-8 PRRTILIZERS AND 
week alternately with any other kind of fertilizer that 
promotes rapid growth, beginning applications one 
month in advance of the exhibitions. If the plants 
grow rankly with no signs of flower buds dust mulching 
with hoe or rake acts as a kind of root pruning, and is 
likely to check the rampant growth, and induce the 
plant to set flower buds. 
Disbudding for long stems must be done. The 
terminal flower bud is left, and all other buds and leaf 
shoots are removed from the branches, except, if the 
grower wishes, the two most promising shoots of the 
branch nearest to the main stalk of the plant. When 
the buds are half an inch across soot or wood ashes is 
applied as a top dressing. This will make the foliage 
green and lustrous, and will intensify the color of the 
blooms. The plants should be looked over every day, 
for twenty-four hours is often time enough for extra 
flower buds to start, and they must be nipped off as 
fast as they appear. 
As the blooms mature and are ready to open a more 
beautiful texture and an exquisite delicacy of color in 
the flowers can be secured with many varieties by shad- 
ing the flowers with cheese cloth or lath lattices, pro- 
tecting them from the fading action of direct sunshine. 
The shade must be high enough not to interfere with 
free circulation of air, otherwise the plants will become 
suffocatingly hot, and the blooms spoiled. The 
cheese cloth would also protect the gigantic blooms from 
