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August, 1906 



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AUGUST WORK AMONG 

 THE FLOWERS 



By Eben E. Rexford 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS which have been 

 grown in the garden beds through the 

 summer, will have to be lifted and potted 

 early next month. Get ready for this work now. 

 Provide yourself with a quantity of good 

 loam, well enriched with old cow manure, or 

 its best substitute, fine bone meal. If new pots 

 are to be used, soak them well before putting 

 any plants in them. Have drainage material 

 in readiness against the time of need, and pro- 

 vide stakes to tie the plants to as soon as you 

 have them in pots. Florists offer galvanized 

 iron rods in various lengths, and of different 

 sizes, for this purpose. They are, in some re- 

 spects, superior to wooden stakes, as they never 

 rot, or break, and are not conspicuous. They 

 cost but little more than wooden or bamboo 

 stakes, and can be bent to suit all require- 

 ments, if necessary. My preference is for the 

 long ones, bent double. This gives them a 

 stronger bearing, when inserted in soil, and 

 enables one to furnish much better support 

 for a plant than can be secured by the use of 

 a straight rod. Bend two of the five feet of 

 wires, and insert them in a pot in such a 

 manner that they cross each other at right- 

 angles, at the top, and you have an ideal sup- 

 port which calls for little tying. By fasten- 

 ing them, where they cross, with a small wire, 

 they stand rigidly, and furnish all the support 

 needed by a good-sized plant. 



I have found it advisable to cut about my 

 chrysanthemums, about a week before lifting 

 them. I use a thin-bladed and rather narrow 

 spade in doing this work. I cut around each 

 plant in a circle a little smaller than the pot 

 I intend to put it in, running the spade to its 

 depths in the soil. This severs all roots ex- 

 tending beyond the limit of the pot to be used, 

 and encourages the plant to start new feeding- 

 roots inside the ball of earth. These new roots 

 will nourish it when the plant is lifted, and 

 greatly assist it in adapting itself to its new 

 quarters. There will be no such shock as re- 

 sults from exposure of the roots where no 

 preliminary cutting has been done. 



Several correspondents have asked me which 

 classes of chrysanthemum were best for gen- 

 eral culture by amateurs. I must reply that 

 depends upon individual taste. Some prefer 

 the Japanese sorts, with their tasselly, fantastic 

 flowers. Others, the flat, double kinds. Still 

 others, those with globular, incurved bloom. 

 Personally, I have a preference for the vari- 

 eties having rather flat flowers, of which Ivory 

 and Timothy Easton are representative types, 

 and the semi-double sorts which show a yel- 

 low disc, of which a good illustration accom- 

 panies this article. These are wholly lacking 

 in formality, and will delight the flower-lover 

 who has no use for a plant of which primness is 

 a leading characteristic. We do not see very 

 many of them, but when a well-grown speci- 

 men is on exhibition, at the fall flower-shows, 

 it is sure to have a host of admirers. They do 

 not lend themselves to freakish performances, 

 as the great, flowered kinds do, therefore the 

 florists do not find them as useful for their 

 purposes, hut they are excellent for home 

 decoration, and deserve a place in every collec- 

 tion. The large, flat and globular kinds 

 are statelier, and in every way showier, and 

 produce magnificent effects, when well grown. 

 A few of the ragged Japanese sorts are useful, 

 in all collections, to give variety, but, with 

 me, a few answers all purposes. However, as 

 I have said, it is all a matter of taste. 



1 would advise going over the hollyhocks 

 and cutting away the old flowering-stalks. 



