506 
TKIi CHRYSANTHEMUM l'OR SHOW. 
sowing. It should be sown in pots of peat 
soil, which pots may be set into the frame 
where the other p'ants are grown; the seeds 
being fine, should be sprinkled on the damp 
surface of the soil, and covered with a bell- 
glass ; if they require moistening, water must 
not be poured over the seeds, but should be 
afforded them by capillary attraction through 
the soil, the pots being set into pans, in which 
a supply of water should be kept long enough 
to moisten the soil. 
These directions apply rather to a collection 
of kindred plants, with which the common 
Lady's-slipper may be associated, than espe- 
cially to that plant. It may be grown in a 
shady bed of peat earth, in situations favour- 
able to the growth of Rhododendrons and 
other " American " shrubs, as they are called. 
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM: ITS PREPARATION FOR SHOW. 
The Chrysanthemum is so hardy, so obe- 
dient, and endures so much ill usage, that it 
would almost seem a work of supererogation 
to say how it ought to be managed ; and yet 
the growing and showing are such different 
things, — or rather, the growing for ornament in 
a garden, and the growing for exhibition, are 
such different matters, — that we shall be ex- 
cused for making a few remarks on growing 
them for show. 
The habit of the Chrysanthemum is bad ; 
it grows tall and gawky ; its lower leaves 
generally turn yellow or fall off altogether, 
and the whole plant looks untidy in our 
English gardens. Still, the flower comes 
after everything else has been disposed of by 
the frost, which, unless very severe indeed, does 
not interrupt the bloom of this hardy plant. 
But" when the Chrysanthemum is designed 
for exhibition, much care has to be taken 
that the plant is not ugly, if the plant is to 
be shown ; and that the flowers are of good 
size, if the cut specimens are to be tested. 
If the plant is to be shown in pots, you 
have these things to consider ; — whether you 
intend to sacrifice the plant for the bloom, or 
the bloom for the plant, or will be content 
with both moderate. The excellence of a pot 
plant may be decided in three ways ; a bushy 
plant with many blooms, none very large ; 
a small plant with only two or three blooms, 
very large ; or a sort of middling specimen, 
in which neither extreme shall be attempted, 
but a moderate plant with a moderate flower 
presented for judgment. The Society, how- 
ever, at which the show takes place, should 
always settle these points. 
If you want a bushy plant with many 
blooms, take your struck cutting or healthy 
sucker early in the spring, and take off the 
top within two or three eyes of the ground ; 
if the pot in which you receive it is full of 
roots, change it to two sizes larger, and let it 
be placed in the cold frame and so that it can 
be covered from the sun. It will begin to 
push out, and if one shoot pushes further 
than the others, take off the top. At the 
beginning of May put the plants out of doors 
into the shade, or at least where the mid -day 
sun is shaded off, for a little early and late 
sun will not hurt them. Here they will 
require watching and watering sometimes, 
and removing from the ground lest their roots 
should strike through. As the shoots push 
out again, they must be shortened until 
your plant is as bushy — that is to say, has as 
many branches — as you think there ought to 
be, when you have nothing to do but to let it 
continue its growth till September, when it 
must be taken to the frame, that it may be 
covered from frost. Before it is put into the 
frame, it must be examined to see how it is 
for pot room, because it is essential to good 
growth that there be no cramping for pot 
room, especially as the growth of the flower 
pips progresses ; any check at that time 
would cramp them. Repot them therefore 
in good time, and in the frames they will con- 
tinue their growth. They may in blooming 
time, if a little behind the season, be placed 
in the greenhouse, where they will be hastened 
a little, and be kept from the ill effects which 
frost always has on a blooming plant, how- 
ever hardy it may be. During the opening 
of the blooms, water with a little liquid 
manure once or twice. Let the liquid be 
made with a shovelfull of decayed cow-dung 
to three pails of water ; let there be as^much 
of this given as there would be of plain water, 
and then water with plain water the next 
three times or four times, when the cow-dung 
water may be repeated, but no more given 
until after the flowering is over. This mode of 
showing gives a fine noble plant, with flowers 
two-thirds their proper size, but many of 
them. 
The second way of showing is to strike the 
top cutting of a plant in July, and to pot in 
a small pot, and place it in the open garden. 
Let the pots be changed as often as the roots 
fill them, and continue them out of doors. 
These will be earlier in flower than the 
others. In September the plants must be 
placed in the frame, after being well shifted 
and watered. Here they may wait for your 
general shift to the greenhouse, where they 
