14 
THE FEOEAL V.’OELD AXD GARDEX GUIDE. 
adoption of the plant for a conservatory feature. It should be 
remembered, that it is not necessary to bestow so much care on 
specimens for home use as for a public exhibition. Provided they 
are leafy, healthy, flowery, bright, and buxom, the requirements of 
the case are satisfied. They need not be trained at all ; they may 
all be grown according to their natural characters, as hushes, and if 
the assortment consists of pompones and large-flowering varieties in 
about equal proportions, they may be grouped so as to form a dense 
rich wall of flowers, well backed up by a groundwork of dark leafage. 
In preparing a display of autumnal flowers for the conservatory, 
it is well not to attempt too much, and it should consist chiefly of 
untrained plants. There is no particular necessity to begin business 
until March ; by so doing, the cultivator is spared the trouble of 
nursing cuttings through the dismal days of winter. Having the 
stools stowed away in a pit or under a wall, the cultivator will, early 
in March, take as many cuttings as he requires, and soon make nice 
plants of them. If he has no stock to begin with, he will, of course, 
have to beg or buy. In begging, it is well to make sure that you 
obtain cuttings worth having, with their proper names attached ; for 
it is not at all unusual to find that a season has been wasted in 
growing sorts that have long since been discarded by good judges as 
unworthy of a place in any selection, unless it be a selection of sorts 
to be extinguished. 
It will be will to stop rdl the plants early in April, and a fort- 
night or so afterwards to shift them into forty-eight-sized pots. 
About the middle of May they should all be put out and plunged. 
Very many amateurs who do the chrysanthemum well do not plunge 
the pots. To them I say, long experience and observation — having 
the interest of my business to make me watchful — have convinced 
me that those who do well without plunging may do better with it, 
and they will escape many risks which plants in unplunged pots are 
always exposed to. 
As to any further stopping, a little judgment must be exercised. 
Look over the plants in the first week of June, and then and there 
settle that part of the business. If you are not familiar with the 
sorts, take a trade catalogue and look them through. TVhen you 
find by the label on your plant that you have to decide as to one of 
the finest incurved varieties, do not stop the plant. In any case, if 
you find the A'ariety is not recommended for specimen culture, 
refrain from stopping. On the other hand, those which are recom- 
mended for specimens may be stopped in the first week of June, as 
being free to flower. You will be safe, and will obtain more flowers 
than if you refrain from stopping. To sum up the case in a few 
broad rules. First-class Incurved and Late-flowering varieties 
should ouly be stopped once, and better if not stopped at all. 
Heflexed, Free-flowering, and Early-flowering kinds in all classes 
may be stopped twice, and the smaller sorts, such as Intermediates 
and Pompones, may be stopped three times, and the last piuclting 
should be done in the early part of June or by the middle of June 
at latest. 
One good reasm for looking over the pbiJs in the first week 
