November, 1907 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



185 



The old plants are stood aside after flowering, and 

 root cuttings taken from them in January 



blooms only, cuttings may be taken as late 

 as May, the plant being carefully grown on 

 from that time until November. Some va- 

 rieties will not yield their best blooms unless 

 they are propagated as early as February, 

 but that is exceptional. The care of the 

 chrysanthemum plant from the time the 

 cutting is rooted until the bud begins to show 

 a tendency to burst or to open its scales, is 

 merely one of careful attention to conditions 

 which will insure a continuous growth. This 

 will usually be in September when all 

 syringing is discontinued to avoid all chance 

 of rotting of the delicate petals. 



WATERING, A DELICATE MATTER 



If water by any chance gets into the top 

 at the opening of the bloom, there is danger 

 of damping or scalding, thus disfiguring the 

 tips of the petals. Whenever the opening 

 flower shows browned or discolored petals, 

 it is a sure indication that water has accu- 

 mulated in the bud. Even drip from the 

 roof, caused by the condensation of the 

 moisture from the air, is sometimes respon- 

 sible for this. So it means that the cultivator 

 must be very careful in handling water 

 during the last month or two of the plant's 

 growth. 



Too high temperature, which results from 

 the sun's heat in the early fall, is very likely to 

 add to the troubles of the chrysanthemum 

 grower, and all his ingenuity has to be 

 exercised to secure abundant evaporation 

 in order to reduce the temperature. Once 

 the buds are formed, the ideal temperature 

 is between 40 and 50 at night. 



BRIGHTNESS IN REDS AND PINKS 



It is not equally easy to produce good 

 flowers in all colors. The yellows most 

 people can succeed with and the whites are 

 not especially troublesome to bring to perfec- 

 tion, but the red, crimson and claret-colored 

 varieties are easily burned, and particularly 

 so if strong fertilizers have been given to 

 the plant after the buds have shown a trace 

 of color. It is an anxious moment for the 

 grower. In his anxiety to produce the best 

 and largest flowers, there is a great temptation 

 to stimulate greatly. These colored varieties 

 are benefited by light shading. The obser- 

 vant visitor will notice a great degree of 

 difference in the brilliancy of coloring of the 

 various pink varieties, but shading which 

 greatly improves the brilliancy of the color 

 is not always beneficial to the growth of the 

 plant. The art of the cultivator lies in 

 striking the proper balance. 



Freshness of the bloom, as it stands on the 

 exhibition table, counts for much, and this 

 depends largely on the manner in which it 

 is handled after it has been cut, provided 

 every little cultural detail has been attended 

 to from the very first. Naturally, the strong- 

 est, best grown plant will have the best 

 enduring [bloom, but no matter how well 

 it has been grown it can be ruined between 

 the time it is cut and the time it is placed 

 before the public. 



The best exhibitors cut the blooms twenty- 

 four hours before they are to be packed for 

 shipment. They are then placed in water 

 and kept in a cool, dark corner away from 

 draughts, and each flower is carefully 

 wrapped in tissue paper before being packed. 

 In wrapping the incurved blossoms, the paper 

 is tied around the stem just below the flower 

 and pulled up over the top, where it is tied. 

 For the drooping, or reflexed form, the pa- 

 per is placed on the top of the bloom, drawn 

 downward and tied carefully around the stem 



The large exhibition blooms are grown on a green- 

 house bench and only one flower to each plant 



below the bloom. The essential part of this 

 tying is to draw the paper around so that it 

 holds the petals firmly; otherwise, they will 

 get bruised and damaged in the handling. 



The wrapped blooms are then laid length- 

 wise in boxes six feet long, two feet wide and 

 about one and one-half feet deep. These 

 boxes are lined with a thickness of heavy, 

 glazed wrapping-paper, lapped over so as to 

 exclude the air, and held in place by tacks. 

 Inside this are about half a dozen thicknesses 

 of newspaper, according to the condition of 

 the weather and the distance the box has to 

 travel. If the weather is likely to be warm, 

 some lumps of ice are placed inside the box 

 about the stems of the flowers. 



The tied blooms are laid lengthwise, with 

 the blooms toward one end of the box, a roll 

 of excelsior having previously been put into 

 position to support the neck of the bloom 

 so that the petals will not be crushed against 

 the bottom of the box. Two or three rows 

 of blooms may be thus placed in the box, and 

 cross strips of wood are then nailed in to 

 keep everything tight, a roll of excelsior 

 being placed in for each layer of blooms. As 

 each roll is put in, the foliage should be 

 watered lightly, or, better still, a sheet of wet 

 paper placed over it. 



Large-flowered kinds outdoors: some of the early-flowering varieties. This type 

 will bloom outdoors, but the plants are not really hardy 



The old-fashioned border chrysanthemum, the so-called artemisi 

 much smaller flowers but is as hardy as a rocK 



me, has 



