BORDER CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
289 
feet from plant to plant in the rows, and a distance of three between 
each pair of rows. This saves space somewhat and yet gives plenty 
of room for working between the plants during the growing season. 
Some time during the season the plants will require staking, and 
probably the best and quickest plan is to put the stakes in before 
planting out ; if this is done the young plants may be tied as soon as 
they require it, and the rows or beds will be much more tidy in appear- 
ance than when the stakes are put in at a later date. 
After planting, the ground should be frequently hoed. This 
operation serves the treble purpose of keeping down weeds, pro- 
moting healthy growth, and during dry weather checking the loss of 
moisture. If it is systematically done very little watering should 
be required, and certainly none till near the flowering period. 
When the flower-buds are showing, the treatment should be more 
liberal, and both feeding and watering must be regularly attended 
to. It is difficult to say how much water and manure should be 
given, this being governed by a variety of circumstances. Heavy 
soils may require very little, whilst on light porous soils a feed and 
good soaking of water every week or ten days would not be too much. 
It is astonishing what difference proper attention in this respect 
makes to the colour and general quality of the flowers. 
Disbudded plants for cutting, I find, like even more generous treat- 
ment than those grown for sprays or for a border display, and a severe 
drought after disbudding not only prolongs the time they are opening 
but robs them of colour and size. 
During the growing season the plants are liable to be attacked 
by greenfly and thrips, but the treatment suggested for the young 
plants will keep both these pests under. 
The worst enemies of Border Chrysanthemums, at least where they 
are being grown for cutting, are two small bugs which attack the 
points of the shoots during August and September, piercing the stems, 
thereby checking the growth, and deformed flowers are the result. 
Mr. Wells, in his book on the Chrysanthemum, fully describes them. 
Since he wrote this, however, these pests have become very trouble- 
some in some localities, almost ruining the crop of bloom on certain 
varieties. Both are difficult to deal with, and the only remedy I can 
at the moment suggest is to spray regularly with nicotine insecticide. 
Plants for ordinary garden decoration are best allowed to grow 
quite naturally. The introduction of any system of stopping involves 
a greater amount of tying, which tends to a stiffer appearance, and 
in the borders this should be obviated as far as possible and varieties 
selected that require little or no staking. 
When growing for cut flowers, whether for sprays or disbudded 
blooms, it is sometimes advisable to take out the points of the plants 
at or about the time of the first natural break ; this conduces to a 
more even set of shoots, and where it is desired to retard the flowering 
period of a variety they may be stopped again, afterwards restricting 
the shoots to the number required on each plant. Generally speaking, 
VOL. XLII. u 
