DECORATIVE VARIETIES. 
41 
Second crown buds, as a rule, develop quickly and 
evenly, and blooms from such buds usually partake of 
high colour and charming form. This type of bud is the 
one that should be selected, where the grower desires his 
plants to develop the larger blooms just referred to. As 
a rule, these buds are developed in late August ; some- 
times they are rather earlier, and in other cases they are 
a little later, but, generally speaking, late August is the 
period when they are produced. To secure buds of this 
description, the small shoots surrounding them are 
gradually removed, not all at one time, but one, say, each 
day, until the bud is left quite alone at the apex of the 
shoot. The growths should always be tied out, that sun 
and air may exercise their ripening influences, as in this 
way the flowers, when they develop, promise to be of a 
higher order of merit. 
Where a freer display is desired, and where bushy 
plants are preferred to all others, buds of a terminal kind 
are the only ones that should be selected. As before 
explained, terminal buds mark the termination of the 
plant’s growth, and if the second crown buds be pinched 
out, and the growths that surround them be grown on, 
these same shoots, in most instances, will ultimately 
develop terminal buds. When the terminal buds are pro- 
duced, the grower must determine for himself how many 
of the buds he will permit to remain on the plant. If the 
whole of them be retained, the plants will develop hand- 
some sprays, but rather too densely flowered. It is 
better, therefore, to reduce the number of buds in the 
cluster, so that each flower may develop without unduly 
crowding its neighbour. This is entirely a matter of 
choice for the grower, and he must determine for himself 
how many buds shall be retained, forming his conclusions 
by the number of blooms he desires ultimately to evolve. 
There is one charm about the blooms developing from 
the terminal buds, that is, they seldom damp, and the 
resulting flowers are known to remain in a fresh condi- 
tion a very long time. If the plants be housed in a cool 
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