ASTERS 



265 



ASTERS 



To make money out of Asters you must grow the latest and best sorts. 

 Grow them well, and if possible, avoid the annual Aster glut. 



Asters are among those flowers which are today better grown 

 than ever. New sorts, most of them originated in this country, are 

 producing flowers of a size emd length of stem never known in former 

 times. But any and all of them, old and new, rank among the 

 most important of Summer flowers. 



The retail grower doesn't have to worry about whether or not it 

 pays in August and part of September to ship cut Asters to the whole- 

 sale market, but he should try to have a supply of flowers from 

 early to late Summer. The man in the retafl business never knows 

 at what moment a call may come in for an order in which cut Asters 

 can be used to good advantage, and even if you don't use all of the 

 flowers you grow in the field not much harm is done. 



By using the different sorts and giving them good handling, 

 you may have flowers from the latter part of June up to November. 

 We have sections where it seems almost out of the question to grow 

 good Asters, no matter what one does nor how good the seed; or 

 we may have off years when the flowers are not as good. But wher- 

 ever Asters can be grown, every florist should have a good showing 

 of them, and ever strive to produce better stock than the ordinary, 

 for it is that kind that seUs 

 and brings a fedr price when 

 ordinary stock cannot be 

 given away. Take, for in- 

 stance, a vase of extra well 

 grown branching Asters and 

 display it in your store along- 

 side of a short-stemmed, small 

 sort; it wiU be the big fellow 

 that sells. Try to grow As- 

 ters that your customers will 

 buy because they are so much 

 better than any they have in 

 their own gardens. That's 

 the kind that wfll pay you. 



Cultural Notes 



Almost anyone can sow 

 a package of Aster seed in 

 the garden. If the weather 

 conditions are at all favor- 

 able they will grow and later 

 on make a fine show. But 

 you, as a florist, should man- 



Fig. 97. — Dostalbk's Aster (grown hy. 

 Ajdton Dostalek, Glericoe, III.) This beau- 

 tiful Aster, white overlaid with pink and 

 nearly six inches across, is the result of 

 crossing the large single Japanese Aster 

 with double sorts 



