of the not 

 uncommon class of mind that, though in the full 

 fruition of methods, cannot apply them to conditions 

 and locality. It is no longer a problem to evade the 

 dangers of cold, but to control heat is the obstacle that 

 confronts us, and makes Chicago better suited to flori- 

 culture than Mobile. 



Few of the many very excellent varieties of Chrys- 

 anthemum can expand their flowers under the influence 

 of a tropical sun. This one condition is what taxes the 

 mind of the Southern grower. By very close observa- 

 tion we must find a type that meets the emergency 

 and weigh our selections by its standard. Any robust 

 variety that grows quickly from late planting will do, 

 provided its flowers do not linger in the bud, but burst 

 and open like a Eose. No matter what the glowing 

 eulogy in the catalog may say for it, if it fail in this 

 one quality it disappoints the grower. 



In no variety do we find this quality so strongly 

 in evidence as in the old Golden Gate, a feature which 

 it possesses to a degree almost incomparable. Let the 

 great growers study their stock for this simple prereq- 

 uisite, and put into their catalog a list suited to 

 the South. They will do much to increase their own 

 trade and assist the Southern grower on the road to 

 success. 



In my own home city, where 40,000 souls breathe 

 the pure air from the Gulf of Mexico, and 20,000 more 

 live in its beautiful suburbs, there is not one modern 



*By F. P. Davis, Mobile, Ala. 



