Ai'Bii^ 25, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



1739 



MUMS IN LETTUCE HOUSES. 



1 have a bed 11x100 now in lettuce 

 t'lMt I wish to plant in mums. The soil 

 is naturally sandy loam, of course light- 

 ened with rotted manure. It is gravel 

 s!ibsoil and well drained. What should 

 I add to the soil for mums? How far 

 apart should they be planted for one and 

 two flowers to the plant? Should the 

 small plants be pinched back so as to 

 start two branches at the ground line? 

 "When should I plant for best results? 

 What date should cuttings be struck for 

 best results? Is it necessary to shift 

 into 3-inch pots before planting? Do 

 such plants need supports? "What is the 

 difference between crown and terminal 

 buds? 



The bed is the center of a house twen- 

 ty-four feet wide and eleven feet to the 

 ridge. What general suggestions can you 

 oflfer? S. C. T. 



To answer the questions in rotation, I 

 would say first that by the description 

 I assume that these are solid beds and 

 that the grower does not remove his soil 

 every year. I would suggest to add about 

 two inches of well rotted manure and a 

 nice sprinkle of bone meal. Turn the 

 soil over in such a way that the ingredi- 

 ents are thoroughly mixed, and be sure 

 that the manure is rotted. Better by 

 far use no manure at all than to use 

 fresh manure of any description. The 

 mum will stand lots of feeding later in 

 the season, but not at planting time, and 

 it is no unusual thing for young stock 

 to be injured rather than helped by mis- 

 taken kindness in this direction. 



The distance apart to plant is gov- 

 erned largely by the quality of flowers 

 it is intended to produce, also to some 

 extent by the variety planted. I plant 

 8x10 for exhibition flowers and keep the 

 plants to one stem, but the small-leaved 

 varieties, such as the old Ivory, would 

 have room enough 6x6. I have seen a 

 fair grade of flowers produced by plant- 

 ing at the latter distance and running 

 two blooms to a plant. This would pro- 

 duce a medium market grade, very me- 

 dium in some cases. 



I would not pinch the plants back to 

 start two branches at the ground line, 

 except in the case of Beatrice May or 

 some such slow-growing, dwarf variety. 

 ^ly reason for this is as follows: When 

 ^'■''G has too much heavy foliage around 

 tl'o plants near the soil it prevents the 

 ^iin from getting to the soil and drying 

 i^ out in the early fall. This mass of 

 f'liage will stay wet all day, after the 

 pi'tnts have been sprayed, and leaf -spot 

 ^' ill invariably start there, owing to lack 

 f>f air. The plant will, after being 

 I'ianted a few weeks, make a natural 

 ! eak, as it is called. In other words, 

 '\ produces a bud and around this bud 

 ^"^•U appear several shoots. Then you 

 Ct-a run up two or more shoots, as de- 



sired. The only reason I would not rec- 

 ommend that course with the slow grow- 

 ers is because it would be diflStult to get 

 a long enough stem on them to cut. 



Late in May or early in June is the 

 time to plant for best results, unless you 

 wish to grow the latest varieties to flower, 

 say, for Thanksgiving. These can be 

 planted as late as August 1 sind produce 

 fair flowers. 



It is not necessary to grow on into 

 S-inch pots before planting. The plants 

 will be all right planted from 2-inth pots, 

 or from flats, providing they are in nice, 

 healthy, growing condition and not 

 starved or stunted in any way. It would 

 be better to pot on into 3-inch or 4-inch 

 rather than have the plants get hard and 

 potbound. 



Cuttings are rooted from March to 

 July, inclusive, with good results. Early 

 varieties should be rooted early, so they 

 have a chance to come along. The late 

 varieties are all right propagated later. 



Arrangements should be made to stake 

 the plants, or support them in some way, 

 or they will fall all over the place. A 

 straight stem is a necessary adjunct to 

 a good flower. 



The difference between a crown and 

 a terminal bud is considerable. It is 

 the crown bud that produces the larger 

 flower and except in few cases the best 

 results. Plants, during their season of 

 growth, produce several buds if grown 

 along. A plant set out in June, for in- 

 stance, will produce a bud some time in 

 July. This is called by some a natural 

 break. It is really a crown bud, but it 



is too early to be taken. Another crown 

 bud will be produced in August and if 

 it does not come before August 20 it 

 may be safely taken. This is the bud 

 that produces the large flower. If this 

 bud is rubbed out and the growth of the 

 plant continued, another bud will be pro- 

 duced late in September, which is gen- 

 erally a terminal. It is called a terminal 

 because it is the finish, or terminus, of 

 all growth on the plants. It has several 

 small buds around a larger, central one, 

 whereas the crown bud has several small 

 shoots around it, and these shoots, if not 

 taken off, at once grow away and leave 

 the bud. Any bud produced on a plant 

 before September may be set down as a 

 crown bud. Charles H. Totty. 



HISTORY OF THE MUM. 



In his interesting contribution to the 

 Journal of the Boyal Horticultural So- 

 ciety of Great Britain, on chrysanthe- 

 mums in Japan, N. Hayashi states: 

 * ' Although the exact date when the 

 chrysanthemum began to be cultivated is 

 unknown, it must have been previous to 

 the year 300 A. D., as we find the name 

 of this plant mentioned in the history 

 of those days, as well as in poetry which 

 is known to have been written at that 

 period. History gives an account of an 

 occasion when the Korean court, in 313 

 A. D., presented to our Emperor Nin- 

 toku some plants of a yellow-flowered 

 chrysanthemum. It seems to me, how- 

 ever, that the cultivation of the chrysan- 

 themum was at its best about the six- 

 teenth century." 



CARNATION NOTES.- WEST. 



Planting Out Young Stock. 



The cool wave of the last few weeks 

 has passed the way of the hot one which 

 preceded it and, barring the possibility 

 of rain, we should have a month of good 

 weather for planting in the field. The 

 quicker the job is done, once it is com- 

 menced, the better for the plants. Dur- 

 ing May we usually have ideal weather 

 for the plants to take hold and start 

 growing. Therefore, the more of that 

 period a plant can spend in the field, the 

 better it will be for it. In fact, a plant 

 that is expected to make a fair size by 

 the middle of July must necessarily be 



set-out early in May. If you should have 

 to wait a few days before you begin to 

 plant out it will pay you to make every 

 preparation for the work. Do not wait 

 until the morning you want to begin 

 planting to look up the trowels and the 

 line and to look over your stock of large 

 labels, etc. Get everything together now 

 so you can lay your hands on whatever is 

 needed. If you grow a considerable quan- 

 tity and have several batches of many 

 kinds it will pay you well, in time saving, 

 to make a list of the varieties on each 

 bench for reference, such as I mentioned 

 last year. It consists simply of begin- 

 ning at the near end of each bench and 

 writing down the names or numbers oi 

 the varieties as they come, making a sep- 

 arate list for each bench. When getting 

 the several batches of a variety you 

 merely run over your lists and by the po- 



