GROWING CHRYSANTHEMUMS FOR PROFIT. 



181 



While discussing quantity and quality, the rough-and-ready 

 method practised by many of the market men of planting out 

 Chrysanthemums during the summer should be considered. By 

 planting out in May, and lifting before the autumn frosts, a 

 great saving of labour in potting and watering is effected, and 

 this through the hottest months, when the pressure of work in 

 the nursery is the greatest ; on the other hand, it must be 

 remembered that the labour of housing plants that have to be 

 lifted is much greater than if they were in pots ; also, in the case 

 of sudden frost, they cannot be laid down and covered as pot 

 plants can, and, what is much more important, the plants always 

 receive a check in transplanting, however carefully it may be 

 effected, and the flowers are in consequence never of really good 

 quality. The planting-out system can, I think, only be recom- 

 mended where labour is very dear, and the market for cheap 

 better than for high-class flowers. I have myself given it up 

 in favour of growing three plants in a 12-inch pot, which, by 

 stopping once or twice in spring, form great bushes, producing 

 large quantities of flowers of good average quality. Such large 

 pots are rather unusual, most growers preferring single plants 

 in 7- and 8-inch pots ; these, however, require looking over 

 for water three times daily in hot weather, while the large 

 ones do with once or twice— a difference worth serious con- 

 sideration. 



In enumerating the most profitable varieties, I will com- 

 mence with half a dozen of the summer bloomers, though I 

 do not recommend anyone to go in for them heavily, except in 

 the neighbourhood of our largest cities, where there is generally 

 a certain demand for any attractive flower which will last well, 

 as they flower when both private gardens and the markets are 

 full of Dahlias, Asters, Eoses, &c, in addition to which many of 

 the best buyers are away at holiday resorts. These are — Flora, 

 bright yellow, good shape, an improvement on Precocite, which 

 often produces a large percentage of one-sided blooms ; Piercy's 

 Seedling, golden bronze, very free ; Jardin des Plantes, white ; 

 L'Ami Couderchet, pale primrose, a beautiful shade of colour ; 

 Mignon, golden yellow, very dwarf, a model summer-flow T ering 

 kind ; Lyon, rosy purple. 



To succeed the above, Mme. Desgrange, and its beautiful 

 sports Wermig, Burrell, and Mrs. Hawkins, should be grown 



