

JUNS 22. 1916. 



The Florists^ Review 



13 



PlNCpiNa YOUNG MUM PLANTS. 



I have some nice plants of .the 

 • Oaprice chrysanthemum, about four 

 inches high, which are ready for plant- 

 ing out in the field as soon as warm 

 weather arrives. Would you advise 

 pinching them in order to get good, 

 bushy plants, with even tops? 



A. L. — Mo. > 



Your plants should be pinched now 

 and will be better if an additional 

 pinching be made a little later to make 

 the plants bushy. C. W. 



rOR OUTDOOR CULTURE. 



I have the following varieties of 

 chrysanthemums in stock: Timothy 

 Eaton, Yellow Eaton, Maud Dean, Har- 

 vard, Sensation, Ramapo, Wm. Turner, 

 Enguehard, Bonnaffon, Robinson, Duko 

 of Aberdeen, and some white and yel- 

 low pompons. Are any of these hardy 

 enough to be sold to customers for out- 

 door planting! C. P. L. — 111. 



The varieties mentioned, aside from 

 the pompons, are useless for outdoor 

 cultivation, since they are not hardy 

 and in any case are mostly late varie- 

 ties, which would not flower until after 

 the season has passed when they could 

 flower satisfactorily outdoors. The 

 white and yellow pompons, if they are 

 true pompons, will be all right. The 

 newer French types, such as A. Barham, 

 Carrie, Normandie and Etoile d'Or, are 

 the proper kinds to recommend to your 

 customer for outdoor blooming, as they 

 will flower early and, unless the place 

 they are growing in is low and wet^ 

 they will come along year after year 

 with little protection. The single mums 

 are also well adapted for outdoor cul- 

 ture. Among the best of these would 

 be Louise, Mrs. Chas. C. Mickle, Mensa, 

 Golden Mensa, Irene, W. Buckingham 

 and Yvonne. Chas. H. Totty. 



PINCHING CAPRICE MUMS. 



I would appreciate some advice re- 

 garding the second pinching of Caprice 

 chrysanthemums. How many sets of 

 leaves would you allow a shoot to 

 makef Would it be advisable to allow 

 the side shoots to make more growth 

 than the center shoots, which are 

 stronger, or is it best to pinch all the 

 shoots at one time? What would be 

 the latest date to pinch the plants, so 

 as not to have them bloom any later 

 than mid-October? A. L. — Mo. 



The idea of pinching chrysanthe- 

 mums is to induce them to become 

 bushy. After the shoots commence 

 growing, they can be pinched back at 

 each first pair of leaves. The center 

 shoots will naturally be stronger and 

 may be pinched more closely. If the 

 side shoots are not showing far enough 

 to produce well balanced plants after 

 they are pinched back to each leaf, 

 they may be permitted to run to two 

 or three leaves before pinching. They 



may be pinched until the end of June, 

 after which time they should be al- 

 lowed to grow, if the shape of the 

 plant is right. The Caprice family is 

 much superior to any other type of pot 

 plants, because unless the plants are 

 large they will not need any staking 

 and the cost of looking after them is 

 therefore considerably lessened. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



MUMS FOR OUTDOOR GROWING. 



Please name some of the best chrysan- 

 themums for outdoor growing and state 

 when they should be planted. My plan 

 is to plant them outside and later to put 

 sashes over them. When should the bud 

 be selected? H. Y. S.— 111. 



The chrysanthemums that are in great- 

 est request in the east for outdoor grow- 

 ing are the type known as early-flower- 

 ing, most of which are of French origin. 

 The time to plant outdoors is right now 

 and many of the varieties I mention will 

 flower satisfactorily without any protec- 



tion whatever, though naturally a sash 

 over them will help to keep the flowers 

 clean from dust and rain. In this case 

 the question of bud selection is not a 

 vital one; the beautiful, graceful sprays 

 of this type are ripally its principal 

 charm. In a selection to be used for cut 

 flowers, with disbudding chiefly in mind, 

 I would suggest the ::ollowing: 



White, Cranford White, Debutante 

 and Petite Jean; yellow, Cranfordia, 

 Cranford Yellow and Etoile d'Or; pink. 

 Petite Louis, Hortense Malgat and Chas. 

 Jolly; crimson, Vesuve, Firelight and 

 L'Argentuillais; bronze, A. Barham, 

 Nellie Blake and Harvest Home. 



Smajl plants set out early, and 

 pinched up to the middle of June, will 

 produce twelve to twenty stems to a 

 plant. These can be disbudded at the 

 will- of the grower. In discussing the 

 subject of early-flowering mums, a good 

 grower from the vicinity of Chicago 

 recently expressed a doubt as to these 

 varieties flowering satisfactorily in his 

 section without any protection'. I am 

 inclined to question his opinion, be- 

 cause, though the first flowers might 

 freeze in the cold snap in the latter 

 part of September, the following flow- 

 ers might come along perfectly, if the 

 buds were uninjured. In any case, if 

 H. Y. S. proposes, as he eays, to put 

 sashes on them, this phase of the ques- 

 tion need not bother him. 



Chas. H. Totty. 



■AtlDS 



COMPOST FOR CARNATIONS. 



Please advise me how to treat the 

 compost described below, which I in- 

 tend to use in benches for carnations 

 about July 15. Last fall I plowed a 

 plot of ground 18x30 feet, ten inches 

 deep. The soil is unusually light, being 

 a sandy clay. I manured the plot in 

 September and five weeks later plowed it 

 again, and then left it for the winter. 

 Early this spring I manured it lightly 

 and worked the fertilizer in. Two 

 weeks ago I put on three-quarters of a 

 barrel of hardwood ashes, unleached 

 and not of the best. Now, should I 

 add bone meal and lime at this time, 

 or should I apply lime a short time be- 

 fore the planting, about July 15? I 

 have plenty of sheep manure on hand. 



The soil undoubtedly is poor, but it 

 is the only thing available here. I 

 used the same kind of soil last year, 

 but my carnation crop was light. Any 

 information will be appreciated. 



W. A.— Wis. 



I would advise you to procure two or 

 three wagon loads of half-rotted cow 

 manure and mix it with the soil. Inas- 

 much as your soil is already light, the 

 cattle manure will enrich it without 

 making it any lighter. As stable ma- 

 nure would lighten the soil, it is not de- 

 sirable in this case. 



Cow or cattle manure is difficult to 

 obtain in many localities, and as a gen- 



eral thing we do not consider it worth 

 the trouble. With our soil we find that 

 we can grow as good carnations by the 

 use of stable manure, supplemented by 

 sheep manure, dried blood and the va- 

 rious commercial fertilizers, as we can 

 by the use of cattle manure. That, 

 however, does not mean that it can be 

 done in all cases, and yours probably is 

 one of the exceptions. ' As stated above, 

 soil which is extremely light needs cow 

 manure. It would pay you to go to al- 

 most any trouble to' procure the cow 

 "lanure. A. F. J. B. 



A CASE OF THRIPS. 



I am sending under separate cover 

 some of my carnation buds. Nearly half 

 of the buds are like the ones I send you. 

 Will you please tell me the trouble with 

 them, and the remedy, for it is quite a 

 loss to me? S. E. I. N. Y. 



Your carnations apparently are badly 

 infested with thrips. These suck the 

 sap from the petals while the flowers 

 are in the bud stage, causing the petals 

 to stick together. Ordinarily the 

 blooms will unfold and show numerous 

 blotches of dead tissue, which turns 

 brown in the light colored varieties 

 and white in the dark colored sorts. 

 In aggravated cases the petals will 

 stick so badly as to prevent their un- 

 folding and the buds will rot, as yours * 

 are doing. If they are syringed much it 

 will aggravate the rotting. 



It is late in the s^son and it would 



