18 



The Florists^ Review 



April 16, 1914. 



OUTDOOR CHBYSANTHEMUMS. 



I have ordered 400 early-flowering and 

 pompon chrysanthemums, in forty dif- 

 ferent varieties. What kind of stimu- 

 lant or fertilizer should I give them? 

 It is my idea to get them as nearly 

 perfect as possible, so that I may select 

 the best of the forty varieties and buy 

 them by the thousand next year, for I 

 intend to purchase three or four acres 

 of land in this part of Long Island and 

 go into business for myself. I am a 

 young man and have a good deal to 

 learn, but all that I learn from The Re- 

 view goes down in my think-box and 

 stays there; some day it will come in 

 handy. 



Please let me know of some good, 

 scientific stimulant for chrysanthemums 

 that are grown outdoors; state how it 

 should be used and how often. What 

 proportion of well rotted horse manure 

 should be used in the soil? What is a 

 good spray for insects on outdoor mums? 

 When mums are pinched oflf, would the 

 slips make good plants for next year if 

 I could make them root? G. F. 



If I understand G. F. correctly, he 

 wishes to grow mums outdoors and he 

 wants a selection of the earliest and 

 best kinds, to be grown afterward in 

 quantity. Outdoor cultivation differs 

 somewhat from indoor growing. Get 

 a fairly good patch of soil. Give it 

 a top-dressing of three or four inches 

 of well decomposed stable fertilizer and 

 bone meal, dug in, and this will carry 

 a crop through, providing the plants 

 receive a sufficient quantity of water. 



If G. F, wishes to get his "flowers par- 

 ticularly fine, he can water them once 

 a week during the month of August 

 with either nitrate of soda or sulphate 

 of ammonia, dissolved in the proportion 

 of one pound of either to fifty gallons 

 of water. Another excellent fertilizer 

 is nitrate of potash, applied in the same 

 proportion. It will be fpund that any 

 of these stimulants will work much bet- 

 ter if the plants have been making a 

 strong, healthy growth, in soil pre- 

 viously enriched, as before stated, with 

 bone meal and stable fertilizer. 



For the insects that will be. trouble- 

 some in outdoor growing, any of the 

 numerous insecticides can be used, 

 sprayed as directed. This in most 

 cases will keep the plants clear of black 

 fly and green fly, particularly when 

 aided by copious sprayings of clear, cold 

 water on summer evenings. 



The query, "When mums are pinched 

 ofif, would the slips make good plants 

 for next year if I could make them 

 root?" is a little indefinite. If the 

 plants are carefully topped, as it is 

 termed, and the cuttings are placed in 

 the sand, in most cases they will root 

 and produce satisfactory flowers this 

 year, in addition to making good flow- 

 ering plants for succeeding years. 



If G. F. has an idea of making per- 

 manent plantings of hardy varieties, 

 he will find it to his advantage to take 

 up the plants every spring, break them 

 up into individual cuttings or shoots and 

 start them over again. Much larger 

 flowers will result from this method 



than by continuing the old stools in the 

 same place year after year. C. H. T. 



BED MUMS FOB CHBISTMAS. 



We should like to know something 

 about the best late red chrysanthemum 

 to come on for Christmas. What is the 

 best variety and when should the plants 

 be set out in the bench? W. G. S. 



It is difficult to say what is the best 

 late red mum. The only red I know of 

 that will come really first-class as to 

 size and quality, with the Chadwicks, 

 which are the standard for lateness, is 

 Pockett's Surprise. This variety is ex- 

 cellent, although somewhat difficult to 

 procure, as it is by no means a free 

 propagator. Growers in many sections 

 use the old John Shrimpton as their 

 late crimson. This is good but some- 

 what small. Harvard is another red 

 of comparatively recent introduction 

 and is highly spoken of, but I have not 

 grown it to any extent and therefore 

 am not in a position, personally, to say 

 anything about it. Chas. H. Totty. 



THE MBS. BOBINSON MUM. 



1 would appreciate receiving some 

 information regarding Chrysanthemum 

 Mrs. Bobinson. If the terminal bud is 

 reserved, what size of flowers will this 

 variety produce? Is it a reflexed or an 



incurved variety? I understand that 

 it is better suited for pot culture than 

 for bench purposes. L. S. 



Clirysanthemum Mrs. Bobinson does 

 much better on a medium late crown 

 bud; that is, on a bud secured August 

 20 to September 1. The terminal bud 

 produces a flower much like the type 

 of Japanese incurved, but L. S. is in 

 error in assuming that it is better for 

 pot plants than for bench culture. If 

 he is looking for pot plants, he would 

 better procure some of the type known 

 as Caprice mums. There is no better 

 type of pot plant. Fourteen or fifteen 

 years ago Mrs. Robinson was the most 

 largely grown white, but in our sec- 

 tion it developed a softness of texture 

 in the petals which put it out of the 

 running as a market flower. C. H. T. 



WIRE STAKES FOB MUMS. 



Heretofore we have been tying our 

 chrysanthemums with strings. As we 

 now desire to stake them with galvan- 

 ized iron wire, please inform us what 

 gauge of wire we should buy and in 

 what lengths for such varieties as Wm. 

 Turner, Chrysolora, Smith's Advance, 

 Nonin, etc. , L. S. 



In staking chrysanthemums with 

 wire, I believe the best way to do is 

 to use what are known as rose stakes. 

 These are ready for immediate use and 

 have sufficient strength to stand the 

 weight of the mum plant. As to the 

 length, a 4-foot stake is ample for such 

 varieties as Wm. Turner and Chryso- 

 lora; the 3-foot size will answer for 

 Nonin and the 2-foot size for Smith's 

 Advance, if it does not grow any taller 

 with L. S. than I have so far seen it. 

 You will find advertisements of these 

 stakes in The Review. C. H. T. 



^^M 



GEBANIUMS DAMPING OFF. 



I am sending a geranium and should 

 like to have you tell me what the trou- 

 ble is with it. I bought about 4,000 

 rooted cuttings of these plants and 

 potted them in 2 V^ -inch pots of loam 

 soil, with about a 3-inch pot of bone 

 meal and a dash of sand to a bushel of 

 soil. This was done in the latter part 

 of November or the early part of De- 

 cember. About three or four weeks ago 

 I repotted them in 4-inch pots, in good 

 loam, with a dash of sand and a 4-inch 

 pot of bone meal per bushel. Now a 

 great many of the plants are getting 

 red leaves and look like the one I am 

 sending you. A lot of them are rotting 

 a short distance above and just below 

 the soil. The temperature of our houses 

 is about 50 degrees at night and about 

 65 degrees in the daytime. Up to last 

 year I always had first-class geraniums, 

 but at that time they began to act in 

 this way. F. & F. 



It seems to me, from the appearance 

 of the sample plant received, that the 

 main trouble has been too deep potting; 



'* 'n.TC-c^^rV 



that is to say, burying the stems too 

 much in the soil. The one received had 

 been potted far too deeply, and, if the 

 others were similarly potted, I am not 

 at all surprised that a large number 

 damped off. 



Your soil seems to have been all right, 

 but a shift from a 2V^-inch to a 4-inch 

 pot is a considerable one. I find the 

 plants do far better when first potted 

 into 2-inch pots, later into 3-inch pots, 

 and finally into 4-inch pots. This en- 

 tails more work, but the quality of the 

 geraniums well repays one for the 

 additional labor. There is always grave 

 danger of injury to geraniums when 

 they get a somewhat big shift, espe- 

 cially if water is then applied in 

 immoderate quantities. Your tempera- 

 ture is all right; so, probably, is the 

 ventilation, etc. It is safer to under- 

 water rather than overwater geraniums, 

 and remember that if your cuttings, 

 when received, seem leggy, it is a sui- 

 cidal policy to make them appear short 

 by resorting to deep potting. This may 

 not be entirely the cause of your loss, 

 but at this distance it looks as though 

 it might be the principal one. C. W. 



